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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I think we need to be wary of equating regional
tensions with ethnic tensions, as Alex Tilman said recently in an ETSA email,
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>Timorese from various districts intermarry and this has gone on for a long
time. Not only there is marriage between the various districts, Timorese has
also accepted marriages with people outside of TL, e.g. intermarriage with
Indonesians, Chinese, Portuguese, Arabs, Indians, Australians, etc. A good
example of this is from the leadership itself. President Xanana is married to an
Australian. Taur Matan Ruak of Baucau is married to Isabel Ferreira from Same.
Lu Olo is married to a woman from Atauro. The late Vicente Reis of Baucau is
married to a woman from Ermera. Abel Ximenes, one of the ministers and a senior
leader in FRETILIN is married to a woman from Bazartete (Liquica), sister of
Nicolau Lobato's wife. Fernando Lasama of PD is married to an
Australian/Filipino woman. George Teme, former ambassador to Australia is
married to an Indonesian woman, as well as the minister of public works, Ovidio.
PD's leaderhsip is composed of both lorosae and loromonu: Fernando is from
Ainaro, Mariano Sabino is from Lospalos. FRETILIN itself is no different: Lu Olo
from Ossu (Baucau), Mari Alkatiri from Dili, Rogerio Lobato from Bazartete, Ana
Pessoa from Bobonaro, Jose Reis from Baucau, etc. The heads of the Timorese
catholic church are both from Aileu and Ainaro (I am not so sure about this, but
both men are from loromonu districts) with many of its senior priests coming
from various districts. In the government itself, the composition is mixed with
people from various districts. </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>That said, there is still a regional component to
Timorse politics partly due to the different ways that different parts of
the country were treated by the colonial powers. e.g. Tetum speaking
areas were converted earlier to the Catholic Church as priests were more
likely to learn that language, according to Geoffrey
Gunn. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>According to some of the NGOs who specialise in
'conflict transformation' e.g. Kadalak Sulumutuk Institute, the Indonesians
tried very hard to promote 'horizontal violence' between Bunaq and Kemaq
speakers for example, and between other language groups. None of this worked as
long as the Indonesian occupiers were there as the main focus was on securing
independence. Now of course its a different matter and we are possibly
seeing some of the fruits of their attempts. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>While there is a simple geographical component
to the claims by the Westerners, i.e. it costs them more to go home for
the weekend and they get paid the same as the Easterners, there is also an
identity component to it, albeit a bit of an articifical component as the Firaku
(easterners) were stereotyped as the ones who fought back and the Kaledi
(westerners) as those who were passive. The creation of the concept of Maubere
and Buibere by Horta in the 1970s was designed to overcome this 'firaku' and
'kaledi' distinction, now described as Loromonu and Lorosae. The
dropping of the word 'Maubere' from the CNRM making it the CNRT on the eve
of independence was an ominous sign. (I heard that some UDT people didn't like
it because 'Maubere' was what they used to call their servants). However just as
Timor was ditching the term, the Portuguese were publishing posters of Maubere
poets in the Post Offices and other government buildings. The recently formed
Maubere Study Group is a group of young NGO activists and university people who
would like to see the concept of Maubere return as a unifying term.
Unfortunately now it seems to be regarded as a Fretilin only term. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>What is particularly worrying is the transfer of
the regional disputes, or the regional interpretations of discrimination
claims, from the army to society at large. This is where programmes of
public civic education on the radio and good Timorese history in the
schools are desparately needed because this rivalry has to some extent been
artificially created by troublemakers, or 'conflict entrepreneurs' as they are
called in the Solomon Islands, .i.e. people who very cleverly engineer conflicts
along lines advantageous to their own purposes. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In the introduction to my yet to be published book
I have written a bit about how different discourses have emerged and become
predominant at different times in the struggle, these are the 'identity'
discourse, the 'human rights' discourse, the 'governance' discourse the
'development' discourse and finally the 'security' discourse. The
emergence of the East-West divide brings back the identity discourse which was
the major one during the struggle, the governance discourse is of course the one
the Australian government wants everyone to the focus on and the development
discourse is the hardest of all to get people to really think about but one
which Alkatiri has been really pushing. Now with all these troops coming
in and comparisons being made with Solomon Islands it will be the security
discourse which will prevail over the others from the Australian point of view,
but what about the Timorese point of view, will they ever be allowed to develop
their country or do we just want them to remain dependent on
Australia? Watching the TV coverage of Timor today gave me a scary
feeling of Rwanda where people from two articificially defined tribes killed
each other after living peacably side by side previously, because they
were brainwashed into it by someone else. WHo is behind this
East-West divide ideology? I was in TImor in December 2002 when the
student demonstration turned violent, its eventual outcome was to bring Xanana
and Alkatiri together as both wanted to defend the institutions of the new state
against the violent ones. Now its different, whoever is behind it is
trying to split the President and the Prime Minister and with it all the other
institutions of Timorese politics. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Helen Hill</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Victoria University</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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