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Portuguese Timor was a Portuguese colony on the territory of present-day East Timor from 1702 until 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies.
José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão is an East Timorese politician. He has served as the 6th prime minister of East Timor since 2023, previously serving in that position from 2007 to 2015. A former rebel, he also served as East Timor's first president since its re-establishment of independence, from 2002 to 2007.
Timor-Leste, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The country comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor and the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco. The first inhabitants are thought to be descendant of Australoid and Melanesian peoples. The Portuguese began to trade with Timor by the early 16th century and colonised it throughout the mid-century. Skirmishing with the Dutch in the region eventually resulted in an 1859 treaty for which Portugal ceded the western half of the island. Imperial Japan occupied East Timor during World War II, but Portugal resumed colonial authority after the Japanese surrender.
The political system in Timor-Leste is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste is the head of government and the President of Timor-Leste functions as head of state. Timor-Leste has a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The East Timorese constitution was modelled on that of Portugal, with lesser power given to the president. The country is still in the process of building its administration and governmental institutions. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated East Timor a "flawed democracy" in 2022.
The economy of Timor-Leste is a low-income economy as ranked by the World Bank. It is placed 140th on the Human Development Index, indicating a medium level of human development. 20% of the population is unemployed, and 52.9% live on less than $1.25 a day. About half of the population is illiterate. At 27%, Timor-Leste's urbanisation rate is one of the lowest in the world.
The culture of Timor-Leste reflects numerous cultural influences, including Portuguese, Roman Catholic, and Malay, on the indigenous Austronesian cultures in Timor-Leste.
The national flag of Timor-Leste consists of a red field with the black isosceles triangle based on the hoist-side bearing a white five-pointed star in the center superimposed on the larger yellow triangle, also based on the hoist-side, that extends to the center of the flag.
The languages of Timor-Leste include both Austronesian and Papuan languages. The lingua franca and national language of Timor-Leste is Tetum, an Austronesian language influenced by Portuguese, with which it has equal status as an official language. The language of the Oecusse exclave is Uab Meto (Dawan). Fataluku is a Papuan language widely used in the eastern part of the country. A dialect of Malay-based creole called Dili Malay is spoken by a number of residents in the capital Dili, it borrowed words mostly from Portuguese and Tetum. Both Portuguese and Tetum have official recognition under the Constitution of Timor-Leste, as do other indigenous languages, including: Bekais, Bunak, Galoli, Habun, Idalaka, Kawaimina, Kemak, Lovaia, Makalero, Makasae, Mambai, Tokodede and Wetarese.
Francisco Xavier do Amaral was an East Timorese politician. A founder of the Frente Revolucionária de Timor Leste Independente (Fretilin), Amaral was sworn in as the first President of East Timor when the country, then a Portuguese colony, made a unilateral declaration of independence on 28 November 1975. He was a member of the National Parliament for the Timorese Social Democratic Association from 2001 until his death in 2012. Amaral was also known as "Abo (Grandfather) Xavier", a term of endearment, by East Timorese.
East Timor was a province of Indonesia between 1976 and 1999, during the Indonesian occupation of the country. Its territory corresponded to the previous Portuguese Timor and to the present-day independent country of Timor-Leste.
The Timor Gap Treaty was formally known as the Treaty between Australia and the Republic of Indonesia on the zone of cooperation in an area between the Indonesian province of East Timor and Northern Australia. It was a bilateral treaty between the governments of Australia and Indonesia, which provided for the joint exploitation of petroleum and hydrocarbon resources in a part of the Timor Sea Seabed. The treaty was signed on 11 December 1989 and came into force on 9 February 1991. The signatories to the treaty were then Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans and then Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas.
The Catholic Church in Timor-Leste is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the pope in Rome.
Tais cloth is a form of traditional weaving created by the women of East Timor. An essential part of the nation's cultural heritage, tais weavings are used for ceremonial adornment, sign of respect and appreciation towards guests, friends, relatives, home decor, and personal apparel. The Catholic Church of East Timor has also adopted the use of tais during its ceremonies. Because of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, detailed study of the history and importance of the tais began only after 2000.
East Timorese Portuguese, or Nusantaran Portuguese, is the variety of the Portuguese language spoken in Timor-Leste. It is one of the official languages of Timor-Leste alongside Tetum. As with other Lusophone countries besides Brazil, the Portuguese language curriculum in East Timor is based on European Portuguese, with some localisations in pronunciation. East Timor is the only sovereign state in Asia with Portuguese as an official language. There is a growing demand for Portuguese-language courses in the country, both at early-learning and tertiary levels of education.
The majority of the population of Timor-Leste is Christian, and the Catholic Church is the dominant religious institution, although it is not formally the state religion. There are also small Protestant and Sunni Muslim communities.
Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and the minor islands of Atauro and Jaco. Australia is the country's southern neighbour, separated by the Timor Sea. The country's size is 14,950 square kilometres (5,770 sq mi). Dili, on the north coast of Timor, is its capital and largest city.
East Timor and Indonesia established diplomatic relations in 2002. Both share the island of Timor. Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and annexed East Timor in 1976, maintaining East Timor as its 27th province until a United Nations-sponsored referendum in 1999, in which the people of East Timor chose independence. Following a United Nations interim administration, East Timor gained independence in 2002. Indonesia already had a consulate in Dili during the Portuguese colonial period, though Indonesia formalized their relations by establishing an embassy in Dili. Since October 2002, East Timor has an embassy in Jakarta and consulates in Denpasar and Kupang. Relations between the two countries are generally considered highly positive, despite various problems. Numerous agreements regulate cooperation in different areas. East Timorese are visa-free in Indonesia.
Chinese people in Timor-Leste consist of Chinese migrants to Timor-Leste and their descendants. The Chinese minority is a small proportion of the East Timorese population and most are Hakka and a small number of Cantonese within the populace. Many Chinese left during the mid-1970s.
East Timorese nationality law is regulated by the 2002 Constitution, the Nationality Act of the same year, the regulation of the Nationality Act Decree-Law No. 1 of 2004, as well as various international agreements to which East Timor has been a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of East Timor. The legal means to acquire nationality and formal membership in a nation differ from the relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. East Timorese nationality is typically obtained either on the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in East Timor; or under the rules of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth abroad to at least one parent with East Timorese nationality. It can also be granted to a permanent resident who has lived in East Timor for a given period of time through naturalization.
References
- ↑ Almeida, Bernardo (2017). "The Main Characteristics of the Timorese Legal System – a Practical Guide". Verfassung und Recht in Übersee / Law and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 50 (2): 175–187. doi:10.5771/0506-7286-2017-2-175. hdl: 1887/70068 . ISSN 0506-7286. JSTOR 26429316. S2CID 145045925.
- ↑ SIMÕES, FERNANDO DIAS (2015). "Law and Language in Timor-Leste: Bridging the Divide". Contemporary Southeast Asia. 37 (3): 381–405. doi:10.1355/cs37-3c. ISSN 0129-797X. JSTOR 24916610.
