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the purple painting of a disturbed sunrise east of Timor
If could only in the calm afternoons
feel that tiredness and listen to the telling of the wearinesses
within the laughters of the naked barefoot children
of all Timor
Xanana, 1975-1999 stanza 1, lines 1-7, stanza 2, lines 1-3, stanza 3, lines 1-3 and lines 6-10
The stanzas above show that Xanana‟s thought of freedom is not only about political aspect, but also equality and justice where people live their life normally as
colonizers. Xanana does not direct his intelligence and efforts in the production of abstract philosophical treatises on freedom. He does not engage in linguistic analyses
of “freedom”, nor beats his brains about the complex meanings between “being free” and a “free being”, nor does he engage in a conceptual analysis of “positive freedom”
and “negative freedom” which is conducted by modern academicians such Hegel and others.
2. Social Freedom
Social freedom for Xanana is when everyone lives their social life equally without any oppression from a larger society. Social freedom is when the Timorese
determine their own social future as Xanana shows in the last stanza of the poem“Oh Freedom
”: If I could only
at the darkening of the waves walk by the sand
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absorbed in myself in the wet rapture of the breeze
and touch the immensity of the sea in a breath of soul
which let me dream the future of the island of Timor
Xanana, 1975-1999, stanza 4, lines 1-9
The last stanza of “Oh Freedom” above also symbolizes Xanana‟s awareness of the Timorese social life whose nature is part of their daily life. Living
under colonial hegemony has forced the Timorese to live their identity with nature as part of it. Moreover, through this poem, Xanana reemphasizes the Timorese
individual social life as equal to colonizers, as in a democratic society, social life is the rights of every individual. Further, Xanana also wants to present that social life is
part of individual dignity where people of Timor Leste can represent themselves; dignity is something they lost during Portuguese and Suharto military regime. For
Xanana, social life of one cannot be represented by anyone; only the person who can represent himself or herself. Therefore, in order to gain social life and dignity, the
Timorese must gain political freedom. The social life and dignity “so-called civilization” brought by Portuguese and Suharto‟s regime will not represent Timorese
fairly. “Let me dream the future of the island of Timor” means only Timorese can define their own principle of social life. The excessive control of the colonizers over
the Timorese has caused the Timorese unable to build better social life and social development. Social freedom means the Timorese have freedom of choice to build a
better society like any other society in the word. Social freedom allows Timor Leste ‟s
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government to develop social policies in favour of its people and to move from a country of economically less into widespread of wealth. The wealth will raise the
social life of the Timorese and social equality in the eye of the colonizers. The principal of social freedom is the rights of every individual or the nation.
3. Cultural Freedom
In a democratic society, cultural freedom means empowerment of every individual, group or nation to have their own choice in accordance to their values,
identity, capable of fighting for their rights, independence, own decision making, and free to have their own cultural development. Timor Leste as the nation under colonial
hegemony lost its -cultural freedom, as the West portray that Timor Leste is not able of build their own wellbeing and the West are there to empower the Timorese and
build civil society according to western civilisation by force. The West as a larger society discriminate the existence of the Timorese, their culture and way of life.
The West uses their superior culture and civilization as justification and validation of empire or colonialism to „Civilizing Mission‟. Since the beginning of
imperialism, culture imperialism is the success story of Western colonialism throughout the world. The impact of cultural imperialism leads to the elimination of
many various cultures throughout colonized countries. Elimination of cultures is such as de-
linguicization replacing native languages with colonizers‟ one, devaluating local customs and putting colonizers‟ custom into place. During Portuguese rule and
Indonesian occupation, Timorese were forced to abandon their culture and applied
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these two colonial cultures. During Portuguese colonialization, Timorese were forced to leave their way of life because the colonizer thought that Timorese culture was
backward and inferior to Portuguese. Meanwhile, during Indonesian occupation, cultural imperialism was known as Indonesianisation; everything related to the
Timorese culture was banned. Both Portuguese and Indonesia use “Common cultural
values” as political rhetoric in order to justify colonialism. Common cultural values are also as fabric of public education where mainstream students are taught to
celebrate the new form of tradition, a tradition that colonizers claim is unique and represents both colonized and colonizers; in fact, common cultural values are just the
form of control by colonizers to keep their influence over the colonized. Cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting and imposing a culture which is politically
powerful for colonizers to occupy colonized or „less potent societies‟. The form of cultural identity imposed by Portuguese to the Timorese is the
term maubere or known as “Other” to marginalize Timorese. Xanana as leader and a
poet use maubere as a new identity. He argues that identity is freedom. It is in the name of identity of maubere that he rises against oppression and also it is in the
name of identity that he fights against degradation. Moreover, in the name of identity, he also affirms the dignity of the Timorese.
Maubere People, clench your fists,
The hour is yours, Maubere And your defiance will bring down
the walls of your own enslavement
