How a Pakistani Diplomat Engineered the Independence of East Timor

The United Nations Organization is often accused, unfairly I must add, of being a glorified debating society where nothing much of significance gets done. In reality, the UN is but a sum total of its fractious components and still through the cacophony of self-interests it has achieved some remarkable things. One of its crowning achievements in 1999 was the independence of East Timor.

The island of Timor, a tiny speck in the Indonesian archipelago of 16000 islands, had a split personality. The western part of the island was colonized by the Dutch in the early 17th century as was the rest of the archipelago we now call Indonesia. About the same time Portugal colonized the eastern half of the island. Whereas West Timor along with the rest of Indonesia was granted independence by the Dutch in 1949, East Timor remained under the Portuguese rule. In 1975, in the post-Salazar decolonization era, the Portuguese pulled out of East Timor but did not leave behind a stable government.

A civil strife between a minority who wanted to join Indonesia and those who wanted total independence resulted in much violence and bloodshed. In order to prevent East Timor falling under the influence of the Soviet Union, Indonesia, with the tacit approval of the US, invaded and annexed East Timor. A great majority of one million East Timorese, however, did not accept Indonesian rule and took up arms against the new rulers from Jakarta. The Indonesian government responded with brute force but did not succeed.

The world community did not accept the annexation of East Timor by Indonesia and East Timor remained on the UN list of unresolved disputes. When Kofi Anan took over as Secretary General of the UN in 1997, East Timor was still on the list of smoldering issues on the UN docket. The new secretary general, unlike his predecessors, committed himself and the UN to find a solution for East Timor.

Enter Jamsheed Marker, the veteran diplomat and author of the book under review. Mr. Anan sought the help of the retired Pakistani diplomat to spearhead the effort as his personal representative. Mr. Marker has now written a memoir on the tight rope act he had to perform to achieve the independence of East Timor in 1999. (East Timor: A Memoir of the Negotiations for Independence. McFarland & Company Publishers. Soft cover, 228 pp, $ 29.95.)

Mr. Marker has an unusual background. For thirty years he served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, Moscow, New Delhi, Bonn, Paris and the UN and to many other capitals. An urbane man of considerable charm, Mr. Marker used his diplomatic skills and his deep insights into the Western and Eastern cultures to tiptoe through the minefields of conflicting interests, international intrigue and general distrust between Indonesia, Portugal and East Timorese, the three main principals in the conflict. It was not easy.

This is not a self-congratulatory book. Rather it is an account of how Indonesia and Portugal under UN prodding budged from their hard line and belligerent positions to bring an end to the violent conflict.

When M. Marker started his negotiating mission in 1997, the only possible solution was to wrestle a measure of autonomy for East Timor within the framework of Indonesian sovereignty. Even that modest goal appeared distant and beyond reach because Indonesia, under the autocratic rule of Suharto, was not willing to go even that far.

In 1998 amidst the Asian financial meltdown and resultant political crisis in Indonesia, President Suharto’s thirty-year rule came to an end. His successor Bacharuddin Habibie, a diminutive man with ‘zestful absence of modesty’ took Mr. Marker off guard by hinting that Indonesia might consider the wishes of the people of East Timor for a final settlement. It was Mr. Marker’s diplomatic genius to seize that opening and convince the politicians and the top brass in Indonesia to go that route. The ongoing financial and political crisis in Indonesia helped him advance his argument in Jakarta. The argument ‘if Indonesia implodes, so does East Timor’ was simple and compelling. To hang on to East Timor in the face of domestic Indonesian crisis was like ‘polishing dinner silver on the Titanic’.

Mr. Marker pulled all the powerful strings at his disposal - the US, the World Bank and the International Monitory Fund to name a few - to prod Indonesia towards a vote on the future of East Timor. In the end Indonesia agreed, albeit reluctantly, and in a referendum in 1999 the people of East Timor in an overwhelming majority decided to sever their ties with Jakarta. The ceremony of lowering the Indonesian flag and hoisting the new East Timor flag in the capital Dili was attended by the new president of Indonesia Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of the man who 25-years ago had invaded East Timor. After three hundred years of subjugation by foreigners, East Timor was finally a free country.

Many people helped achieve East Timor independence and Mr. Marker is generous with his praise of all those who helped in the process. Even if he is critical of some of the players he is not harsh or unforgiving in his remarks. As a diplomat he realizes the difficulties of people he was negotiating with. Even when he is critical of some of the people he clothes his disdain in charitable diplomatic lingo. Like characters in a Shakespearean play, Mr. Marker lets the players, through their actions and their words, convey the impression.

He pays rich tributes to Kofi Anan for his support of the process and to Ali Alatas, the Indonesian foreign minister who according to Mr. Marker was not only negotiating with outsiders but also with powerful elements within his country as well. But through it all it was Mr. Marker’s diplomatic skills, his difficult tightrope act and his careful walk through the minefields of international diplomacy that carried the day.

This is a well-written and absorbing book where the well-versed author has used historic and literary references to illustrate his point. Each chapter begins with an appropriate excerpt from a famous writer or historian to put the prevailing situation in perspective. His first chapter starts with a quotation from the Alexandrine Greek poet Cavafy: ‘When you start your journey to Ithaki, pray that the road you take will be long one, full of adventure, full of things to learn’.

In the end the consummate diplomat not only reached his stated destination but he did so with flare and grace.