Timor Leste in ASEAN: Sooner rather than later

 Dewi Fortuna Anwar: JP/Arief Suhardiman

In early March 2011, Timor Leste formally submitted its application to join ASEAN. Since it gained formal independence in 2002, after a traumatic and violent separation from Indonesia in 1999, the leaders of Timor Leste have indicated that they saw Dili’s future as being part of ASEAN.

In July 2006, Jose Ramos Horta, attending his first ASEAN meeting as Prime Minister, stated in Kuala Lumpur that Timor Leste had already made the strategic decision to join ASEAN. Ramos Horta admitted then, however, that it would take a few years, maybe five or more, before his country could join ASEAN as a full member, given the quite onerous responsibilities that full membership in ASEAN would entail, not least the hundreds of meetings that take place every year.

Timor Leste, after all, had only gained independence a few short years earlier, facing many internal problems associated with a new state with limited means and, therefore, needed time to focus on internal consolidation. Indonesia has stated its support for Timor Leste’s eventual membership of ASEAN from the very beginning.

Despite the unhappy history of East Timor’s experience under Indonesia and the painful separation marked by violence in 1999, both Jakarta and Dili were determined to leave the past behind and begin a new chapter in their relations as two sovereign neighbors living in peace and harmony.

The challenges faced in deepening regional integration are well-known and adding new members, especially ones with very different levels of economic development and/or different political values, will clearly not make integration any easier. The European Union faced this problem as it enlarged its membership over successive periods, and ASEAN is still struggling with the challenges brought in by new members when Laos Myanmar became full members in 1997, and Cambodia joined in 1999. Vietnam joined the regional grouping in 1995.

The new members needed more time to carry out all of the obligations that they have signed, especially on economic issues. The greater diversity in social and political outlooks have also made the desire to develop and adhere to common norms and values as the bases of an ASEAN Community envisioned for 2015 extremely difficult to realize.

Yet Indonesia believes that it is better that Timor Leste be admitted as a full member of ASEAN sooner rather than later. Of course it is understood that a full membership has to go through a certain process, so it is unlikely that Timor Leste will be inducted as a member of ASEAN by the end of this year, even if the 18th ASEAN Summit held today in Jakarta endorsed Dili’s membership application. There are at least three major reasons why Jakarta is so keen to have Timor Leste be part of the ASEAN Community.

First, actively sponsoring Dili’s application for membership in ASEAN, especially in the face of resistance among a few members, is the final healing process in the relations between Indonesia and Timor Leste. There should be no doubt of Indonesia’s sincerity in this.

Second, there are the geo-political considerations. Indonesia clearly has no desire to have an enclave within its archipelago whose foreign policy orientation may not always be in step with Jakarta. While the Cold War has been over for two decades and relations between Indonesia and the giant communist power in the region, China, have become very close, the earlier geopolitical considerations have not entirely disappeared.

This writer fully agrees with Kavi Chongkittavorn, who wrote in his article, titled “East Timor and ASEAN: New Strategic Imperatives” (The Nation, Jan. 17, 2011), that the logic for ASEAN to admit Timor Leste as a member is similar to the imperative for admitting Myanmar in 1997, namely that alone Timor Leste, like Myanmar may become too dependent on Beijing. As Kavi pointed out, “Burma and East Timor share one commonality — intimate ties with China. Both nations are rich in energy resources”.

Third, as the ASEAN Community becomes fully realized and the economies of the ten member countries are increasingly integrated, it is not in Indonesia’s national interest either to have a territory sharing an island and a border with Indonesia being left out in the cold.

It is not going to be easy for Timor Leste to join ASEAN at this point in time when ASEAN is just four years away from its target of achieving an ASEAN Community. However, it will be doubly hard for Timor Leste to have to join an already full-fledged ASEAN Community. As ASEAN is willing to extend a helping hand to the other relative new comers, it is to be hoped that it will be willing to extend this assistance to Timor Leste.

Unlike some of the other new members of ASEAN Timor Leste has several distinct advantages in its favor. Its size and population is fairly small, and though its people are still poor, it has oil and gas, it has long enjoyed the goodwill and support of the international community — particularly western donor countries. In addition, Timor Leste is already a functioning democracy so that it will not have any troubles adhering to the values enshrined in the ASEAN Charter.

Let’s hope that in the not too distant future ASEAN will add its eleventh and final member into its midst.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar is research professor for Intermestic Affairs at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and currently serves as the Deputy Secretary for Political Affairs to the Vice President of Indonesia.