East Timor: Language and Gender in the Articulations and Representations of the Nationalist Struggle1 Zakiah Cabral, University of California at Berkeley The polarity between text and self and The most conspicuous crack in the narra­ narrative and event cannot hold. In a tive of the “big, happy family”— the Indo­ political culture the self that narrates speaks nesian national motto is “Bhinneka Tunggal from a position of having been narrated Ika,” a Sanskrit translation of the Latin “E and edited by others—by political institu­ pluribus unum,” or “Unity in Diversity”— tions, by concepts of historical causality, is the independence movement in East and possibly by violence. Timor, which has shown a remarkable resil­ —Alan Feldman ience in the face of overwhelming military and political odds.4 We, Timorese women, are always facing Benedict Anderson powerfully argues in deadly weapons aimed at us ready to fire Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Ori­ and we hardly have the power to say a gin and Spread of Nationalism that nations word of help to the outside world. themselves are narrations; he observes that —Mrs. HauNara, “East Timorese Women “in the modern world everyone can, should, Scream Out to the World For Help” will ‘have’ a nationality, as he or she ‘has’ a gender” (14). In most cases, the nation has I. Introduction been imagined as having a female gender, Post-colonial critics have written exten­ thus casting nationhood in terms of a con­ sively on how colonized people and those test between the colonizer and the male who have been unrepresented use narrative nationalist in their construction of the na­ fiction to express resistance and the exist­ tion as a feminized object.5 ence of their own history. Edward Said This essay is an attempt to listen to voices writes: “The main battle in imperialism is which break from the dominant discourse over land, of course; but when it came to of Indonesian colonial nationalism in East who owned the land, who had the right to Timor. I will look at: 1) the articulations of settle and work on it, who kept it going, the nationalist struggle in the Portuguese who won it back, and who now plans its language, particularly in the public trial of future— these issues were reflected, con­ Xanana Gusmâo, leader of FALINTIL tested, and even for a time decided in (Forças Armadas de Libertaçâo Nacional de narrative” (xiii). This essay is about an Timor-Leste); 2) the emergence of popular ongoing colonial war, the Indonesian colo­ forms of resistance, specifically nization of East Timor, and the colonizer’s millenarianism and oral narratives, which attempt to narrate and edit, through politi­ are outside the discursive formations of the cal violence, the history of East Timor as universal, secular, nation-state; and, 3) the part of the “big, harmonious Indonesian representation of torture performed upon a family,”2 in which state terror is integrally feminized body in the protest poetry of Kay linked with the objectives and techniques of Shaly Rakmabean. These articulations may domestic political surveillance and control.3 still appear inchoate and incomplete due to 27 Lucero Vol. 5, 1994 the absence of an organized form of political they should and should not do in the inves­ representation, but this is also due to the tigation and trial process. repressive censorship existing under Indo­ The trial of Xanana, it is clear, was in­ nesian rule, which is sustained by an institu­ tended simultaneously to discredit and tionalized system of political violence. weaken the resistance in East Timor, hu­ miliate the defendant, assert Indonesian sov­ II. The Indonesian State’s Counter- ereignty over the territory, and dispel inter­ Insurgency and the Trial of national criticism of the Indonesian Xanana Gusmao government’s arbitrary use of terror by cre­ The Indonesian generals should be made ating the illusion that Indonesia is governed to realize that they have been defeated in by the rule of law. The precise charges East Timor. Here, today, as the com­ brought against Xanana were as follows: 1) mander of FALINTIL ... I acknowledge seeking to separate a part of the national military defeat on the ground. I am not territory from the authority of the state, ashamed to say so. On the contrary, I am which carries a maximum penalty of life proud of the fact that a small guerrilla army imprisonment; 2) leading an armed rebel­ was able to resist a large nation like Indo­ lion against the Indonesian state, which nesia, a regional power which in a cow­ carries a maximum penalty of twenty years ardly fashion invaded us and want to domi­ in prison; 3) conspiring to commit both of nate us by the law of terror and crime, by the crimes specified above; and, 4) unau­ the law of violence, persecution, prison, thorized possession of firearms, which car­ torture and murder. As a political ries a maximum penalty of death. On May prisoner in the hands of the occupiers of 21, 1993, Xanana was given a sentence of my country, it is of no consequence at all life imprisonment. to me if they pass a death sentence here As part of its counter-insurgency cam­ today. They have killed more than one paign to humiliate and discredit the inde­ third of the defenseless population ofEast pendence movement, the Indonesian mili­ Timor. They are killing my people and I tary has circulated stories in the press. Below am not worth more than the heroic struggle I quote excerpts from one of those which ofmy people who, because they are a small was published almost on a daily basis during and weak people, have always been sub­ the course of the trial in newspapers such as jected to foreign rule. Jaw a Pos: —Xanana Gusmao, “Xanana Condemns Indonesia” Behind his popularity as the boss of the GPK [Gerakati Petigacau The political trial of José Alexandre Keamatian ‘Security Disruptors Xanana Gusmao, which began on February Movements’]6 FALINTIL, 1, 1993 and concluded on May 14, 1993, Xanana conceals a host of nega­ was a tightly directed script authored by the tive characteristics. This was re­ Indonesian government. The power of the vealed when he was arrested on military, in particular, was felt at every stage November 20. This dark side of the judicial process in this trial. The became increasingly evident as judges, prosecutors, and even the lawyers more and more of his supporters for the defense were brought together for were arrested. One of the briefings by military intelligence authorities things was when Xanana “mar­ handling the case, and instructed in what ried”—or, more correctly, began 28 East Timor living in sin7 with—Luci began to rape her. Although he Ximenes. Xanana’s act was unac­ almost always uses a condom ceptable both to his family and to when he has intercourse, it turns his followers. The point is that out that this has not been suffi­ when he took over the leadership cient to protect him from sexu­ of FALINTIL, Xanana established ally transmitted diseases. When a rule that as long as they were in doctors in Denpasar examined the bush, members of FALINTIL him they discovered that he has a were not allowed to have their sex disease in such an advanced wives with them. state that it is very difficult to They were not allowed to flirt or cure. (“Demonizing Xanana”)8 to have a relationship with a woman because, according to Charismatic leadership and the idea of Xanana, such things could dam­ male power in Javanese culture has tradi­ age the state of mind of his fight­ tionally been associated with asceticism, ers. “Anybody who breaks this especially with regard to sexual activity, and rule must be punished. The se­ the ability to concentrate one’s libido so that verest punishment is to be shot it does not become diffused and disinte­ dead,” said Xanana at that time. grated. In Javanese culture, “the loosening . It is well known that Xanana of cosmological tautness stems frompamrih, has had relationships with many which essentially means the use of Power women. his libido is very for personal indulgence or the wasting of high. To satisfy this need, Xanana concentrated Power on the satisfaction of often asks for contributions; he personal passions” (Anderson,Language35). often asked villagers for women It was believed, for example, that the former when his group was in hiding in Indonesian president Sukarno’s demise was places nearby. Although due to his excessive womanizing. As Ander­ Xanana’s name was quite popular son notes: it seems that not all women who were offered to him accepted this The essential difference between voluntarily. Quite a number of the heroes and their adversaries is them refused. But their rejection that the latter eventually permit was in vain if Xanana wanted their Power to be diffused by them since he would force him­ indulging their passions without self on them anyway. This is what restraint, whereas the former was experienced by Rege, the maintain that steadfastness, that niece of Augusto Pereira. On tense singleness ofpurpose, which that afternoon, when he came insures the maintenance and con­ out he was wearing only his sa­ tinued accumulation of Power. rong. She suspected nothing when (Anderson, Language 25) Xanana and Augusto approached her and she only realized what The Indonesian government’s counter­ was happening after Augusto insurgency narratives must represent Xanana grabbed her two hands, clamping as the antithesis of the oral narratives which his hand over her mouth. Then are circulated by East Timorese, and which Xanana got onto the bed and describe his extraordinary supernatural pow­ 29 Lucero Vol.