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I feel especially honoured by the opportunity given me, in this State Visit to East Timor, to address this Noble Assembly, the symbol of the excellence of the Timorese Nation’s plural democracy.
I am grateful to the Speaker of the National Parliament, Fernando Lasama de Araújo, and to all its members for the invitation with which they have seen fit to honour me, and has left me greatly moved, as well as for the gracious words that were spoken. I take these as a gesture addressed, above all else, to Portugal and the Portuguese. A gesture that underlines the fraternal friendship that links Portugal and East Timor.
I cannot hide the deep emotion I felt when I stepped for the first time on the soil of East Timor, the same emotion that I am feeling today, before the notable representatives of the Timorese people.
It is for me, for my Wife, and for all the retinue that accompanies me, a motive of great pleasure to visit East Timor at a time when the country commemorates the tenth anniversary of its independence, a date with the highest significance for the Maubere people, but also for all those who felt as theirs the long and arduous fight of their right to self determination.
Mister Speaker,
Members of Parliament,
In its article 1, the Constitution of the East Timor People’s Republic proclaims that East Timor is “a legal democratic State, sovereign, independent and unitary, based upon the people’s will and on the respect for the human being”. This simple formula, common to so many constitutional texts, represents the brilliant end of a path that had as much suffering and pain, a it had courage and hope.
With ten years gone past after independence, I want to evoke and pay my tribute to all those who gave of their best and, in many cases, their own lives, so that East Timor could assert itself as a sovereign and independent Nation, a member of the international community in its own right and a sister country to Portugal, within the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP).
In the midst of the worst of storms, the Timorese people, in an example for the world, were able to keep alight, in their hearts, the spark of freedom.
The grandeur of nations is not a function of their size or of the wealth of their resources, but of the values lived and interpreted by their people. Seeming to many that they were isolated, the truth is that the Timorese were never alone. All Portugal joined Timor, in a unique harmony between two Peoples, so distant geographically, but as brothers in the defence of the same cause.
In this difficult path, Portugal was untiring in the defence of the cause of the Timorese, raising the voice of Timor in all the international centres of decision in which we took part, as well as bilaterally.
The defence of this really national cause was, by far, an eloquent expression of the positioning of my country as an intransigent defender of Human Rights.
I believe it could not be otherwise. Historic, cultural and human reasons impelled us towards it. We were linked by a secular past. It is fair to record that the island of Timor was registered for the first time in the charts of the Portuguese cartographer Francisco Rodrigues in 1512.
In this long voyage, our common travelling companion was the Portuguese language. Banned as a form of expression during the occupation, forbidden in official learning, suffering the physical destruction of the literary works it was written in, it still managed to survive. As underlined in 2011, by Taur Matan Ruak, Portuguese was above all the language of the resistance, “one of the weapons (...) within the area of the cultural battle.” For this reason, it will not be too much to assert that the victory of the Timorese was also the victory of the Portuguese language.
The choice of Portuguese, jointly with Tetum, as the official language of East Timor, resulted from a legitimate and sovereign choice of the Timorese people, who confirmed, through this means as well, the insertion of the country, in its own right, in the area of CPLP. More than a cultural trace, such choices are the major symbols of a victory and of an identity.
We are very proud of the expressive results reached, in such a short while, in the consolidation of the Portuguese language and in the qualification of learning all over the country. However, there is still a long way to go.
I want, facing the notable representatives of the Timorese people, to reiterate Portugal’s firm commitment in continuing all that may be possible, both bilaterally and within the framework of CPLP, to support the efforts of the Government of East Timor for the promotion in the learning of the Portuguese language, specifically through the availability of qualified human means and technical assistance in the training of teachers.
This is what is currently the case, both in basic and secondary education, through the setting up of Reference Schools that we shortly hope to see expanded to all districts, as well as in higher education, through scientific-pedagogical consultancy of Portuguese professors with the University of East Timor.
I am firmly convinced that the Portuguese language, apart from a factor of assertion of the cultural identity of the Timorese, shall always, and more than ever, be a fundamental asset to win the battle for development and for the economic and social welfare of all the country’s population.
Mister Speaker,
Members of Parliament,
If freedom and democracy were the fruits of a long and difficult fight, their consolidation is the purpose of a further arduous battle that daily challenges all the people and the political officers.
The intervention of the United Nations Organization, with the aid of the countries that are friends of East Timor, allowed an adequate transition to the novel situation of the normal functioning of the democratic institutions.
The path towards development requires that everybody joins in these efforts. The democratic regime is that which, welcoming the interests of all the citizens, better musters the strengths of a society to render service to the common objectives. It is equally that which better guarantees the conditions for the welfare of the people.
The expressive popular participation in the electoral acts held during the last ten years and the calm acceptance of their results are a clear and universally recognized sign of the democratic maturity of the Timorese people. The way in which the last presidential elections occurred is a clear example of this.
One of the fundamental features of modern democracies also derives from the promotion of strong and plural institutions, such as the case of this Assembly. The National Parliament occupies a central fulcrum in the development of the State and in representing the legitimate expectations of the citizens, and its role, for this reason, shall be decisive in establishing the future of East Timor.
It is true that the challenges are immense. The hopes accumulated since the more difficult times, the promises made in the dawn of democracy, are all clearly present. The fight for development is the new duty that binds everybody. The fair and equitable dissemination of the fruits of that development is a democratic imperative.
The members of this Parliament stand witness to Portugal having always been at the side of East Timor and of the Timorese in the difficult fights they had to wage on behalf of freedom and independence. Portugal and the Portuguese have always believed in the future of Timor and in the capability of its people to determine their own destiny.
The values in which we believe – democracy, respect for human dignity and the right to development – are a factor of the approximation and of the strengthening of cooperation between our two countries.
Since its independence, East Timor has been the main beneficiary of the Portugal’s Public Aid for Development. This has been channelled to the sectors defined by the Timorese authorities as having priority for their development.
In addition to the reconstruction of the educational sector and to the consolidation of the Portuguese language, what particularly stands out, in this context, is the cooperation we have maintained in the sectors of good governance, of the fight against poverty, defence, internal security and justice, all of them essential stays in the construction of a modern State.
Economically, our entrepreneurs are amongst those who have been present in East Timor, contributing, with their initiative and their entrepreneurialism towards the creation of employment, wealth generation and growth.
I am certain, however, that we can jointly continue achieving more and better results. I thus thought it could be rewarding to include in my retinue a number of entrepreneurs, in order that interested parties from both countries could jointly avail themselves of the opportunities that will be created within the framework of the East Timor Strategic Development Plan for the 2011-2030 period.
I want you to be sure the Portugal’s solidarity for East Timor continues alive, as well as our availability to strengthen and expand our cooperation in all areas of common interest.
The values and principles that define our identity achieve their completeness when we take part in relevant common objectives, such as in the case of strengthening CPLP.
The close bonds that we maintain, as in a true partnership, with the sovereign States that comprise the CPLP family, interpret the uniqueness of our Community and reinforce our capability to face today’s challenges.
I would be pleased, on this occasion, to salute the Timorese authorities for the drive they have placed on the deepening of CPLP. The important challenges that have been placed internally have not inhibited East Timor to contribute determinedly and significantly to the strengthening of our Community and to the reinforcement of its international projection.
This is what is currently taking place with the exercise of the presidency of CPLP’s Parliamentary Assembly by East Timor.
In its turn, CPLP has also exercised its active and visible presence in the support framework for East Timor. I thus recall, over this issue, the Lisbon Declaration, approved in the 2008 Summit, which comprises the commitment of all the Member States to contribute towards the dialogue between national authorities, towards stability and the consolidation of the democratic institutions in Timor.
It was this Declaration that originated the decision to establish a Standing Committee representing CPLP in Dili, a highly valuable and strategic project.
Attentive to the advantages resulting from being part of other areas of integration, Portugal unreservedly supports the adhesion of East Timor to ASEAN, which we hope will become effective very shortly.
I am absolutely certain the East Timor’s integration in ASEAN shall contribute towards the development of East Timor as well as to the projection of CPLP and its Member States in the whole region.
Mister Speaker,
Members of Parliament,
The people of Portugal celebrated, ten years ago, the victory of a cause on behalf of which it had already fought, in an untiring social, political and diplomatic mustering. From then until now, we have channelled the best of our efforts to support the East Timor authorities in setting up the structure of the new State.
Ten years is a short period in the historic path of any People or Nation. The progress reached by East Timor in such a small length of time is thus even more outstanding.
It is thus doubly satisfying to look upon the results attained and to take part in these commemorations.
I end by quoting the words of Fernando Sylvan, a Timorese poet that left Timor when still very young and was sufficiently unfortunate in not witnessing the conquest of freedom of the land that he kept alive in his memory:
“I know not if the sea has a voice
But its voice
Quietly spoke to me since I was small
And in it I saw
What in my memory did not exist.
(...)
Him it was told me
That Space and Time existed.
And I then commenced travelling without fear”
Travelling without fear is what brought Portugal here, Travelling without fear is our common destiny, that of Portugal and Timor. Since the future belongs to those who travel fearlessly, that prepare the future without fear of being free and with the objective of becoming better.
We, the Portuguese, believe in the future of East Timor as a free and independent nation, which will continue to decide its future in peace.
Thank you.
© 2012 Presidency of the Portuguese Republic
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