Conceptual Considerations

Abstract

On August 30, 1999, the overwhelming majority of eligible East Timor’s people, wearing their best freshly washed and pressed clothes, walked along dirt tracks from their remote villages and towns, out of the hills and valleys, to queue before sunrise to be sure to be able to cast a vote in a UN-supervised ballot to determine whether their land would remain what was claimed as a part of Indonesia. After twenty-four years of resistance to Indonesian occupation and rule, during which around a quarter of all East Timorese lost their lives, and in the midst of an orchestrated campaign of violence, destruction, and intimidation, more than three-quarters of the people of East Timor voted in favor of independence. The Indonesian government’s claim to sovereignty over the disputed territory was deemed by a majority of the local population to be illegitimate, and the principle alternative, a local basis for complete and legitimate representation, asserted itself in its place.