Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, chairperson of the Alola Foundation and wife of East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao, addressed a public meeting attended by 100 people at the Australia Institute for International Affairs in Canberra on August 2. This is an edited version of her speech.
For me as an Australian and a Timorese I am in a unique position to comment on the importance of resolving the question of maritime boundaries fairly and constructively, based on the established principles of international law for both of our nations.
I further hope that I will be able to inspire you to continue to think and be concerned about East Timor. The people — my people — need you to continue to remember them and their needs. It is because the needs of my adopted country are just so overwhelming.
Our nation is one of the world's poorest, with over 40% of the nation living on about 40 cents per day. We are a poor people, but one equally proud of our resilience. We have a beautiful country, but also one with a denuded land in need of reforestation.
East Timor is a country with one of the most appalling maternal and infant mortality rates in the world, where approximately 830 women out of 100,000 die in childbirth. Twelve percent of children don't make it to their fifth birthday, yet we have a high birth rate of 7.5 children per family.
Approximately 50% of the population is under 15 years of age and approximately 80% of women are illiterate.
The reality of these figures was brought home to me when on my last visit in April to Sydney I had the opportunity to visit the Royal North Shore hospital and visit the maternity ward there. The director of women's, children's and family health told me the budget for her section alone was $20 million. The disparity seems so stark, given our entire government budget of about $100 million.
I want to aspire to have the same for women and children in East Timor.
I began my passionate relationship with the country as an activist fighting for the people's right to self-determination. I met East Timorese activists when I was at university in Melbourne as a student of Indonesian language and culture. Little did I know that I would go from activist for the people's freedom to First Lady. I have to say that today I am still an activist very much.
Nowadays my mission is someone different. It is to consolidate the pace and prosperity of East Timor and to help bring about economic independence for the people.
In his address to the nation after 100 days of independence, Xanana spoke of the need for the East Timorese to acquire a new sense of nationalism. He said: "The patriotism which guided the people in their struggle against foreign domination is no longer relevant. Today nationalism demands of East Timor's leaders, civil servants and members of the public alike a commitment to working selflessly to defeat a new enemy, that of poverty and ignorance. For the first time in history the responsibility for winning that battle is in the hands of the East Timorese. Many important advances have been made and in spite of concerns that some of the old practices of corruption and collusion continue to plague society, the East Timorese are genuinely committed to strengthening democracy and ensuring that the tears and blood shed in the past were not shed in vain."
So, while it is clear that we are now responsible for our future, we still need help. We were left with a legacy of an almost destroyed infrastructure — both hard and soft. We are so far aid dependent and without access to the oil we say is legally ours. We are in poverty and need to struggle to overcome this.
In this fight against poverty and ignorance we also need Australia to play fair in resolving access to the resources of the Timor Sea that will be vital for rebuilding our new nation. I am not asking for generosity or charity but for justice and fairness and respect for our right to settle ownership of these resources for once and for all.
This issue is one issue that is clearly not about need. It is an issue that is clearly about rights.
I am compelled to use my voice to say something about the current maritime boundary situation. I'm compelled to say something as each day I'm forced to stand by and not adequately help families who have too little to eat. And I'm compelled to say something as I have to sit by and watch children die each day of preventable diseases through lack of medical resources. And I'm compelled to say something as the women, children and communities of East Timor suffer so much. I'm compelled to say something because my involvement with the East Timorese people began because of my commitment to righting wrongs, my commitment to work to end injustice. This issue falls clearly into that framework.
So what I say is this. The right to a maritime boundary is vital to the future of East Timor. East Timor became the world's newest nation in May 2002. And in July 2004 it reached agreement with Indonesia on its land border. But it's yet to make progress in negotiations over a maritime boundary with Australia.
East Timor does not want to change boundaries as is often reported. It wants to establish a boundary for the first time, as is its right as an independent nation under international law.
The right to a maritime boundary is an inherent part of East Timor's right to self-determination. Exercising this right is vitally important to East Timor's future because the resources secured by a boundary will make the difference between becoming a viable, prosperous and independent nation or being continually dependent on aid.
Importantly, East Timor's poverty aggravates this injustice, but it is not the basis of its claim. Some have argued that East Timor is seeking access to these resources simply because it's poor. East Timor claims these resources because it is its international legal right.
East Timor would prefer to support itself from the revenue of its resources rather than rely on the generosity of international donors. However, East Timor is indeed very poor and this is all the more reason why the Australian government should respect its right to claim ownership of its own resources.
Australians have had a great relationship with the people of East Timor stretching back to the second world war. One of the veterans, Paddy Keneally, told me how the Timorese community during the war protected and cared for our soldiers.
Throughout the long years of Indonesian military occupation, the Australian community stuck by the East Timorese and helped keep their faith strong.
In those dark days of September 1999, the Australian community again stuck by East Timor. And when Interfet landed on our soil it was evident that the Australian community was with us once again. I felt so proud on that day that my fellow countrymen and women had rallied to the aid of my beloved Timor Leste. However, I ask for more and I ask that the community here in Australia see that the vast resources available in the Timor Sea get divided up fairly so that East Timor gets what is rightfully and legally ours.
What we are dealing with here goes back to the 1970s. It can be hard to put right a history but it can be done as it was in 1999.
I am an Australian and an East Timorese so I feel I can speak on this issue. As an Australian, from a wealthy country, I want our fairness to be applied to resolving this issue. And as an East Timorese I expect us to get a fair go from Australia. That is all I ask.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, August 25, 2004.
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