East Timor: The Impact of Integration. An Indonesian Socio-Anthropological Study
By Prof. Mubyarto et al
Indonesian Resources and Information Program, Melbourne. 70 pp. $10.00
Reviewed by Robin Osborne
Judging this book by its cover, the reader might conclude — and quite rightly — that "socio-anthropological" conditions in the Indonesian-occupied territory of East Timor are exceedingly miserable.
In a 1990 colour photograph, two young children gaze mournfully from their village hut. Both seem dirty and dispirited, while one wears a "shirt" made from a grimy flour sack. Behind them sits their father, looking equally miserable.
This, the picture suggests, is the impact of what the Indonesian government regards as the East Timor "integration", better known to the outside world as an invasion followed by an occupation enforced by a reign of terror. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the name of "liberating" the East Timorese from colonialism.
To be fair, a similar photo could have been taken during the centuries-long Portuguese colonial rule which ended in 1974 with an anti-fascist coup in distant Lisbon. Many people were malnourished then, too, and the territory's infrastructure was dreadfully underdeveloped.
But in this reviewer's experience, it was hard to point a camera at a village group, however poor, without encountering smiling faces and a joie de vivre that was remarkable under the circumstances.
The contents of this "first independent Indonesian study of the socio-economic situation in East Timor" present a somewhat different picture, however.
At times it is simply a cautious one, no doubt prompted by the six academics' desire to avoid biting the hand that was feeding them: the study was sponsored by the Bank of Indonesia, conducted at the invitation of the provincial government and backed by the prestigious Gadjah Mada University in the Javanese city of Jogjakarta.
At other times, the study touches on the critical, urging the authorities to give more credence to the wishes of the East Timorese and their culture. Agriculture, the education system, job creation and the role of the security forces are all areas which need reforming, the university group says.
Sadly, the prime motivation for change is the desire for a more harmonious "integration" rather than genuine justice for those East Timorese who have survived the Indonesian onslaught so far.
This synthesised quote represents the nub of the argument —
"While the integration of East Timor into Indonesia has brought physical progress to the island, it has not yet been able to eliminate social, economic and political problems resulting from an integration process which has cost too many lives ... An understanding of East olutely essential for officials working in the province ... Both sides tend to stereotype the bad aspects of each other's society. These stereotypes do not help achieve the main goal of integration, namely the welfare of the East Timorese."
Yet the people's welfare did not even figure in Indonesia's original rationale for annexing the territory. Instead, the attack was said to be aimed at preventing the spread of Communism — how foolish this now appears — and to stop a civil war that had in fact ended months before the December 1975 attack.
The latter claim marks one of this volume's major conflicts with the truth. "The second special characteristic of East Timorese society is that the process of its decolonisation came about through a civil war in which many lives were lost", it claims, adding, incredibly: "The Indonesian government intervened in this process and then succeeded in freeing the East Timorese people from Portuguese colonialism and integrating East Timor as a legal part of the Republic of Indonesia".
Oh, really?
Just as ludicrous is the claim that the people of another disenfranchised province, Irian Jaya, "feel a part of the Indonesian nation intellectually and ideologically".
Such nonsense is almost enough to damn the work out of hand.
It is hard to portray as anything but cynical and patronising an exercise that sent four research assistants into villages for a month, with their superiors concluding from the findings that integration would proceed smoothly if only more heed were taken of the people's culture.
A pseudo-analysis of the coffee industry makes no mention of its corrupt domination for years by the military, while the ongoing insurgency conducted by Fretilin is also ignored.
Did the "researchers" not gather that East Timorese do not like Indonesia's blend of Java-centric racism, lack of democracy and military oppression? Apparently not, or if they did, the relevant entries in their field books got no further than that.
A month before the book was published, at least 100 East Timorese were shot to death in the provincial capital, an appalling act which has received scant acknowledgement from Jakarta — a few anonymous commanders were transferred elsewhere in the military apparatus — and only cursory condemnation from Canberra.
Did the Santa Cruz cemetery massacre occur because the Indonesian troops did not respect the "culture" of East Timorese? Or their basic human rights?
For the answers, we apparently shouldn't look to such "highly respected" academics as those who presided over this Orwellian exercise.
The publisher, IRIP, which also produces the excellent magazine Inside Indonesia, should be praised for introducing an English-speaking audience to the parameters of Indonesian telling it little about conditions in East Timor.
For more of the latter, attention could be directed to the recent work of Mark Aarons and Robert Domm, or the earlier, excellent efforts of James Dunn, Jill Jolliffe et al, none of which is cited in this work's non-existent bibliography.
Of course, those books are all banned in Indonesia.
[Robin Osborne, the author of Indonesia's Secret War: The Guerilla Struggle in Irian Jaya, reported on events in East Timor before the Indonesian invasion.]