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Bring on Timor Leste to ASEAN
While Indonesia has supported Timor Leste since it applied for membership in 2011, it was vetoed by one or two other members, who felt that Timor Leste was too poor and that it would be an economic burden for the regional bloc.
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This handout picture taken and released on July 19 by the Presidential Palace shows President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo (right) and his Timor Leste counterpart President Jose Ramos Horta (left), attending a joint--press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java.
(AFP/handout)
-ASEAN, where are your manners? Timor Leste has met all the requirements and much more to be a member, and yet the regional grouping has sat on its application for over 11 years. The ASEAN way is notorious for being slow, but there is no more reason to delay in admitting the young nation which by geographical definition falls within Southeast Asia.
During his meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Timor Leste President Jose Ramos Horta on Tuesday expressed hope that Indonesia would to see to it that Timor Leste is admitted when Jakarta takes the rotating ASEAN chair in 2023. “It would be symbolic,” he said at the joint-press conference after their meeting at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java.
Ramos Horta, a Nobel laureate who was elected as president for the second time in April, is in Indonesia to boost bilateral ties between Timor Leste and its giant neighbor. On Wednesday he paid a courtesy visit to Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf and gave a public lecture at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic Institute.
Decisions in ASEAN are by consensus, and while Indonesia has supported Timor Leste since it applied for membership in 2011, it was vetoed by one or two other members, who felt that Timor Leste was too poor and that it would be an economic burden for the regional bloc.
It would be symbolic indeed for Indonesia to make sure that it happens during its chairmanship next year. For one, as the largest member it should use its power to get a consensus. For another, Indonesia has the responsibility to help with the development of Timor Leste, a territory that it brutally occupied for more than 25 years. Indonesia owes it to Timor Leste.
Timor Leste scores much higher than all ASEAN members when it comes to freedom and democracy, values enshrined in the group’s charter. It is the only country in the region categorized by Freedom House as “free”, while others are either “partly free” or “not free”. It ranked 17th in the world in the Reporters Sans Frontiers’ 2021 press-freedom index, compared with 117th for Indonesia.
Admitting Timor Leste would light a tiny bright spot in the otherwise gloomy Southeast Asian freedom and democracy map, and be a source of inspiration for ASEAN members. Unless the real reason is precisely because ASEAN does not want to be embarrassed by Timor Leste’s performance.
