Heir to the Dutch East Indies, since independence in 1949, Indonesia had always respected Portuguese sovereignty over the eastern half of the island of Timor, where our navigators arrived at the beginning of the 16th century. Sukarno, the first president, even visited Portugal. But with Suharto in power, and in the context of the Cold War, Timor was invaded in the same year that the fall of Saigon occurred. To counter the domino theory, and claiming that Portuguese decolonization had opened the door to communism, Suharto sought to transform the East Timorese into Indonesians, but failed. And today Timor-Leste is a young country that deserves praise, just look at the position it occupies in the democracy and press freedom indexes.
Ramos-Horta was in Lisbon for the inauguration of António José Seguro, on the 9th. On Facebook he said that he spent many hours traveling, but that he could not miss it, to greet the new Portuguese President. He flew from Dili to Bali, from there to Hong Kong, then to Zurich and finally disembarked in Lisbon. “We arrived on the 8th, in the middle of the day. Mild, pleasant temperature. Couldn’t be missed. Moving ceremony, another pedagogy of democracy. Congratulations Portugal. Coming to Portugal is coming to the second Mother House”, wrote the Timorese president, who I remember going to the DN in the 1990s, in the historic building on Avenida da Liberdade, to meet with Carlos Albino, the journalist who followed the difficult situation in Timor.
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