BY JOSÉ KAI LEKKE SOUSA-SANTOS
The forcing of the Portuguese language on Timor is an impediment for the majority of young Timorese, Timorese studied during the occupation, who finished or are undergoing tertiary study in Indonesia.
They are forced to learn a whole new foreign language if they want to continue their studies or even work for the government in their own country.
This puts them at a distinct disadvantage against the minority of Timorese who spoke Portuguese at home or in their host countries. This is in no way a positive situation.
It recreates a class system which rewards the few at detriment of the many. Please remember that I am one of those minorities few that spoke Portuguese at home, that learnt to read and write in Portuguese and other languages.
So if anything the current situation favours me, but it’s wrong.
I want to compete for jobs against my country men and know I got the job because I was the best man, not because I speak an elitist language.
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10 comentários:
what has been and is an impediment is not the language but the "will" to learn and adopt to the new environment. when there is a will there is a way. Instead of complaining, why not wasting our time mastering one more language?! instead of sitting and talking, why not do something like helping those that need our help to learn the language?! we, the timorese complain too much when it comes to learning. SAD BUT TRUE!
Caro José,
Siga o conselho do comentador anterior. Construir uma pátria não é fácil, mas foi isso que a maioria da população Timorense decidiu durante a resistência aos Indonésios. Utilizar o Tetun e o Português como linguas oficiais faz parte da construção da vossa pátria, continuem o vosso caminho que hão de conseguir.
Beijinhos da Querida Lucrécia
Caros amigos, nao tenho nada contra lingua Portugesa e suporto que continue a ser ensinada em Timor. Mas o meu ponto nao e esse. pemsen como se sente um Timorence tendo que atender o tribunal e nao perceber o que se passa porque estao a usar uma lingua estrangeira. Como se sinte um Timorence com o doutarado tirado no tempo da occupacao e forcado a aceitar posicoes abaixo do seu nivel porque nao escreve bem o Portuges. Nao e justo. Mantemos o Portuges e Bahasa como linguas historicas mas lingua nacional e official em Timor Leste tem que ser o nosso Tetum. Um grande abraco
Caro José,
Então e qual o Código Civil que sugeria utilizar no tribunal o Romano ou o Indonésio??
Se utilizá-se o Indonésio teria Juizes Javaneses a condenar Timorenses, como aconteceu durante a ocupação Indonésia, considera que os Timorenses iriam aceitar essa situação???
Como compreende o Tetun é uma lingua que ainda não tem maturidade para ser utilizada na Universidade ou nos Tribunais.
Beijinhos da Querida Lucrécia
"Como se sinte um Timorence com o doutarado tirado no tempo da occupacao e forcado a aceitar posicoes abaixo do seu nivel porque nao escreve bem o Portuges. Nao e justo."
Dear Jose,
I know what they feel because I'm living it. but i have come to realize that these whole years that I did not speak AT ALL or UNDERSTAND AT ALL is because i reject or have no will to learn the language.
Regarding your concern of the language, what you actually fight for is a group of doctors graduated from overseas ( who has the capacity to learn to language) while there are a lot of timorese in the country that has limited support and with all the effort they can but learned the language. so why not those doctors learn the language while they are studying? like i was saying, when there is a will, there is a way.
2nd. regarding the justice system, what has been the problem is "THE TRANSLATION" because TETUM does not have technical words exist (that at the moment, still under developing) so, if we are to use only TETUMm, how are you going to explain a technical law term into tetum that does not yet exist in the dictionary?! if you said we can borrow from portugus some of those words (then it is the same that the message is not understanding clearly by the victim or both because they have no knowledge or understanding of portugus language)
TETUM WILL BE THE ONLY OFFICIAL LANGUAGE but let us not close our eyes (being ignorant) to the fact that the language is not yet fully developed. and we as timorese, what to lose if we learn 1 more language?!
i would like to suggest that instead of you or any other else who speaks portugues to complain and raise this issue, why not you guys open a class for portugues language to help those doctors as a capacity building for them to be able to compete with others here in the country?!
we don't want to destroy what we had build this past 10 years and start from ZERO.
let us work hand in hand to build our country.
-notsoanonimo-
Sao duas as linguas estabelecidas pela nossa Constituicao como Linguas oficiais de Timor-Leste: O Portugues e o Tetun. Ou sera que os que se preocupam com o facto de a Lingua portuguesa ser tambem lingua oficial querem substitui-la pelo ingles?!!!... Parece-me bem que e essa a intencao. Deixemo-nos de joguinhois.
Sou um dos que nao engolem essa pilula venenosa.
Kareta Estado
"When there is a will there is a way." wise words but it is not a wise advise for timorese to forge there will in learning a foreign language such as portuguese. For some timorese who are interested in portuguese, the are free to learn it. But learning portuguese is not compulsory matter for all timorese.
Dear Lucrecia, adoption of portuguese language as one of (not the only one) was not based on majority choice as you mentioned. Using it as mean is different from adopting it as a national proud.
"Se utilizá-se o Indonésio teria Juizes Javaneses a condenar Timorenses, como aconteceu durante a ocupação Indonésia, considera que os Timorenses iriam aceitar essa situação???"
Following your way of thinking timorese will not accept both portuguese and indonesian judges. All are timorese colonialists. The difference only lays in the duration of time. Portuguese is almost 20 times longer than indonesia. Beside that comparing colonialists is like comparing demon with Satan.
The development of portuguese language in Timor Leste, in my opinion, will mostly depend on portuguese government and its people in Timor-Leste. The most and foremost priority for timorese is the development of Tetum.
regards
Gill
"They are forced to learn a whole new foreign language if they want to continue their studies or even work for the government in their own country."
Jose Kai Lekke, you are wrong.
Foreign language is the language being used by those students studying in Indonesia.
Bahasa Indonesia is the foreign language and Portuguese is the official language along with Tetum.
Don't confuse things.
I any case what are you trying to suggest?
Are you trying to suggest that Bahasa Indonesia should be the official language because some students are studying in Indonesia?
Or maybe Chinese should be the official language because there are also Timorese students studying in China?
Or perhaps the official language should be Spanish because most if not all of out future doctors are being trained in Cuba.
Japanese? Korean?
What about the many students studying in Portugal? Do they count for something or is is just the ones in Indonesia that are important?
C'mon people! The language policy of a country cannot be determined by short term considerations such as the number of students studying overseas in a foreign language.
for anyone who continues to say that 'the Timorese decided on these languages to be in their Constitution...' should stop making such long winded, overdrawn, sweeping statements. please. you are much more intelligent than that.
go back and check the parliamentary records, the UN's records, the newspapers, media outlets, talk to people who were involved in the nationwide consultation for the drawing up of the constitution during the time of the constituent consultative assembly (before any parliament was established - actually the records will show that the constituent consultative assembly automatically installed themselves as the new parliament without so much as consulting with the people or a proper democratic process). you will find that the whole exercise of consulting the people was an entire farce.
not a single word from the people was paid any due respect. the political elite and subsequent powers to be (and they continue to be so in their power hungry, power grabbing pathetic existence). not on language, the flag, national symbols, culture, religion, laws (both adat and introduced conventional/malae), traditional customs, and much much more of the peoples wishes. nothing! the aspirations of the people were totally disregarded. ignored!! one particular political group did manage to fight for the change of one national symbol to be changed and they eventually won - for those of you who may not remember all government letterheads changed to the current one. those wonderful representatives in the constituent assembly (majority Fretilin) already had the bag sown up. they already had their constitution drawn up and not that (the constitution) of the people.
so dear people, think again - the entire constitution (and any laws, by laws, decrees, etc,... stemming from this) was and remains something forced upon the people. ergo the choice of language (official, unofficial, working, or otherwise) was and is forced on the people. just imagine for a minute what else has been forced and continues to be forced on the people.
Whenever I hear someone say 'I'm not against the use of this language or other, but...' it usually means they ARE.
The problem is the way that Portuguese is taught - it's taught as a 'classical' (or 'dead') language, used by the Church, like Latin, not as a living language of 200 million people.
Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone African countries are far away from East Timor - so what? So is the UK, but thousands of Timorese live and work there. And the irony, most can't be bothered to learn English, even though they're in a country where everyone speaks it!
Many people don't realise that Indonesian, which is based on Malay, was a minority language, which was less widely spoken in Indonesia a century ago than Tetum was in East Timor.
If there had been a referendum on the choice of official language in Indonesia, Javanese would probably have won. Instead of 'Bahasa Indonesia', like 'Bahasa Melayu' it would be 'Basa Indonesia', like 'Basa Jawa'.
And before people say that nobody in Indonesia wants to use Dutch, that's because the Dutch themselves didn't want the Indonesians to learn it!
Many of the technical words used in Tetum from Portuguese are understandable to people who don't speak Portuguese, because they come from the same Latin and Greek roots as technical words in Indonesian from English or Dutch.
Examples:
ilegal, presiden, advokat, demokrasi, yurisdiksi, universitas, akademis, sekretariat, redaktur, finansial, aktualitas, direktur, komunikasi, partai
You don't need to understand Indonesian to work out what they mean!
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