East Timor: Small state of paradoxes and challenges

It is the world’s second newest nation, having become an independent state in 2002 after 400 years as a Portuguese colony, 24 years as the 27th province of Indonesia, and three years under the control of the United Nations Transition Authority in East Timor (UNTAET), three very different colonial experiences.

In the 1600s the island was colonised with the west becoming part of the Netherlands Indies (later to become Indonesia) and the eastern half becoming Portuguese Timor.

In 1974 Portugal decided to give up its colonies including Portuguese Timor. Seeing this as an opportunity to unite West and East Timor, realising that Timor had valuable natural resources, and hoping to develop an area neglected by Portugal, Indonesia invaded in 1975 and made East Timor its 27th province.

At the time of the occupation, East Timor was extremely poor and had limited infrastructure. There was no university, and only limited schooling, primarily elite private and Catholic. Illiteracy was a high 95 per cent. Under the Portuguese the Timorese suffered serious adverse neglect. The Indonesian policy was one of assimilation, imposing the Indonesian language and culture on the Timorese. However, unlike the Portuguese, the Indonesians invested significantly in building an infrastructure of schools, roads and bridges.

By 1996, three years before the Timorese in a UN referendum (1999) voted for independence from Indonesia, East Timor had 736 primary schools, 112 junior high schools, 37 general high schools, 16 vocational high schools, and seven tertiary institutions, including Universitas Timor Timur, established in 1986.

In the aftermath of the shock of the election results, considerable chaos ensued and some departing Indonesian military and various militia groups actively destroyed much of East Timor’s infrastructure, including schools and the major university. An estimated over 2,000 Timorese died and about 200,000 others were forcefully deported to camps in West Timor, Indonesia.

During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a rising independence movement in Timor. A key leader in this movement was the rebel leader, Xanana Gusmao. He was captured by the Indonesian police in 1992 and imprisoned for 20 years. In a way, he is the “Nelson Mandela” of East Timor. While in prison in Indonesia he fell in love with a spy from Australia, Kirsty Sword, who was secretly supporting the Timor struggle for independence while doing development work in Indonesia. Gusmao later became the nation’s first elected president and subsequently prime minister of East Timor and she became the First Lady.

A fascinating documentary film has been made about her amazing life. It is titled “Alisa Ruby Blade: A Story of Love and Revolution,” directed by Alex Meillier. Also just released is East Timor’s first-ever feature film, “A Guerra da Beatriz” (A War of Beatriz), a deeply moving romance with the backdrop of Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor and the Kraras massacre of 1983. Material such as this could be used in Thailand as part of an integrated English AEC curriculum. In March 2011, East Timor formally applied for Asean membership, and is likely to become the newest and 11th member of Asean.

Another valuable resource is Samantha Power’s insightful biography of the Brazilian, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was the leader of East Timor during the UN transitional government. She said de Mello admitted that the UN spent three times more on helicopter charters than the entire national budget for education.

Since obtaining independence in 2002, East Timor has faced many educational and development challenges. Like the Philippines, East Timor is a Catholic country, and, thus, has an extremely high fertility rate of 6.95 and a 3.2 population growth rate, meaning its population will double in only 17 years. It also has a young population with 43 per cent of the population under 15 years of age and 16 per cent under five. Thus, there is grossly inadequate early childhood education and care. This demographic condition also has led to tremendous job creation problems.

Language policy and language of instruction also pose complex problems. Portuguese and Tetum, the lingua franca among 32 indigenous languages (of which six are threatened) are the two official languages. English and Indonesian are considered operating languages.

There is nearly universal agreement that it is important for children to begin their education in Tetum and then shift to a more international language later. That language has been Portuguese, but that is totally problematic since so few teachers (only around 6 per cent are fluent in that language). A new language policy is being formulated which would give more importance to English rather than Portuguese.

Other major educational problems relate to the inadequate quality of teachers, poor infrastructure, and lack of learning materials. In terms of the long-term, East Timor does have strategic development plan, 2011-2030, envisioning the country becoming a middle income one by 2030. There is also a plan for decentralisation, which is being very carefully implemented.

The growth rate of the nation is now the sixth highest in the world, largely because of extensive infrastructure expenditure to build and rebuild a new nation, made possible by huge petroleum resources and international aid. In the AEC era, East Timor may also have considerable potential for tourism, important for future sustained growth after petroleum resources are depleted.

 

GERALD W FRY 

Distinguished International Professor, Department of Organisational Leadership,

Development and Policy University of Minnesota

[email protected]