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Taming the Banana Republic: USAID money is being used to rein in East Timor's fledgling civil society.

Article Excerpt
In March this year, a USAID-funded children's book released in East Timor provoked outrage. Faty and Noi's Adventure to Parliament was produced by the International Republican Institute (IRI) to teach Timorese kids about democracy. All the characters in the book were drawn as monkeys, including the Government leadership, who appeared on the front cover like a line-up of suspected criminal apes.

Lu-Olo, the Fretilin Party Head of Parliament who has spent most of his life dodging US-manufactured bullets as an independence guerilla, said 'This is definitely an attempt to humiliate us. We may be a small country with many poor people but we still have our dignity' (Timor Post 16/3/2004).

Parliament passed a resolution condemning the book and it was withdrawn, but not without a very public catfight. The responsible IRI project staffer quarrelled with President Xanana Gusmao for withdrawing his support for the publication. The IRI complained that the books had cost $15,000 to print and banning it was a denial of their right to free speech.

While commentators are right to point out that 'monkey-gate' was a convenient political distraction from corruption allegations pitted against the Government at the time, the racist and condescending tone of the book and brash IRI response is typical of the US foreign policy goal of 'expanding democracy and free markets' around the world, as the USAID website puts it.

Whistling in the Dark

USAID bankrolls most of the non-government media and many civil society organisations working on legal reform, media training and policy research in Timor. The 'democracy promotion' agencies funded by the quasi-US Governmental National Endowment for Democracy (NED), however, have attracted...

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