Local Governance in Timor-Leste - Secretaria de Estado da Arte e ...

prefer the term 'local' to recognise the inherently localised nature of traditional justicein Timor-Leste (see for example Harrington, 2006, Grenfell, 2006). However, this hassimilar problems to 'informal' as there are also recognisably modern local institutions.I argue that the difficulty in finding the 'right' conceptual categories is because theissue goes well beyond terminology. As Huyse and Salter point out, this discussion"puts a finger on a crucial aspect of traditional instruments today: they are hybrids andmove back and forth between their origin and capture by the state" (2008: 8). It is notthe use of the word 'traditional' that is suspect, but rather the binary of tradition andmodernity and its inability to embrace this hybridity. Customs that fall under theumbrella of 'traditional' need not come from a distant past, but may also be relativelyrecently integrated into the indigenous political and social system (Hobsbawm andRanger, 1992). This is true of all societies as they have changed, adapted, impacted onand been impacted by external forces. As Marcus and Fisher argue, "most localcultures worldwide are products of a history of appropriations, resistances andaccommodations" (1986: 78). The governance history of Timor-Leste, which hasgone through various stages of colonisation by the Portuguese, postcolonialcolonisation by the Indonesians, transition to independent statehood under theauspices of the UN Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET), and nowindependent Timorese government is certainly a good example of this history ofappropriation, resistance and accommodation. Throughout this complicated history,and as discussed in chapter four of this thesis, indigenous Timorese political systemshave adapted to the overarching state structure. It is also clear, however, thattraditional ideas of socio-political legitimacy and political organisation that areindependent of the broader state governance system have contemporary relevance andinform important aspects of people's daily lives (Hohe, 2002a, McWilliam, 2005,Trinidade, 2008).These historical forces have led to a political syncretism at the local level (Hicks,1983), commonly described in contemporary analyses as political hybridity (Brownand Gusmão, 2009, Boege et al., 2009a). Within contemporary Timoresecommunities, while lisan continues to be strong, there are also many international,national and regional influences that reach down to the suku and aldeia levels ofgovernance. In this thesis, I argue that these influences are negotiated in structured6