Post-1999 state-building in East Timor : local reception of state institutions and cultures of governance

Abstract

This thesis examines the local reception of international state-building in post-1999 East Timor. Contemporary literature on state-building and peace-building has largely concentrated on the structure of state institutions and activities by international actors and local elites. Drawing upon various sources of data including field research and historical and anthropological literature, this thesis explores Timorese society's relationship with the modern state, which was built under international and national auspices. It demonstrates the significant impact of local culture of governance on the local reception of state institutions, and elucidates a variety of factors that uphold the culture of governance. In order to grapple with the malleable and ever-contested nature of local culture, this thesis analyses state-building as an interactive process between state and society and involving a number of actors, thereby forming and reforming the local culture of governance. The local culture of governance was heavily influenced by the nation's colonial past. Democratic state institution-building reflected post-colonial characteristics of political culture; electoral democracy was continuously projected with, and redefined through, the sense of nation-ness, which had a strong emphasis on unity over diversity. Like many other post-conflict societies, large parts of East Timor had maintained viable customary forms of governance based on a kinship community. Village institutions built in the post-1999 period therefore became an intersection where the 'universal' ideas of governance, such as democracy and gender equality, met 'traditional' norms of governance. The local subsistence agriculture-based economy was also a key component in the resilient local 'traditional' culture. State judicial institutions were not particularly active in rural areas due to conceptual gaps and lack of infrastructural backing. Crucially, the significant presence of the international community and the introduction of the neo-liberal market economy in post-1999 East Timor also brought about rapid change in the culture of governance, influencing the local society's relationship with state institutions. In short, informed by the history of colonialism and embedded in socio-economic structures, the local culture of governance had significant implications for the way in which local society engaged with the state. Such findings encourage scholars to reconsider the idea that a particular set of state institutions inevitably brings about stability and peace in conflict-torn societies.