So Different, Too Often the Same
Just a few quick observations on doing net research on Timor-Leste (TL) compared with Indonesia. It’s harder for Timor-Leste. The Timorese world online differs starkly from the Indonesian world online. And this is only in part due to limited and unreliable net connections in TL. Blogwise, there exist only a relatively handful of blogs written by Timorese. And some appear to be run by Portuguese or Brazilians rather than Timorese. Listwise, the situation is only minimally better. There are several dozen Timorese lists, all with limited memberships. Again, some of them seem run by non-Timorese writing in Portuguese. On the other hand, Indonesian blogs and lists seem almost limitless. It’s a strange situation given the large number of Timorese studying and living abroad in countries with excellent net access (a disapora similar to that of Indonesians).
Timorese blogs and lists seldom mention current events except in short, sporadic postings. When current politics is discussed, there is scant opposition sentiment. Yet from private emails, donor reports, Timorese NGOs, and even skimpy UN summaries of the local press, it is clear Timorese society is highly politicized. Some would say polarized — I think multi-polarized is more accurate.
Websites — again, Timorese ones comprise an almost infinitesimal fraction of the Indonesian total. By far, Timorese government and Timorese NGO sites outnumber personal Timorese sites. Government can better afford to make websites, but these are most often out-of-date or seldom updated. TL is NGO-dense (lots of them), and despite smaller resources than government, TL’s NGOs have created some excellent sites.
How can these patterns be best explained? I’m not sure, but I think the main reasons are two. First, many Timorese are afraid to voice their views online. That was the way things were during the Soeharto period when almost every Timorese I dealt with asked that I anonymize his or her postings.
But the second reason is even more curious. My preliminary reading of the situation is that a great number of Timorese abroad do not intend to return home permanently. The sense of Timorese nationalism has diminished. Self-interest assumes a higher profile. This contrasts starkly with the Soeharto period when Timorese nationalism was perhaps at its highest point. There were far fewer Timorese abroad then — indeed for long periods the main options for living outside ‘Timtim’ were Java and Bali.
Now the Indonesian-educated Timorese live mainly in TL but many are jobless and alienated from the insistent older Portuguese-speaking governing elite. Teten Dili, TL’s lingua franca, is making strong gains (stronger than Portuguese) among this group of returnees and among Timorese generally, with only a few exceptional areas.
Some Timorese remain in Indonesia, mostly factions who opposed independence in 1999 and several groups of militia leaders and followers whose crimes were serious enough that they can’t go home again. In the Indonesian press, and online, one seldom hears much from these Timorese, too.
And the TL government is no longer (foolishly, in my view) sponsoring large number of Timorese to study in Indonesia. This appears a political decision. The TL government encourages study in Lusophone countries. But it looks to me like more Timorese have made their way to countries where the medium of instruction is English.
The Indonesian occupation of 24 years in the end did not win Timorese hearts and minds, despite the successful imposition of an Indonesian-medium educational system. Now, with a Babel of media of instruction inside TL, with Portuguese the declared formal school medium (in theory only, phased in one year at a time), is the TL government also losing the confidence and loyalties of the current generation of Timorese youth in its own schools?
