Asia Times: Education: a risky profession in East Timor



	March 24, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Education: a risky profession in East Timor
By Kafil Yamin

DILI, East Timor - Education in East Timor hasbecome quite a dangerous profession in these uncertain times, soManfred Yohannes says he survives by following a motto he hascoined: ''Just teach. Period."

Almost all Indonesian teachers assigned in East Timor -the majority of whom hail from outside this troubled territory - go bythis saying.

That means they do not flunk their students, or offend them inany way, lest they feel the brunt of simmering resentment hereagainst non-Timorese or be drawn into incidents of violence thatseem to erupt only too easily here.

This makes teaching a physically risky job, and more and moreteachers say they have had enough of the turmoil in East Timor,ahead of a vote on autonomy or independence, and enough of their students' aggressiveness.

In mid-March, some 3,000 teachers staged a rally in front ofthe provincial educational office here to demand from thegovernment that they be sent home. ''We cannot accomplish ourduties with constant fear of terror and physical harassment,''shouted the teachers' spokesman.

Amid all this, the education system here has been crippled.Teachers are reluctant to work. Thousands of Timorese students areabandoned. Schools are quiet, classes are missed and teachingschedules suspended.

Education, along with basic services such as health andmedicine, is suffering in the wakeof a spate of violence here and the departure of many Indonesiansfrom this territory at the eastern end of the country.

The reluctance of teachers to come, much less stay in EastTimor is crucial because education here is heavily dependent oninstructors from elsewhere in Indonesia. East Timor is alreadyamong the most backward and poorest areas in Indonesia, in termsof literacy and other human development indicators.

Since East Timor was ''integrated'' into Indonesia in 1976, ayear after the military invaded it, some 4,000 teachers fromvarious areas have been assigned here. They make up some 76percent of East Timor's teacher population.

East Timor, with some 800,000 people, has 64 kindergartens, 766primary schools, 117 junior high schools, 38 senior high schoolsand 16 colleges.

Non-Timorese teachers find themselves vulnerable in thepolitical atmosphere unleashed by the prospect of freedom fromIndonesian control.

''There is a public sense of revenge against anything smelling ofoutsiders,'' saidFlorentino Sarmento, head of the Dili office of the NationalCommission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). ''They perceive independence as lawlessness."

Cases of defiance of teachers and their maltreatment by studentsare on the rise. ''Everyday, we hear news of harassment againstteachers by students and their parents,'' added Sarmento.

Yohannes, who is from Kupang in West Nusatenggara province,said: ''If we suspend a student's grade, we will have problems.The parents will storm into the class and beat us in front ofour students."

''The frustrations are just too much if you're a goodteacher,'' Paeman Belyanan, a teacher from the island of Ambonsaid in an interview. ''You cannot stick to the'just teach, period' principle forever. You should do your best tomake your students more capable, more ethical, more sensible.''He added: ''That's what teaching is all about."

Belyanan recalls how the father of a student whom he had toldwas ineligible to take an exam, due to prolonged absences,threatened him with a machete in class, shouted expletives at himand hit him bodily, in front of his class in Liquicia regency,some 60 kilometers from Dili.

Pudjiastuti, a female teacher at the junior high school in Dili,said one of her students hit her until they knocked two of her teeth out. Anotherfemale teacher, in Baucau regency, said a male student ''grabbed mybreasts and my thigh and uttered obscene words."

The local newspaper Suara Timor Timor has reported cases ofteachers having plastic bags of animal waste and urine thrown at them in front of class.

In fact, teachers stationed in East Timor have had problems with violence for the last two decades. TheForum for East Timor Teacher Association says that from 1976 to1998, 150 teachers have been victims of violence. Thirteen of themwere stabbed or shot, none fatally.

But these days East Timor's teachers worry that things are gettingworse. Yohannes considers himself lucky to look like a local andto be able to speak Tetun, East Timor's language, which is similar to that spokenin his native West Nusatenggara in the western part of Timorisland.

Yohannes's life here is typical for an Indonesian teacher assignedto a remote place. He goes to work by foot and walks 14 kilometersevery day, lives in a small house with no electricity and gets small pay.

All that could be borne, except the teachers' welcome is fraying. Lately, it has become more andmore common for students to say: ''Teacher, when will you leave?We want freedom."

Hipolito Aparico, a Timorese teacher, deplored the absence ofprotection from the authorities and educational institutions.Harassed teachers ''go to the police, local militarycommand or educational office for protection. They have alwaysreturned empty-handed."

Aparico can sympathize with his the desire of his fellow Timoreseto be free of Indonesian rule. But he pointed out that theescalating incidents of harassment are due to the latestdevelopments in the political realm.

''The cases intensified after the Indonesian government offeredthe two options - unlimited autonomy and independence. Since then, manyTimorese feel it is time to kick Indonesians off theirsoil,'' Aparico said.

So far, the Indonesian Cultural and Education Department hasallocated the equivalent of $6.2 million to take non-native teachers outof East Timor, but this move has drawn criticism from Timoreseacademics.

''The government should meet their demand for protectioninstead of taking them out,'' said Theo Tidja Balela, rector ofEast Timor University. ''If the government wants to do good thingsin this region, it should make education better, not make itworse."

Given the exodus of teachers, defense and mlitary Chief Gen.Wiranto has announced that military officers are ready to takeover the teachers' role. ''We will soon send our soldiers toschools of East Timor to teach,'' he told reporters in Jakarta.

Many Timorese reacted cautiously. ''In that case, [themilitary] deserve credit,'' said Isabela Perreira, chairperson ofEast Timor's Committee for the Victims of Violence and MissingPersons. ''But I genuinely believe that will become thereason for them to send more troops here and tighten their grip onother sectors of life here,'' she added.

(Inter Press Service)

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