Timor Leste needs Indonesian language more than others

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 06/11/2007 7:21 AM | Opinion

Janet Steele and Jerry Macdonald, Denpasar

On June 6, 2007, Timor Leste President Josi Ramos-Horta met with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and made a historic com-mitment to affirm the importance of bahasa Indonesia as a working language in Timor Leste.

This was a courageous gesture on the part of someone who for 24 years struggled to end the Indonesian occupation of his country. Such enlightened leadership bodes well not only for the future of Timor Leste, but also for bilateral relations with its large and influential neighbor.

The simple fact is that Indonesian language is the lingua franca of Timor Leste. The only people in Timor Leste who can ignore this reality are the many foreigners who come with the pre-conceived notion that the history of East Timor began in 1999 with the vote for independence.

During a recent visit to Dili, Manatuto, Baucau, and Ossu, we talked with Timorese from all walks of life and found that everyone recognized Indonesian, that Indonesia is Timor Leste's most important trading partner, and that despite the intrigue between Australia and Portugal over which country will dominate the economic and political future of Timor Leste, for ordinary Timorese the ties that matter are with Indonesia.

For the majority of Timorese who did not spend the years of Indonesian occupation in exile, Indonesian language is the language of the literate.

Although Tetum is spoken day to day, there is not yet a universally accepted grammar and spelling. For example, when we asked a group of 30 young Timorese who were studying journalism what language they preferred to write in, all but one answered ""Indonesian.""

Unfortunately right now there are very few books available in East Timor in any language. The Xanana Gusmao reading room -Dili's leading public libraryhas a small tattered collection, mostly in English. There are no bookstores, and even students at UNTL (the University of Timor Leste) must struggle to find reference materials that they can use to write their skripsi (theses).

Timor Leste Education and Culture Minister Rosaria Maria Corte de Real recently stated the literacy rate among Timorese over the age of 15 is 50 percent. It's a fact of life that if there's nothing to read, literacy will never improve.

Although Timorese are enormously proud of their newly independent nation, they are practical enough to recognize the advantages of building on the foundation of the economic and educational infrastructure started by Indonesia. It's time that the American government showed a similar appreciation of realpolitik as well as the enormous power of reconciliation.

For many years, the United States Embassy in Jakarta has translated a wide range of books from English to Indonesian. Sadly, these books are not available in Timor Leste.

One reason for this is the politically dicey topic of language policy, as American officials fear that support for the Indonesian language will be mis-interpreted by the Timorese government as nostalgia for Indonesian influence.

This shortsightedness has had the unintended consequence of hurting the Timorese people.

So here's our modest proposal: If President Ramos Horta has the courage and foresight to recognize the importance of Indonesian as a working language, the U.S. government should likewise have the guts to reconsider its position on sending Indonesian language translations of American books to Timor Leste.

At a time whenspending two billion dollars a week on the war in Iraq, how about spending a few thousand dollars a year in the war on illiteracy in East Timor? Such a plan would cost virtually nothing, and have an enormous impact.

Janet Steele and Jerry Macdonald are former Fulbright grantees and frequent visitors to Indonesia and East Timor.

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