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Article: Fragments of Utopia: Popular Yearnings in East Timor<br>
Douglas Kammen<br><br>
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 40(2) , pp. 305-408, June
2009<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">Six months after the
historic August 1999 referendum in which the people of East<br>
Timor voted to reject
Indonesia</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">s offer of
broad autonomy, the newly appointed chief<br>
of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, S้rgio
Vieira de<br>
Mello, commented to CNN on the enormous challenge of setting the
territory on<br>
the road to independence:
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20"></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">It is a test case,
therefore it is even a laboratory case<br>
where we can transform utopia into reality. But I think we can try and
get it right<br>
in the case of
Timor.</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20"></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=1 color="#231F20">1
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">After 24
years of brutal military occupation, the suggestion<br>
that East Timor was to be a laboratory case for the United Nations might
have seemed<br>
insulting, the notion of utopia absurd. Hundreds of thousands of people
were without<br>
housing. Basic infrastructure lay in ruins. Commodities were scarce and
those goods<br>
available were sold at grossly inflated prices. Eleven thousand foreign
troops had<br>
arrived to restore security. Tens of thousands of refugees were still
living in squalid<br>
camps across the border in Indonesian West Timor, many against their
will.<br>
Nevertheless, Vieira de
Mello</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20"></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">s statement neatly
captured the twin aspirations of<br>
the time </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">the
independence long-dreamed of by East Timorese and the opportunity<br>
for the United Nations literally to build a state from the ground up. In
the same CNN<br>
report, East Timorese Nobel Laureate Jos้ Ramos-Horta emphasised
precisely this<br>
point:
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20"></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">This is the first
instance in the history of the UN that the UN has managed<br>
completely an entire country; and they have a [Timorese pro-independence]
movement<br>
that is very cooperative, they have an exceptional people
that</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20"></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">s cooperating<br>
with them, so they cannot fail. They are condemned to succeed because
failure<br>
would be disastrous for the credibility of the UN, so they simply cannot
afford to<br>
fail.</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20"></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=1 color="#231F20">2
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">Utopia, it
seems, had become a necessity.<br>
The classical utopias
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">often set on
islands at the edge of the known world
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#231F20">were<br>
imagined as social orders where material want has been overcome and the
inhabitants<br>
are free to pursue personal expression and mental pleasures. The most
famous of all<br>
utopias is the work of Sir Thomas More, published in 1516, which is
narrated by a<br>
fictional Portuguese traveller named Rafael Hythloday. Five years
earlier, of course,<br>
Portuguese ships had reached the great emporium of Malacca on the Malay
peninsula,<br>
from where ships were sent to learn the routes to the fabled spices of
the Molucca...<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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Dr Jennifer Drysdale<br>
Pacific Economic Post-Doctoral Fellow, Crawford School of Economics and
Government<br>
Moderator, Timor-Leste Studies Association List
<a href="http://www.tlstudies.org/" eudora="autourl">www.tlstudies.org<br>
</a>Mobile 0407 230 772<br>
Email Jennifer.Drysdale@anu.edu.au<br>
Personal Website
<a href="http://www.jenniferdrysdale.com/" eudora="autourl">
www.jenniferdrysdale.com</a> <br><br>
Post-doctoral research: <br>
<b>Institutional adaptation to volatile oil prices<br>
</b>This research will examine the way Vanuatu has responded to changes
in world energy prices through policy and institutional means.<br>
<a href="http://www.ausaid.gov.au/research/fellowship.cfm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/research/fellowship.cfm<br>
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