Identity and Politics in Timor-Leste
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EAST-TIMOR HOW TO BUILD A NEW NATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY? Cover and Layout: Mikael Brodu ISBN 978-611-90282-0-3 © IRASEC, May 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or means, without prior permission of the author or the publisher. The opinions expressed in these papers are solely those of the author(s). A collection under the supervision of Benoît de Tréglodé East-Timor How to Build a New Nation in Southeast Asia in the 21st Century? Edited by Christine Cabasset-Semedo and Frédéric Durand Carnet de l’Irasec / Occasional Paper n°9 – 2009 L’Institut de recherche sur l’Asie du Sud-Est contemporaine (USR 3142 – UMIFRE 22 CNRS MAEE) s’intéresse depuis 2001 aux évolutions politiques, sociales et environnementales en cours dans les onze pays de la région. Basé à Bangkok, l’Institut fait appel à des chercheurs de tous horizons disciplinaires et académiques qu’il associe au gré des problématiques. Il privilégie autant que possible les démarches transversales. The Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (USR 3142 – UMIFRE 22), based in Bangkok, Thailand, calls on specialists from all academic fields to study the important social, political, economic and environmental developments that affect, together or separately, the eleven countries of the region (Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam). LE CONSEIL SCIENTIFIQUE DE L’IRASEC • Jean BAFFIE, CNRS, IRSEA • Yves GOUDINEAU, EFEO, • Bénédicte BRAC de la PERRIERE, AFRASE CNRS, EHESS • Andrew HARDY, EFEO, Hanoi • Sophie BOISSEAU du ROCHER, • Jacques IVANOFF, IRASEC CNRS Centre Asie • François LAGIRARDE, EFEO • Jean-Raphaël CHAPONNIERE, Bangkok CNRS, AFD • Christian LECHERVY, MAE • Christian CULAS, IRASEC CNRS • Arnaud LEVEAU, IRASEC • Gilles DELOUCHE, INALCO • LE Huu Khoa, Université de Lille • Jean-Luc DOMENACH, CERI, • Charles MAC DONALD, CNRS Réseau Asie • Rémi MADINIER, IRASEC CNRS • Evelyne DOURILLE-FEER, CEPII • Philippe PAPIN, EPHE • Stéphane DOVERT, MAE • François RAILLON, CNRS, • Frédéric DURAND, Université de EHESS Toulouse • Jean-François SABOURET, CNRS, • Alain FOREST, Paris VII Réseau Asie • Guy FAURE, IAO • Christian TAILLARD, CNRS • Michel FOURNIE, INALCO LASEMA • Charles GOLDBLUM, Ecole d’archi- • Hugues TERTRAIS, Université de tecture de Paris Paris VII • Christopher GOSCHA, Université • Benoît de TRÉGLODÉ, IRASEC de Montréal • Marie-Sybille de VIENNE, INALCO Table of Contents Introduction.......................................................................................................... 11 Part 1 – A difficult transition toward a new nation Multidimensional Identity Construction: Challenges for State-building in East Timor ................................................ 19 Nuno Canas Mendes Negotiating Statehood and Humanitarian Assistance in Timor-Leste: an incompatible pair? ............................................................ 31 Christine Schenk Reconciliation in Timor-Leste and the Role of the Media: The Casa de Produção Audiovisual.................................................................. 49 Henriette Sachse Part 2 – Socio-cultural identities and factors in question Translation in Crisis, Crisis as Translation ..................................................... 65 Paulo Castro Seixas "Ema Lorosa'e", "Ema Loromonu": Identity and Politics in Timor-Leste ................................................................. 81 David Hicks Nation building at the village level: First the house, then the Church and finally a modern state................................................ 95 Alexander Loch Denying peripheral status, claiming a role in the nation: sacred words and ritual practices as legitimating identity of a local community in the context of the new nation ....................... 105 Lúcio Sousa 5 EAST-TIMOR Part 3 – Politics, legitimacy and electoral processes Elections and the Social Dimensions of Democracy/Lessons from Timor-Leste....................................................................................................123 Rui Graça Feijó Suffering, Dignity and Recognition. Sources of political legitimacy in independent East Timor ................139 Kelly Silva Crisis and Nation-building in Timor-Leste ...................................................159 Sara Gonzalez Devant Part 4 – Tracks for the construction of the future Crises and Uncertainties as a Sign of a Lack of Timorese Project of Society .........................................................................175 Frédéric Durand Human Safety, Security, and Resilience: Making Narrative Spaces for Dissent in Timor-Leste ..................................................................193 Jacqueline Aquino Siapno Thinking Tourism in the Sustainable Development Era in Timor- Leste: a tourism policy emerging from the grass-roots level .............213 Christine Cabasset-Semedo Chronology: 1974-2009 ..............................................................................233 Glossary and list of acronyms ..............................................................268 Bibliography ......................................................................................................274 Contributors .......................................................................................................296 6 HOW TO BUILD A NEW NATION? 7 EAST-TIMOR 8 HOW TO BUILD A NEW NATION? 9 EAST-TIMOR 10 Introduction This book is the direct outcome of a panel on Timor-Leste entitled « How to build a new nation? » and organized in September 2007 in the framework of the EUROSEAS Congress in Naples1. Among the more than 40 panels held, Timor-Leste’s had been remarkably dense, with 20 presentations given by American, Australian, Brazilian, East-Timorese, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish researchers. At the time of this congress, the major event of 2006, which two years after continued to be called “the crisis”, was still foremost in people’s minds, conversations, and researches. While other events or forewarning episodes had taken place before that date, no doubt that the crisis of 2006/2007 had finally prove to be a turning point, for the country itself, and maybe even more so for international actors. Though presented at first as a United Nations’ success story, especially when the territory was under UN management from October 1999 (withdrawal of the Indonesian army) until 20 May 2002 (independence of the country), the unity of Timor-Leste was then in peril, deceiving the expectations that had prevailed during the resistance years. Its climax was the conflict between “those from the West” and “those from the East” (“Loromonu-Lorosae” or Firaku-Kaladi), and a violence which caused a wave of internal refugees (around 150,000 IDP- Internally Displaced People). Beyond the causes and effects of this political and military crisis which had then spread to civil society, the “crisis” had also directly or indirectly revealed a certain number of dysfunctions, notably the deficiencies of the UN preparations of 1 European Association for South-East Asian Studies, see http://www.euroseas.org/platform/en/content/5th-euroseas-conferences-naples-2007 11 EAST-TIMOR independence and of the capacity of East Timorese governing bodies to manage and organize the country. The year 2007, though quieter, remained however very tense because of the elections -presidential, then legislative- which changed the political landscape of the country. During the EUROSEAS congress of 2007, the Fretilin, the party historically representing the fight for the independence, had recently lost its majority to a coalition and a new Prime Minister who had been appointed on 8 August 2007: Xanana Gusmão, former leader of the resistance, who had just given up his position as President of the Republic in favor of José Ramos Horta, co- laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his role as defender of the people of East Timor. The fourth government formed by Xanana Gusmão was then confronted to the necessity to find an issue to the 2006/2007 crisis and, at the same time, to the necessity to set up new ways of exercising power. Most of the articles published in the present book integrate in their analyses these two main constraints by exploring different themes and angles, even if it could not be foreseen in September 2007 that the country would a few months later narrowly avoid a new political drama.2 The first part of this book presents some fundamental elements in historical perspective to understand the "difficult transition toward a new nation". Nuno Canas Mendes goes back to the “formation” of Timor-Leste, forever tied to Portuguese and Indonesian colonization, but also to “cultural roots” and to the means used during pre- and post- independence period to promote a collective effort around the idea of “nationalism”. It also shows to which extent the formation of a State’s identity is a multi-dimensional and a long-term process, and how the viability of a State is connected to its ability to answer basic expectations: safety, justice, and socio-economic welfare. 2 On 11 February 2008, the rebel leaders Alfredo Reinado and Gastão Salsinha organized a joint attack in Dili against President José Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão. Alfredo Reinado was killed during the operation while José Ramos Horta, wounded in the stomach, had to be hospitalized in Australia where he stayed for several months of convalescence. 12 HOW TO BUILD A NEW NATION?