more from Laloran Justisa
Feb. 13th, 2022 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asakiyumeLaloran Justisa is up front about being didactic/educational: it covers issues like domestic abuse, alcoholism, presumption of innocence, nepotism, and so on. The most recent episode dealt in part with an upright young police officer with a secret in his past: his brothers were part of pro-Indonesia militias that formed after Timor-Leste declared in a 1999 referendum that it wanted to be independent of Indonesia.
Most of the Indonesian archipelago was colonized by the Dutch, but part of the island of Timor--the part comprising present-day Timor-Leste--was colonized by the Portuguese, who withdrew in 1975, whereupon Indonesia stepped in, wanting to incorporate the island. A 24-year conflict ensued, ending with Timor-Leste's independence. But although the Indonesian government and army committed terrible atrocities during the occupation, nothing's cut-and-dried: although close to 80 percent of the Timorese population supported independence, slightly more than 20 percent didn't, and people in that 20 percent were mobilized to make trouble when the referendum went the other way.
In an earlier episode, Vitór and the idealistic lawyer Rosa bump into each other at the Centro Nasional Chega, a museum that documents the abuses of the Indonesian occupation.
In another episode, Vitór is present at the commemoration of the anniversary of the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre, when the Indonesian military gunned down some 250 protestors, in Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, including schoolchildren.
Santa Cruz cemetery
Students participating in the commemoration
Vitór, in uniform this time, watching
His brothers' participation in pro-Indonesia militias is revealed, and he loses his job, but Rosa helps him recover it. It helps that he himself did not participate. But by having him talk about the situation in his suco (village) at the time, the show is able to broach why people did participate.
Here he's saying what his brothers did, but earlier he says, "In my village, there was a lot of pressure for us to be part of Indonesia, and those who joined the militia were given money, nice clothes, and good food." Since deliberate starvation was an Indonesian policy tactic that killed more than 180,000 people,1 "good food" was a compelling benefit.
I think about this a lot, about how you weave together a people that have been unraveled.
1Sian Powell, "UN Verdict on East Timor," The Australian, January 19, 2006, courtesy of the Wayback Machine.
Most of the Indonesian archipelago was colonized by the Dutch, but part of the island of Timor--the part comprising present-day Timor-Leste--was colonized by the Portuguese, who withdrew in 1975, whereupon Indonesia stepped in, wanting to incorporate the island. A 24-year conflict ensued, ending with Timor-Leste's independence. But although the Indonesian government and army committed terrible atrocities during the occupation, nothing's cut-and-dried: although close to 80 percent of the Timorese population supported independence, slightly more than 20 percent didn't, and people in that 20 percent were mobilized to make trouble when the referendum went the other way.
In an earlier episode, Vitór and the idealistic lawyer Rosa bump into each other at the Centro Nasional Chega, a museum that documents the abuses of the Indonesian occupation.
In another episode, Vitór is present at the commemoration of the anniversary of the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre, when the Indonesian military gunned down some 250 protestors, in Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, including schoolchildren.
Santa Cruz cemetery
Students participating in the commemoration
Vitór, in uniform this time, watching
His brothers' participation in pro-Indonesia militias is revealed, and he loses his job, but Rosa helps him recover it. It helps that he himself did not participate. But by having him talk about the situation in his suco (village) at the time, the show is able to broach why people did participate.
Here he's saying what his brothers did, but earlier he says, "In my village, there was a lot of pressure for us to be part of Indonesia, and those who joined the militia were given money, nice clothes, and good food." Since deliberate starvation was an Indonesian policy tactic that killed more than 180,000 people,1 "good food" was a compelling benefit.
I think about this a lot, about how you weave together a people that have been unraveled.
1Sian Powell, "UN Verdict on East Timor," The Australian, January 19, 2006, courtesy of the Wayback Machine.
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Date: 2022-02-14 01:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 12:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 03:31 am (UTC)East Timor is VERY geographically close to Australia
but when Indonesia invaded East Timor, killing several Australian journalists who were there [the journalists were killed very deliberately, to stop them reporting atrocities against the East Timorese]
and committing atrocities against the East Timorese
Australia, rather than using diplomatic, economic, or military pressure to support the East Timorese
Australia let Indonesia buy us off by giving Australia oil/gas rights that by rights should have belonged to the East Timorese :(
John Pilger did a very good documentary about it
Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy
An exploration of the situation in East Timor - a country ruled by bloodshed and fear.
Among many bad things Indonesia did to the East Timorese, they gave East Timorese teenagers/women long lasting contraceptive injections [I think it was Depo-Provera] telling them it was immunisation against measles.
This has left a legacy of distrust that hinders legitimate public-health vaccination programs in the region to this day
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Date: 2022-02-14 05:11 am (UTC)The Australian government behaved badly, but I've met many Australian citizens who are very committed to supporting Timor--these include the people who volunteer with and run the organization that let me visit its English teaching operation and the people who organize and teach the Tetun program that I've connected with. Not to mention, of course, the various heroic journalists and reporters!
Governments can be selfish and self-serving... nothing new there, sad to say. But you've got a lot of good private citizens (in my limited experience).
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Date: 2022-02-14 05:31 am (UTC)was the Australian Labor Party who are supposed to be *the good guys* - they're much less evil than the other major party, the Liberal–National Coalition [who are equivalent to the Tories/the Republicans]
I've always voted Greens 1, then any good independents, then Australian Labor Party [we have preferential voting]
so I felt betrayed by Australia;
and I felt betrayed by the Federal government;
and I felt betrayed by the party I vote for...
I mean, it's not like I would ever encourage anyone to vote for the Liberal–National Coalition instead, the Liberal–National Coalition's idea of a hobby is torturing refugees/poor people/LGBT people/the environment...
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Date: 2022-02-17 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-17 02:47 pm (UTC)