Poor people’s politics in East Timor

Abstract

Poor people attempting to claim a share of resources in post-conflict societies seek allies internationally and nationally in attempts to empower their campaigns. In so doing, they mobilise the languages of liberalism, nationalism and local cultural tradition selectively and opportunistically both to justify stances that transgress the strictures of local culture and to cement alliances with more powerful actors. In the case of poor widows in East Timor the languages of nationalism, ritual and justice were intermingled in a campaign aimed at both international actors and the national state in a bid to claim a position of status in the post-conflict order.

Keywords:

• justice
• poor people’s politics
• peacebuilding

Notes

1. Duffield, Global Governance; Richmond, The Transformation of Peace; and Kühn and Turner, “Introduction.”

2. Richmond, A Post-liberal Peace; and Mac Ginty, “Hybrid Peace.”

3. Mac Ginty “Hybrid Peace,” 404. See also Richmond, A Post-liberal Peace, 18–19.

4. Mac Ginty, “Hybrid Peace,” 408.

5. Ibid., 397.

6. Foucault, “Two Lectures.”

7. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance.

8. Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks; and Ortner, 2006, 6.

9. Ellis and Biggs, “Evolving Themes in Rural Development.”

10. Bateman, Why doesn’t Microfinance Work?, 20; United Nations Secretary General, The Role of Microcredit in the Elimination of Poverty.

11. Levitsky, World Bank Lending.

12. Wolfensohn, “How the World Bank is attacking Poverty.”

13. See World Bank, Social Capital Initiative Working Paper Series.

14. World Bank, World Development Report.

15. Jayasuriya, Statecraft.

16. Collier, 2007.

17. DFID, Notes on Making Markets Work.

18. See Chopra, “The UN’s Kingdom.”

19. World Bank, Timor-Leste Project Performance Assessment Report.

20. Bellamy et al., Understanding Peacekeeping, 282.

21. Ferguson, The Anti-politics Machine; Gill, “Globalization”; Hout and Robison, Governance; and Harrison, Neoliberal Africa.

22. Gould, The New Conditionality.

23. See Oomen, “Donor Driven Justice.”

24. Carroll, Delusions of Development; Cooke and Kothari, Participation; Gould, The New Conditionality; and Hickey and Mohan, “The Politics of Establishing Pro-poor Accountability.”

25. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant; Piven and Cloward, Poor People’s Movements; Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class; and Wilson, “Testing the Boundaries of the State.”

26. CAVR, “Conflict-related Deaths in Timor Leste.”

27. CAVR, Chega!, 250–251.

28. United Nations, Summary of the Report to the Secretary-General.

29. “Indonesia frees Militia Leader.”

30. See also Kent, The Dynamics of Transitional Justice.

31. UN International Commission of Inquiry, Report to the UN Secretary General; and Dicker et al., “East Timor.”

32. JSMP, Digest of the Jurisprudence, 14–15.

33. Reiger and Weirda, The Serious Crimes Process, 30.

34. JSMP, Digest of the Jurisprudence.

35. Hughes, Dependent Communities.

36. National activist, personal interview, Liquiça, May 2005.

37. Ibid.

38. Ratelauk member, personal interview, Liquiça, May 2005.

39. Hulme and Mosley, Finance against Poverty; Dichter and Harper, What’s Wrong with Microfinance?; and Bateman, Why doesn’t Microfinance Work?

40. Ratelauk member, personal interview, Liquiça, May 2005.

41. Ratelauk member, personal interview, Liquiça, May 2005.

42. Ratelauk member, personal interview, Liquiça, May 2005.

43. Ratelauk member, personal interview, Liquiça, May 2005.

44. Ratelauk member, personal interview, Liquiça, May 2005.

45. Hughes, Dependent Communities.

46. Ratelauk member, personal interview, Liquiça, May 2005.

47. CAVR, Chega!, para 777.

48. Ratelauk member, personal interview, Liquiça, May 2005.

49. Kent and Wallis, Timor-Leste’s Veterans’ Pension Scheme.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council [DP130102323] and the Economic and Social Research Council [RES-000-22-0455-A].