IINA: Self-Determination and Governance —What Should We Learn from Timor-Leste's Independence?

By Koji Sakane, Professor, Director of International Center, Shimane University (Former Aid Coordination Advisor to Timor-Leste)

Timor-Leste is one of the few countries which have gained independence in the 21st century. At the time of its independence, Timor-Leste was a region with a population of just 920,000, yet it defied the much larger Indonesia, a nation with over 200 million people, and achieved independence through its struggle for self-determination. Timor-Leste experienced serious famine and numerous acts of violence during the Portuguese colonial period and the subsequent Indonesian occupation, but it overcame such conditions to achieve independence, making it a “model case” of statehood.