Portuguese-speaking East Timor wants more cooperation with Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – One of the first memories that the current ambassador of East Timor in Brasília, Olímpio Miranda Branco, 68, has of Brazil are the pages of Manchete magazine, which he and his aunts’ colleagues stole from the extinct Brazilian weekly publication.

In the 1970s, after all, Brazil was a kind of big brother that had long since achieved independence from Portugal. The Southeast Asian country would separate in 1975 but soon saw Indonesia invade, in an occupation that lasted two decades.

Today, the diplomat sees Brazil as a potential partner to help solve the main obstacle to the Timorese economy: the lack of diversification. Most of the country’s finances come from oil, and the desire is to invest in the production of basic necessities to take advantage of the agricultural potential.

The goal is to develop the agricultural and food branches with Brazilian technology and experience. “By investing in the productive sector, with small industries, we create jobs for our young people, preventing them from leaving Timor for seasonal jobs in other countries,” says Miranda Branco.

Despite the Timorese desire, the movement seems embryonic – and the pandemic did not help. Visits of Brazilian business people to the country, previously scheduled, were canceled due to the health crisis and, says the ambassador, should be resumed soon. There are still attempts at dialogue in the institutional field.

Trade between the countries is small. In 2021, Brazil exported US$10.7 million to East Timor – much more than the US$105,000 exported in 2003 but below the volume for neighbors such as Indonesia (US$2 billion). Meat and agricultural machinery are the bulk of exports.

Information from 2019 from the Timorese government shows that Brazil accounts for 2% of the country’s supplies. Imports from Timor, on the other hand, are negligible. The most expressive year was 2020, with US$82,500, the Comex Stat shows, a government system for foreign trade consultations.

The desire of Timor, which with Brazil and seven other nations form the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries), comes amid an ebb in bilateral cooperation. Once a reference in the performance in the country, Brazil has reduced participation, analyze experts who follow the theme.

The lack of political will of the Brazilian state is not the only factor that weighs, says Kelly Silva, a professor at the University of Brasilia (UnB) and researcher at Paloc, the research laboratory of the French Natural History Museum in East Timor. “The lack of adequate articulation of the Timorese elites to lobby and the greater cooperation of other countries, such as Portugal, are also important.”

Questioned, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry (Itamaraty) said that more than 90 projects have been set on foot since the beginning of the bilateral relationship. Among those that continue are cooperation in justice, diplomacy, and the military. In these cases, at the request of East Timor’s capital, Dili, the Brazilian government provides training for Timorese professionals.

However, the main cooperation program in the area of education between the two countries was closed in 2016. Until today, the project, then managed by Itamaraty and Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) with academic direction from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), is remembered with nostalgia by Timorese, who do not understand precisely why it was interrupted.

The program started in 2004 and used to take 50 Brazilian teachers a year to East Timor to work in the training of educators at the basic level of education and contribute to universities and the continued training of teachers. The project was renewed periodically, which did not occur in 2015. From 2005 to March 2016, almost 10,000 services were provided to Timorese.

Interlocutors report that there was no longer any institutional interest from Brazil in renewing the agreement and that the justification for lack of budget was the main one, but they also point out that the political crisis in which Brazil was immersed amid the impeachment process of former President Dilma Rousseff (Workers’ Party – PT), had an impact. Shortly before the closing, Timor had requested that twice as many teachers be sent in the next class. Capes said that the initiative was closed “after meeting its objectives”.

Kelly Silva, who has been studying the country since the early 2000s, regrets weakening the partnership. “Brazil has a lot to contribute mainly with alternative pedagogical practices, inspired by Paulo Freire, who is very well-known in Timor, and in constructing a more critical educational system.”

CHINA, LAND OF THE MIDDLE

“The process of disseminating the Portuguese language with the participation of Brazil was fundamental,” says professor Suzani Cassiani from UFSC, who worked in the coordination of the program.

Although it is one of the official languages of East Timor along with Tetum, Portuguese is spoken by few people – in 2010, only 24% were fluent. Although widespread during the Portuguese colonization, the language was banned during the Indonesian occupation. After the restoration of independence, it was embraced as a way to reaffirm the national identity and differentiate itself from the neighbors. But soon came the challenge of disseminating it among the younger population, a task in which Brazil was a great partner.

Itamaraty stated that a partnership is in place to train Timorese public administration employees in Portuguese. With the improvement of the pandemic, a visit to the country is scheduled to assess the feasibility of new collaborations. The demand for support for animal production with Brazilian help, mentioned by the ambassador, is also in the plans.

The Timorese continue to come to study in Brazil through institutional partnerships. According to Ambassador Miranda Branco, today, about 90 citizens of the country, among students and religious missionaries, reside in Brazil. “Besides academic scholarships, families who have money have chosen Brazil to send their children to study. It is a conscious choice, thinking about the quality of education.”

According to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs report, the number of Brazilians in East Timor was 123 in 2020. Even though Timor is a bastion of Catholicism -more than 90% of the population is Catholic, official data show- anthropologist Kelly Silva reports that in recent years, more and more Brazilian evangelical missionaries have landed in the country with social projects.

“Many of these spaces are conditioned by conversion to Protestantism, even if this is not placed in public space, so there is religious proselytism,” she says.

With information from Folha de S.Paulo