Long wait over for Timor-Leste

Despite the wide disparity in wealth between Asia’s youngest country and other Asean nations, the former Portuguese colony has its plus points for the bloc.

AFTER an agonising wait of 14 years, it’s just four months to go before Timor-Leste is finally admitted as the 11th member of Asean.

Leaders of the 10 South-East Asian states made a unanimous declaration of support for the former Portuguese colony’s accession as a full-fledged member at the end of the 46th Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, representing Malaysia as chair of the bloc, said leaders reached consensus to support Timor-Leste in taking all the necessary steps to become a member.

“The decision was clearly to agree that Timor-Leste would be accepted as a full member by the next summit in October, of course subject to one or two actions or reforms to be undertaken under the economic pillar,” he said last Tuesday.

Asean was formed in 1967 as a political and economic union of South-East Asian countries. Its founding members were Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Brunei joined in 1984, followed by Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999.

Asean currently represents a regional market of 680 million people with a GDP of nearly US$4 trillion (RM17 trillion).

While the ambition is manifestly within sight, the road towards membership and regional integration has been a long and twisty one for Asia’s youngest country,

Timor-Leste formally applied for membership in March 2011, but the process began as early as in 2002.

It had declared independence in 1975 at the end of Portuguese rule, but Indonesia annexed the territory soon after and occupied it for two decades, resulting in violence, hunger and disease.

The conflict ended with the stationing of UN peacekeeping forces, including from Malaysia.

A 1999 UN-sponsored referendum declared Timor-Leste an independent nation.

It gained recognition as an independent country in 2002.

President Jose Ramos-Horta, who initiated the move to join Asean, expressed appreciation for the support received.

“In 2011, when as president, I signed the formal letter of intention to join Asean, not too many in Timor-Leste understood. Not too many in Asean agreed, too,” the 75-year-old former independence fighter and Nobel Peace Prize laureate wrote on his Facebook page.

He congratulated Timorese leaders, past and present, for their efforts, as well as those who had been working hard under the leadership of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao over the past two years, adding that they were expected to work even harder now.

Asean had postponed making a decision on the former Portuguese colony’s membership in 2012, 2015 and 2017 and 2019.

Throughout the period, the country was subjected to a series of political, economic, and technical assessments to gauge its preparedness to join the bloc.

During the 41st Asean Summit in Cambodia in November 2022, the members agreed “in principle” to accept Dili’s membership application.

Timor-Leste was granted observer status, allowing it to take part in Asean meetings and activities without voting rights.

Asean then drew up a road map outlining the various steps for Timor-Leste to go through for full membership. These included obligations to fulfill agreements or treaties under the bloc’s political-security, economic, and sociocultural pillars.

Later that year, Ramos-Horta talked about how difficult it was to get a seat in Asean, comparing it to the gateway to heaven.

“Sometimes as a human being, I feel frustrated. It seems like the road to heaven – to reach the perfection of heaven – is easier than to reach the gates of Asean,” he was famously quoted as saying.

In March, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said Malaysia had requested to relax the criteria and requirements set for Timor-Leste to ease the process for its full membership.

As the Asean chair, he said, Malaysia had urged members to consider accepting Timor-Leste if it meets at least 30% of the requirements first and allow it to meet the remaining conditions in five to six years after membership.

As Ramos-Horta has admitted, although Timor-Leste has made much progress since independence, significant challenges remain.

About 45.8% of the population still lives in multi-dimensional poverty with child malnutrition and stunted growth continuing to affect citizens.

Over-dependence on oil reserves, the delayed development of the Greater Sunrise gas field, and general lack of economic diversification are among the problems that the country of 1.4 million people is currently grappling with.

There is also a huge disparity between Timor-Leste and other Asean nations in terms of wealth.

Timor-Leste’s GDP of US$2.1bil (RM8.9bil) is way below that of Laos’ US$15.8bil (RM67.2bil).

Given its shortcomings, such as underdeveloped infrastructure, transport and communication routes, and Internet connection over 14,870 sq km of mostly mountainous land area, it seems like the country still has a long way to go.

But Timor-Leste has many plus points, and among its most underestimated potential is its economic network under the Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP) or the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

The CPLP, a forum for cooperation between governments, economies, and non-governmental organisations, comprises nine member states – Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Timor-Leste, and Equatorial Guinea.

The CPLP also has 33 associate observer members, including Georgia, Namibia, Turkiye, Japan, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Uruguay, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Principality of Andorra, United Kingdom, Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, Serbia and the Organisation of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI).

Timor-Leste regards both its CPLP and Asean membership as crucial for its international positioning and regional engagement.

It can leverage its position within the CPLP to act as a bridge between Portuguese-speaking countries, which have a combined population of close to 300 million people, and Asean, promoting cooperation and collaboration in various areas, including trade, security, intelligence and tourism.

If it were a country, CPLP would be the sixth largest economy in the world, worth more than US$3 trillion (RM12.7 trillion).

Timor-Leste is well poised to be a conduit into this huge and largely untapped market in an increasingly multi-polar world.

Media consultant M. Veera Pandiyan likes this popular Portuguese saying: “Quem espera sempre alcança (Whoever waits always achieves).” The views expressed here are the writer’s own.