EAST TIMOR: Jose Ramos Horta: 'CNRT will cease to exist'
EAST TIMOR: Jose Ramos Horta: 'CNRT will cease to exist'
DILI — Speaking at a meeting of the just weeks-old East Timor Press Club on August 12, Jose Ramos Horta, vice-president of the National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT) said that the CNRT would cease to exist "in six to 12 months' time".
According to Horta, "political parties will have to take over" the role so far played by CNRT. "There is no role anymore for 'resistance'; it has served its purpose", he said.
Horta told the audience that those without a political party inside the CNRT, such as himself, Xanana Gusmao and Mario Carrascalao, were not afraid of relinquishing the power they currently have as senior members of CNRT. Speaking for Gusmao and himself, Horta said they would continue to monitor the work of parties, particularly during the campaign period. He expressed concern about the possibility of a return to the days of chaos and civil war between Fretilin and the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) in 1975. "We have waited for 24 years for this moment, so let us do it right", he said.
Horta paid tribute to the role of the existing political parties — Fretilin, the UDT, the Socialist Party of Timor and the Christian Democratic Party — in the victory won by East Timor's people against Indonesian occupation.
In response to what he called "East Timor's rumour mill", Horta defended the CNRT against charges that it was divided and fractious. He pointed out that the CNRT was unlike many resistance organisations in other countries, which, once in power, tended not to include those who had previously opposed the resistance. He cited the African National Congress and Nicaragua's FSLN as examples.
Individuals who hold senior positions in the CNRT or in the transitional cabinet and who were part of the Indonesian administration include Mario Carrascalao (former governor of East Timor) and Mariano Lopes da Cruz (former district head of Maliana and deputy head of the regional parliament). Lopes da Cruz is inspector-general in the transitional administration.
Sources in the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor have said that elections are likely to take place in the second half of 2001, to commence around August. It is still unclear whether the people will elect members of a parliament or a constituent assembly.
Addressing the issue of regional alliances, Horta confirmed that both ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) and the South Pacific Forum were attractive options. He praised the ASEAN governments' contributions to rebuilding East Timor and emphasised the need for good relations with these countries, whose economies are important.
Horta did not mention how such government-to-government relations might affect relationships with the "people's movements" for democracy in some of these countries.
Four days after Horta's Press Club address, Lusa news service reported that a new centre-right political party, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), will be launched in early September, with Carrascalao and Horta at its head.
Carrascalao told Lusa that the PSD "will be one more option for those who do not have one and for those who do not feel mobilised for the period of reconstruction". He added that the party will include "about 10" leading personalities. The report also stated, "The new party would seek support among people tired of 'the revivalism of the past' of the historic Fretilin and UDT".
BY VANJA TANAJA