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Struggling Nationalities, East Timor And
Sikhs: Open Letter
 Hon’ble
President
Greetings
in the Name of God, the Light of every soul.
Kindly accept my congratulations at your
election as the second President of independent Timor-Leste. On 20th
May, 2007, your country will be celebrating its 5th
birthday and I take this opportunity to send my greetings in
advance.
As a member of the Sikh nation, still
struggling for the right to self-determination, I am particularly
overjoyed at your election with 69 percent of East Timorese voting
in your favor.
I wonder whether you are aware of
the Sikh people. Similarly I speculate whether the Sikh people or
even Sikh nationalists know that East Timor, officially Timor-Leste
is a small country in Southeast Asia,
which was born no more than five years ago after a protracted
struggle lasting some three hundred years. Sikhs are rightfully
proud of their martyrs, but I am afraid that they are not conscious
of the fact that the last twenty five years were the most violent
for your country and people during which as many as two hundred
thousand people were killed out of a total population of nearly six
hundred and a half thousand.
The way you lived in exile for 26 years
and still wore the badge of freedom is a characteristic rarely seen
in modern times. Your determination and the martyrdom of hundreds
upon thousands of guerilla fighters of your nation paved the way for
freedom from Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese and Indonesian slavery and
subjugation.
I am particularly
thrilled to know that UN intervention can happen and a new country
can be born even in this day and age. This message alone is not
only a great relief but also a reminder to nations aspiring for
freedom to continue their democratic struggle.
 When you were
bestowed with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, the citation, among
other things said, “The
conflict in East Timor has been called "the forgotten conflict". It
has not, however, been completely forgotten, having figured on the
international agenda, with varying degrees of prominence ...But it
has so to speak never caught on. There have been so many other
interests and regards to attend to, and East Timor is so small.
Rarely has the cynicism of world politics been more clearly
demonstrated. The numerous considerations of "Realpolitik" have
enabled an exceptionally brutal form of neocolonialism to take
place.” This sums up the difficult
situation you dealt with. The international community was obviously
more interested in trade links with oppressive Indonesia.
The
Sikhs are also in a similar situation.
Just as Indonesia occupied Timor Leste, first the
British and then India occupied Panjab.
India has killed more Sikhs in independent India than
were killed by the British in the so-called wars of independence.
India has a Sikh face as its Prime Minister but officially it does
not allow the Amnesty International to come to Panjab, Kashmir and
the north-eastern states of India. Presently, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh is presiding over a parliamentary bill to deprive the
Sikh people and others of their minority status. The international
community is keener to trade with “biggest democracy in the world”,
but has not used UN forums to admonish India for its growing human
rights violations or its growth into a right-wing, monolithic,
big-brother state.
How far you are
from us can be gauged from the fact that not a single newspaper,
radio station or TV channel has ever reported anything about East
Timor. Your election too has not found
 place. You have shown
magnanimity about visiting Indonesia in the near future for the
good of your country and people. I urge you to consider visiting and
establishing contacts with nationalities struggling to achieve
self-rule. empathize with you
for the daunting task that lies ahead. As your fledgling nation is
torn with strife, poverty and unrest, you have a long way to go. I
am not in a position to offer anything but my best wishes and
prayers. I express complete solidarity with your people and pray
that the international community will respond to the UN call for
financial and logistic support to East Timor. I also hope that the
Sikh Diaspora will engage with you and your government. The Sikh
people in the homeland and in the Diaspora need to learn from you
and about your life in exile.
I assure you that I will call upon representatives of the Sikh
Diaspora to invite you to global summits on issues of freedom and
international intervention in the Panjab.
I conclude with the last part of the
Sikh prayer. Daily, every Sikh seeks, Sarbat da Bhalla...welfare
and peace for all humankind. May the people of Timor-Lieste enjoy
the fruits of their hard-earned freedom.
Yours sincerely
Jagmohan Singh
This letter has been sent by email to
President Jose Ramos-Horta. Jagmohan Singh, in arrangement with the
WSN, will regularly be using the instrument of Open Letters aimed
at broadening the realm of community awareness. He may be
contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com .
16 May, 2007
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