Playing with ambiguity: The making and unmaking of local power in postcolonial Timor‐Leste. (21st November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Simião, Daniel S.; Silva, Kelly
• Is Part Of: Australian journal of anthropology. Volume 31:Number 3(2020)
• Page Start: 333
• Page End: 346
• Publication Date: 2020-11-21
• Subjects: development -- law/human rights -- local governance -- politics -- social change; Anthropology -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1111/taja.12377
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1035-8811

Abstract

Abstract: This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building in Timor‐Leste. We deploy two sets of empirical data to analyse the role ambiguity plays in particular power dynamics: the East Timorese legislation on community authority, and ethnographic descriptions of a local form of conflict resolution at the village level. The ethnographic analysis points to the fact that local authorities see themselves and are seen by villagers as state representatives. However, the legal framework may be seen as an effort by the Timorese national authority to detach itself from local leaders, but it does so ambiguously. While the state positions local authorities as community representatives of the people it also assigns them an increasing number of functions over time, many of which would be elsewhere considered state responsibilities. We argue that this ambiguity plays a vital role in a long‐term strategy to legitimise the state by appropriating local elements of political culture. That being so, local governance complexes are used to transpose and internalise modern practices and projects of social organisation and subjectivation, although they tend to be considered by many as longstanding cultural institutions.