Obra Oin-oin Kona-ba Timor-Leste

Tim Anderson Kekerasan di Dili bukanlah suatu perselisihan ataupun kekerassan etnis yang spontan. Perdana Mentri Timor Leste Mari Alkatiri mengatakan bahwa serangan-serangan bersenjata itu adalah bagian dari suatu upaya kup, dan mengikuti suatu sejarah upaya destabilisasi. Tampaknya dia lebih mengetahui dibanding pakar-pakar Australia yang berbicara semata-mata mengenai persaingan “timur-barat” dan bangsa yang “belum dewasa” yang belum siap untuk merdeka. Karikatur-karikatur seperti itu mengenai Timor Leste dan pemerintahannya sangat menyesatkan dan membahayakan. Telah terjadi destabilisasi terhadap pemerintahan sah Fretilin, bahkan sejak kemerdekaan, dan pemerintahan Howard punya satu bagian peranan. Pertanyaan  pentingnya sekarang adalah: seberapa banyak perannya? Suatu tingkat pengorganisasian, dan keyakinan diri, bisa dilihat dalam mobilisasi senjata dan seruan internasional dari tentara pembangkang. Senjata-senjata berat d...

The Australian Government and media have demonised East Timor's PM without knowing all the facts, writes Helen Hill. The Age, June 1 2006 Ever since the August 2001 elections for the Constituent Assembly in East Timor - when the longest-standing party of resistance, Fretilin, won a convincing 57 per cent of the vote against 14 other parties - I have observed among Australian embassy employees in Dili, and most Australian journalists who write about Timor, a readiness to criticise Mari Alkatiri, East Timor's Prime Minister, on grounds that show they barely know anything about him. The Bulletin and The Australian regularly recommend his overthrow. The week before the Fretilin congress in Dili, the ABC joined them as regular Alkatiri critics. Jim Middleton on the ABC's evening news wondered "what would happen if Alkatiri decides to resist" calls for his resignation, and uncritically put to air claims from a sacked Fre...

By  Tim Anderson  This article was first published in the Tetun language, in Timor Leste's Kla'ak (The Flame) newspaper . In July 2008 Timor Leste’s Agriculture Minister Mariano Sabino spoke at seminars about agricultural sustainability and food security in Dili and Dare. Yet a few months earlier the Minister had signed a document which could deliver the most devastating blow to Timor Leste’s sustainability and food security since independence. In a January 2008 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Indonesian-based GT Leste Biotech, Minister Sabino agreed to hand over 100,000 hectares of Timor’s scarce agricultural land to be used as a sugar-cane plantation. Similarly, in February, Secretary of State Avelinho da Silva signed a contract with the Australian-based biofuel company Enviroenergy Developments Australia for Jatropha development on 59 hectares of land at Baucau. It is rumoured that even larger tracts of land are under dis...

By Tim Anderson    Wednesday 14 June 2006 The recent Australian intervention in East Timor has been accompanied by menacing suggestions of its being a ‘failed State’ — not just a State that cannot govern itself, but one that poses a threat to others, thus justifying intervention. Yet foreign intervention is anathema to independence and self-governance. The immediate danger to East Timor’s self-determination is likely to be an Australian neo-colonial dominance that could reverse the independent path the nation has taken. International and UN involvement in the intervention only slightly diminishes this threat. Powerful Australian interests are talking openly about the need for a strong Australian hand on East Timorese policy. The Fretilin Government, led by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, has attempted to manage the tensions of independence: appeasing Indonesia; joining the World Bank but not borrowing money; and maintaining a civil relationship with Australi...

Cerpen Linda Christanty MENJELANG senja Yosef Legiman melihat Maria Pinto mengarungi langit dengan kuda terbang. Angin tiba-tiba menggeliat bangkit dan mendesis. Udara menjelma mantra ganjil yang berdengung dalam bahasa sihir; wangi, membius segala yang bergerak dan keras kepala. Ia tertegun, menengadah, mendekap senjata laras panjang otomatis, dan teringat pesan komandannya, “Biarkan dia lewat, jangan menembak.” Gaun lembut Maria Pinto membelah anyir perang dengan kibaran putih yang menyilaukan. Yosef seperti terjebak cinta lama. Dalam baur rasa takut dan ingin, ia tak bisa lari. Desis angin makin kejam ketika sebuah kereta perang melayang mengikuti arah terbang kuda. Dua pengawal—raksasa berkulit kelam, berambut terurai–menyertai perjalanan rutin ini, menjaga junjungan mereka. Yosef membiarkan iring-iringan di langit itu berlalu. Lutut-lututnya lemas. Ia terduduk di tanah, mendekap senjata. Angin pun berangsur tenang. Alang-al...