Maun Xanana's Open Letter to Emilia Pires
(translated from the original Portuguese version)
Dear friend
I know you're going through the
most difficult time of your life! You know very well that I do not understand
anything about laws, because while I was in the mountains, I was not allowed to
take law courses abroad and especially in Indonesia as were other respected
Timorese people, with the latter filling in most of the positions of our MIGHTY
judicial system.
You know, Emilia, I admire
these people! They do not understand Portuguese but judge under laws written in
Portuguese and sign judgments when they themselves do not understand what is
written in them. I remember when I went to testify, I was faced with a
perplexed judge who did not understand the article of the Procurement Law I was
reading out to him, and he told me to shut up twice.
But that is not why I am
writing this letter to you.
What I am doing is not an
attempt to reduce the heavy pressure you have on your shoulders, weakened by
the deficiency of your leg. My intention is only to look back in time,
so that you never forget your primary role in this still fragile process of
building our State. Among the people I saw during the trial, like your
accusers, I noticed the presence of some who did not defend the independence of
the country. How times change, right Emilia?
The people who accompany me or
have accompanied me in the IV and V Governments are or have been nicknamed the
Xananistas, and for the pleasure of the gods of 'greediness' they are all
accused of being corrupt! Do you know why? Because I am the Soeharto of
Timor-Leste! And you were all influenced or corrupted by my corrupt ideology.
And some even sent congratulations to the RDTL justice practitioners because
they 'got' many Xanana ministers into the Courts!
The members of the Government
whom I most valued, in the IV Government were, among others, the two of you,
Lúcia Lobato and Arcângelo. Lucia did everything to improve the working and
salary conditions of the judicial system and its agents ... she was punished,
either out of ignorance or chauvinism!
Arcângelo suffered political and
psychological pressure from a trail for nothing! Wrong from a trial to prove
the iniquity of the values of injustice!
Those will read this, will say
that I am trying to defend you! No, for God's sake, the point is that I myself
am on the list. The Public Prosecutor’s advisor said so, and some are bragging
about it! One of your accusers seems to have been assigned to gather data about
me ... and this one even brags about her role as a sorceress of justice!
Nowadays, they all feel this way ... powerful, exemplary, sober and upright ...
in a ghostly perception that they have the State in their fists! Little do they
realize that they do not even understand what a State is !!!
I state this - that they do
not understand what a State is - with two concrete and abhorrent cases:
Firstly, when I testified in
defence of a Police Commander, who had been subjected to humiliating vexation
by justice practitioners in Timor for many years, even though he was recently
found innocent. He had been arrested on charges of violating the human rights
of Indonesian citizens who were detained by us on the eve of UNPOL's final
withdrawal in 2012. These Indonesian citizens were drug traffickers who came to
Dili to receive contraband from Colombia, and transport them to Indonesia, making
Timor-Leste a 'free' transit point for this transnational crime. Because we
were working in coordination with the Indonesian Anti-Drug Department, I
instructed to hand over these Indonesian citizens to this Department. The
accusation against the Police Commander was for violating their human rights
because they were not allowed to use their rights of defence. (I know that
you are watching over your case, in the various processes that you sent to the
Court and that they simply archived). The other charge was to deny access
to these individuals from justice, as if we had just released those men, even
though we had proved that they were tried in Indonesia and convicted. And you
know, Emilia, the practitioners of Justice in Timor claimed that only they had
the competency to defend the sovereignty of the RDTL.
The second case, much more
recent, simply shows the lack of consciousness of these practitioners of
Justice. In a separate testimony statement, I reported that a Korean citizen,
Timorese passport holder, was detained in Indonesia and would be deported
because the document had already expired two years ago. I alerted the Court
(where there were Honourable Judges and illustrious Prosecutors) of this
problem for the State. When the man arrived in Timor he was questioned and
confessed that, years ago, he had entered Timor illegally through the border.
And that he had paid a Village Chief in Dili the sum of $4,000, which was able
to produce a birth certificate, named after a deceased Timorese, from which he was
granted a Timorese passport, which he used to return to Indonesia, where he was
detained. You know, Emilia, cases like this do not affect the State, from the
perspective of the practitioners of Justice!!! But the best is this - the
Korean was put on a plane and returned to Korea, while the Village Chief can
still produce more false certificates and get fake passports!
Imagine, Emilia! They will save
this State and, therefore, the country! From what ... I do not know! The
important thing is to think or imagine that they are going to save the country.
Some foreigners and East Timorese (of 'much' goodwill and in the fullness of
their convictions) already put forward some names ... rocky, redundant and
spectacular - imagine, Emilia! Only they will be able to save the country ...
from the bonds of Xanana's corruption!
The world turns around and
around and makes people dizzy… less prepared to endure with the vagaries of
and, better still, due to, human… nature!
In short, they are the skeleton
of the trade ... of a ruler, who has to submit to those practices of ignorance
... from the wise-men of law. There is an almost demonic pleasure to put the
rest under the deciding power, no matter whether it is from an act of justice
or a contempt of morals and ethics. (Speaking of morality and ethics, there are
also some reverend persons in cloth who criticize the corruption of Xanana's
ministers, but are not aware that everyone knows that they are gambling on the
internet and lose a lot of money (it is thought that this lost money may have
come from the public concessions that the State gives to the Church), and these
saints have turned to loans from private individuals amounting to a handsome amount
of more than a million US dollars. Poor Pope Francis who may not be aware of
this!
Oh, what a bummer! It's true,
I'm running away from my intention to look back in time ...
I want to remind you, if you
have forgotten, of the pitiful conditions in which the Ministry of Planning and
Finance was when you were given the responsibility to lead that governmental
institution! I know that as you read this, you will remember all the rubbish
paperwork, without order nor files!
And your first year was to
clean the dust that was making everyone cough ... organize the files, separate
the different departments and sections, plan the activities of each responsible
person and each individual. Do you remember that it cost a lot of effort? Of
the obstacles encountered due to party affiliations that, at the time,
dominated the public administration, including the Ministry of Finance, of
course?
And even more so when it was the introduction
of a modern financial system!!! What did you do, Emilia? Was it not to
introduce in a young country, a recent State, a spectacular innovation? I'm
proud of that !!! Others, the enemies of Xanana, do not even know what that
is!!! But it does not matter!!!
All your capacity to think, to
act, to produce, to create ... was revealed in the transformation of, at the
time, a weak and disorganised institution, but extremely important and crucial
for the State, into excellent undeniable productivity, with an efficiency
proven by its agents and the just trust of the international community!
And were there not so many
episodes that we faced together, Emilia! Even with your limping leg, you were
never intimidated with the threats that you faced! You are Brave, you are very
courageous!
Do you remember Kuwait? Where
and when the Sheik threatened us that “there would be no meeting if we did not
agree previously to sign a statement where it would be recorded that we would
'honour' the 'agreements' or 'contracts' with certain companies”? That we knew
were fictitious? Where you had to resist all afternoon and part of the night
Kuwaitian pressure? That pressure or feeling that we may not have the return
trip?
I admire your cleverness!
Because we knew that we were going to face challenges of this kind, you were
simply unequalled by taking that Australian / Arab person, who helped us
immensely out of that trouble ... which could even have cost us our lives!
Uffffff ....
Do you know what I think today,
Emilia? We were really silly and I do not know if you, more than me, or me,
more than you!!! What is certain is that we were stupid ... with all the
letters, written and read!!!
You see, Emilia, if I'm not
right! Instead of being convicted for a crime you did not commit, of economic
participation in business, or something like that, if we had the genius to
conclude that it was a great opportunity - if it was not! - to receive ...
millions of dollars, in exchange for silence and collusion, I do not believe
that, today or in the future, these practitioners of Justice in Timor-Leste
would ever have guessed that ... we are rich ... at the expense of denying the
interests of the our dear country!
Because, for me, economic
participation is receiving a share of a 'business'. If your husband had
appeared as a “broker”, then, yes, I can agree that there was an intention to
appropriate the State money. I know many in Timor! And they are considered
honourable people, these “brokers”! Your husband was the owner of the factory
... sells and gets paid ... there is not what is usually called here 'komisi'
or 'commission', which belongs to the language 'brokery'.
When I said that practitioners
of Justice would never know that we both sold our souls for money, it is
because a lot of people know that the President of the Court of Appeal received
money from a company that had a project from the Court that was never finished
due to lack of funds, because a good amount was given to the needy President of
the Court of Appeal ... Only the Public Prosecutor's Office does not know ...
Moreover, this President gave
another project to his brother, rejecting the result of the public tender that
his employees presented to him with another successful vendor! Wonderful ...
that's how justice works in RDTL! And this His Excellency does not accept merit
based public recruitment... because then, it is necessary to feed the relatives
of Ainaro, for sure ... and to that effect, we must recognize, we call it ...
an act of justice!
And many people already
understand why the Public Prosecution 'pretends' that it does not know... of
those practices of economic participation in business, by the President of the
Court of Appeal, who received money in return of given the project! Because the
Public Prosecution is afraid of retaliation... obviously, they all, Courts and
Public Prosecution, are the actors of Justice, which means that... the
competence or incompetence to do justice or injustice belongs to them!
I say retaliation, because the
Prosecutor General of the Republic, when he went to Brazil to attend a CPLP
Conference, presented the expenses report, including a dinner without the hotel
or restaurant bill, but only a signed declaration, here in Dili, that the money
had been spent at a dinner for the CPLP delegation! After all, there could not
have receipts, because the money was spent to purchase dresses and other things
for the wife ... of the Prosecutor General! And it was the Cape-Verdean Advisor
Arlindo who advanced the money and had to be paid, once in Dili. And it is only
him, this clever Advisor, who holds this secret, which the poor judges do not
know! But even if they knew, they cannot do anything ... because it is the
Public Prosecution who accuses, it is not the judges! The judges only serve to
'prove' what is not proven!!! Nothing more!!!
Emilia, I hope you do not tire
of reading these muddling issues, which should belong to the 'social media',
which is now fashionable in Timor. They tell me that 'Facebook' invents
everything, that I even feel motivated to find the necessary courage to try it
and unravel some truths from our country.
Let's look back in time
...
You fought so much so we could
diversify the investment of the Petroleum Fund into 'Equities', which today
enabled the RDTL State to have a profit of more than 2 billion dollars! You are
intelligent, Emilia, when we thought about how we should resort to loans and
pay them off with that profit from this investment from our Sovereign Fund.
And your decision to control
the accounts of the oil companies only revealed your sense to defend the
interests of the Timorese State! I remember, and you also remember, how those
ignorant on the matter “accused” you, in the case of that American advisor who
took advantage to deceive us, but who ultimately fell into the hands of
American justice.
The Transparency Portal you
introduced was an exceptional act!!! You're great, Emilia! You are not an
ordinary servant of the State who does the same things, every day, in the same
way, repetitively for years, as a habit that secures the salary he/she receives
... most of the time, without merit! And there are many of those in important
institutions of the State and who make supposed decisions in the name of the
State!
You revealed, during the time
in which you served our State, as Minister, an inexhaustible desire for
constant improvement. The reform you introduced on the training and
professionalising the Ministry’s staff is something unique, not noticed by
many, although they recognize the impact that this is being reflected in the
system you have created.
I know that you remember how
many times I yelled at you and you cried... with some nervousness that you may
have had to break your principles of rigid financial control. But, on the other
hand, I believe that you will remember so many other times that all your fellow
members of the Government praised you in the sense that if it were not for your
strength, your energy, your unwavering will to not yield to the pressures and
impose financial management rules, the Government would have fallen sooner and
the State would have slipped into an unsustainable financial crisis!
I can tell you, Emilia! The
State of RDTL owes a great deal to you, a physically weak woman but with an
out-of-the-ordinary honesty! I pay this tribute to you, with humility and
admiration!
You were overly scrupulous in
many matters that concerned possible acts that would harm the State! You were
also very concerned about the lack of corrective measures at institutions that
lacked or lacked the will to adopt the established rules for the financial
management of public money.
That is why I cannot accept
that you have committed a crime of economic participation in business that
would have damaged the State. The beds are being used, and the President of the
Court of Appeal himself has benefited from the use of these types of
orthopaedic beds when he got a ‘stroke’ and was hospitalized.
The money for a fictitious
dinner in Brazil hurt the State! Because, after all, it was to buy 'little
things' for the dignified wife of His Excellency, the Prosecutor-General of the
Republic! It was the State that paid these trifles of conjugal love!
The money that went into the
pocket of the President of the Court of Appeal injured the State because the
businessman failed to finish the work that was awarded to him! And the
President of the Court of Appeal was asking for additional money to complete
the work!
Do as I do, Emilia! Do not
allow yourself to be dominated by the bitterness caused by frivolities of
spirit ... of people, inert in thought, devoid of principles, vulgar in
attitude, empty of analysis and distorted in the virtual logic of social and
political reality of our
society's contemporary life,
still embryonic but already revealing of much disbelief and an unstoppable
desire for disunity and intolerance and, at the same time, full of excessive
ambitions.
But, Emilia, let us return to
look back in time ...
Your strength, your commitment
to defending Timor-Leste from the pressure of the international community and
above all from the community of donors who liked to play games to the
beneficially naive beneficiary countries was simply brilliant!
Your defence of our principles,
which made us stand out and, in a way, imposed our ideas at the Busan / South
Korea meeting, making the United Nations adopt our measures, was really
spectacular!
There, I must say, you affirmed
yourself, as Timorese, as woman and as leader! And what about your role as
promoter of a new policy regarding fragile states! The leaders of fragile
states love you, Emilia! You are the Mother who conceived the 'g7 +'... have
you forgotten?
We all owe you, and if Timor-Leste is respected today by
these countries, which look at us as a magnificent example of moving from
'fragility to resilience', this is due purely and simply to your devotion to
this noble cause ... to support the countries and populations most in need ...
without asking for anything in return!
The world needs these examples!
And you, Emilia, began to introduce a new concept of aid!
And I do not accept, from the
bottom of my sinful soul, that you are incriminated today with something that
does not make sense, in relation to your person, in relation to your
activities, in relation to your participation for the improvement of people's
lives, beyond the physical horizon of our country.
Emilia, I believe in you,
because I know you well, since I called you to Salemba in late 1999 to help me
think about independence ... to help me discuss with Sara from the World Bank,
who was extremely helpful in our analysis of the country's future challenges.
And with you, my thoughts also
embrace the other victim of the injustice of Justice of our country, Madalena
Hanjam!
Cruelty does not come only from
violent actions, cruelty comes from the sophisticated human mentality of
imposing its power on others, cruelty is revealed in the lack of consideration
and petty mindedness shown by the smallness and frivolity of actions, of those
who are locked in narrow and limited preconceptions.
Emilia, Madalena, Suharto is
with you! And along with Suharto, the Sacred Mountains and Souls will rise ...
to declare your innocence!
Dili, January 25, 2017
Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão
The Suharto of Timor-Leste
