I went to listen to Jose Ramos-Horta last Friday at the University of Hong Kong. The title of his talk was Peace and World Security: Building a New International Dialogue. I wasn’t sure what he was going to talk about. But I was curious about East Timor. It fought a long war against Indonesia and is now independent. Indonesia happens to be roughly 200 times the size of East Timor in terms of population, which happens to be roughly the same ratio between China and Hong Kong.
East Timor is the eastern half of the island of Timor, on the southern edge of the Indonesia archipelago. It had been occupied by Portugal since the 1500s. In 1975, it declared independence from Portugal. Indonesia invaded immediately, and occupied East Timor for 20+ years. During this time, Indonesia ruled East Timor brutally, and some foreign observers described it as genocide. The East Timorese never gave up.
Ramos-Horta was a key person campaigning for a just and peaceful solution to the conflict. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, together with the Roman Catholic priest Carlos-Belo.
In 2002, under pressure from the United Nation and other countries, Indonesia relinquished control, and East Timor became independent. Ramos-Horta became president of East Timor from 2007 to 2012. He has been working for the United Nations in various capacities since then.
The two countries maintain cordial relationships. I learned from Ramos-Horta that East Timor students are allowed to attend Indonesian universities, paying the same fees as Indonesians. It is amazing that such a small country as East Timor can win against an enemy 200 times bigger than itself, and eventually achieve a peaceful solution. What can we learn from their experience?
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