Sustainability and Democratic Governance in
East Timor
João Câncio Freitas, Faculty of Social and
Political Science, National University of Timor Lorosa’e
Sustainable
development strategies are gaining recognition as highly appropriate courses of
action for many countries. Recent UN World Conferences and major international initiatives
during the last decade (such as in Caring for the Earth and Agenda 21 from the 1992
Rio Earth Summit) have highlighted their importance, calling for a global
strategy for sustainable living and development at all levels of society.
There is
growing recognition of the link between infrastructure investment and
sustainable long term economic growth. Governments do not have to choose
between environment and development. If environment is the total stock of
natural and social resources available to humans and other species, development
is the utilisation of human and natural resources to advance the welfare of
people. Therefore one must be planned in light of the other.
The
definition of sustainable development has gone beyond mere environmental
conservation to include good governance, social cohesion, and even gender
equality in a holistic approach to “life systems” that stress people’s integral
link with the total environment. Good governance is about the well being of the
nation and the people. It is primarily based on a public administration
committed to democracy, justice, liberty, equality, and efficiency while at the
same time promoting a fair, safe and sustainable living environment for all.
Because sustainability can only be ensured if people are involved in the
decision making process, central governments can no longer act alone and need
to develop partnerships at all levels of government including local governments
and society in order to have these common goals effectively achieved
effectively. This requires a major shift in thinking to decentralise power to
the lower levels if the principles of sustainable development are to take root
and to produce meaningful results.
Decisions
relating to sustainable development in almost all parts of the world are made
at two levels: the policy level to provide directions for achieving the goals
of sustainable development at the national level, and the implementation level
which is left to the major agencies in theenvironmental field, especially those
associated with conservation of the environment, pollution control, and
regional and global environmental issues including communities and civil
society at large.
At the
policy level, in order to promote sustainable use of East Timor’s natural
resources, in my view, the first step that we should take is perhaps to create
a National Plan on Sustainable Development to guide integration of
environmental concerns into development policies, economic decisions, and
investment planning. Here, this new emerging country, at some stage, has the
choice to engage itself with international conventions and policies on
sustainable development. We must be committed to the implementation of Agenda
21 and related international agreements reached during the Earth Summit.
Principles of Sustainable Development must become the foundation of our
national development planning. To do this the state can adopt international
strategies and indeed there are many international organisations to work with,
such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), International
Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, and the Earth Council.
At the
implementation level, there are a number of things that can be done including
establishing various institutions and mechanisms aimed at introducing the
practices, plans and programs of sustainability into development programs. This
must be a participatory process involving government and non-government
stakeholders. There is a strong role for the private sector to play in the
implementation process of sustainable development. At the moment the promising
sign of real progress is the strength and dynamism of NGO’s in the country at
large (there are currently over 170 local and national NGO’s in East Timor.
Among these, although a certain number of them may not be sustainable in the
long run, those which are strongly committed and rooted in the community or
interest groups will develop and grow). It is these NGO’s with their commitment
to public participation and empowerment, that may prove the guiding force of
environmental consciousness and action in the future.
Similarly,
research institutions, universities and private bodies could perform the
educational and research functions associated with the implementation of
environmentally sound and sustainable strategies.
During
the past decade, new ideas have arisen which underline the importance of
communities and individuals, and which highlight the relevance of civil society
and human resources in the development process. The UN Earth Summit concept
of sustainable development, the UNDP concept of human development and the
approach to people focused urban development, have helped to shift the emphasis
towards more participatory methodologies in the field of development planning.
Governance
in the context of East Timor entails the building of a new nation, the role and
the structure including the configuration of basic pillars of governance.
Successful initiatives to promote democratisation and development depend on
adequate capacity and resources being devoted to the strengthening of lower
levels of government, especially local government institutions and on good
communications including recognition and mutual respect between different
spheres of government.
There is a
need to increase public inputs into the running and direction of governance and
public services. And yet, democracy denotes a political system in which the
eligible people in a policy participate actively not only in determining the
kind of people that govern them, but also and more importantly shaping the
policy output of the government. Decentralisation is an important mechanism to
ensure people’s participation in the development process. Decentralising
government from the central level to other levels of government enables people
to participate more directly in the governance process. This needs an effective
local structure that can facilitate the participation of people in the
political life and ultimately be accountable to the people, not just to the
central or higher levels of government.
Only with
an effective public management and technical capacity in government, will East
Timor be able to sustain social and economic development in the long run. The
two previous regimes (particularly the latter) were highly hierarchically
centralised which, as a consequence, alienated people from decision making and
they were not accountable to the people. Unfortunately the current structure of
local government under UNTAET is still inspired by and essentially replicates
that system. It is important to be aware of the undemocratic elements that
exist from this old model of government system, which was created mainly to
control people and to serve the interests of the foreign powers. If these
structures are to be continued in an independent East Timor, sustainability
will be in danger and people will still be alienated from decision making
because the distance between the citizen and decision making processes which is
reflected in this structure is felt to be great.
The big
challenge for us now is to take appropriate actions including the design of
local democratic structures by eliminating these unnecessary structures and
bureaucracy to ensure that principles of democracy and genuine participation
are promoted in all local and community governments. Civil society
organisations representing all sectors of the community, which are independent
of the state and the corporate sector must be encouraged to debate and suggest
policies and to be actively involved in the process of decision making. Local
government should be held accountable to their citizens primarily with a
political role reflecting the collective interests of the community. Hence
emphasis is placed on mechanisms of citizen consultation through civil society organisations
that incorporate the views of local “actors” (such as the business sector,
youth and women’s groups, and neighbourhood forums) in the formal policy making
process. Local accountability can be strengthened by a high degree of
transparency of the local government administrative process (e.g. local
government files open to the public). Democratic governance must be
transparent, allowing citizens easy access to information about administration
and particularly about the use and allocation of public resources.
The
extent to which sustainable development policies and practices are successfully
implemented depends upon a number of factors including an institutional design
and structure that allows the involvement of all citizens in the process of
decision making, and a clean, transparent and accountable government at all
levels coupled with an open, democratic and participative society in Timor
Lorosa’e.