Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 38, Number 17. July 16, 1973

[Introduction]

The April 1974 coup in Portugal heralded great changes not only in Portugal and Africa, but also much closer to home. East Timor changed overnight from a colonial backwater to a new political force in South-East Asia, creating consternation in Indonesia and jitters in Australia.

The island of Timor is located at the southeastern extremity of the Nusatenggara Archipeligo. East Timor (Portuguese Timor) consists of the eastern half of the island, together with the small enclave of Oe-Cussi on the north coast of the Indonesian half of the island. Most visitors to East Timor come from Australia travelling the 400 miles from Darwin on a TAA Friendship aircraft. Of the 6,000 tourists arriving each year, many are young Australians and New Zealanders entering Indonesia cheaply thru the back door To these visitors, the 450 years of Portuguese Colonial mismanagement are all too evident. 90% of the indigenous population is still illiterate; health services are nigh on non-existent (there are only twenty doctors for the entire 650.000 inhabitants, 12 of whom are stationed in the capital of Dili, where one finds most of the Portuguese); and, besides many diseases like malaria being widespread, Timor has one of the highest TB rates in the world. The only existing three miles of sealed road are in the capital, and there is no secondary industry to speak of. Failure of infrastructure is, in fact, the gravest problem, and goods often have to be moved between points on the island by ship because roads are impassable.

Coffee earns over 90% of the island's foreign exchange. Yet an extremely small number of Timorese benefit from this since 40% of coffee production is in the hands of a single Portuguese firm, and the bulk of the rest is in the hands of the Chinese. Commerce in East Timor is almost totally dominated by the 10,000 strong Chinese population. Of the 25 largest firms in the country, all are Chinese with the exception of two Portuguese enterprises. For the vast majority of Timorese life is hard - 90% of the population still eke out of a subsistence living using 'slash and burn' and other primitive agricultural techniques. A hill tribesman cultivating tapioca, bananas, peanuts and coffee might earn $30 a year - the lowest per capital income in South-East Asia. Adding insult to injury, each Timorese male over the age of 18 has to pay a fixed yearly tax and if it is not paid then he is forced to work it off, generally working on the roads.