The Puzzle of Timor-Leste

Abstract

AbstractChapter 6 explores the situation in Timor-Leste, where democracy has survived as a result of changes to the polity and its leaders that took place over the course of a brief civil war and a long war for independence from Indonesia. First, the country’s anti-democratic political and economic elites were so brutalized by Indonesia’s occupation that they either disappeared from the scene or gave themselves over to a new, democratic mindset. Second, the independence struggle forged a unified and inclusive national identity that helped overcome the ethnic and ideological cleavages that had contributed to their prior vulnerability to Indonesian aggression. Third, the war gave rise to a broad array of heroic political leaders with viable electoral constituencies, resulting in a pluralistic post-independence political landscape. Finally, the exigencies of the national struggle forced militias to coalesce into a national army divorced from any one political party and subordinate to the authority of democratically elected leaders.