TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Much to discuss for Indonesia and close neighbor Timor Leste

Timor Leste President José Maria Vasconcelos, popularly known as Taur Matan Ruak (Timorese for “two sharp eyes”), is due to make his first state visit to Jakarta this week

Kristio Wahyono (The Jakarta Post)
Yogyakarta
Thu, June 20, 2013

Share This Article

Change Size

Much to discuss for Indonesia and close neighbor Timor Leste

T

imor Leste President José Maria Vasconcelos, popularly known as Taur Matan Ruak (Timorese for '€œtwo sharp eyes'€), is due to make his first state visit to Jakarta this week.

When the previous president José Ramos Horta paid a state visit in June 2007 to meet Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, he brought important issues with him. In the upcoming meeting between Ruak and Yudhoyono, important agenda items also look set to be on the table.

Last month, Timor Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao met with Ruak to discuss allegations related to the Australia Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) espionage during the 2004 negotiations between Timor Leste and Australia over oil and gas mineral rights at the Greater Sunrise field in the Timor Sea.

Bernard Collarey, a barrister, part of a team of international lawyers hired by the Timor Leste government, told the Australians that it was a Watergate situation, breaching international law. But the then Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said nobody in the Australian government '€” past or present '€” was going to comment on intelligence matters one way or the other.

Timor Leste insists Australia did not act in good faith during the negotiations and most likely Timor Leste wants the Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS) treaty, which split revenue from Greater Sunrise at 50-50 and restricted negotiations on a permanent maritime boundary, declared invalid. The Australian government has rejected this premise.

Australia and Timor Leste remain on good terms and nothing can rupture the bonds between the people of the two neighbors, but when they discuss the oil and gas field in the Timor Sea, mounting tension cannot be avoided.

In negotiations on the Greater Sunrise international unitization agreement (IUA) in Dili in November 2002, Downer seemed to blackmail Timor Leste by delaying the ratification the CMATS to force Timor Leste to sign the IUA. '€œAustralia is very tough'€, a high-ranking official said.

When Portugal claimed sovereignty over the seabed in the Timor Sea, in accordance with the 1958 Geneva Convention, Australia rejected it. In 1971 and 1972, ignoring Portuguese objections, Australia and Indonesia continued negotiations and signed treaties '€œestablishing certain seabed boundaries'€ based on the continental shelf principle, which is biased in favor of Australia and created the Timor Gap. Furthermore, Australia was in a position where '€œclosing the present gap could be much more readily negotiated with Indonesia than with Portugal or an independent Portuguese Timor'€. That is what the Australian ambassador to Indonesia cabled intensively to former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam. Subsequently they '€œencouraged'€ Indonesia to invade East Timor.

The dream came true when the Timor Gap Treaty was signed by the two governments in 1989, which gave Australia control over most of the Timor Sea reserves. Even the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) failed to begin the maritime boundary settlement process with Australia. On the contrary it negotiated the continuation of previous exploration in the Timor Gap. The espionage operations are irrefutable and the Timor Leste government in the first instance intends to annul the CMATS. Apparently, the government issued a statement on 10 June, 2013 regarding the pending arbitration on the CMATS treaty.

When additional rounds of negotiation took place in 2004, Woodside Australian Energy deemed a pipeline from Sunrise to Timor Leste would be less financially advantageous than to Darwin. Australia'€™s position, however, remained unchanged. It viewed that the Greater Sunrise pipeline must head to Darwin since there were already liquefied natural gas (LNG) installation facilities at Wickham Point Darwin, which also facilitated a pipeline from Bayu Undan field.

Timor Leste, on the other, insisted that the pipeline headed to its coast for onshore processing, with the strong reasoning that 80 percent of the territory belonged to Timor Leste under international law. Canberra then renewed military intervention during the riot in Dili in 2006 that brought down former prime minister Mari Alkatiri.

The dispute between Australia and Timor Leste again intensified in 2010 as an American-Japanese-Australian consortium led by Woodside Petroleum demanded a floating gas processing platform at Sunrise. But Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao threatened to block the mining reserves to get Australia and Woodside to reconsider building the pipeline to Timor Leste.

Greater Sunrise field contains no less than 300 million barrels of light oil and 2.5 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, worth an estimated total of more than US$100 billion and is also able to generate thousands of jobs for the Timorese as there would be a need for locally-run businesses to support the plant.

With enormous profit at stake, Timor Leste is one of the poorest countries in the Asia-Pacific region and its economy is one of the most heavily petroleum-dependent in the world, accounting for more than 90 percent of total government revenue. The infrastructure remains poor and the country is drought-prone.

The Greater Sunrise floating platform, pipeline to Timor Leste or even the invalid CMATS treaty are all bilateral issues between Timor Leste and Australia. No country should interfere with another'€™s internal affairs. These are certainly not merely '€œother matters'€ on the agenda of the meeting between Ruak and Yudhoyono.

Timor Leste failure to attract much foreign direct investment, its unstable democratic transition, its poverty trap and its high unemployment are all problems that could ignite unrest or destabilize the region and do not simply concern its domestic affairs.

The writer is a guest lecturer of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and former Indonesian representative to the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.