I

ndonesia may have colonized East Timor for decades, but the names we are most familiar with number only two: Keyrala “Xanana” Gusmao, the charismatic former guerilla leader, now prime minister, and Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta, the resistance diplomat, now president of his country. The first spent most of his struggle in the mountains and the second jet setting around the world.

Meanwhile, we have for a long time ignored the man who was the founder of the historic Democratic Republic of Timor Leste (RDTL) despite the fact that he spent a considerable part of his life in Indonesia. That man was Francisco Xavier do Amaral.

Xavier do Amaral died in Dili on March 6, aged 74, due to cancer. He was an amiable man, a fighter, tough politician, and statesman all rolled into one. His story, life and struggle was heroic, ironic and tragic.

Heroic because it was his political party, the social democratic ASDT, founded by himself, Ramos-Horta and Nicolau do Reis Lobato, that laid the foundations of the RDTL and the liberation movement Fretilin.

Ironic because Amaral proclaimed independence in late 1975, only to serve as head of state for 10 days. He never won a presidential election in independent Timor Leste (2002 & 2007).

But above all, it’s tragic because shortly after proclaiming his country’s independence, Amaral became a war prisoner-turned-house detainee for some 20 years in Jakarta (1978-2000). And, as he went home in the early 2000s, it was far from obvious whether he would be recognized and welcomed as a founding father.

Nonetheless, Xavier do Amaral was a great patriot who played an important role for his nation. Even during his exile, being the primus inter pares, he performed a fatherly role as protector of the Timorese community in Jakarta.

In any case, the Timor Leste government has decided to officially acknowledge his dedication and service. He will be buried at the Metinaro Hero Cemetery and the nation will mourn for three days.

“I was never in doubt, but I kept my eyes looking toward the sea and my ears toward the air [because] who knows, the Indonesian Army might have come back and attacked us,” Amaral told Radio Netherlands in 1995 as he described the moment on November 28, 1975 at 10 p.m., when he read the text of the proclamation of the RDTL.

By then, Fretilin knew Indonesia would sooner or later take over the country. But its unilateral independence declaration came as a great shock for Jakarta. It forced the Army’s intelligence unit Opsus in Bali to hastily prepare a pro-integration declaration and the generals to proceed with an invasion as soon as the visiting US president Gerard Ford and foreign minister Henry Kissinger left Jakarta on December 7, 1975.