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

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with implications for peace and conflict studies, democratisation and developmentstudies.8.2 Decentralisation, and the Challenge of Democratic "Scaling Up"A second important area for further research and monitoring involves the impact thatdecentralisation will have on local-level governance and democratisation. Asdiscussed in chapter one of this thesis, the Timorese government is constitutionallycommitted to the principle of political decentralisation, but the final model to beadopted has not yet been agreed. This commitment to decentralisation reflects a broadunderstanding of Timorese society as internally diverse and composed of quitelocalised communities, and is also reflective of global trends in encouraging variousforms of decentralisation (Desai and Imrie, 1998). One of the primary reasons for theglobal popularity of decentralised governance has to do with its perceiveddemocratising influence, as it is thought to bring decision-making power closer to thepeople. However, as Pollitt (2005) points out, there are many divergent approaches to,and understandings of, decentralisation in public administration.This divergence between theories can result in a wide range of models that reflect thepurposes of very different ideological stakeholders (Mohan and Stokke, 2000). As aresult, the democratising impact of decentralisation cannot simply be taken forgranted, and the impact that decentralisation might have in promoting politicalparticipation in the communities of Timor-Leste is dependent on a wide range offactors. Some of these factors are technical, related to the specific design of thelegislation that defines the form and function of the proposed Municipal Assemblies.There have been intense negotiations around the shaping of the legislation and the'high politics' surrounding questions over how power and resources are to be sharedwith the central government and other stakeholders have been unsurprisingly fraught,as both the willingness of central authorities to devolve power, and the perceivedcapacity of Municipal Assemblies to effectively and legitimately exercise that power,have been called into question. Other factors relate to how the Municipal Assemblieswill connect with local communities. As such, the question of how the MunicipalAssemblies will connect with the suku, and specifically with the konsellu de suku, is199
of fundamental importance in considering the democratising potential ofdecentralisation in Timor-Leste.Under the current model it is proposed that 13 Municipal Assemblies will be created,each of which are to be based in the current district centres, with the territorial bordersto be broadly reflective of existing district boundaries (Kuehn, 2010: 2). However, aweakness in the current model is that the links between the proposed MunicipalAssemblies and the konsellu de suku have been removed (Everett and Ragrario,2009). This runs the risk of creating a new type of centralisation, with 13 differentpower centres that are still very removed from the people in many communities.There are two reasons for this risk. First, the geographical distance from many aldeiato the district centre is significant, a distance that is exacerbated by lack of access totransport and communication. This distance is not insurmountable, however,particularly if access to transport and communication is improved. Second, asfieldwork strongly indicates, there is an ideological distance to consider betweenthose who mainly live their lives according to lisan and the decision-making elite whooperate in the 'modern' sphere. This second consideration ties directly into questionsover how the institutions of the state can be made relevant to local communities inorder to provide for effective democratic representation.The analysis of the everyday politics of mutual recognition within Timoresecommunities provided in this thesis gives some clues as to how a broader nationalpolitics of mutual recognition as envisaged by Tully (1995) might be built that wouldprovide for effective democracy. However, there is still much to be learnt.Experiences in other countries suggest that addressing the gap between localcommunities and the institutions of the state is of fundamental importance to effectivedemocratisation. As Törnquist et. al. (2009: 198) argue in their examination of the"democratic deficit" that they identify in Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Indianstate of Kerala, a critical issue for creating a deeper democracy involves the "scalingup" of popular representation from communities to representative bodies. This isopposed to the more conventional approach to democratisation of working throughstate, party, and ideological lines, which has resulted in underdeveloped political linksbetween the state and the people (Törnquist, 2009: 4-5). These weakened politicallinks have very real consequences, which are expressed in a variety of ways200
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Local Governance in Timor-Leste:The
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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT‘I hereby gran
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are some important points of tensio
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the Canossian sisters in Ainaro—M
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2.6 The Issues of Cross-Cultural Re
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LIST OF FIGURESFigure One: The Deve
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Tara banduUma kainUma lulikXefe Ald
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within, I had failed to recognise t
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anthropology of development (Shephe
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prefer the term 'local' to recognis
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evolve around ideas of traditional
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institution that is considered to b
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the case given the emphasis on cond
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Within these increasingly murky pol
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1.3 Case Study SitesVenilaleVenilal
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The reasons for choosing Venilale a
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and influences can have on the loca
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played out since decolonisation. Th
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geographically 'outwards' from uma
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CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWO
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2.1 FieldworkFieldwork was conducte
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marked differences in people's idea
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interactions between modern and tra
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then asking for advice on who else
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answer specific questions about how
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Every conversation and every experi
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discussions. This took a little tim
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crucial to the research question—
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CHAPTER THREE: CONCEPTUALISING POST
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epresentation through democratisati
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of coordination between these diffe
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equally problematic, as this succes
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government, and Huntington noted th
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Westernise. Equally, the specificit
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which individuals both shape and ar
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expanded this understanding to incl
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within a society. As Remmer puts it
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is to distribute power to some and
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To explain this point, he makes the
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provided by public policy" (Fukuyam
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Gramsci's account of hegemonic powe
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From this perspective, Gramsci's id
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outcomes. Rather, it structures soc
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'shadow side' of the everyday polit
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The centrality of these kin-based g
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4.1 Formation of Political Hybridit
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While the rule of the liurai was in
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to be rejoined. But as local politi
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in Europe, this was seen somewhat d
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did not make life any easier for th
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governor, but slowly seats were inc
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The movement towards decolonisation
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As the politics reached gradually b
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appointed traditionally (Ospina and
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esistance to Indonesian rule (Gunn
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outrage across the world. Following
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f) To assist in the establishment o
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egan to return from their hiding pl
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for a Constituent Assembly (CA) and
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these other factors reveal a more c
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SECTION TWO: EXAMINING LOCAL GOVERN
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hold spiritual and ritual responsib
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Important exchange relationships th
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spiritual significance of the ances
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ight to freedom, for anyone to occu
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The centrality of the liurai house
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As discussed previously, one of the
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order to meet their communal requir
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community, or communal expectations
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within the suku and to lead the kon
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epresentative. These political mech
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structural issue: while the old ins
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democratisation has been seen to er
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Party politics has been one such po
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on the leaders' position within the
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Within this hybrid political enviro
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in the community. While there is a
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authority figures in the aldeia, su
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As fieldwork progressed, it became
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kain), it is taken to the xefe and/
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Page 181 and 182: SECTION THREE: SHAPING LOCAL GOVERN
Page 183 and 184: automatically become part of the lo
Page 185 and 186: ecent Shadow Report to CEDAW, which
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Page 189 and 190: power within Timorese communities.
Page 191 and 192: Such structural constraints, howeve
Page 193 and 194: Across every suku in Venilale and A
Page 195 and 196: was built for their most remote ald
Page 197 and 198: While community members may attempt
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Page 203 and 204: the community are captured or diver
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Page 207 and 208: CHAPTER EIGHT: BRINGING IT BACK TO
Page 209 and 210: communities have created various fo
Page 211: However, while incoming resources c
Page 215 and 216: APPENDIX A: LIST OF INTERVIEWEESVEN
Page 217 and 218: APPENDIX B: MAP OF TIMOR-LESTESourc
Page 219 and 220: APPENDIX D: POLITICAL MAP OF SUBDIS
Page 221 and 222: BINNS, T. (2006) 'Doing Fieldwork i
Page 223 and 224: CHESTERMAN, S. (2002) 'East Timor i
Page 225 and 226: DEGNBOL-MARTINUSSEN, J. (2002) 'Dev
Page 227 and 228: Lincoln, Y. (Eds.) The Landscape of
Page 229 and 230: GRENFELL, L. (2006) 'Legal Pluralis
Page 231 and 232: HOWARTH, D. (2000) Discourse, Bucki
Page 233 and 234: LANDMAN, T. & HAUSERMANN, J. (2003)
Page 235 and 236: MERRY, S. E. (1988) 'Legal Pluralis
Page 237 and 238: OSPINA, S. & HOHE, T. (2001) Tradit
Page 239 and 240: RUDOLPH, L. I. (1965) 'The Modernit
Page 241 and 242: THAKUR, R. & VAN LANGENHOVE, L. (20
Page 243: WORK, R. (2002) 'Overview of Decent
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