Eduardo Mariz – The district of Oecusse, an isolated portion of Timor-Leste in Indonesian territory, carries under its name the nostalgic origins of a nation.

It was here where the Portuguese first landed in 1515, in what is now the town of Pante Macassar, and began four centuries of dominance in their farthest-flung colony. Despite being on the western side of the island, the enclave of Oecusse has never ceased to be part of Timor-Leste, even the 24-year long Indonesian occupation kept the district under the forcefully incorporated province of Timor Timur.

Last month the government in Dili announced that commemorations of the Portuguese arrival would be held in Oecusse from 2015, a rare announcement for a subject of colonial oppression. But for East Timorese, colonial roots and the landing in what is now Pante Macassar are remembered in a very different light: they mark the beginning of the nation's history.

In spite of living for over two decades under Indonesian rule, the decolonization of Timor-Leste in 1975 remains a fresh event in the minds of today's leaders and has allowed for the reestablishment of dynamic ties with Portugal and other lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) countries, like Macau.

Ties that bind

Today, former Portuguese colonies like Timor-Leste cooperate globally through the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, an intergovernmental organization where Portuguese is an official language. East Timor-Leste has been a full member of the CPLP since its independence in 2002 and so far has benefited from educational exchanges, development aid and research funding for in-country projects.

The CPLP brings together eight member states in four different continents and an estimated population of 240 million people – similar to that of Indonesia. Beyond sharing a single language, some member nations have also overcome internal conflict, enjoy developing economies and anchor strong relations within their respective regions – particularly Angola, Mozambique and Brazil.

In July, Timor-Leste will replace Mozambique as the two-year rotating chairman of the CPLP for the first time. With slightly euphoric expectations, preparatory arrangements have been widely reported in Timorese media and the government has set up a committee composed of high-ranking diplomats and officials from member countries to polish the fine protocollary details of the big ceremony, the upcoming CPLP summit to take place from July 20 until July 25 in Dili.

"We have prepared ourselves, to successfully stage this summit and invite the respective heads of state and government to Timor Leste," Jose Luis Guterres, the country's minister for foreign affairs and cooperation, said during a recent visit to Jakarta.

Guterres hopes that fellow members of the CPLP will take advantage of Timor-Leste's position in Asia during its chairmanship to establish private sector partnerships with other countries in the region, such as members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Pacific Islands Forum nations, including Australia and New Zealand.

"[Asia] is a dynamic region economically and there are also a lot of new ideas coming from here. Many people talk about the Asian century, so it is important for Timor-Leste to do our best to facilitate progress (...) The theme we have chosen for the meeting in the summit in Timor-Leste is the globalization of CPLP. It allows, encourages and facilitates the members of the group to integrate in their regions" he said.

But Damien Kingsbury, a professor at Melbourne's Deakin University and a close observant of Timor-Leste's development, sees more than just commercial gain in this opportunity. "East Timor's engagement with Portugal and the CPLP is intended to act as a counterweight to its relations with Australia, Indonesia and China – in particular – to ensure that its not captured by any one forum or national interest," he says.

Kingsbury also believes that Timor-Leste's chairmanship of the CPLP is not only important, "but also indicative of East Timor developing maturity, particularly as an international actor."

Human rights, energy challenges

This acting role has been further highlighted with the controversial membership bid of Equatorial Guinea to join the CPLP, which Dili has fully supported. The small African nation of just over 700,000 people is governed by an authoritarian regime with a grim record on human rights, contrary to the membership policies of the CPLP.

Foreign ministers of the CPLP countries have endorsed Equatorial Guinea's ambitions, defying the organization's statutory requirements on the basis that becoming part of the community will eventually foster democracy and individual liberties. To fulfil the requisites, the government in Malabo has recently made Portuguese an official language – even though few people speak it – and halted capital punishment to improve its track record on human rights issues.

However Petro Krupenski, president of Portugal's Platform of NGOs for Development (Plataforma ONGD), recently voiced his scepticism of the measures and denounced powerful economic interests behind the CPLP's complacency. "[The measures] don't show a genuine will to solve the human rights situation. The death penalty is one of many issues," he said in an interview with the Portuguese daily Publico.

But Guterres remains optimistic about the efforts of Equatorial Guinea despite the possibility of it undermining Timor-Leste's stance as a defender of human rights. "I believe they have been doing all what we have asked from them, and human rights is a process, it's something that never ends, you have to do it every time even in democratic nations," he says.

Another matter in which the government in Dili is now pulling the strings is energy resources. Timor-Leste is one of the most petroleum-export dependent countries in the world and approximately 95 percent of government revenue comes from oil. At current extraction rates, it is estimated oil deposits could be depleted by 2020 if the Greater Sunrise project remains stalled over disputes with Australia.

Recently Timor Gap, the national oil company of Timor-Leste, announced its intention of forming a consortium with other CPLP members for the on-shore exploration of oil in Timor. The partnership has already interested Sao Tome and Principe and Francisco Monteiro, president of Timor Gap, has also been in negotiations with counterparts in Portugal and Mozambique. If successful, details of the deal would be presented during the CPLP Dili summit in July.

That announcement, timed in the year of the East Timor-Australia spying scandal, could spell a warning to Woodside Petroleum, the lead operator of the once again disputed Greater Sunrise joint development area. "There is no doubt that the spying allegations and the difficulties around the Timor Gap [also the name of a maritime area believed to be holding vast energy reserves] have made relations with Australia difficult, and certainly has complicated negotiations with Woodside" says Kingsbury.

But for Guterres, cooperation with CPLP countries and Timor-Leste's commercial relations with Australia are completely different matters. "This is a policy that has been in our mind for many years already, based on the analysis that CPLP members have an expertise in exploring oil and gas in their own countries. Brazil is one of them, and so is Angola and also Mozambique... so it makes sense that countries that belong to the same international organization try to come together and share their best practices," he says.

The minister also perseveres in saying that his country's "pragmatic consensus" in terms of foreign relations will not change despite the announced resignation of Primer Minister Xanana Gusmao this year, halfway through his current mandate.

"The policies that we have in international relations are a consensus, so whoever will be the head of government or head of state in Timor will continue the policies we have implemented since our independence (...) we try to do our best in order to establish relations with all countries including with Australia," he says.

Refresher course needed

Enhanced cooperation with the CPLP will also mean brushing up on the Portuguese language. Last year the national parliament approved a resolution making the use of Portuguese compulsory in at least one plenary session and parliamentary commission each month. The first of these sessions was held last month, a long wait for a language that enjoys the same official status as Tetum.

Fernando Lasama Araujo, leader of the house, justified the initiative as necessary to "instigate the habit of using it amongst parliamentarians as well as Tetum, as the Constitution dictates," he told Lusa, the Portuguese news agency.

Only 25 percent of East Timorese can read, write and speak Portuguese according to the 2010 census, most of them aging citizens and clerks in the nation's capital. In comparison, Indonesian is spoken by around 45 percent of the population and English by almost 15 percent.

But Portuguese has much going for it in Timor-Leste.

"Portuguese language is part of our heritage, we will continue to learn Portuguese as well as our [other] official language [Tetum]," says Guterres. "Brazil is one of the major countries today in the world, and they speak Portuguese, the economies of all these countries, almost all, have oil and gas and natural resources: like Angola, Mozambique, Brazil and others."

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/international/timor-leste-betting-lusophone-ties-growth/