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Can Timor-Leste shape the future of the region?
The citizens of Southeast Asia have the prerogative, the right to hear their leaders talking more about democracy and human rights.
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Grassroots support: Supporters of the Fretilin Party shout slogans on May 16, 2023 during a party rally in Tasi Tolu, Timor-Leste. The National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) won the parliamentary election on May 21, allowing independence hero Xanana Gusmao to make a comeback as prime minister of Asia's youngest country. (AFP/Valentino Dariel Sousa)
L
ast week Timor-Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão stated that the accession of his country to the ASEAN bloc was conditional on resolving the conflict now underway in Myanmar.
“Timor-Leste will not be joining ASEAN if ASEAN cannot convince the military junta in Myanmar [to end the conflict],” Xanana explained on Friday.
Speaking in Jakarta on the sidelines of The Jakarta Post’s Democracy Dialogue on Monday, however, Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta said the country was still on course to becoming a full ASEAN member and suggested that Xanana’s statement could have been “misquoted”.
Notwithstanding the discrepancy, let us remind ourselves that the decision by ASEAN governments to accept, in “principle”, the application of Timor-Leste to join the bloc is still a fairly new development in the geopolitics of the region. Many do not think of it as a game-changer in the balance of the regional dynamics.
However, what if the words of Xanana were not just a faux pas but actually the pillar of a foreign-policy doctrine that the newest Asian country intends to embrace and negotiate with?
Despite the uncertainties about when and well, if, Timor-Leste will really become part of ASEAN, it is refreshing to hear the founding father of this tiny and fragile nation talking about democracy. It is also unsurprising to hear so much indignation among regional pundits about what he dared to say publicly.
Yet it is what the region desperately needs. The citizens of Southeast Asia have the prerogative, the right to hear their leaders talking more about democracy and human rights.
