FieldWatch: Crocodiles Prove No Bad Omen
By Brennon Jones

For much of the international press, living on a diet of violence and bloodshed as they do, the 30 August Constituent Assembly elections in East Timor must have been a bit of a let-down. It was ever so peaceful. But the polling was big news nonetheless, because with that day’s vote East Timor, which had been so thoroughly destroyed just two years ago, entered the ranks of global showcase for democracy. Its 91.3-per-cent turnout at the polls was hailed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a “glowing example to the world community”.

A Timorese woman proudly displays her new voter registration card on a Dili street. OCPI Photo/Thandi Mwape

But it wasn’t just the level of popular participation that was remarkable - it was the spirit of tolerance that prevailed throughout the electoral campaign and the complete lack of political violence. Carlos Valenzuela, Chief Electoral Officer for the Independent Electoral Commission, summed it up: “In over 14 elections in which I have worked, I have never seen such a peaceful and orderly campaign.”

As the vote approached, however, a degree of fear was widespread. In Dili, a few shopkeepers even drew down their inventories and boarded up their stores. And when salt-water crocodiles were sighted off Dili’s beaches in mid-August during their annual migration, more than a few Timorese, in their anxiety, deemed it an ominous sign of impending conflict - of civil war.

There was an undercurrent of anxiety across the land about the potential for former pro-autonomy militia who remained as refugees in West Timor crossing the border into East Timor and provoking unrest and also, according to some international observers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), about the use by some political parties in the districts of inflammatory rhetoric and outright intimidation that had the potential to spark serious conflict. But this was not 1999. The United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) had been unarmed then, and some Indonesian military and police were complicit with the pro-autonomy militia. Kathleen Goncalves, owner of the Acait Bistro, saw the difference between then and now. “Most of my friends were worried” as the recent elections approached, she said. “They were scared, but I told them, don’t worry. CivPol and the PKF are now organized.”

She was right. Some 8,000 armed peacekeepers (PKF) and 1,485 UN Civilian Police (CivPol) were providing the Timorese people with a highly visible sense of security throughout the country. They were bolstered by a thousand of their young, but increasingly impressive, counterparts in the East Timor Police Service and a battalion of the recently created Defense Force, which draws most of its ranks from former members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation of East Timor. In addition, PKF and CivPol, along with the Timorese district administrators, had established and trained District Security Committees in all 13 districts to confront a crisis or civil unrest swiftly and effectively and in a highly coordinated fashion. Nonetheless, the trauma of the 1999 experience lingered and continued to leave many Timorese on edge and UN security forces on high alert. Even through this climate of wariness, the Timorese people showed their best qualities. It wasn’t the courage and determination they displayed in confronting the 1999 violence, or even the fierce determination in rebuilding their country over the past 24 months, but this time it was pure conviction. They were ready to participate in the democratic process for which they had risked so much and would not now be denied. They were set to elect an 88-member Constituent Assembly that would draft the nation’s first-ever Constitution, which would provide the framework for the presidential elections that would lead to the nation’s independence, scheduled for May 2002.

Voters had plenty of parties and candidates from which to choose. On 15 July, when the formal campaigning began, 16 political parties and 5 independent candidates were officially registered.

They ran the gamut from the well-known Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN), which had the strongest prospects and in fact predicted a landslide, to other popular parties, including Partido Social Democrata, Partido Democrático, Klibur Oan Timor Asuwain, Associação Social-Democrata Timorense and União Democrática Timorense. A number of parties had little name recognition or resources to mount highly-visible campaigns.

For the United Nations, the elections was an extraordinary challenge. Security Council resolution 1272 (1999) had mandated the world Organization in October 1999 to administer the country until independence. It had done more than a passable job. The militia, which had terrorized the country in 1999, were now just a footnote, thanks principally to the peacekeepers. A major humanitarian relief effort, which had involved the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Office of Migration and other UN agencies, and countless NGOs in the months following the destruction, had succeeded in returning more than 185,000 refugees to their homes, and provided food, clothing and shelter to those in need. Overall, the reconciliation process had worked, with little harassment or violence against returning refugees. By 2001, overall security was the best it had been in decades. What’s more, a young but professional civil service of 9,500, as well as the basic institutions of government, were functioning. Though the process was not flawless, developments that would take generations in another country had occurred in just months in East Timor.

But this election presented the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) with enormous challenges. It had to run the election while still administering the country. In addition, every step of the way it had to convince 16 disparate political parties, independent candidates and the Timorese people that it was being completely impartial.

The hurdles just kept coming. First, it was the civil and voter registration campaign. Some 500 international and local staff worked from 350 registration sites throughout the land. In the rainy season, they registered 793,000 residents, 425,000 of whom were eligible to vote. Registration was done mostly by United Nations Volunteers, who were veterans of other UN electoral exercises around the world.

Most of their Timorese counterparts were anything but - they were green to the electoral management process, but are no longer. With the 30 August elections under their belts, they are now seasoned and ready to run future polls, including the presidential vote, which will be held in a matter of months. The registration process was not without problems. There were some computer software glitches along the way that generated lengthy lines and endless waiting. Quite a few Timorese were omitted from the voter rolls because of a technical problem; this called for some mid-course adjustments to ensure they could cast their votes on polling day. But, for the most part, the Timorese took it all in stride, demonstrating just how patient and determined they were to participate in the democratic process. Even greater proof came a little later during the certification process. This was when the Timorese were given the opportunity to check the voter rolls to ensure that their names were there and all pertinent data correct. In most countries, citizens tend to just blow this process off, but the Timorese showed up in numbers that would set records for any country - a clear indication they were all business when it came to casting their votes in this landmark election.

UNTAET Head Sergio Vieira de Mello at the 16 August ceremony in which the Constitutional Commission provided the reports from hearings held in 13 districts on what the Timorese people want considered for inclusion in the Constitution. The document is now being drafted by the Constitutional Assembly elected on 30 August.

Then came the civic education campaign. To put it in laymen’s terms, this is the process in which the Timorese people incorporate democracy into their everyday lives. At first, some were outright fearful of the democratic process.

They associated it with the painful experience of multi-party democracy in 1975 and the conflict and violence of that period. But for most of them, democracy was just a very new concept. To put it in perspective, in May 2001, the Asia Foundation issued a report stating that the Timorese were woefully ignorant of the electoral process and their role in it - for whom and for what exactly they were being asked to vote. The data for this report was collected well before voter registration or the civic education campaign had even started. However, it did highlight the immense challenge facing the United Nations and the National Civic Education Steering Committee - the umbrella organization - a partnership of the UN and civil society groups that coordinated all of East Timor’s civic education efforts.

It would be impossible to chronicle all the civic education activities carried out by the Timorese themselves, the United Nations, NGOs, the church and a host of international agencies and foundations. There were repeated training sessions run by civil society organizations and Timorese NGOs for deputy and district administrators and for students throughout the country. There were direct dialogues and debates at the sub-district and community levels, where residents explored the implications of the elections on their lives, their communities and the new nation. These sessions stressed the keys to effective government and the role of civil society and political parties in the democratic process. There was also extensive training and support for women candidates and for the participation of women in the electoral process. Some 200,000 people, or a quarter of the nation, took part in civic education events.

The UN Development Programme played a major role in assisting in the Constituent Assembly elections with almost $4 million in support of the process. Most of the funding went to election observer coordination, civic education programmes and promotion of public participation in the Constitutional debate. For the most part, it is familiar but important stuff - concerts, sports events and theatre, the bait to get Timorese throughout the districts to hear about and discuss the democratic process and the importance of the elections, as well as the need for peace and tolerance, and human rights. According to Finn Reske-Nielson, a Director at UNDP, “integral to all these initiatives was training”, and hundreds of East Timorese, 35 per cent of them women, gained experience through the process. A few weeks before the elections, an international team came to audit the electoral rolls. Its leader, South African Judge Johann Kriegler, a veteran of many electoral campaigns, had high praise for the Timorese people. “The general level of political awareness was astounding”, he declared, and cited the “high degree of national fervour, which is ensuring that most people knew why they had to register, what the election is for, and what the Constituent Assembly will do”.

Drafting a Constitution was, of course, the first task of that Assembly, and thanks to Constitutional Commission hearings, which were held throughout the country in June and July, the people had a lot to contribute to that document.

The hearings gave ordinary Timorese the opportunity to discuss the Constitutional process and provide their views on what should be incorporated in the Constitution. From one end of the country to the other, they had strong views on the choice of name, anthem, flag and principal language of the country, the type of economy and the importance of civil and human rights and of full participation by women in the society and the political process. Written reports on these views were submitted by every district to the Constituent Assembly once it was elected, and hopefully they will carefully be considered in the Constitution’s drafting process. The level of participation in the hearings - 38,000 people in all, almost 10 per cent of the electorate - was impressive, even unprecedented, and a reflection of just how much the Timorese were involved in the democratic process and eager to give their input in the design of their new nation.

For our part, the Office of Communication and Public Information (OCPI) coordinated closely with the UNTAET registration, civic education and electoral teams in providing key information to the nation. Radio UNTAET and Televisaun Timor Lorosa’e, both rebuilt by UNTAET from the ashes of 1999, and the Publications Unit, working from Election Media Guidelines crafted from the experience of other missions, produced an array of original television and radio programmes and special publications, including thousands of VCDs, a 100,000-circulation tabloid newspaper and myriad posters and brochures. Special news, interviews and direct access programming were created to ensure that the political parties and independent candidates received fair and balanced coverage. The Press Office played host to more than 200 visiting international journalists and, in conjunction with IEC, held daily press briefings in the days preceding and following the vote.

An important OCPI initiative to ensure fair and balanced media coverage during the campaign was the creation of an independent Media Mediation Panel (MMP). It existed to field complaints from political parties, candidates and others regarding the fairness of UNTAET media coverage. OCPI resources and its young staff were taxed to the limit covering so many political parties in a nationwide campaign. Nonetheless, the complaints received by MMP were surprisingly few. One invaluable OCPI function during the campaign was to swiftly dispel rumors and disinformation. Another was to provide the Timorese political and church leadership with a direct channel, via radio, to communicate with all the Timorese people. It was most important in addressing the widespread fear of political violence.

Many remember too well East Timor’s short-lived 1975 experience with the democratic process, which ended brutally, and also the events only two short years ago when violent and deadly tactics were enlisted to political ends. They feared that history might just repeat itself. In this light, OCPI ran a major media campaign calling for tolerance and an end to violence, particularly political violence. “It’s time to build, not destroy” was the core message. The most important initiative against electoral violence, however, was one taken by the political parties themselves, with the encouragement of UNTAET. On 8 July, with 10,000 Timorese looking on, they and the church and political leadership, signed a Pact of National Unity. Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, who led the signing ceremony, set the tone: “For the past 24 years, there have been tears and suffering ... we have to promise ourselves never to resort to violence again.” Transitional Administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello put it even more succinctly: “It’s time for the political parties to challenge each other with ideas, not with machetes.”

The Pact committed the political parties to adhere strictly to the principle of non-violence throughout the electoral period and to unconditional acceptance of the results of the popular consultation two years before. “Do not fight, instead, respect each other”, beseeched Xanana Gusmão. “I want all the political parties to guarantee that no one will be allowed to die in this campaign!” Ultimately, he took it a step further, saying he would decline to run for President if political violence emerged during the electoral campaign. The Pact turned out to be one powerful pledge. It would appear that it was endorsed in spirit by an entire nation.

A newly-arrived returnee from Kupang, the West Timor capital. Following the 30 August 1999 referendum on East Timor, many had no place to go because their homes were devastated by militias opposed to independence. UNHCR Photo/M. Kobayashi

On election day, IEC fielded a small army of people to oversee the polling, including 250 international District Electoral Officers, 65 East Timorese Deputy District Electoral Officers and 4,996 East Timorese polling staff at 250 polling centres, with a total of 770 polling booths.

People walked for miles in the dead of night to be first to poll and then endured long waits in endless lines. But their pride at having the chance to vote and their happiness that it was not in a climate of intimidation seemed to make it all bearable.

When the votes were finally counted, it was no big surprise that FRETILIN was the winner with 57.3 per cent of the vote, which gave it 43 national seats, plus 12 of the 13 district seats in the new Assembly. What was interesting, however, was that it garnered fewer seats than expected, giving other parties a bit more weight in the new Assembly; 23 seats, or 27 per cent of the members of the Constituent Assembly, are women.

The amazing thing about the elections is that all the planning pretty much worked. Consider the strange irony, that in the aftermath of the 30 August elections in East Timor and the unfortunate 11 September attacks in New York, this small nation, at ground zero only two years ago, is now perhaps the safest, most peaceful democratic nation in the world. “East Timor has once again defied and proven wrong those skeptics who doubted its political maturity and the eloquence of its democratic feelings”, Mr. Vieira de Mello declared. He summed up the dimensions of what the Timorese had achieved as “a most compelling and historic electoral process, one of which many democratic countries can be jealous”.

When I related this quote to Emanuel Braz, a Timorese journalist and colleague, he flashed his pride and joy at events, then quickly looked away. “You know”, he said, “it almost brings me to tears.” For my part, I was thinking about something Mike Hiestand, a Sydney-based journalist from an American newspaper, USA Today, had written to me after a short visit to East Timor last year. “This is a country we should all be rooting for”, he wrote. “These are a people who don’t give up.”

Indeed!

Brennon Jones has been the head of the Publications Unit, Office of Communication and Public Information of UNTAET since February 2000.