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the national identity thing
So, one time my dad was in Timor Leste, in a meeting that ran inordinately long because they had to translate everything from Portuguese to English. (The official languages in Timor Leste are Portuguese and Tetum.) "And after the meeting, we started chatting," said my dad. "And you know what language we were chatting in? Indonesian!"
The guy reckons that in five years or so, everyone in Timor Leste will be speaking Portuguese and most people won't even know Indonesian. The translator said, "Naw, man, the kids'll know Indonesian. How'll they watch their sinetron otherwise?" (Sinetron are like narmy Indonesian telenovelas with a lot of tears and screaming.)
Which is hilariously unsurprising but also not hilarious at all.
East Timor never really got the chance to develop a national identity. It was Portuguese for 300 years, and Timorese for like 10 seconds before we swooped in going, "MINE MINE MINE." Thirty years later, they can't get enough of our soap operas.
When Portugal granted East Timor its independence in 1975, it had a weak coalition government, and we totally took advantage of that. Before the Timorese knew it, they were Indonesian (or so we said). That is, if they weren't already one of the tens of thousands dead from violence, deprivation, and disease. And 1975 isn't so long ago. It's not even two generations ago. It was just roughly a decade before I was born, but I didn't know anything about this growing up. I didn't grow up in Indonesia, so it wasn't like I was subjected to its propaganda machine, but sometimes the best propaganda is no propaganda, is silence.
One time I was YouTubing Indonesia and came across this 1993 commercial and was really confused. Why the hell would Portugal care? Why was it picking on us? Well, Portugal was by far the strongest foreign supporter of Timorese independence. The Timorese cause was popular enough in Portugal that politicians would bandy it about to win public favor. As for the attitudes of other Western countries, well. East Timor had had a strong leftist party when Portugal left in 1975, and the Western neoliberal powers - fearful of a communist domino effect in Southeast Asia - supported the violent subjugation of East Timor by Indonesia. To whom they did pretty much the same thing 30 fucking years ago.
Timor Leste, here's to you making narmy telenovelas (or... something better) of your very own someday.
On an unrelated note: am I probably going to use part of my $25 iTunes gift-card to buy this?? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT.
INSTAVIDREC: Merlin/Will set to Telepopmusik's "Close" fsnkjfksajflkjsdflkjdfd I don't usually do vids, okay, but I am warming to them, especially if they're gonna be ABOUT MERLIN AND WILL BEING HEARTBREAKING. omg. Watch it, guys.
The guy reckons that in five years or so, everyone in Timor Leste will be speaking Portuguese and most people won't even know Indonesian. The translator said, "Naw, man, the kids'll know Indonesian. How'll they watch their sinetron otherwise?" (Sinetron are like narmy Indonesian telenovelas with a lot of tears and screaming.)
Which is hilariously unsurprising but also not hilarious at all.
East Timor never really got the chance to develop a national identity. It was Portuguese for 300 years, and Timorese for like 10 seconds before we swooped in going, "MINE MINE MINE." Thirty years later, they can't get enough of our soap operas.
When Portugal granted East Timor its independence in 1975, it had a weak coalition government, and we totally took advantage of that. Before the Timorese knew it, they were Indonesian (or so we said). That is, if they weren't already one of the tens of thousands dead from violence, deprivation, and disease. And 1975 isn't so long ago. It's not even two generations ago. It was just roughly a decade before I was born, but I didn't know anything about this growing up. I didn't grow up in Indonesia, so it wasn't like I was subjected to its propaganda machine, but sometimes the best propaganda is no propaganda, is silence.
One time I was YouTubing Indonesia and came across this 1993 commercial and was really confused. Why the hell would Portugal care? Why was it picking on us? Well, Portugal was by far the strongest foreign supporter of Timorese independence. The Timorese cause was popular enough in Portugal that politicians would bandy it about to win public favor. As for the attitudes of other Western countries, well. East Timor had had a strong leftist party when Portugal left in 1975, and the Western neoliberal powers - fearful of a communist domino effect in Southeast Asia - supported the violent subjugation of East Timor by Indonesia. To whom they did pretty much the same thing 30 fucking years ago.
Timor Leste, here's to you making narmy telenovelas (or... something better) of your very own someday.
On an unrelated note: am I probably going to use part of my $25 iTunes gift-card to buy this?? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT.
INSTAVIDREC: Merlin/Will set to Telepopmusik's "Close" fsnkjfksajflkjsdflkjdfd I don't usually do vids, okay, but I am warming to them, especially if they're gonna be ABOUT MERLIN AND WILL BEING HEARTBREAKING. omg. Watch it, guys.
no subject
Production of local telenovelas is scheduled for later this year! They've just put out calls for writers, directors, producers and anyone with television skills.
The language issue here is fraught. While there are certainly some Timorese who believe that the future of the country lies purely Portuguese, the path there is still very unclear. Currently schoolchildren in primary school are being taught in a mixture of Portuguese and Tetum, but teachers who grew up during the occupation are more familiar with Indonesian and barely speak Portuguese. (Portugal sent dozens of Portuguese teachers here to strengthen the language, but these teachers find themselves teaching basic education principles to poorly-educated Timorese teachers, rather than language to the students.) In high school and university, classes are in a mixture of Tetum and Indonesian, despite new legislation attempting to force classes to be conducted in Portuguese. When classes are conducted solely in Portuguese, students are simply unable to learn. The vast majority of Timorese high school students who leave to study overseas still go to Indonesia.
Meanwhile the majority of members of Parliament are unable to read draft laws in Portuguese, and people entering the court system (which operates solely in Portuguese, with limited translation services) are denied legal counsel in a language they can understand.
The push towards Portuguese is led by the generation of politicians who were already adults when the occupation began. Many of these politicians are 'mesticos' (half- or part-Portuguese) from Timor's elite. Many of them spent the occupation in Portugal or Portuguese colonies such as Mozambique. It's arguable that they do not represent the interests of the majority of Timorese, who speak Tetum as a lingua franca. Portuguese was a colonial imposition on Timor in the first place. And for 300 years, Portuguese colonialism in Timor was hardly what you could call 'pleasant' for Timorese, either, despite the fact it looks rosy in comparison to Indonesian occupation. I've met younger Timorese who remain deeply angry at the Portuguese cultural influence on Timor, including the enforced adoption of Catholic names.
There are a number of local and international NGOs working to promote and develop Tetum as a national language. The argument against Tetum is always 'Oh, but it's too simple for use as a language of administration and law!' -- but people also used to say that about Indonesian.
(Side note: Do you know that famous dangdut song, 'Goyang Inul'? I walked past a boy the other day, probably no more than six or seven, who was singing it perfectly to himself as he sat at the side of the road. "Para penonton, bapak-bapak, ibu-ibu semua..." The continuing influence of Indonesian cable TV...)
no subject
This is fascinating! Thanks for taking the time to type this out. Yeah, there does tend to be tendencies towards cultural essentialism when it comes to articulating national identity. As if the only true culture of Nation X took place before Colonist Y came along. But, if Y has been there long enough, then trying to completely erase Y from X can be damaging and counterproductive. It's 'killing the messenger', I think Benedict Anderson calls it. This is not to say that you have to unquestionably accept Y, not by any means. You can't just Ctrl+Z stuff like this, not when it has ingrained itself into the next generation. It's just that you have to allow for hybridity in identity.
Or reclaiming the oppression thrust upon you, the way black people reclaimed "nigger" and Filipinos reclaimed the barong tagalog. The barong tagalog is a transparent men's shirt made of pineapple fibers. During Spanish colonization, Filipinos wore this so the Spanish can see that they weren't hiding any weapons under their clothes. But now it's become the national dress, and has couture variations.
I don't know any dangdut hahaha. I was thrilled at how the Indonesian music scene has blossomed in the past few years though! The Brandals, Homogenic, Souljah. Those are the ones I know and like.