Timorese leader true statesman

It is hard to find examples of extraordinary sportsmanship and statesmanship nowadays. Even (supposedly prayerful) women and men of the highest stature give in to their partisan passions and behave worse than spoiled brats when they lose.

Given the trickery of the world, one hears of many instances of back-stabbing and double-dealing in almost every field of endeavor. Sport is not exempt from one of the lowest forms of human behavior.

The story of a man of peace can perhaps be a model for emulation and help restore our faith in mankind. This man’s acts of reconciliation, though not unique, since history has many examples of peace makers in the face of oppression – such as Gandhi, Ninoy Aquino - still merits our attention in the light of the many (inane) disputes in sports.

Last Thursday, Professor Jose Ramos-Horta, 1996 Nobel Laureate for Peace and President of Timor Leste (East Timor), spoke before a large gathering on “Is long lasting peace an attainable dream?” at the Teresa Yuchengco Auditorium at the De La Salle University-Manila (DLSU). Ramos-Horta was invited through the International Peace Foundation and hosted by DLSU in cooperation with Far Eastern University. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Price with Bishop Carlos Belo “to honor their sustained and self-sacrificing contributions for a small but oppressed people.”

Born in Dili, capital of East Timor, to a Timorese mother and a Portuguese father who had been exiled to what was then Portuguese Timor by the Salazar dictatorship. He was educated in a Catholic mission in the small village of Soibada. Of his 11 brothers and sisters, four were allegedly killed during the struggle between the Fretilin (resistance group) and the Indonesian military.

At 25, Ramos-Horta was appointed Foreign Minister in the “Democratic Republic of East Timor” and pleaded the Timorese case before the UN.

Ramos-Horta addressed the UN Security Council and urged them to take action in the face of the Indonesian military onslaught, which would result in over 200,000 East Timorese deaths between 1976 and 1981.

During the 24 years of the occupation of East Timor, Ramos-Horta was the international voice of the Timorese. In exile from his country from 1975 to 1999, he was the Permanent Representative to the UN for the Timorese independence movement. He is regarded as the youngest UN diplomat in history and an international human rights figure.   

Given all these national and personal suffering of Ramos-Horta and his family, one would expect him to be a bitter and hate-consumed person driven to denouncing Indonesia and its leaders.

But no, Ramos-Horta chose to take the high moral ground. In response to a young Indonesian college girl’s question on how he felt towards Indonesians, Ramos-Horta said he has no ill feelings towards them. In fact, he said that he had warned the Timorese never to harm Indonesian civilians during the insurrection against Indonesian rule.

He emphasized that the Indonesia-Timor conflict was not a religious war: Muslim Indonesia versus Catholic Timor. Ramos-Horta said that Suharto was not guilty of discrimination in the violence inflicted on Indonesians and Timorese. Ramos-Horta said Suharto didn’t care whether you were Christian or Muslim when he felt he needed to use force. The Timorese President said, “Ask the Achinese,” in reference to Aceh’s own resistance to Suharto.

Ramos-Horta said that all post-Suharto, presidents, from Jusuf Habibie to the incumbent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), have respected Timorese aspirations and independence. Horta said, in reference to the good personal relations he has had with all post-Suharto heads, “I wouldn’t think of stabbing SBY and the others before him in the back.”

One can only wish that our sports people would display the same qualities as Horta. It is regretful therefore to hear of reports given by usually reliable inside sources of double and triple crosses in recent sports elections.

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The recent Christmas season brawl at one of our prestigious private golf courses also highlights how “genetic arrogance” can spoil what is otherwise known as a gentleman’s game. I wouldn’t be surprised if the association of golf courses chooses to impose a ban on some of the parties involved in that ruckus that almost degenerated into a “trial by publicity.”