Reaching out to the people of Timor-Leste

As University of Melbourne Librarian Philip Kent flew into Dili in the early morning, the first thing he noticed was the rugged natural beauty of the Timor-Leste land mass.

Once on the ground, the capital struck him as not dissimilar to other Asian cities, with motorbikes and scooters being the primary form of transport, albeit with a small town, local feel.

“My wake-up call was provided by roosters crowing underneath my hotel window each morning,” says Mr Kent. “Infrastructure in Dili is still very limited – the power went off most evenings until the generator kicked in.”

According to the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Timor-Leste is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 162nd out of 182 on the United Nations Human Development Index.

“It is a very young country reflecting the population growth following the downturn in hostilities,” says Mr Kent. While large families are a positive sign, sadly many of the young Timorese are unemployed. In addition, the craters of former buildings are left derelict or people squat in them with no water or sanitation.”

Timor-Leste is one of Australia’s closest neighbours and shares a long and checkered history of association, from the support the people of East Timor provided to Australian troops during World War 2, to the controversial invasion by Indonesia in 1975 condoned by Australia and, more recently, the posting from 1999 to 2000 of some 6000 Australian troops as part of the United Nations effort to help the country establish itself after its vote to return to independence.

“There is still a strong UN presence with white 4-wheel drives with large black UN letters on the side also prominent on the road. Some are regular UN 4WDs and others are marked for UN Police,” says Mr Kent.

In terms of the University of Melbourne’s relationship with Timor-Leste, more than half of its faculties are currently engaged in staff research projects, student fieldwork, professional educational development, and interaction with their local universities, and have been for some years.

“So, when in 2010, the University reconfirmed its commitment to public spiritedness and refocused our efforts on establishing strategic partnerships at local, national and international levels, the relationship with Timor-Leste emerged as a primary focus,” says Deputy Vice-Chancellor (University Affairs) Warren Bebbington.

“Our intention was to develop a formal, University-wide partnership with Timor-Leste that will draw together the many interactions across faculties and in 2010 we were fortunate to host visits from the Australian Ambassador to Timor-Leste Mr Abel Guterres, and the Minister of Education Dr João Cancio Freitas.”

Earlier, Professor Joseph Lo Bianco from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education had visited Timor-Leste and met with the then Rector of the National University of East Timor (UNTL) Dr Benjamim de Araújo e Côrte-Real. Like Mr Guterres and Dr Freitas, Dr de Araújo e Côrte-Real also expressed an interest in receiving assistance with the UNTL library from the University of Melbourne.

“With limited information available about the current state of the library, we agreed on the necessity of visiting Dili before the end of 2010 to obtain first-hand understanding of issues concerning the library, UNTL and Timor-Leste,” says Mr Kent. With the endorsement of the Vice-Chancellor and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (University Affairs), I was able to immediately plan my trip to renew existing university-to-university friendships and make new connections with tertiary education staff and government personnel.”

The trip offered Mr Kent an invaluable first-hand opportunity to foster collaboration, to develop and strengthen relationships between the University of Melbourne and the UNTL, and the government of Timor-Leste.

After meeting and talking with Head of the UNTL Library Venceslau do Rego and about eight of his staff, Mr Kent came away with a wish list of projects he felt the University of Melbourne could assist with. This included provision of additional PCs, access to electronic resources, helping reduce the cataloguing backlog (rather than simply providing new books and reading materials), identification of collection gaps by aligning donated books with disciplines taught at the university, training and development of staff, and development of a digital theses program and institutional repository. In the longer term, the opportunity exists for assistance with design of a new library for the proposed new UNTL campus.

“What I found in essence,” says Mr Kent “is that there is a large skills gap and an incredible opportunity to advance the country through the power of education.”

Following Mr Kent’s visit, and further discussions with visiting East Timorese government and community leaders, a formal proposal for a University of Melbourne partnership with the National University of Timor-Leste in Dili is expected to be finalised in 2011.