playing between the two sides

1577 Words4 Pages

Pátria-Pátria: The National Anthem in Portuguese Language
Jill Jolliffe’s memoir of Borja da Costa during FRETILIN’s interregnum period (roughly from September to December 1975) tells the atmosphere when “Pátria-Pátria” was written.

“”In mutually broken English and Portuguese we would discuss Australian foreign policy. Timor, his country, was very tiny, he (Borja da Costa) used to say. It was too small for the superpowers to care about. Their policies were based on expediency, but it was not expedient to offend Indonesia for the sake of a small country. Timorese would surely have to fight for themselves. It was clear Australia would not help; illusions were dangerous.”

In this section we will see that Borja da Costa’s concern about international relations and the future of East Timor is strongly reflected in “Pátria-Pátria.” This song was written by Borja da Costa and composed by Afonso Araujo in 1975, soon after the civil war between the three Timorese political parties and FRETILIN’s triumph in it. The song was primarily written to be the National Anthem of 1975 Independent East Timor. With the Restoration of Independence in 2002, it was re-adopted as the National Anthem by Mari Alkatiri’s new FRETILIN government.
I would like to examine the song more as FRETILIN leaders’ identification of their political stance in Portuguese language; a linguistic sphere that is open to outsiders where the language of modern Western categories dominates. Below are the first lines:

“Pátria, Pátria, Timor-Lesté, nossa Nação.
Gloória ao povo e aos heróis da nossa libertaçáo.”

Fatherland, Fatherland, Timor-Leste, our Nation.
Glory to the people and the heroes of our liberation.

The first line may sound like a taut...

... middle of paper ...

...een the two sides.” The foreign observers have been perplexed with so many challenges posed against the opportunity of “self-determination” and supposedly “independent” and “democratic” East Timorese government since 2002. On the other hand, CPD-RDTL did not understand why their land was “re-colonized” by the United Nations and the government. Facing the coming of the UN and their state-building, CPD-RDTL insisted that their resistance was (and is) yet unfinished. Many Timorese prefer to use the word “ukun-an” (a state of self-determination, but not “rasik?”) instead of “ukun-rasik-an” to describe present situation. Ironically, all of these foreign scholars and Timorese actors associate themselves with FRETILIN and (East) Timorese’ struggle for “independence (or ukun-rasik-an?).” Hence, the specters of 1975 still haunt the politics of the Timorese societies today.

Open Document