Timorese independence was often cast as a “lost cause” because of the unequal power relations at play. Indonesia was one of the world’s largest countries, with high influence regionally and globally, backed by most of the powerful states in the international community: so much so that it could drop Soviet-supplied napalm from American-supplied aircraft in 1983, a rare sign of superpower cooperation. Timor-Leste was tiny, with few weapons, backed only by relatively powerless outside forces: former Portuguese colonies in Africa and marginalized non-governmental activists in Western countries. Nevertheless, the weaker party managed to win a diplomatic victory by building “soft power” through its use of secular languages of human rights and Catholic themes of martyrdom.

1. THE POWER OF SUFFERING
International narratives of the Timor-Leste
independence movement
David Webster, Bishop’s University

2. THE POWER OF SUFFERING
International narratives of the Timor-Leste
independence movement
David Webster, Bishop’s University

3. THE POWER OF SUFFERING
International narratives of the Timor-Leste
independence movement
David Webster, Bishop’s University

4. NARRATIVE OF THID WORLD LIBERATION,
1970S
Document: Fretilin as the “sole legitimate representative,” Campaign for an
Independent East Timor, Sydney, Australia, [1976?]
Clearing House for Archival Records on Timor (CHART),
https://timorarchives.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/ciet-1976-mar-p.pdf

5. NARRATIVE
OF
SUFFERING,
1980S
Document: “East Timor’s
Secret Suffering, “ 4-page
leaflet published by the Asia
Centre, New York, 1980.
East Timor Human Rights
Centre (Syracuse NY)
collection, Timor
International Solidarity
Archive (TiSA),
https://timorarchive.ca/east-
timors-secret-suffering

6. “
”
FRETILIN WILL CERTAINLY
WITHER AWAY IN A FEW
YEARS [AND] WILL SLOWLY
DISAPPEAR AS MOST LOST
CAUSES DO.
Maldwyn Thomas, Canadian ambassador to Indonesia, report of a visit to East
Timor, 31 March 1987. Library and Archives Canada, RG 25, vol.19375, file 20-
TIMOR[13].
THE “LOST CAUSE” NARRATIVE

7. “
”
THE OCCUPATION OF EAST
TIMOR IS BRUTAL AND
ILLEGAL. BUT I DON’T
BELIEVE IT IS IRREVERSIBLE.
Audrey Samson, Nova Scotia East Timor Group, unpublished letter to The
Globe and Mail, 11 February 1984. LAC, Dan Heap papers, vol. 33, file 21.
DISRUPTING THE “LOST CAUSE”
NARRATIVE

8. THE “LOST CAUSE” PREVAILS
“Canada is in a unique position
to play a lead role during the
upcoming transition in East
Timor, which I believe is
inevitable.”
– Xanana Gusmao letter to
Canadian foreign minister Lloyd
Axworthy, 30 October 1998,
DFAIT file 20-TIMOR, obtained
via Access to Information
requests.

9. “
”
THIS PURSUIT OF
INDEPENDENCE MAY
ACTUALLY CREATE A FAILED
STATE IN TIMOR-LESTE.
[TL MAY BE] THE ARCHITECT
OF ITS OWN DEMISE.”
Lindsay Murdoch, “‘Outrageous’: José Ramos-Horta Lashes Out at Australian
Academic over East Timor ‘Failed State’ Fears,” Sydney Morning Herald, March
21, 2017, http://www.smh.com.au/world/outrageous-jose-ramos-horta-lashes-out-
at-australian-academic-over-east-timor-failed-state-fears-20170321-gv2t2o.html
“FAILED STATE” NARRATIVE

10. “
”
USING [TL’S] CHALLENGES AS THE
BASIS TO CLAIM THAT TIMOR-
LESTE IS A FAILED STATE IS
AHISTORICAL, MISSING THE
CONTEXT, AND IT IS AN
OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF THE
ISSUE.
Guteriano Neves, “Is Timor-Leste a Failed State?,”
https://www.academia.edu/15026621/Is_Timor-Leste_a_Failed_State.

11. THANK YOU/MERCI/OBRIGADO
• Quotations from Challenge
the Strong Wind (UBC
Press, Jan. 2020) & Timor
International Solidarity
Archive (TiSA),
timorarchive.ca