The determination of the United Nations transitional authority in East Timor to hold the country's first post-independence referendum elections next August has met with criticism from a wide range of Timorese activist groups and NGOs.
They have complained to the UN Security Council that "the rush to hold the elections" will not allow enough time for consultation with the people on Timor Lorosae's constitution, which would be one of the main functions of an 88-member Constituent Assembly to be elected on August 30th, the second anniversary of Timor's referendum on independence from Indonesia.
UNTAET, the UN authority, has allowed the assembly 90 days to prepare and adopt a constitution. But arguing that the constitution must be "a living document", the groups point out that the South African constitutional consultation process was given over three years, whereas East Timor would get only three months.
The criticism reflects tensions between Timorese groups and the approach of an international UN community, which has created a separate dollar economy from which job-hungry Timorese often find themselves excluded.
Almost 30 groups under the umbrella of the East Timor National NGO Forum told the UN the electoral and constitutional process would need to balance the urgency of becoming an independent country "with the essential need for the constitution to be a document reflecting the aspirations of the East Timorese people". "A three-month process would rob the East Timorese of their right to contribute to the future of their country and it will alienate them from the very document that should voice their aspirations," the forum said.
The forum's intervention supports a draft regulation before the Timorese National Council - a transitional embryonic parliament set up last October - to provide for a nine-month consultation period under a Constitutional Commission and a further three months to finalise the report and draw up a constitution.
The forum said this was "still a very ambitious and tight framework, but it is one which, we believe, can produce a legitimate process, taking into account the size of East Timor and the determination of the people to actively participate".
Under the UN model for the August 30th election one representative from each of the country's 13 districts will be elected on a majority basis, and the remaining 75 seats will be decided by a system of proportional representation.
The Timorese forum asked the Security Council "at this crucial juncture" to fulfil its "responsibility towards the East Timorese people as the body entrusted with assisting them to realise their rights to self-determination".
Mr Jose Ramos-Horta, who is acting as East Timor's foreign minister, said recently that achieving full independence by the end of this year, as originally planned, could be difficult. "The calendar might be too tight," he said, suggesting that independence might not be possible until 2002.
"As I have said on numerous occasions, we have waited 500 years, we can wait six months, one year, before independence is declared. The important thing is that we vote, we move slowly, steadily, with purpose, with certainty," he said.