From the World Socialist Website http://www.wsws.org 

By Peter Symonds
27 June 2006

East Timor’s Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri resigned yesterday
amid an unrelenting campaign backed by the Australian government
and media for his ousting. His announcement came less than 24
hours after a meeting of the ruling Fretilin party had refused
to bow to demands by President Xanana Gusmao to sack the “illegal
leadership” of Alkatiri and party president Francisco “Lu-Olu”
Guterres. Gusmao had theatrically threatened to resign if his
demands were not carried out, but backed away over the weekend.

Fretilin’s central committee appealed to both Gusmao and
Alkatiri to remain in their positions, but Alkatiri immediately
came under pressure from close Gusmao ally, Foreign Minister Jose
Ramos-Horta, who announced his intention on Sunday to resign “because
the government is not functioning properly”. Australian Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer immediately declared that he would be
“very sorry” if the resignation was confirmed, saying:
“He [Ramos-Horta] has been a good friend and very effective
foreign minister.”

A factor in Alkatiri’s decision was the prospect of legal
charges after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Four
Corners” aired a program on June 17 purporting to prove that
he and former interior minister Rogerio Lobato had formed a “hit
squad” to murder political opponents. Lobato was charged
and detained with the help of Australian soldiers last week.

Alkatiri’s resignation, however, was triggered not so
much by the provocative campaign for his dismissal, but by the
fact that Fretilin’s own supporters were entering the fray,
raising the prospect of a descent into open civil war. For weeks,
Fretilin leaders blocked members and supporters from staging rallies
in opposition to the relatively small anti-Alkatiri protests orchestrated
by Gusmao, Ramos-Horta, opposition politicians and various rebel
police and army officers. Yesterday, it was reported that 18 truckloads
of Fretilin supporters were heading toward Dili to support the
government.

What Alkatiri feared was the development of a movement outside
of Fretilin’s control, against the Australian-led occupation
and its stooges. In his brief press statement, he declared his
willingness to step aside, to prevent “any deepening of the
crisis” and “believing that all militants and sympathisers
of Fretilin will understand and support this position”. A
successor has yet to be chosen, but Fretilin will inevitably confront
a similar campaign if it fails to select someone who is acceptable
to Gusmao and his backers in Canberra.

To ensure that his resignation is final, it was announced yesterday
that Alkatiri would be charged with crimes against the state and
faces a jail term of up to 15 years. Chief Prosecutor Longuinhos
Montiero told the Australian: “It’s related to
the matter of him having knowledge of the weapons distribution
and not doing anything about it.” Even if it were true that
Alkatiri and Lobato were involved in distributing arms last month
to Fretilin supporters, it took place amid a collapse of the country’s
security forces and threats by rebel leaders of civil war. No
one has suggested that any of the pro-Australian rebels, such
as Major Alfredo Reinado, will be prosecuted for sedition, treason
or other crimes against the state.

Speaking from Indonesia, Australian Prime Minister John Howard
could scarcely conceal his glee at Alkatiri’s departure.
“It seems to me to be part of the process of working out
the difficulties, resolving the impasse, breaking the logjam.
To that extent I am pleased,” he said. In a particularly
hypocritical comment, he added that he had no view on who should
replace Alkatiri, declaring: “It’s not for me to nominate
the prime minister of that country; it’s an independent sovereign
country.”

For the last two months, however, the Australian government
has been trampling on East Timor’s sovereignty, under the
pretext of preventing a slide toward civil war. At the centre
of the political chaos that erupted in April and May are dubious
figures such as Reinado, who trained at the Australian defence
academy last year and has close political associations with Ramos-Horta.

Howard dispatched Australian warships to the waters off East
Timor on May 12 without informing the government in Dili, but
waited until the outcome of a challenge to Alkatiri at a Fretilin
congress on May 17-19. It was only when Fretilin delegates overwhelmingly
endorsed Alkatiri’s leadership that Canberra exploited the
escalating violence whipped up by his political opponents and
rebel soldiers as the means for pressuring Dili into “inviting”
an Australian-led military intervention.

Even as the troops were landing in East Timor, Howard provocatively
declared on May 26 that the country “has not been well-governed”.
His comments signalled the start of a barrage of vitriolic attacks
in the Australian media demonising Alkatiri as “widely hated,”
autocratic and a Marxist, who had to take responsibility for the
country’s crisis and resign. If need be, Gusmao, as president,
had to sack the prime minister.

Alkatiri refused to resign, however, and Gusmao lacked the
constitutional power to remove him. So the anti-Alkatiri campaign
shifted gear. Along with the incessant vilification of Alkatiri,
Australian journalists dredged up allegations from his political
opponents that could form the basis for legal charges. Nothing
was too fantastic. Rebel leader Lieutenant Gastao Salsinha told
“Four Corners” that Alkatiri was responsible for the
massacre of 60 people, but refused to take the reporter to the
secret grave.

At the same time, Gusmao and Ramos-Horta, with the backing
of the Australian media, mounted an East Timorese version of the
US-supported “colour revolutions” in Eastern Europe
and Central Asia. Hundreds of anti-Alkatiri supporters were trucked
into Dili, under the protection of Australian forces, to demonstrate
outside government buildings. Images of these protests have been
beamed around the world as “proof” of Alkatiri’s
unpopularity and the need to remove him.

The Howard government’s antagonism to the Alkatiri government
has nothing to do with an autocratic style or “Marxist”
politics. As Sydney Morning Herald correspondent Hamish
McDonald noted last weekend: “The objection is not so much
to the way Fretilin is running the economy. Marxist it is certainly
not. The past four years have seen austere budgets... ‘These
are the best little bunch of neo-liberals you could wish for,’
said one foreign aid official.”

Canberra’s real objection is that Alkatiri has taken a
stance that has cut across Australian aspirations to bring East
Timor firmly under its political wing. What has been particularly
galling to the Howard government following its military intervention
in 1999 is that other countries, particularly Portugal, have reaped
the benefits. The Alkatiri government, following formal independence
in 2002, has strengthened ties with the former colonial power,
sought economic assistance from China and Japan, and received
aid from Cuba.

As far as Australian imperialism is concerned, Alkatiri’s
“crime” is that he failed to follow Canberra’s
dictates and tried to balance between the competing powers. Above
all, he refused to buckle immediately to Australian demands for
the lion’s share of the Timor Sea oil and gas, which, if
international law were applied, should belong to East Timor. After
three years of hard bargaining, Canberra was compelled to make
limited but significant concessions to Dili in the deal finalised
this January.

Significantly, in today’s issue of Murdoch’s Australian,
commentator Mark Dodd declared: “Alkatiri’s departure
should spell good news for Australian companies wanting to do
business in Dili. Too many were scared away when he was in charge.”
In its editorial, the Australian, which has been in the
forefront of the campaign to oust Alkatiri, foreshadowed that
the Australian-led occupation would last indefinitely, declaring:
“Australia will have to keep troops on the ground for the
foreseeable future in East Timor.”

With Alkatiri’s removal, Australia has tightened its grip
over East Timor. Far from ending international rivalry over the
half island, it is certain to intensify. In an interview last
weekend, retired Portuguese general Alfredo Assuncao, formerly
in charge of the UN military force in East Timor during 2000-2001,
bitterly denounced Canberra’s predatory aims, declaring:
“What interests the Australians most is oil and gas... So
what better way to control these enormously rich resources than
to be physically present and control the country’s political
system?”

Assuncao described Australia as “the main enemy of the
country [East Timor],” saying it always wanted to “control
everything and everyone”. He declared that Australia was
trying to get rid of Alkatiri “and anyone else putting East
Timor interests above the ambitions of its neighbours”. While
he is obviously speaking for the ambitions of the Portuguese ruling
class in East Timor, Assuncao points to the fact that the Howard
government is prepared to accept nothing less than a puppet regime
in Dili.

Rather than ending the political chaos in East Timor, the ousting
of Alkatiri can only lead to the sharpening of social and political
tensions. What has been artificially portrayed in the media as
a struggle between “easterners” and “westerners”
is in fact a conflict between two factions of the country’s
ruling elite, neither of which are capable of meeting the needs
and aspirations of the impoverished masses. Whatever the shape
of the next government in Dili, popular opposition will inevitably
grow to Australia’s neo-colonial occupation.