Papers (Part 1)

• How to Decolonize East-Timor? The Difficult Paths of the Implementation of the MFA Program in 1974 Zélia Pereira Universidade de Coimbra

  Before the Portuguese revolution of April 25, 1974, the problem of the decolonization of East-Timor had rarely been a concern for the opponents of the Estado Novo colonial policy. The absence of a scenario of war and of liberation movements, instead of what had been happening in the African colonies, made it imperative to start a debate within the Timorese community, in order to promote awareness of the need to reflect on destiny of the territory.

  Some of the first steps towards the political mobilization of East Timorese society were given in East Timor by military personnel who were engaged in attempting to execute the Portuguese Armed Forces Movement (MFA) program. In this process, Major Antonio Arnao Metello, Chief of Staff of the Independent Territorial Command of Timor since 1973, was one of the prominent figures in the first months after April 25, being appointed as the MFA Delegate and assuming the presidency of the ephemeral Commission for the Self-Determination of Timor, until his departure from the territory in September 1974, in a political and ideological collision course with the then Charge of Government, Lieutenant-Colonel Níveo Herdade, and other Portuguese civil and military elements.

  In this communication, aspects related to the execution of the MFA decolonization program after the 25 April, 1974, will be presented with a specific focus on the action developed by Major Arnao Metello, based on documentation from his personal archive and other coeval sources. In particular, the following aspects will be addressed: the role of Arnao Metello and his most direct collaborators in the initial formation of the first Timorese political associations (UDT, ASDT and APODETI); the tense relations in East Timor between the elements committed to the execution of the MFA Program and other military and civilian concerning the decolonization of the territory; and the ins and outs of the relations between the MFA delegate in Timor and the political and military leaders in Lisbon.

  In addressing these aspects, the positions taken by other countries directly interested in the destiny of East Timor, namely Indonesia and Australia, will also be taken into account, as well as whether these have conditioned in some way the orientation and actions followed by the MFA and Portuguese policymakers in the first months after the change of regime in Portugal.

• Portuguese Foreign Policy Towards Timor-Leste, 1975–1999 Moisés Fernandes University of Lisbon

  Due to the fact that Timor-Leste’s was far away from Portugal and the African colonies had been pushing for the independence since the 1960s, the Portuguese decision-makers, e.g. the President, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, had decided that the first colonies to decolonize were the African after the 25 April 1974 coup d’état. However, the influx of new ideas on how to organize political parties in Portuguese Timor led the Portuguese decision-makers to get out their decolonization plan for Timor-Leste’s on 17 July in 1975, which envisioned their independence in 15 October 1978.

  Nonetheless, the Indonesia knew that since 1963-1964 the Foreign Ministers of the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand held quadrilateral talks at the U.S. State Department, about the future of Timor-Leste and they decided that when the Portuguese Empire come to an end Timor-Leste ought to become part of Indonesia.

  As soon as Indonesia’s invaded Timor-Leste in 7 December 1975, Portugal cut immediately diplomatic relations with Jakarta and took the issue of Timor-Leste of self-determination and independence to the Security Council and the General Assembly. In 1982, the General Assembly passed a resolution in which agreed with Portugal that the Secretary-General of the United Nations should be involved in this question.

  From 1983 to 1986, they held humanitarian meetings between the Foreign Ministers and the Permanent Representatives of Portugal and Indonesia in New York. Nevertheless, the outcome of these secret meetings led the Portuguese Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to accept an Indonesia’s proposal of having a legislative elections on 23 April 1987. But that had to be put to the President, since it dealt with foreign policy, namely Timor-Leste and Macau. The President was against it.

  After the refusal of Portugal decision-makers to take part in the Indonesian legislative elections, it seemed that Indonesia would not come back to humanitarian meeting. But after a few months the Indonesians at the United Nations-level had returned to humanitarian meetings, which lasted from 1987 until 1997.

  The Asian financial crisis between 1997 and 1998 was a key factor. Indonesia’s was particularly hit. On the 4 May 1998, the International Monetary Fund had approved $1 billion as one-third of the credit line. Indonesian President Suharto resigned in 21 May 1998. A major hurdle had been put aside. The Vice-President of Indonesia, Habibie, became the new President. Habibie agreed on a referendum which envisaged either an autonomous region within Indonesia or independence, on the 30 August 1999. Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Indonesia and Portugal Foreign Ministers signed an accord on the 5 of May 1989, which sets-up the wholly logistical operation for Timor-Leste. Finally, the Secretary-General of the United Nations speaking from New York declared that 78,5% had voted for independence. However, the ASEAN countries did not want Portugal to participate in the International Force for East Timor (Interfert), which the Portuguese decision-makers agreed upon.

Papers (Part 2)

• Decolonisation in Borneo: Self-Determination or Exploitation? David Phillips

  Despite their unique history Borneo and the Borneo states are invariably treated as disregarded appendages to the national narratives of Indonesia and Malaysia. Yet they occupy a key position in the long historical record of Southeast Asia. Their experience of decolonisation spans the whole period of substantive imperial withdrawal from the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945 to the 1967 ASEAN Declaration which confirmed the status of Malaysia as an independent nation state. At a time when the process of decolonisation is increasingly questioned, especially in the former British Borneo territories of Sarawak and Sabah, a fresh look is long overdue.

  This paper, based largely on archival sources and empirical evidence, describes the process of decolonisation in the Borneo states of East Malaysia, Kalimantan and Brunei. In particular it considers the role of local agency which is all too often neglected in the standard historical accounts; the elements of recolonisation that affected all these states in different measure; the strains placed on a wide variety of local communities and the attempts to reconcile or obliterate these differences; the parallel efforts to construct a sense of national identity and citizenship in societies where colonialism itself was often a shallow experience; and the transnational framework in which decolonisation took place.

  It is part of the contention of the paper that the process of decolonisation cannot be fully understood if it is not informed by an appreciation of the processes of colonisation and its antecedents. It also considers briefly the legacy of colonialism in the Borneo states and poses the question whether decolonisation can in any sense be considered complete beyond the raising and lowering of national flags. It is hoped that this approach may prompt fresh thought about decolonisation in other areas of the region.

• Iberian Influence on Sociocultural Development of the Philippines, Timor-Leste, and the Straits of Malacca: Tracing the Colonial Past Ryan Pesigan Reyes Centro Escolar University

  Selected areas of maritime Southeast Asia have been greatly influenced by colonization. Alongside this, their sociocultural development has also been affected by their respective histories. Traditionally, Timor-Leste, Philippines and the areas surrounding the Straits of Malacca were colonized by the nations of the Iberian Peninsula. Their occupation forever changed the social and cultural landscape of the areas. Drawing on documentary research, fieldwork, qualitative interviews, and survey questionnaire data, this study historically traces the social and cultural development influenced by the Iberian colonization. In addition, it presents the prevailing influences within the region and traces how these still affect the sociocultural development of the areas of study.

  An analysis of the data gathered yielded that Spain and Portugal have sociologically and culturally influenced Timor-Leste, Philippines, and the areas surrounding the Straits of Malacca. Their influence have touched all sociocultural aspects – family, religion, government, education, economics, language, symbols, norms, and values.

  The survey questionnaire and qualitative interview added support to the documents and visual sources in understanding what the sociocultural identity is of the people in the areas of study. In using a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research, this paper endeavors to contribute to further Southeast Asian Studies.

• Remembering and Re-Membering Home: Postcolonial Poetics in 21st Century Filipino, Indonesian and Vietnamese Diasporic Narratives Christine Neil Tejedor Vicera University of Hong Kong

  In Global Diasporas, Robin Cohen points to the Greek roots of the term Diaspora, spiero, meaning to ‘sow’ or to ‘disperse’ (Cohen xiv). This “sowing” or “dispersion,” presupposes the idea of a centre, or a ‘home’ from which the dispersion occurs. This paper engages with Aleksandra Bida’s concept of a multi-scalar home as a way of understanding the migrant’s identity and place(s) in the world on an individual, interpersonal, social, and global scale. In examining the dialectic between the diasporic subject’s home – both the imaginary home and the adopted home – this paper articulates and maps out the out-of-sync nature of diasporic subjectivity which is manifested in what I call the “poetics of asynchronicity” that undergird the narratives of Hannah Espia’s independent film Transit (2013), Clement Baloup’s graphic novel Vietnamese Memories and Lian Gouw’s historical novel Only a Girl. The literary and filmic representations of mobility in Southeast Asian – specifically Filipino, Indonesian, and Vietnamese – diasporic narratives, reveal the dual-displacement that characterise the experience of diasporic mobility – a displacement in space and in time. This dual-displacement, constitutes the migrant’s out-of-sync experience, which according to Steffen Köhn in Mediating Mobility, is a result of the inability to reduce the “many temporal worlds,” they live in, “the past of the motherland... a present that is often precarious, and an uncertain future,” simultaneously into one (Köhn 109). In theorising a connection between these seemingly disparate narratives, this paper builds upon Elleke Boehmer’s work on postcolonial poetics and argues that through a “poetics of asynchronicity,” these narratives become engaged in a decolonisation of memory. While readers are compelled to remember and to re-member stories that verge on what Ariel Heryanto calls a “Postcolonial Amnesia,” the displaced subject is endowed with the agency to re-member forgotten pasts, and to create a more inclusive future in today’s world of movement.

Abstract

Keywords

• Decolonization
• History
• Timor-Leste