A dream come true
The following is abridged from a piece by Melbourne-based East Timorese writer ELIZEBETE LIM GOMES, which she read at an Indonesian cultural night in Melbourne on June 12.
"Reformasi!", the Indonesian students chanted in the national parliament building in Jakarta. They flaunted banners with words such as, "The game is over, Suharto". Here in Melbourne, I watched them and I grinned.
The presence of the army and the riot police did not stop the students any more. They were determined to kick Suharto out of power. I could feel their rising wrath, their determination and their courage, and I said, "Yes, bring him down, bring the butcher down once and for all. Good on you guys. I'm so proud of you."
Finally, after 32 years of Suharto's dictatorship, the people of Indonesia were now reacting against him openly. Their revolt was, for me, a spirit-lifting surprise. As an East Timorese, I knew it was imperative that Suharto and his military regime were kicked out of power as soon as possible. Only then would East Timor have a chance of becoming independent.
For years I had come out on the streets of Melbourne and protested against Suharto's military invasion of East Timor. I held banners and I yelled out to the world slogans about Suharto and his oppressive regime. I poured out years of accumulated anger and frustration on the streets of Melbourne. I did it for me and for the ones who could not do it in the streets of their own country, East Timor.
At the end of the protest, the pent-up anger would diminish to a degree, but the frustration remained — a frustration that would not cease to haunt me, even though the size and furore of the demonstrations kept increasing over the years.
There was always a void. A void that could be filled only by that crucial support of the 200 million people who lived and also suffered under Suharto's dictatorship.
After 22 years of resistance, protests and a great deal of frustration, the Indonesian people's revolution came to me as a sweet reward. My heart grew with admiration for the students who initiated the revolution. "To the last blood we will struggle. We are not afraid of anything", said Suresh Kumar, one of the leaders of the student movement.
I felt the strength of his words and knew that the tide was turning in favour of the people of Indonesia and of East Timor.
"We do not want a military leader again. We want democratisation of this country", said Rama Pratama, another student leader. With his words, I grew with a certainty that soon, very soon, East Timor would get its independence.
I saw [ABC-TV's] Four Corners' footage of an Indonesian student celebrating the stepping down of Suharto. He held the red and white flag. He knelt on the road, and he moaned as he wept tears that seemed to have welled out of years of much suffering. And I wept with him.
The red and white flag represents its people, but it also represents its leader, who committed atrocities against his own people; the people who for 32 years had adopted a tolerant attitude towards their leader's greedy dictatorship, only to be rewarded with more impoverishment and repression when their country entered an economic crisis triggered exclusively by their leader and his family's greed for more wealth.
"We will stay here until Suharto steps down." The students who crowded the national parliament building on May 20th were unanimous in their conviction.
On May 21, 1998, Suharto read out to his people, "I have decided to declare that I cease being the president of the Republic of Indonesia". Suddenly, the dictator was gone. Like the people of Indonesia, I celebrated this moment with joy, sadness and disgust for such corrupt and evil leadership.
The stepping down of Suharto is the first stage of a democratic Indonesia. In democracy there is no place for political prisoners. Ratna Sarumpaet and some other political prisoners are now free. Sooner or later Xanana and other East Timorese political prisoners will also be released, even though President Habibie still thinks otherwise.
Suharto's troops are still tramping the streets of East Timor. But with the support of the people of Indonesia, who are now confident in stating their political opinion openly and are now determined to fight for democracy, changes are inevitable. For in democracy there is no place for a military regime.
As I am wrote this piece, I heard on the ABC radio news that the top five of the military hierarchy stationed in East Timor [had] died in a helicopter crash. I write with respect for their bereaved families, but this accident is, for me, an omen. The military is already crashing down. My dream, our dream of an independent East Timor, is actually materialising every minute from now on.