Xanana Gusmao launches barely-veiled attack on Australian spying in the region East Timor has "no better friend" ... Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, right, speaks with East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao on Thursday. East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has launched a swingeing attack "powerful countries [who] shamelessly violate the civic rights ... of other countries" using electronic surveillance. Mr Gusmao's speech at the Bali Democracy Forum on Thursday was a barely-veiled attack on the spying apparatus of Australia in developing countries such as East Timor and Indonesia. I ask you all whether we can really say that we are living in a democracy if we are subject to pervasive surveillance. He was the only leader to mention the issue in speeches on the first morning of the forum, which recent leaked documents reveal is being held in the same venue that United States bugged during climate change negotiations in 2007. Xanana Gusmao, speaks with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in Bali. He criticised powerful countries who shamelessly violate the civic rights of citizens of other countries. Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop avoided the issue in her speech, in which she ran through Australia's democratic credentials and its efforts to spread democracy in the region. But Mr Gusmao was not so shy. Earlier this year, his government accused Australian intelligence forces of breaking into his country's cabinet room and bugging it during negotiations over a split in undersea oil revenues in 2004. "When it comes to civic rights, which are imposed on new democracies or on countries in transition, the powerful countries shamelessly violate the civic rights not only of their citizens but, more scandalously, the citizens of other countries," Mr Gusmao said. Either we are in the presence of an extreme distrust where everyone is a potential enemy, or we are witnessing the fraudulent use of technology to obtain economic advantage over others, which is even more immoral when those others are weak and small. The former soldier who fought a successful and bloody war of independence against Indonesia between 1974 and 1999, said his country had "no better friend than" the Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. By contrast, he suggested that more developed countries were threatening true democracy. Now that information technology is part of the fabric of our lives we have to consider the impact on democracy when our communications are being watched by others. This is not, however, just a matter of privacy and personal freedom. For nations of the world this question goes to the very heart of what it means to be sovereign. And for a small nation like Timor Leste, with limited resources, it means that we are subject to prying nations acting in their own national interest.