Ramos-Horta Blames Government for frustration on ASEAN ascension

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JORNAL DIGITAL - 2011-05-18 - Translation from portuguese

Dili – The Timorese President of the Republic, Jose Ramos-Horta, has blamed the government of Xanana Gusmao for Timor-Leste’s frustration in not acceding as a member state to ASEAN.

According to Ramos-Horta, Singapore’s rejection of Timor-Leste’s candidature as a permanent member state of that association of states, resulted from the failure in terms of preparing properly for that objective by the members of Xanana’s government.

Seriously criticizing the government, the President of the Republic declared that he had repeatedly advised that all members of the Government properly prepared themselves for the negotiations, but that he was at least ignored on this.

“I warned them many times that the Ministers of State should prepare themselves thoroughly for their discussions during the negotiations. But the inter-ministerial commission that was set up three years ago by the government never once held a meeting of the ascension coordination process,” Ramos-Horta pointed out.

Ramos-Horta did however say that he believed other member countries of ASEAN disagree with Singapore’s decision to block Timor-Leste’s entry. According to the President, such as Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia were fragile states when they joined ASEAN some years ago, referring to the need for a transitional period before Timor-Leste joined ASEAN as a permanent member state of the group.

For the FRETILIN Secretary General, and former Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, the failure of the country’s candidature had linked to the weakness of Timorese diplomacy during the candidacy process. Alkatiri said that the government should have ensured it influenced all the member states of that association in order to guarantee the success of the candidacy.

“I think that it has been a failure of our diplomacy. Why did we fail? If we propose ascension, we should start with having consulted all the partners (members of ASEAN) to ensure that our candidacy was acceptable by everyone,” Alkatiri declared.

“The government should not have submitted the ascension proposal to the secretariat of that association of countries without knowing whether it had the support of all members countries. The Timorese government should have concerned itself with knowing what Singapore’s position was regarding Timor-Leste’s preparedness for ascension prior to submitting our candidacy,” manifested the FRETILIN Secretary General.

(c) PNN Portuguese News Network

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