The sophisticated, English-speaking Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, has made a career out of defending Indonesia's annexation of East Timor to the rest of the world.
He did it with such vigour that when the then minister for foreign affairs, Mr Dick Spring, wrote an article in The Irish Times in 1995 criticising Jakarta's policy, Mr Alatas called it "almost a declaration of war" and snubbed him at the United Nations.
On Wednesday, when the Indonesian cabinet decided it may have to "release" East Timor, it fell to the veteran diplomat to explain the decision, and, not surprisingly, there was a note of peevishness in his performance.
The Indonesian government had to support the province for 23 years, he complained, but if the majority there continued to reject Jakarta's reasonable proposal for autonomy and international recognition for Indonesian rule, then they would be left to fend for themselves.
Significantly he credited the Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, with the initiative. Mr Howard's letter to President Habibie of December 21st calling for autonomy, followed some years later by an act of self-determination, was a clear signal that Indonesia had lost its only ally on Indonesia. Australia alone had recognised East Timor as a province of Jakarta. Mr Alatas was less than gracious.
"After 22 years, they still don't understand that Indonesia went in there not to get something but to give," he said. "But if they still can't understand that, then let's not muck around for another five or 10 years. We'll pull out now."
Observers believe, however, that Indonesia was compelled to make its dramatic move this week because of domestic instability, which has overtaxed the military, and by the new atmosphere of democracy in Jakarta which supported the view that the 23-year occupation of East Timor had been a military, political, economic and moral disaster for Indonesia. It was even more costly for East Timor.
Mr Alatas made no mention of the terrible price paid by an almost defenceless people since the military invasion of 1975 - up to 200,000 deaths out of a population of 700,000 - nor did he indicate any offer to create the conditions for a peaceful transition. On the contrary, Indonesia seems to be laying the groundwork for heightened conflict in East Timor, where a minority of local people and Indonesian immigrants are opposed to independence.
Militias drawn from these civilians recently have been armed by the military, according to Indonesia's National Human Rights Commissioner, Mr Clementino Dos Rias Amaral, who said this left East Timor facing a "very dangerous" situation. "Now both sides have guns, the pro-independence and the pro-Indonesian forces," he said. "If they want to talk about an independent East Timor they have to take away the guns first, otherwise there will be a campaign of terror and more and more civilians will die."
These fears were clearly uppermost in the mind of Mr Jose Ramos Horta, vice-president of the National Council of Timorese Resistance, when he advocated caution yesterday from his exile in Australia. The winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Price warned in the Sydney Morning Herald that lies, distortion and half-truths were part of Indonesia's diplomatic game.
"I, like most Timorese, simply do not trust the Indonesian side because of the numerous unfulfilled promises of the past," he said. "However, if in the next few months Indonesia pulls out its troops and allows a UN police force into the territory, then yes, we can say their policies and actions have changed."
Meanwhile, the situation in East Timor was "explosive", with the arming of more than 1,000 people, some of them Muslim extremists, he said. "Since November, more than 100 people have been murdered, many in gruesome manner. This is a deliberate strategy to paint the East Timorese as divided and ready to fight if and when Indonesia pulls out."
Recent violence has heightened these fears. Father Hilario, a priest in the southern town of Suai, said yesterday 4,300 people were sheltering around his church after the killing overnight of five independence supporters in attacks by civilian militia units. e Mr Ramos-Horta sought to calm the situation yesterday, promising that the East Timorese resistance would seek reconciliation with collaborators.
"Indonesian migrants should not fear reprisals. Legitimately acquired properties will be protected," he said. Indeed since the Indonesian government's announcement on Wednesday, leaflets have appeared in the East Timor capital reassuring Indonesian shopkeepers not to be afraid.
The Nobel laureate, who wants the jailed resistance leader, Xanana Gusmao, and the former governor, Mr Mario Carrascalao, to lead an interim administration, added that the East Timorese political leadership must also have the courage and humility to acknowledge its responsibilities in 1974 and 1975.
"It was the immaturity and reckless irresponsibility of some that created the tension in the territory and led to a civil war which paved the way for Indonesia's intervention."
He urged Australia and other countries to quickly establish a consul in Dili as an inducement to restraint.
The fast-developing situation in East Timor gives Australia an opportunity to restore its relationship with the East Timorese, who bravely fought the Japanese side by side with Australian soldiers in the second World War, only to be left feeling betrayed when Canberra turned a blind eye to President Suharto's annexation after the Portuguese left the former colony.
An Australian government official acknowledged yesterday that Australian troops may have to serve in a peacekeeping role in the transitional period, and Timor's wealthy southern neighbour is likely to be called upon to help rebuild the infrastructure and establish an international fund to purchase weapons in the hands of civilians.
The key figure in the coming months will be Xanana Gusmao, who is to be released from prison in Jakarta and transferred to house arrest to facilitate negotiations.
He recently indicated that he would opt for a period of autonomy under Indonesian rule to rebuild the province, followed by a referendum on independence. A key to this would be the withdrawal of Indonesian troops and their replacement by UN peacekeepers.
Mr Alatas said that Jakarta was not prepared to fund autonomy if at the end the people voted to leave Indonesia, but Indonesia is likely to come under considerable international pressure to ensure it does not leave chaos behind.
The serious negotiations are likely to start later this month when Mr Alatas travels to New York to meet the Foreign Minister of Portugal, which speaks for the East Timorese at the UN, and starts to undo the diplomatic work he has applied himself to so assiduously for 23 years.