| ID | 082599 |
| Title Proper | History, nation and narrative in East Timor's truth commission report |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Webster, David |
| Publication | 2008. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | In writing their report, the members of East Timor's Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Reception (CAVR) were keenly aware of the ways the understanding of history could shape the new nation. Offering a "focus on the past for the sake of the future," they searched for a usable past. There is an uneasy tension in the report between this quest for a single agreed national narrative of the past, and the search for complexities and an inside, non-elite perspective.
The CAVR report rejects the official Indonesian narrative that asserted Indonesian military occupation was the only thing preventing "civil war." It equally rejects the international understanding, dominant for many years, that East Timorese independence was a "lost cause." It presents a counter-narrative of a united people, fighting for freedom amidst repression, until their final triumph. It is framed almost as a Catholic story of original sin, suffering and redemption. An ideologically driven, internally divisive and internationally counterproductive campaign gave way to an apolitical, united struggle able to win international support, the report suggests. The narrative arc runs "from divergence to convergence," and rests on two key concepts: resistance and unity. Where resistance suggests a message of liberation against overwhelming odds, the imperatives of unity suggest it is important to "play by the rules" of the international system. In some ways this is the dilemma of East Timor as an independent state. |
| `In' analytical Note | Pacific Affairs Vol. 80, No.4; Winter 2008: p581-592 |
| Journal Source | Pacific Affairs Vol. 80, No.4; Winter 2008: p581-592 |
| Key Words | East Timor ; History |