The April 1974 coup in Portugal heralded great changes not only in Portugal and Africa, but also much closer to home. East Timor changed overnight from a colonial backwater to a new political force in South-East Asia, creating consternation in Indonesia and jitters in Australia.

The island of Timor is located at the southeastern extremity of the Nusatenggara Archipeligo. East Timor (Portuguese Timor) consists of the eastern half of the island, together with the small enclave of Oe-Cussi on the north coast of the Indonesian half of the island. Most visitors to East Timor come from Australia travelling the 400 miles from Darwin on a TAA Friendship aircraft. Of the 6,000 tourists arriving each year, many are young Australians and New Zealanders entering Indonesia cheaply thru the back door To these visitors, the 450 years of Portuguese Colonial mismanagement are all too evident. 90% of the indigenous population is still illiterate; health services are nigh on non-existent (there are only twenty doctors for the entire 650.000 inhabitants, 12 of whom are stationed in the capital of Dili, where one finds most of the Portuguese); and, besides many diseases like malaria being widespread, Timor has one of the highest TB rates in the world. The only existing three miles of sealed road are in the capital, and there is no secondary industry to speak of. Failure of infrastructure is, in fact, the gravest problem, and goods often have to be moved between points on the island by ship because roads are impassable.

Coffee earns over 90% of the island's foreign exchange. Yet an extremely small number of Timorese benefit from this since 40% of coffee production is in the hands of a single Portuguese firm, and the bulk of the rest is in the hands of the Chinese. Commerce in East Timor is almost totally dominated by the 10,000 strong Chinese population. Of the 25 largest firms in the country, all are Chinese with the exception of two Portuguese enterprises. For the vast majority of Timorese life is hard - 90% of the population still eke out of a subsistence living using 'slash and burn' and other primitive agricultural techniques. A hill tribesman cultivating tapioca, bananas, peanuts and coffee might earn $30 a year - the lowest per capital income in South-East Asia. Adding insult to injury, each Timorese male over the age of 18 has to pay a fixed yearly tax and if it is not paid then he is forced to work it off, generally working on the roads.

Coup brings changes

News of the April 74 coup was the biggest surprise in 450 years for the people of East Timor. There was now more to talk about in the capital Dili (a town about the size of Taihape which siestas every afternoon and is asleep by 9 pm) than cock-fighting and the Sunday afternoon ritual lowering of the Portuguese flag. Then in mid-1974 the Timorese received another surprise - their masters actually invited them to participate in politics, rather than jailing them for even mentioning the word.

The extreme degree of economic and social underdevelopment on the island meant that there was no sizeable indigenous educated elite able to immediately capitalize on the situation (at present there are one or two university graduates among Timorese on the island.) Nevertheless, within a month three political groups had formed - the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT), the Association of Timorese Social Democrats (ASDT) (now the Revolutionary Front for the Independence of East Timor - Fretilin, and the Timorese Popular Democratic Association (Apodeti).

This party is one of the strongest in Timor, mainly as a result of its control over the old colonial administrative apparatus. It also has the support of the Chinese merchant class, who view preserving the status quo as their main hope. At worst, the Chinese fear expulsion and loss of property, at best post-independence discrimination. A holiday in Timor is even cheaper these days with Chinese merchants looking ahead and black marketing the worthless escudo at twice the bank rate.

Apodeti wants East Timor to integrate with Indonesia, and is the smallest of the three parties. Its programme states: 'In the present historico-political context, abstaining from sentimental wishful thinking and unfounded pride, any precipitate choice would be the ruin of Timor and of the future of its sons, given the absence of political and economic maturity in Timor.' Apodeti's campaign is somewhat haphazard, with visible publicity being confined to free distribution of a T-shirt bearing its name and the publication of a news-sheet which includes an Indonesian grammar, for the language is not known in East Timor.

Fretilin

Fretilin is the 'independence now' party. It was inspired by the African freedom fighters, hence its radical title. Jose Ramos-Horta, its secretary actually spent some time observing Mozambique's Frelimo. The party calls for 'active prevention of neo-colonialism' and of the three parties it has the most popular support. Its strength lies amongst the Timorese workers in the lower levels of the administration in all the major townships. A large measure of political awareness has been spread thru the country by party organisers and as a result Fretilin support in the villages in the interior is very widespread. Fretilin realises the immediate problem facing East Timor is the improvement of agriculture, in which the overwhelming majority of Timorese are engaged, and its general programme for agricultural improvement is the creation of co-operatives. The party hopes that once production co-operatives are off the ground consuption cooperatives for the marketing of goods could be established, thus breaking the present commercial stranglehold of the Chinese it is hoped this will develop to a point where one large co-operative organisation will be able to handle commerce within and outside Timor.

Fretilin is unique among the parties in working in this grassroots way with the immediate concerns of the people. It is planning the introduction of 'barefoot doctors' in an effort to start to overcome the island's enormous health problems, and has started anti-illiteracy classes where adults and children are being taught to read and write Dahs tetum, the main dialect of East Timor. Pupils use a textbook prepared by Timorese students in Lisbon who support Fretilin, its main themes are national unity independence and the ill-effects of Portuguese colonialism.

Indonesian Invasion?

All observers now agree that Fretilin has the most popular support in East Timor. The Australian (February 26/75) suggests it would receive 60% of any vote, and in March this year, Jose Ramos-Horta is reported as saying Fretilin had about 200,000 card-carrying adult members. Fretilin has proposed the formation of a transitional government composed of equal representation of itself, the UDT and the Portuguese government. Full independence would come within two to five years.

However, it seems Indonesia is not prepared to stand idly by as a small country on its back doorstep gains independence. There are groups in Indonesia who maintain that East Timor must integrate with Indonesia for Indonesian national security, especially since East Timor is an economic liability and could cause regional instability. Given the Indonesian generals' paranoia about communism, recent victories of liberation movements in Indochina, and the present Leftist stance of the Portuguese, the Indonesian position is fairly predictable. Since September 1974 Apodeti (which observers suggest might get 5-10% of any vote) has been getting active support from Indonesia, as well as receiving finance from 'sympathetic businessmen in Kupang (the capital of Indonesian Timor). Since that time Radio Kupang has also beamed broadcasts into the Eastern half of the island supporting Apodeti and slandering the other parties. Articles in Berita Yuda, an Indonesian Army newspaper, give an indication of the type of attack East Timor is receiving from its Indonesian neighbours. There have been reports of a Chinese officer training Chinese civilians, reports of ships being spotted unloading arms, and even a report of four Chinese generals landing in East Timor, after travelling thru Canberra!

Whitlam and Suharto discuss Timor's future.

In February this year tension rose to such a level that an Indonesian invasion of East Timor seemed imminent. On February 24th the Australian and Indonesian press reported an invasion dress-rehearsal in Sumatra and on March 3rd the ABC reported a second such dress-rehearsal. Dozens of Indonesian secret service agents have also reportedly infiltrated East Timor as 'tourists,' and the Australian press in March carried reports of a small Timorese guerilla force being trained by Indonesia at the town of Atambua, close to the border with East Timor.

Credibility has been added to the reports of an imminent invasion by the Indonesian Government itself. In November last year, Foreign minister Adam Malik claimed the only options for East Timor were continued association with Portugal or integration with Indonesia. Independence is obviously not acceptable to the Indonesians.

The Future

East Timor needs as much support as it can get. The Australian government's reply to Malik's statements was suspiciously vague though it did disagree with them. It must be remembered that Indonesia is the largest Asian neighbour of Australia, and the Australian government is anxious to avoid a confrontation with the generals in Jakarta. New Zealand is in a similar situation as regards tics with Indonesia.

Our government must give a clear statement of New Zealand support for self-determination in East Timor. If East Timor cannot go it alone, then, to be consistent, neither can other small nations like Nauru, Tonga or Fiji. Even though East Timor is an economic liability at present, things could change. With any sort of efficient farming of fruit, rice and other foods, the country could soon feed itself. There is also the prospect of mineral wealth; BMP geologists have been prospecting in East Timor for the last couple of years - mainly in search of iron, manganese and chromium - and gold is known to exist. There are also definite indications of oil and gas, and surveys for these are being carried out at present.

Now is a crucial time for Fast Timor. We can help by spreading awareness of the situation there and maintaining pressure on the Government to support and aid an independent last Timor.