State Formation and Political Community in Timor-Leste – The Centrality of the Local*

The attitudes of the tertiary students who are likely to comprise the next generation of leaders are pivotal to understanding the challenges of nation-building and national identity formation in post-conflict settings such as Timor-Leste. This article examines post-independence debates over national identity in Timor-Leste, presenting the findings of a longitudinal survey (Dili, 2002, 2007 and 2010) of East Timorese tertiary student attitudes to national identity. In particular, in the wake of the 2006 political-military crisis, the paper examines the evidence for differences in attitudes between students from eastern and western districts, concluding that the few significant differences in attitudes peaked in the 2007 survey, and were associated with the overt politicization of regional identity within Dili, and concerns over post-independence leadership, rather than any genuine ‘ethnic’ or ‘regional’ variation in attitudes. The paper also examines significant changes in some youth attitudes since independence, including a significant increase in the acceptance of the co-official status of the Portuguese language in the tertiary student demographic since the early years of independence. The survey also highlights the ongoing importance of tradition and adat in understandings of political community, but reveals significant gender differences in attitudes towards the role of traditional authorities.

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Peace Formation and the Reshaping of International Peacebuilding

The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190904418.013.42 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 580-596

Author(s):

Oliver P. Richmond

Keyword(s):

State Formation ◽

Parallel Process ◽

Political Community ◽

Theoretical Development ◽

Modern State ◽

International Peace ◽

Community Based ◽

Positive Potential ◽

Alternative Perspective ◽

International Peacebuilding

Contrary to most debates about state formation and the development of international peacebuilding, this chapter outlines an alternative perspective on the shaping of local-to-global political community based upon the hybrid political orders produced by the agency of subaltern actors engaged in peaceful forms of politics after war. Drawing on long-standing critical debates it investigates the positive potential of peace formation, outlining the theoretical development of this concept as a parallel process and often in opposition to modern state formation and the evolution of the international peace architecture with which it is often bound.

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‘‘We have resisted, now we must build’’: Regionalism and nation-building in Timor-Leste

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies ◽

10.1017/s0022463416000473 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 53-70

Author(s):

Elfie Shiosaki

Keyword(s):

Nation Building ◽

Political Community ◽

Eastern Region ◽

Social Divisions ◽

Post Conflict ◽

Timor Leste ◽

Peacekeeping Forces ◽

New Nation ◽

International Peacekeeping

During Timor-Leste's political and security crisis in 2006, a seemingly latent regional division re-emerged between Timorese from its eastern region, lorosa'e, and those from its western region, loromonu. The conflict between lorosa'e and loromonu revealed critical weaknesses in nation-building. Only four years after independence in 2002, international peacekeeping forces, led by Australia, were redeployed to the new nation-state. This article argues that the enduring political significance of regionalism weakens nation-building in Timor-Leste. This case study revitalises traditional security paradigms by relocating identity-building from the periphery of nation-building to its centre. Identity-building supports the formation of a unifying national political community which transcends social divisions within post-conflict societies.

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Introduction

The Dead as Ancestors, Martyrs, and Heroes in Timor-Leste ◽

10.5117/9789463724319_intro ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lia Kent ◽

Rui Graça Feijó

Keyword(s):

State Formation ◽

Nation State ◽

Timor Leste ◽

The Dead ◽

New Nation

This introductory chapter considers the diverse ways in which dead influence the living in the new nation-state of Timor-Leste. We argue that experiences of acute suffering, loss, dislocation, and protracted struggle are intensified by the spiritual dangers posed by the vast numbers of missing or unburied bodies and disrupted mortuary rituals. We consider how deceased beings perceived as ‘ancestors’ are thought to hold the capacity to influence the lives of the living. We also examine how the dead – especially those designated heroes or martyrs – are manipulated by the living to achieve certain aims. We argue that, because the dead continue to profoundly shape relationships amongst families, communities, and the nation-state, they must be understood as pivotal to ongoing processes of nation and state formation.

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