| Subject: AU: Portuguese
gives official voice to E Timor
The Australian 31 Dec 99
Portuguese gives official voice to E
Timor
From CARMEL EGAN in Dili
PORTUGUESE, a language spoken by fewer
than 20 per cent of East Timorese, is to be the official language of the
new country.
Tetum, indigenous to the Dili region,
will be the parallel national language.
The National Council of Timorese
Resistance (CNRT) yesterday confirmed Portuguese would be used in
government, commerce, bureaucracy and education ahead of Bhasa Indonesian
or English.
Portuguese is a controversial choice
because it is spoken only by older Timorese and the educated elite. Most
people under 25 have grown up reading, writing and speaking Bhasa and
don't understand the old colonial language.
Student activists had suggested English
as a politically neutral choice with economic benefits.
But CNRT deputy president Jose Ramos
Horta defended the decision. "Portuguese is a language that has been
here for 500 years," he said. "Indonesia tried to wipe it out,
but it is still here, spoken by a small number of people who are the
opinion-makers; teachers, business people, political leaders, the
church."
"What we are saying, however, to any
Timorese who is a proud Timorese, if he doesn't speak Portuguese he must
at least speak Tetum, the national language."
Mr Ramos Horta said people would also be
encouraged to study English at an elementary level.
"English is a commodity rather than
a cultural language for the East Timorese."
Tetum was never challenged as the
national language because it was the most common, best developed of the 30
languages spoken in East Timor, a spokesman for leader Xanana Gusmao said.
"But it is also under developed and
a lot of work needs to be done to define its written form," he said.
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