MANAGING PORTUGESE AND LUSOPHONE INTERESTS IN EAST TIMOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DILI 000204

SIPDIS

SIPDIS
TOKYO FOR HANS KLEMM
DEPT FOR EAP/MTS, EUR/WE, INR/EAP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/25/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID TT PO
SUBJECT: MANAGING PORTUGESE AND LUSOPHONE INTERESTS IN EAST TIMOR

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CLASSIFIED BY: Eleanor Nagy, Charge d'Affaires ad interim, Exec,
State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C/NF) Summary: As the international community grapples
with how best to assist East Timor in re-establishing security,
strengthening the public sector, and stimulating economic
growth, one of the most delicate issues confronting the major
players is how to manage Portuguese, Brazilian and other
Lusophone bilateral interests which do not always advance the
country's overall development goals. The Portuguese and
Lusophone cultural and linguistic agenda sometimes supersedes
the commitment to push the Timorese toward good governance, open
economic policies, and justice. Moreover, in key sectors,
particularly justice and education, their narrow focus actually
creates deep-rooted problems. At the same time, Portugal as
leader of the Lusophone pack has been supportive in areas such
as support for free and fair elections, policing, and agreeing
to a green helmet force in the UNSC Core Group at the United
Nations. Portugal has unique access to and influence on the
political elite here, and its expertise and support can provide
some real insights as well as strengthen U.S. ability to achieve
its objectives, particularly during its upcoming EU Presidency.
The keys to successfully managing these issues are to increase
consultations and cooperation, work issues in Washington and the
capitals, engage the UN, and assist the GOET to informally
promote use of the English language. In the justice sector, we
should push for a loosening of Portuguese language requirements
and greater accountability for UNDP line officials. End summary.

Intermarriage, Language, and the Diaspora
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2. (U) Portugal's history with Timor spans centuries. During
the colonial period, Portugal promoted its language as a lingua
franca and the Timorese elite were educated in Portuguese at the
best local schools. Intermarriage between Portuguese and
Timorese was common, and today, many Timorese, particularly
those in the elite, can trace some portion of their ancestry to
Portugal.


3. (SBU) During the Indonesian occupation era, many Timorese
used Portuguese to communicate with each other in the jungle.
Others fled during this period and took up residence in
Portugal, Mozambique, or Angola. Individuals in the group known
as the Maputo clique of the Fretilin party became part of these
Lusophone societies and subsequently held key government and
party positions during Timor's initial years of independence.
Among them are Mari Alkatiri, former Prime Minister and the
party's secretary general; Ana Pessoa, Minister for State
Administration who previously served as a judge in Mozambique;
Rogerio Lobato, the former Minister of Interior recently
convicted for his role in distributing arms to civilians in 2006
who spent several years in an Angolan prison on a diamond
smuggling conviction; and Roque Rodrigues, the ousted Minister
of Defense who was a student and military officer in Portugal
and Lobato's instructor on Marxist theory during the latter's
Angolan prison term.


4. (SBU) The Timorese diaspora in Portugal is visible. When
Timor voted for independence in 1999, numerous Portuguese
nationals joined the Timorese diaspora in Lisbon in supporting
independence and a UN intervention to stabilize the new country
in the wake of retaliatory violence by the Indonesian military
and like-minded militias. Eight years later, Portuguese
citizens tell us they still identify with Timor for reasons
ranging from guilt for Portugal's abandonment of its colonies in
1974, to pride in sustaining the global reach of their former
empire.

Aid, Influence and Trade

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5. (C/NF) GOP assistance to East Timor capitalizes on these

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cultural and linguistic ties. Portugal is one of the four
largest bilateral donors to East Timor, along with Australia,
the U.S., and Japan. The biggest component of Portuguese
assistance is a corps of scores of Portuguese language
instructors working to help Timorese primary and secondary
school teachers give instruction in Portuguese. Criticism of
the program's objectives and effectiveness is widespread among
other donors, with the exception of Brazil. Brazilian
cooperation programs, including in vocational training and
language teaching, complement Portuguese assistance activities
in Timor. As Portugal assumes the presidency of the European
Union this summer it will modestly increase cultural exchange
activities in Timor. These activities include book fairs,
performing artists and speakers, and film festivals. The GOP,
according to Portuguese diplomats, is in this for the long haul
and they are willing to spend more than a decade reintroducing
the Portuguese language in Timor. If successful, the end state
would be a Timorese society even more closely tied with Portugal
and its former empire.


6. (C/NF) East Timor's choice of Portuguese as one of its
official languages is both a source for jobs for Lusophones and
a means of influencing key sectors of Timorese government and
society. In the justice sector, the UNDP's justice assistance
program funds 42 advisors who serve as judges, prosecutors,
clerks, and other staff in East Timor's courts. The job
qualifications listed by UNDP at the behest of the GOET include
requirements that the applicants speak Portuguese and possess a
civil law background, effectively eliminating almost all
candidates except those from CPLP (Community of Portuguese
Speaking Countries) countries. Similar language requirements
play a role to a greater or lesser degree in almost every GOET
agency and in many UN agencies in Timor. Top-level government
jobs and international advisor slots are overwhelmingly filled
by Portuguese-speaking Timorese (often with dual nationality) or
by CPLP citizens (many from Portugal or Brazil). Until recently
Claudio Ximenes, Chief Justice of Timor's highest court, was a
UNDP contractor. A Portuguese national of Timorese ethnicity,
Ximenes once served as a judge in Portugal. Portugal also has
key inroads into the East Timorese Defense Force (F-FDTL) as a
result of permanently assigned advisors and visiting trainers.


7. (C/NF) There are also tangible commercial benefits of the
relationship for Portugal. Portugal Telecom is the majority
stakeholder in Timor Telecom, which in 2002 was granted a 15
year monopoly on fixed, mobile, and internet services in Timor.
The resulting lack of competition in the telecommunications
sector keeps prices high and reception quality low. Similarly,
East Timor's parastatal power company EDTL is managed by
Portuguese nationals, and is also plagued by corruption and high
prices. On a smaller scale, many Portuguese nationals live and
do business in Timor in fields including real estate, hostelry,
restaurants, import-export, and contracting, competing with
Australian and some Indonesian firms.

Military and Police Training

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8. (C/NF) Other donors --- principally the U.S., Australia, and
New Zealand --- find the Portuguese influence within F-FDTL
problematic. The Portuguese military operates beyond the scope
of doctrine shared by the other donors, as well as F-FDTL's
other potential regional defense partners such as Singapore,
Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. And while
the English language is rapidly becoming the defense lingua
franca throughout Southeast Asia, the Portuguese military - with
the backing of Fretilin's Maputo clique and its supporters -
continues to provide language instruction and military training
to F-FDTL in Portuguese.


9. (C/NF) Portugal currently has two companies of special police
(GNR) assigned to Timor as part of the UN Police (UNPOL). The
GOP police training efforts, which began two years ago, are
focused on building capacity of the Timorese Police (PNTL)'s
rapid intervention unit (UIR). Portuguese diplomats recently
told us that due to budget constraints there are no immediate

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plans to expand their presence in UNPOL or increase police
training activities.

Policy Implications

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10. (C/NF) The U.S. must seek ways to engage Portugal and
leverage its influence in East Timor in support of our common
goals, as well as continue to separately pursue our objectives
where our interests do not intersect.

-- On core issues of concern, such as the promotion of free and
fair elections and security sector reform, we should seek to
engage with Portugal more closely, identifying specific issues
and concrete requests for cooperation and then consulting in
Dili, Washington and the capitals. We should also engage the UN
in support of these positions.

-- Justice sector reform is a top priority for the USG and the
UN. However, as long as East Timor and donors such as UNDP
continue to require Portuguese language as a qualification for
its international advisors regardless of their professional
competence, the USG ability to contribute and promote reform in
the sector will be limited. We should push for a loosening of
Portuguese language requirements, seek greater oversight and
accountability for UNDP line officials, and continue to support
bilateral assistance to the GOET in areas where we can be
effective, such as The Asia Foundation's strengthening of
informal dispute resolution mechanisms and USAID's work to
strengthen the administrative capacity of the justice sector.

-- East Timor's education system is still in shambles, with the
requirement that classes be conducted in Portuguese exacerbating
the problem. Because the middle generation was educated in and
only speaks Indonesian, most teachers spend substantial time
learning Portuguese instead of teaching students. Other donors
(except Brazil) have been unable to identify meaningful ways to
engage in this sector under these conditions. We should work
with the GOET, Australia, New Zealand and other like-minded
donors on ways to promote the English language, particularly for
post-Independence youth who have no memory of either Portuguese
or Indonesian, such as supporting business English, getting
computers into schools, and facilitating foreign study in
English-speaking countries.

Comment

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11. (C/NF) Comment: The Portuguese and other Lusophones will
continue to pursue their cultural and commercial agenda here,
but we can and should seek ways to direct their efforts in
support of larger security and democratic institution building
goals, as well as pursue separate means to achieve those ends.
While the Lusophones have supported Fretilin's Maputo clique as
their best ally in promoting the Portuguese language and in
obtaining positions of influence for pro-Portuguese individuals,
Fretilin's influence is waning. President Jose Ramos-Horta, PM
candidate Xanana Gusmao, most of the political opposition, and
the anti-Alkatiri group within Fretilin are all less supportive
of imposing Portuguese. Should they prevail in the June 30
parliamentary elections, there may be new opportunities to
revisit the choice to rely solely on the Portuguese language for
education and the judiciary, as well as encourage Ramos-Horta to
act on his stated desire to open up the telecom monopoly.
NAGY