East Timor
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East Timor The Price of Liberty Damien Kingsbury
east timor Copyright Damien Kingsbury, 2009. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-60641-8 All rights reserved. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-37370-3 ISBN 978-0-230-62171-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230621718 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kingsbury, Damien. East Timor : the price of liberty / Damien Kingsbury. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. East Timor Politics and government 2002 I. Title. DS649.7.K56 2009 959.8704 dc22 2008047479 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Scribe Inc. First edition: June 2009
This book is dedicated to Rae Perry and to the Australia-East Timor Friendship groups she was so instrumental in bringing into existence. Thank you, Rae, my dearest friend, supporter, confidant, comrade, and beautiful love. This book is written in the hope that the people of East Timor, east and west, Austronesian and Melanesian, Portuguese and Malay speakers, and of the political left and right, may find common cause around the legitimacy of difference. Many thanks to Judith Graley for her comments on a draft of this book, with the proviso that the author takes sole responsibility for any errors of fact of interpretation that might appear herein.
Contents Author s Note ix Notes on Nomenclature and Spelling x Introduction 1 1 Conceptual Considerations 7 2 Distant and Regional Colonialism 25 3 Critical Issues in the Independence Struggle 51 4 The UN s Benign Colonialism 77 5 Transition to Independence 105 6 Capacity and Conflict 131 7 The 2007 Elections 161 8 Democratic Consolidation, or a Failed State? 189 Epilogue 213 Notes 219 References 227 Index 241
Author s Note Anyone who is interested in East Timor cannot begin any understanding without first knowing something of the events of 1975 to 1999. This book, and many others, highlight aspects of those years. But the single best informed and most comprehensive study of this period was undertaken by the East Timor Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation of Timor-Leste. Its publication Chega! The Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation Timor-Leste is a publicly available document and may be freely downloaded from the Internet. It is a massive, detailed, and thoroughly researched report and is the single most important source to which we must all turn, again and again, to understand the extent of the horror and culpability of that quarter century. The realism of global politics has ensured that, as has been clear almost from the beginning, virtually no one will be held accountable for any of the events of that period even though, on a scale of human misery, it parallels the almost mythic horrors of Pol Pot s Cambodia. It is Chega! ( Enough! ) that will help ensure when East Timor and Indonesia s history is rewritten in an attempt to gloss over the enormous crimes against humanity committed by individuals and groups acting agents of the Indonesian state, an historically accurate record remains available to test that rewriting, and to ensure that the shame and culpability of its perpetrators is recorded in perpetuity.
Notes on Nomenclature and Spelling Reflecting what some observers (e.g., Federer 2005) have referred to as the elite capture of political power, the preferred common name of East Timor by its government is the Portuguese Timor-Leste. However, the country is globally better known as East Timor, which is its direct English translation. East Timor is generally referred to here as Portuguese Timor prior to 1975, as it was known throughout the world at that time. During the resistance, East Timor was known internally, and by some externally, by its Tetum name Timor Loro Sa e (Timor where the Sun Rises). This is, descriptively, historically, culturally, and metaphorically, perhaps the most appropriate name for the country (despite since 2006 its misappropriation and misuse as a regional nomenclature within East Timor). However, East Timor is generally used here for purposes of simplicity and common recognition. Portuguese diacritics not employed in Portuguese originating names as, in English, they are redundant (e.g., Gusmao rather than Gusmão). Words originating in Timorese languages are either consistent with government usage (e.g., Tetum rather than Tetun) or as noted by Geoffrey Hull in his ambitious if sometimes contested series of Timorese dictionaries. Given local variation of even recognized languages and that Timor s languages have been until very recently entirely oral, spelling may not accord with all possible versions of an agreed word or name (e.g., loro sa e, loro sae, lorosae, lorosai; wehale, wehali, behale; kemak, qemac, ema). There are also a variety of differently spelled or identified names for things and especially places, between Dutch, Portuguese, Melayu (localized as Indonesian), and the host of local languages. To that end, apologies are offered if the spelling used here does not accord with alternative preferences.