---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Sydney Morning Post Monday, August 23, 1999 EAST TIMOR Ballot turns expats' thoughts to home By HAMISH McDONALD, Foreign Editor in Darwin In the Holy Spirit church, as the rest of Darwin goes about the weekend routine of supermarket and beach, Cesarina Rocha tunes her voice to the unfamiliar sounds of her native language, Tetum. O hele O ho ksolok itamai agradece Jesus ... Tau matan malak be, Iha terus laran, Sai oan, sai bin, ba Timor oan, Timor oan hamutuk, Sei netin fali ... (In joy we come to give thanks to Jesus ... To look after those who live under oppression, We become a son/daughter, a brother/sister of the Timorese people, All Timorese together, Will stand united and free ...) Under the eye of Sister Aurora Pires, the best voices of Darwin's community of East Timorese are rehearsing for next Monday's United Nations-supervised vote on their homeland's future, a ballot that is taking on quasi-religious significance for people who still wonder that the day will come. In Darwin, many of the estimated 900 registered voters will gather beforehand in the city's Catholic cathedral for a Mass to consecrate the historic day and to hear the Tetum-language hymns sung by Sister Aurora's choir. But as well as the power of Christianity, brought to Timor four centuries ago by the Portuguese, a much older belief is motivating the Timorese here. A few weeks ago, Timorese worshippers in Darwin were startled to hear their Father Raffaele, over from the town of Liquica, where pro-Indonesian militias have been terrorising people since April, declare from the pulpit that their homeland was lulik, or sacred. He said it was the duty of Timorese to come out and vote according to their conscience. Not to do so, would be to deny your country. "Remember, your country is lulik," he said. Sister Aurora explains that lulik is a kind of taboo system of reward and punishment handed down from Timor's animistic traditions, way before Christianity. "If you wanted to protect something, say the fruit on a tree that is just getting ripe, you would declare it lulik," she said. "If you violate it, something will happen: usually you will lose your mind." So when Father Raffaele used the term, it was a moment of shock. "It's very strong; some heads went down," Sister Aurora said. "It's like you do something to your parents." For many of the 3,000 or so Timorese here, the plebiscite opens up the chance to reconnect with a place of origin that few have revisited, but which - less than an hour's direct flying time from Darwin, could re-emerge strongly in their lives. Most will go back at least for a visit, to look at old places and check on family graves, but the older people who have established homes and new lives from scratch in Australia wonder if they could start up again in Timor. "I want to go back to see if I can help," says Terasina Remedios, 64, who left Dili in 1975. "But I lost everything there." Some younger ones look forward to the opportunities. Danny Lemos, 35, who came out in 1975 aged 11 as a refugee, is doing well as a car dealer in Darwin but wants to try to open up something back in Timor once the transition is made. Cesarina Rocha , 24, is hesitant with the Tetum words of the hymns she sings with the choir. She left Dili in 1975 aged three months, on the deck of a Norwegian freighter with her parents, as the tiny capital was torn by the civil war that led to East Timor's invasion and annexation by Indonesia. Her family was not very political, but since beginning university studies a couple of years ago she has found herself drawn to her unremembered birthplace, and has become active with independence support groups. "We've been watching the [Aboriginal] stolen generation case going on in the court here, and in some ways I feel like part of a stolen generation myself," she said. "I can't speak the language, I don't know the geography. Yet I have this identification ..." The Timorese voice some worries about the privacy of the ballot and everyone speculates about violence once the result is announced. Overall, though, faith is strong that independence is at hand. Sister Aurora, who came to Australia as a 13-year-old refugee in 1975, said: "It's very positive but a little bit frightening. I know three people who never had a passport before, but are getting them because they want to spend Christmas in a free East Timor." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 22 Aug 1999 jam 20:44:19 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
