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

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three groups continued to struggle for control, at various times forming alliances witheach other or with the indigenous liurai.In 1702 the first official governor of Portuguese Timor was appointed in Lifau. Thegovernor entered into and formalised alliances with the surrounding liurai byrecognising their right to rule their own people, and bringing them under colonialauthority by bestowing military rank (Davidson, 1994: 61). This practice of militarilyrecognising traditional rulers was very effective in cementing colonial rule andcontinued well into the 20 th century (Boxer, 1960: 353). This is partly reflective ofTimorese culture being a warrior culture, and partly reflective of practical politics, asindigenous rulers who also had access to Portuguese forces were in a better positionto subdue local rebellions. In 1769, the Portuguese moved their centre to Dili inresponse to military aggression by the Topasses, who allied with local liurai. Lifauwas then captured by the Dutch (Davidson, 1994: 60, Capell, 1944: 193, Boxer,1947).Rather than colonisation by direct conquest, the Portuguese strengthened theirpresence within Portuguese Timor through indirect rule. As the Portuguese forces didnot have sufficient numbers to conquer all of the liurai across Timor directly, many ofthe conflicts with rebellious liurai were actually waged by other liurai who weresympathetic to, and benefited from, the Portuguese colonial support (Davidson, 1994:61, Dunn, 1983: 54). This also applied with the ongoing contests for power betweenthe Portuguese, the Dutch and the Topasses, and alliances regularly shifted betweenthese three groups and the liurai (Hägerdal, 2009: 53-59). As such, the impact of thecolonisers during this period is best described as ongoing power struggles betweenfour elite groups: the Dutch, Topasses, Portuguese, and the indigenous elites, theliurai (Davidson, 1994: 276). Just as the liurai had regularly waged war on each otherfor land and tributary subjects, the newcomers also sought to expand their influenceacross the island through conflict and alliances.During this time, there was no administrative control exercised by the Dutch or thePortuguese beyond their immediate territories, and the liurai continued to engage witheach other and rule their respective territories via lisan. While the alliances that wereentered into were reported by the colonisers as gaining 'vassals' for the kingdoms back83
in Europe, this was seen somewhat differently by the liurai. They continued to formalliances and politically engage with the colonisers for their own purposes, while alsomaintaining alliances and relationships with other liurai. Lisan relationshipscontinued to be highly significant in this context, trumping colonial claims ofvassalage and the artificial creation of boundaries established by colonial wars.Farram (1999: 43) relates a case in which the Dutch vassals of Alor and Pantar(islands in what is now West Timor) habitually went to the ruler of Oecusse withwhom they had an lisan relationship whenever there was a problem that neededexternal support. The fact that Oecusse was a vassal of the Portuguese and that theyhad made alliances with the Dutch held no significance for them.This balance of power between warring elites began to shift during the nineteenthcentury, when the Portuguese moved their economic focus from the extraction ofsandalwood to the harvesting of various crops for export (Dunn, 1983: 19). One of themost important of these exports was coffee, which required much greater control overland and access to indigenous forced labour to work the large, state-owned plantations(Davidson, 1994: 19). During this time the Portuguese also introduced the capitação(head tax) that was eventually to replace the existing tribute system between the emareinoand the liurai. These greater colonial demands were opposed by many liuraiwhose rule was being undermined, and also by many ema-reino for whom the tributesystem was one of exchange between ema-reino and liurai for spiritual protection,something the Portuguese system of head-tax did not recognise (Traube, 1987: 112,120, Davidson, 1994: 19).Because of changing colonial policy and subsequent resistance by the Timorese, bythe end of the 19 th century, the liurai were regarded by the Portuguese as an obstaclein achieving colonial control and their rule was progressively undermined throughvarious decrees. In 1860, the governor divided Portuguese Timor into tenadministrative districts, each of which was headed by a Portuguese officer (Saldanha,1994: 49). To strengthen their rule against the liurai they took an incrementalapproach, sometimes tightening control through removing 'rebellious' liurai frompower and incorporating them into allies' kingdoms (Davidson, 1994: 98). At othertimes, the Portuguese would 'appoint' a new, loyal liurai to replace one who had beenrebellious. These practices had a profound effect on communities, which still84
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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
Page 45 and 46: interactions between modern and tra
Page 47 and 48: then asking for advice on who else
Page 49 and 50: answer specific questions about how
Page 51 and 52: Every conversation and every experi
Page 53 and 54: discussions. This took a little tim
Page 55 and 56: crucial to the research question—
Page 57 and 58: CHAPTER THREE: CONCEPTUALISING POST
Page 59 and 60: epresentation through democratisati
Page 61 and 62: of coordination between these diffe
Page 63 and 64: equally problematic, as this succes
Page 65 and 66: government, and Huntington noted th
Page 67 and 68: Westernise. Equally, the specificit
Page 69 and 70: which individuals both shape and ar
Page 71 and 72: expanded this understanding to incl
Page 73 and 74: within a society. As Remmer puts it
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Page 79 and 80: provided by public policy" (Fukuyam
Page 81 and 82: Gramsci's account of hegemonic powe
Page 83 and 84: From this perspective, Gramsci's id
Page 85 and 86: outcomes. Rather, it structures soc
Page 87 and 88: 'shadow side' of the everyday polit
Page 89 and 90: The centrality of these kin-based g
Page 91 and 92: 4.1 Formation of Political Hybridit
Page 93 and 94: While the rule of the liurai was in
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Page 101 and 102: governor, but slowly seats were inc
Page 103 and 104: The movement towards decolonisation
Page 105 and 106: As the politics reached gradually b
Page 107 and 108: appointed traditionally (Ospina and
Page 109 and 110: esistance to Indonesian rule (Gunn
Page 111 and 112: outrage across the world. Following
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Page 119 and 120: these other factors reveal a more c
Page 121 and 122: SECTION TWO: EXAMINING LOCAL GOVERN
Page 123 and 124: hold spiritual and ritual responsib
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Page 131 and 132: The centrality of the liurai house
Page 133 and 134: As discussed previously, one of the
Page 135 and 136: order to meet their communal requir
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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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process, they have the right to go
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(March, 2008). In the absence of le
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explains, he will not engage with a
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this distinction. When I asked abou
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insufficient attention being paid t
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of barlake that lay in the alliance
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functional, leaving them especially
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affiliation with political parties.
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xefe suku explained that the cost o
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that there is a combination of soci
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SECTION THREE: SHAPING LOCAL GOVERN
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automatically become part of the lo
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ecent Shadow Report to CEDAW, which
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Governance must be for something, a
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power within Timorese communities.
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Such structural constraints, howeve
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Across every suku in Venilale and A
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was built for their most remote ald
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While community members may attempt
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networks that use such animistic ri
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strongman, who operated in Venilale
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the community are captured or diver
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strongman specifically uses institu
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CHAPTER EIGHT: BRINGING IT BACK TO
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communities have created various fo
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However, while incoming resources c
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of fundamental importance in consid
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APPENDIX A: LIST OF INTERVIEWEESVEN
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APPENDIX B: MAP OF TIMOR-LESTESourc
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APPENDIX D: POLITICAL MAP OF SUBDIS
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BINNS, T. (2006) 'Doing Fieldwork i
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CHESTERMAN, S. (2002) 'East Timor i
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DEGNBOL-MARTINUSSEN, J. (2002) 'Dev
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Lincoln, Y. (Eds.) The Landscape of
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GRENFELL, L. (2006) 'Legal Pluralis
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HOWARTH, D. (2000) Discourse, Bucki
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LANDMAN, T. & HAUSERMANN, J. (2003)
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MERRY, S. E. (1988) 'Legal Pluralis
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OSPINA, S. & HOHE, T. (2001) Tradit
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RUDOLPH, L. I. (1965) 'The Modernit
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THAKUR, R. & VAN LANGENHOVE, L. (20
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WORK, R. (2002) 'Overview of Decent
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