Ramos-Horta: Portuguese mark in Asia "has not been erased"

The President of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta, said this Friday that the mark left by the Portuguese in Asia has not been erased and that the Portuguese-Asian communities spread across the region are “living proof of this inescapable truth”.

“The mark left by the Portuguese in Asia has not been erased by time. Our communities are living proof of this inescapable truth. The result is something that endures: the birth of communities that are simultaneously European and Asian ,” said José Ramos-Horta.

The head of state was speaking at the opening session of the fourth Conference of Luso-Asian Communities, which will take place in Dili until Sunday, with the participation of communities from Sri Lanka, Malacca (Malaysia), Myanmar, Macau, Thailand, Goa (India) and Flores and Jakarta (Indonesia).

According to Ramos-Horta, those communities are not only “connected to Portugal”, but also to each other, because the “Portuguese administered their Asian territories with a sense of interconnection”.

“Cultural, administrative and religious ties united Goa and Malacca, Flores and Sri Lanka. For a period, Timor was even administered by the Governor of Macau,” he said, explaining that the church also played a central role in that connection.

The church, according to the President, brought faith, but also “ formal education, writing and spiritual discipline .”

Recalling that Portuguese-descended communities in Asia are “often invisible in national narratives” and “forgotten by school textbooks”, the President stressed the importance of coming together to remember, but [also] to reinvent”.

“This conference gives you space to reflect on the past”, but also, the head of state continued, an “opportunity to shape the next chapter of history”, which will be discussed with the proposal of the Dili Declaration, which will be approved on Sunday, and with the creation of the Association of Portuguese Communities in Asia.

“This association will be more than a network of people and communities. It is a promise and a commitment: to preserve, record and empower. To recognize the value of communities that are often marginalized or forgotten,” said José Ramos-Horta.

According to the President, the Association of Portuguese Communities in Asia will give a voice to Portuguese-speaking communities with governments and international institutions, support research and economic sustainability, but will also help protect the histories and identities of the people.

In a message read by the Portuguese ambassador in Dili, Manuela Bairos, the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, expressed the Portuguese Government's support for the conference's objectives, its willingness to host a meeting in Portugal, and to “follow the efforts to institutionalize the project that the Dili conference aims to promote”.