Adat and the Nation-State:
Attitudes to National Identity as a Challenge of National-Building in Timor Leste
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Political & Governmental System in South East Asia
PSCI 3320
Section 1
Semester 1, 2018-2019
Nadia Hasna Humaira (1519440)
Maizan Binti Nordin (1419396)
Macire Drame (1431229)
Introduction
Timor-Leste is a country in Maritime Southeast Asia.It became the first new sovereign nation of the 21st century on May 20th 2002 after a violent struggle against the Indonesian militias. It has a population of just over one million and in 2010 was 120th on the United Nations Human Development Index. The culture of East Timor reflects numerous influences, including Portuguese, Roman Catholic and Indonesian, on Timor's indigenous Austronesian and Melanesian cultures1.
The term “nation”, will be understood to refer to “a group of people who regard themselves as possessing an aggregate political identity, most often based on a shared language (means of conceptualization) and other fundamental cultural signifiers”.2 A “state” which can claim or compel the compliance of its citizens to its laws”. Finally, the combinatory category of nation-state implies “a nation of people who claim the state as their collective territorial and institutional expression, as an administrative territory that claims a unity of the people within its boundaries)
In Timor Leste, many forms of national unity developed during his struggle for independence during Indonesian occupation. Timor Leste can be used as an example of certain national development challenges in subsistence societies, where there is not much integration of rural communities into modern economic and political systems regulated by the state. In the process of developing liberal democratization, there have been several refusals to incorporate greater traditional authority and dispute resolution. Among the problems facing post-colonial states, Timor Leste even after eight years of independence, the majority of Timorese in the sukus or small communities made up of varying numbers of villages identify themself more as residence of those local communities than as citizens of the state.
Research Question
1.Does the opposition and the combination of in two political culture determine the national identity?
2.How does the role of national identity influence the national development in Timor Leste?
Research Objectives
Timor-Leste’s importance in comparative studies to its significance in illustrating the distinct challenges of national building: The Process of Forming a cohesive “national” political community based on unifying sense of national identity. The history of post colonial state-building has often been one of attempts to build functional state institutions while overlooking the critical issues of national cohesion essential to political stability.3 Alienation between the two conceptualization of two governance; Adat and the National-State, is creating novel political categories when nothing comparable to suites their purpose. This disconnection between the national government and the sukus is particularly stricking with another issues like domestic violence, sexual abuse, and another violences among the people. The central of this paper is also to argue that the failure to transform villagers into citizens has a big influence on national-building while there is no sense of nationalism which called national identity and unity among the people of Timor Leste
The Significance of Research Paper
The findings of this research paper are expected to reveal that part of the 'problem' of national-building constraints in Timor-Leste lies in development orthodoxy and its inability to adapt to settings where the traditional system of local authority must be in line with the nation. Understand the challenges of building a more cohesive sense of national identity and political community in Timor Leste. Indeed, much can be gained by reshaping development theory and practical views and interpreting such opinions, moving away from the idea of a series of cultural obstacles to recognize them as a deeply embedded system of meaning that continues to guide various aspects of Timorese in their lives. That way, it is hoped that this research paper can help us to explore and be able to analyze how Timor Leste face challenges in national-building and their evolving process of liberal democratization without having to lose their identity in this political transition.
References
Konstituisaun Repúblika Demokrátika Timór-Leste" (PDF). Government of Timor-Leste.
Included among these cultural signifiers are common values, history, institutions, and myths. Damien Kingsbury, The Politics of Indonesia. 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p.88
Leach, M. and Damien, K (2013) The Politics of Timor Leste: Democratic Consolidation after intervention. New York: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publication.