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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Focus Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A week in the world
All's well that ends well
By Gamal NkrumahToday East Timor and tomorrow Aceh? Probable breakaway provinces in outlying Indonesian islands are humbling the powers that be in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. How times change. Only a couple of years ago, it would have been inconceivable to have an Indonesian cabinet minister lavishly praising Xanana Gusamao, the jailed East Timorese separatist leader. "In the future -- either in independence or as an autonomous region [of Indonesia] -- a man like Xanana is suitable to become a leader in East Timor ... Xanana has a clear vision of East Timor, has integrity... He is a man with a sense of gratefulness. I greatly support him," Indonesia's Justice Minister Muladi said. Xanana, serving a 20-year jail sentence for plotting against the state and possessing illegal arms, is to be released in mid-September, Muladi said.
Gusamao's life sentence was commuted after his trial attracted much attention abroad. In February, Indonesian authorities moved Gusamao from incarceration in a top military prison to house arrest. "We have granted amnesty because he has done a lot for resolving the problem in East Timor," Muladi explained. Gusamao is still the leader of the separatist umbrella organisation, the National Resistance Council of East Timor.
The people of East Timor, "defied poverty, distance, climate, terrain, hardship and in some cases dark intimidation in order to exercise their God-given right to vote. Today for the first time in a long and turbulent history, the people of East Timor went to the polls to cast their ballots on the momentous issue of their political future," Jamsheed Marker, the United Nations special envoy for East Timor, told reporters in the East Timorese capital of Dili on Monday. Marker praised Indonesian police for preventing any serious violence during the voting. According to UN estimations, over 98 per cent of the 430,000 voters registered in East Timor had turned out to vote.
The people of the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh that occupies the northern tip of the Indonesian archipelago's largest island Sumatra are hopeful that developments in East Timor will positively influence government policy on the Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) campaign for Aceh's secession from Indonesia. Violence in Aceh has claimed the lives of 2,000 people. Over 200,000 people were displaced by the uprising in Aceh. However, observers point out that Aceh's separatists do not enjoy the same international support as the East Timorese. Aceh's separatists are militant Islamists and on Monday, when the people of East Timor voted on their future, Indonesian President BJ Habibie ruled out a similar referendum for Aceh.
Gusamao was not the only man who experienced a remarkable twist of destiny this week. In Kenya, environmentalist, paleoanthropologist and opposition politician Richard Leakey was pleasantly surprised by a political about-face. A third-generation white Kenyan, who had both his legs amputated in a plane crash in 1993, was appointed by Kenya's President Daniel Arap Moi as secretary to the cabinet and head of Kenya's notoriously inept public service. Born to internationally acclaimed paleoanthropologists Louis and Mary Leaky, Richard's fame eventually exceeded that of his parents when he confounded world scientists with an impressive string of ground-breaking discoveries of pre-historic human remains.
Kenya's powerful political establishment has, however, poached the environmentalist. In fact, Moi's move was specifically manoeuvered to end corruption and inefficiency. Like Indonesia's Muladi, Moi heaped praise on his former arch-enemy and described Leakey as "a man of determination and integrity." Leakey, of course, had very successfully transformed Kenya's Wildlife Service from a decaying body into an efficiently-run organisation in the 1980s, which was emulated by all other wildlife bodies in Africa. Today, Kenya's Wildlife Service attracts vast amounts of money from Western donor agencies and environmentalist groups. Many hope that Leakey's success with Kenya's Wildlife Service would be repeated with the country's public service. But, prophets of doom argue that people are often more difficult to manage than beasts. Leakey, accused by his detractors of caring more for animals than humans, warned tongue-in-cheek that he will live up to their expectations. "Public officials who let the side down will be removed. We are not in this business for cosmetic purposes. I will not allow myself to be compromised."
Russia's equally corrupt public service has still to find a saviour of Leakey's calibre. In one of his now infamous public temper tantrums, Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that the so-called "Kremlingate" corruption scandal currently rocking the country is yet another plot to discredit him. Kremlin property manager Pavel Borodin, suspected of laundering illicitly received money -- paid by Swiss company Mabatex to secure lucrative Kremlin refurbishment contracts which cost the Russian taxpayer $488 million -- denied that credit card receipts signed by Yeltsin and his two daughters -- Yelena Okulova and Tatyana Dyachenco -- had been discovered in Switzerland by probing investigators. But few Russians believe Borodin.
