A

pril 20, p. 6

Once in a while, a journalist or scholar opinionates on Timor Leste’s choice of its official languages. Victor Richard Savage, associate professor in geography at the National University of Singapore, wrote recently “The current presidential election in Timor Leste has brought international visibility to this rather marginalized state within Southeast Asia.”

Mr. Savage then proceeded to provide us with his scholarly opinion on what is actually a very simple issue in Timor Leste, the issue of languages.

Timorese leaders and people, though islanders, are very outward-looking, open to cultural influences, eagerly learning and absorbing the good (and bad) we see, read and hear around us. We are among the most polyglot people in the world. (By J. Ramos-Horta, Dili)

Your comments:

Singapore is an extreme case. Having adopted English as the working and educational language decades ago, the government is now busy suppressing the local variant, Singlish. If you want to turn the populace into colorless economic units at the service of global capital, there is no better way to go about it.
Jason Koh
Australia

I totally agree with the writer. If we see the case of Europeans, they keep their national languages instead of English, even they [fight to] protect the minority languages, like Basque and Catalan in Spain.
Luthfi Darmawan
Tulung Agung, East Java

It is something unique in Indonesia. We use Bahasa Indonesia as our formal and national language but in daily communication we use our local languages as an informal language.
Bambang Charles
Banjarmasin

For most Indonesians, Bahasa Indonesia is a second language after their local language, and so it is in Timor Leste. It makes more sense to ditch Portuguese and use a more useful language like Indonesian or English as the national language while still using Tetum as the first language.
Peter
Kuta, Bali

Well done, Mr. Ramos-Horta. Let’s show some of these pathetic scholars that we are more human than what they think. The Timorese are proud that they are rich in culture and majestic in their own way. We are proud of being Timorese.
Bere Mau
Dili

I am touched by this strong opinion made by Ramos-Horta about the huge faith and the national pride. English is a global language, it’s true.

But to still cling to what nations have, and to possess national, historical and cultural perspective, accounts much more than just having a practical or trade-oriented one.

I am Indonesian, and reading this article is a true, gentle reminder for me that we should have pride in our nationality, since it accounts strongly on catalyzing the domestic development of our nation.
Ade Nurul Safrina
Jakarta