Opinion Articles

SOUL MATTERS: Ten years on, Timor still struggles
By Conor Ashleigh

East Timor, 30 August 1999: thousands of residents turn out to vote for independence under the watching gaze of Indonesian soldiers and paramilitary forces. These residents did so knowing that if Timor became a sovereign nation for the first time since 1749, the price would be high - and it was.

Under the United Nations Integrated Mission in East Timor, the vote for independence promised a peaceful nation, but the reality was very different. As the Indonesian soldiers and militia left East Timor they took from the place all that they could, including 100,000 lives lost during the anarchy that unfolded as the world watched. For many the notion of democracy, particularly after years of occupation, augurs equality, development and opportunities previously unknown. Ten years on, I wonder if much has changed in Timor.

How does a nation of people recover from such a deadly and destructive period? Timor was stripped of much of its physical and intellectual infrastructure. Slowly buildings have been replaced while many Timorese who fled in the early stages of Indonesia’s occupation in 1975 have returned in an attempt to help their island nation grow and prosper. However, healing the torture and trauma of 1999 hasn’t been easy.

The spirit of Timor Leste, from which arose the surge for independence in 1999, is mirrored in any number of persecuted nations. The sacred nature of what it means to be human pertains to every individual, whatever their name, age or colour. It is this aspect of humanity I remember experiencing in Timor when I was last there in 2005.

I realised the power of people and the importance of faith as a binding thread to actualise community. A nation’s response to persecution seems almost incomprehensible when reading the country’s history from afar. Spend a Sunday in one of Timor’s churches as thousands pack into the structures built to house a few hundred, and you realise what this spirit is. It is the truth that underlies faith, which for many has been the backbone of their survival through the darkest of days.

Despite the many differences between practices and creeds, I have been blessed to witness that binding sense of humanity which lives in communities around the world: Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, Sikh soup kitchens, thatched hut churches in rural Uganda, prayer time in a mosque on the border of India, Pakistan and Tibet and amongst community gatherings here in Australia.

Through the power of imagery I hope to bring to light East Timor’s journey since that historic day on 30 August, 1999.

Conor Ashleigh is a development studies student at the University of Newcastle, a social activist, photographer and inveterate traveller. This article is submitted by the Churches Media Association www.cmahunter.com.au

*This article was published in The Newcastle Herald, 15th June 2009