Interpreting East Timor's turbulence

Nation-making: Any Third World state with an yet-to-be-launched or still-born nation-making process on its hands is a relentlessly ticking time bomb, waiting to explode. This is the case with East Timor, a fledgling Third World state and a small one at that but which is in and out of political storms in South East Asia.

Today, this one-time province of Indonesia and former Portuguese colony has erupted in flames. The Western media with their usual zest for sensationalism would have us believe that the current civil mayhem and murderous violence should be sourced to disgruntled elements within the East Timorese armed forces who were recently sacked by the central authorities over perceived links to West Timorese militias, who are violently opposed to the granting of separate statehood to East Timor.

The sacking of dissident groups within the armed forces may be the "trigger factor" for the current civil strife but could not by itself account for East Timor's precipitous slide into lawlessness.

The truth is that East Timor was born of veritable civil war in 2002 although in the latter stages of the conflict the UN intervened to ensure what it hoped would be a political normalization process. The East Timorese were granted separate statehood and independence from Indonesia in terms of the results of a referendum which was held in the troubled province in 1999 but it is doubtful whether the internal power imbalances among East Timorese socio-cultural groups were addressed in a substantial way. The current civil strife proves that these power inequalities are remaining unaddressed.

The principle factor behind the creation of the state of East Timor was the urge for separate nationhood from Indonesia among the East Timorese, who are mainly Portuguese-speaking and are of the Catholic faith. West Timor, on the other hand, remains part of Indonesia and therefore has a distinct Muslim identity.

As is known, the struggle for East Timorese independence was marked by bloody resistance on the part of pro-Indonesian armed militias in East Timor, closely linked to the Western half of Timor. Such resistance has continued over the past few years and the present mutiny in the East Timorese army could be considered a carry-over from this continuing power struggle within the state between pro-self rule, East Timorese nationalistic groups and West Timor-oriented militias.

Therefore, although democratic institutions have been grafted on the culturally-segmented East Timorese state, it could not be said to be developing into a 'nation'. The latter involves forging in all principal social and cultural segments in East Timor, a sense of belonging with the East Timorese state.

This is usually the result of equal power relations among communities. The current violence and lawlessness indicates that this prime issue has gone unaddressed by the East Timorese central authorities. Besides, East Timor ranks as one of Asia's poorest states. Such conditions breed identity-based conflicts of numerous kinds as most of South Asia's troubled states would testify.

Reports said that no socio-economic development projects of any significance have taken root in the state over the past few years. This leaves hundreds of thousands of youths unemployed and these sections fall easy prey to ultra-nationalistic elements. Even in tiny East Timor, therefore, the challenge is to put in place a thriving multicultural state which would enable every socio-cultural group within it to identify with the wider state.

Satisfying the legitimate aspirations of such groups is the secret to forging a closely-knit East Timorese nation.