BY JOSH TRINDADE
I was given a form by one of the Government agencies all in Portuguese. I didn’t understand how to fill it. Then, I've exploded. Furious! Angry!
How come I don't understand my official language in my own country? It’s not that I am stupid. It’s not that I don’t want to learn the language.
It is that the official language was chosen to favour an elite, just a few and to discriminate the majority of normal Timorese, like me, who was educated during the Indonesian time.
The adoption of the Portuguese as a language has the intention to eliminate people like myself to have access to power. This is not fair. This is not what Timorese fought for.
Because is written in the RDTL Constitution, the elites and some Portuguese in Timor can legally make discrimination against the non-Portuguese speakers in Timor.
Often the Portuguese said to me, “you must learn Portuguese because this is in your Constitution”, little bit different than saying, “you must learn Portuguese because I told you so, because I am the colonial and you are the colonized”.
It is also so colonial when they say, “Portuguese language is the Timorese identity”.
Maybe it is the identity of the elites who were part of the colonial regime during the Portuguese time. But definitely, Portuguese language was never part of my identity, the younger generation.
I have no connection whatsoever with Portuguese culture, although I appreciate Portuguese assistance during the resistance. But bear in mind that, what Portuguese people did during the resistance is to cover their past mistakes.
They need to pay my grand father when they forced him to work for them as a slave. Pay head tax to them. Create slaves among Timorese etc. Timorese don’t owe anything to Portugal, so please leave us alone.
If any Timorese want to learn Portuguese let it be their personal choice. Don’t hide behind the Constitution to hammer Portuguese language down onto Timorese heads.
Enough people force Timorese to do things against their will in the past.
IT IS ENOUGH! CHEGA!
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