East Timorese need time to adapt<\/p>\n
The remarks attributed to East Timor's Bishop Belo which
\nappeared in a Jakarta magazine recently have drawn reactions from
\nvarious parties. Scholar Franz Magnis-Suseno SJ takes a close
\nlook into the issue.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The last two weeks have seen a growing debate
\nover a statement purportedly given by Bishop Carlos Felipe
\nXimenes Belo of Dili to the magazine Gatra. That magazine
\nreported that he suggested making East Timor a Catholic special
\nregion.<\/p>\n
Bishop Belo, who happens to be in Rome on a visit to the Holy
\nSee, has since indicated that this was not what he was trying to
\nconvey in the interview.<\/p>\n
I do not want to enter into what it was exactly that Bishop
\nBelo said in this commentary, nor how the questionable sentence
\ngot into the Gatra text. Regardless of what Bishop Belo may
\nactually have said, perhaps this question deserves discussion:
\nWhat about the idea of a Catholic special region itself?<\/p>\n
The answer is obvious. Closing down a region like East Timor
\nto all non-Catholics -- either by denying them right of worship,
\nor by making membership in the Catholic Church the condition for
\na residence permit -- would not only be incompatible with our
\nPancasila philosophy, it would run counter to internationally
\nagreed standards of human rights.<\/p>\n
It would also be without precedent in this century (the last,
\nand in fact the only time something like this happened was in
\n16th century Spain and Portugal when, after the Reconquista, all
\nJews and Moslems were expelled -- a shameful thing to do even by
\nlate Middle Age standards, and one of the greatest human and
\ncultural tragedies in Europe's history).<\/p>\n
There is, in this century, not a single instance, even in
\ncountries with an almost 100 percent Catholic population, of a
\nCatholic bishop having suggested such a thing. It would be
\nclearly against Catholic teaching on religious freedom and on the
\nrelationship between Church and state, as formulated at the
\nSecond Vatican Council.<\/p>\n
Even if East Timor was an independent state, such as Fiji, or
\nTrinidad and Tobago, any demand to close it to non-Catholics
\nshould, as a matter of course, be resolutely rejected.<\/p>\n
I may add that playing with such ideas gives Indonesian
\nCatholics a chilling feeling up the spine. As our Indonesian
\nMoslem brothers have not failed to point out during the past
\nweeks: What if they suggested the same thing in regions where
\nMoslems have a more that 90 percent majority (as in West, Middle
\nand East Java or in most provinces of Sumatra)?<\/p>\n
What Bishop Belo has suggested on several occasions is
\nsomething quite different: If one wants to have peace in East
\nTimor, if one wants violent resistance to integration with
\nIndonesia to die down, then don't shock the East Timorese by
\nflooding them with people from outside, with different religions,
\ncustoms and attitudes. Wait at least, until integration has also
\nreached the hearts of the East Timorese.<\/p>\n
Bishop Belo's suggestion makes good sense, especially if we
\nput it into the context of the recent rioting in East Timor,
\ncaused among other things by the remarks of a non-East Timorese
\nofficial which caused Catholic to feel insulted. For the record:
\nThe steeply rising number of such incidents, some of sacrilegious
\ncharacter in eastern Indonesia during the last three years has
\nbecome a matter of serious concern.<\/p>\n
These riots are extremely regrettable. As a consequence,
\nhundreds of Moslem, some of them having lived for 10 years or
\nmore in East Timor, have fled that province with their families.
\nBut, as the government has clearly seen, these riots were
\nprimarily not religiously motivated. They were an explosion of
\nanti-newcomer resentment.<\/p>\n
In other parts of Indonesia, too, such situations are
\nsensitive. In the province of Aceh, for example, 50 years after
\nindependence, only two parishes exist for the many Catholics,
\npeople from the Batak regions, Chinese, Javanese employees and
\nthe people of Flores looking for jobs. One is in Banda Aceh and
\nanother at Lawe Desky.<\/p>\n
In East Timor, the Non-Catholic population has multiplied
\nwithin a few years from about one thousand to something like
\n60,000. They are seeping in day after day. They may be teachers,
\ncivil servants, or military men. Many of the bigger markets have
\nbeen taken over by newcomers. They also have built, as is their
\nright, their often acoustically high profile places of worship.<\/p>\n
For the East Timorese this huge influx of outsiders into a
\nregion not used to cultural diversity and still in the grips of
\nfear can only be a shocking intrusion into their way of life.
\nThey feel that their cultural identity is threatened. They also
\nare afraid that they will lose out to the better skilled
\nnewcomers, afraid of losing their land, of becoming a minority in
\ntheir own country. And when emotions boil over, these places of
\nworship -- being the most obvious symbols of newcomers --
\nnaturally become the object of their wrath.<\/p>\n
What the East Timorese need is time. It will take time for
\nthem to learn to maintain, and at the same time develop, their
\ncultural identity within the framework of multi-cultural and
\nmulti-religious Indonesia. The last 20 years, marred by civil and
\nguerrilla welfare, the heavy presence of security forces and a
\ngeneral atmosphere of fear have done nothing to help them on the
\nway.<\/p>\n
Thus Bishop Belo was not preaching a kind of Catholic
\nfundamentalism which not even the most conservative prelate would
\nconsider. On the country, we should listen to him carefully --
\nprecisely if we want the political integration of East Timor to
\nbecome a social and cultural one too.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, allow me to venture to make a suggestion to
\nBishop Belo: Please, if you give Gatra (or Radio Australia for
\nthat matter) an interview again, do insist that any article based
\non the contents of that interview not be published without your
\nexplicit written placet, and, please, have somebody who knows the
\nIndonesian (or the English) language really well -- both
\nlinguistically and politically -- go over it with a fine-toothed
\ncomb, so that the statements attributed to you actually do
\nexpress what you really want to say.<\/p>\n
Dr. Franz Magnis-Suseno SJ teaches social philosophy at the
\nDriyarkara School of Philosophy in Jakarta.<\/p>",
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