To joining ASEAN Timor – Leste don’t blame other countries, says Horta

By Raimundos Oki

Dili, East Timor – Nobel Peace Prize laureate José Ramos Horta says that Timor-Leste must not blame other countries for entering ASEAN because Timor-Leste has not been well prepared so far.

Horta considered that, more than ten years the Timor-Leste government failed to prepare itself to become a member of ASEAN, because it had not prepared the basic conditions for handling the ASEAN meeting. Therefore, he suggested not to blame other countries for slowing down and rejecting Timor-Leste's membership in ASEAN but this was a mistake and a weakness of Timor-Leste itself.

“We cannot only blame or campaign to some ASEAN countries or let say Singapore delaying our membership because they look at us some of the countries and they ask is Timor – Leste ready really to accept the responsibilities as member of ASEAN,” Horta said to Tempo Timor in his residents, Metiaut, Dili last week.  

“Changing our laws, regulations, procedures to be consistent to other ASEAN countries in term of imigrations, customs, security, money laundry, financing and all of that. Have we done that? Do we have the infrastructure facilities to host ASEAN meetings, we don’t have”.    

“We cannot aspire and demand to be member of ASEAN when we don’t even have an international standard airport because most of the foreign leaders coming to Timor – Leste, they come in their own planes. And most of those planes they cannot land in Dili because of the airport is very short and it doesn’t yet meet international safety standards. So it’s failure on our side”.

He asks to the current government must build an international airport because it is one of a condition to joining ASEAN.

To answer the question why more than ten years Timor – Leste’s government depending on the Indonesian air company, Horta said maybe some people in the government over many years doing “big business” with Sriwijaya, and particularly with Citilink because we don’t have one single Timorese travel agency. No Timorese travel agency. Every travel agency in Dili is belonging to foreigners because we are not certifying yet under international rules and regulations to issued tickets.

Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Dionísio Babo Saores has stated that, Timor – Leste has fulfilled most of the requirements, including opening embassies in all ASEAN countries.

“Although the gap between Timor – Leste and the richer nations is wide, ASEAN must demonstrate better goodwill to a country that clearly qualifies to be a member,” he said.

ASEAN was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by the five original member countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined on 8 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Laos and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999.

Timor – Leste officially applied for membership in ASEAN on 4 March 2011. However, after the ASEAN summit in April 2013, Secretary General of ASEAN Le Luong Minh stated that all member states now supported Timor-Leste's admission to the Association. Minh also stated "Timor Leste is not yet ready to join ASEAN.

A version of this article appears in Tempo Timor Online on June 29, 2019 with the headline: To joining ASEAN Timor – Leste don’t blame other countries, says Horta.

https://tempotimor.com/en/613-to-joining-asean-timor-leste-don-t-blamming-other-countries-says-horta