{"id":4341,"date":"2020-07-07T09:11:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T09:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/?p=4341"},"modified":"2020-07-07T09:11:43","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T09:11:43","slug":"standing-in-solidarity-to-save-arte-moris-timor-leste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/2020\/07\/07\/standing-in-solidarity-to-save-arte-moris-timor-leste\/","title":{"rendered":"Standing in Solidarity to Save Arte Moris, Timor-Leste"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Dr Khoo Ying Hooi <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am disturbed and frustrated with the news report that just released yesterday about the decision by the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, Taur Matan Ruak to hand the Arte Moris building for the office of the Veteran Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote a public commentary on Arte Moris in 2017,\nwith the title, \u201cHow Arts Heal and Galvanise the Youth of Timor-Leste\u201d that\nappeared initially in The Conversation. The public commentary surprisingly was\nwidely shared across the different news portals including Asia Times,\nHuffington Post and Myanmar Times. This has shown the extent of interest in the\npolitics and arts in Timor-Leste coming from different parts of the world and\nalso the significance of such discourse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Established in 2003, just a year after the restoration\nof Timor-Leste in 2002, Arte Moris offers a place for young Timorese to express\nthemselves through art while helping them bond and share positive values about\ntheir country. Arte Moris started as a small project by a Swiss couple with a\ngroup of young people, Arte Moris has slowly turned into a well-recognised public\nspace especially for the young Timorese including the children for free art\nclasses.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a country where the search for a state identity\ncontinues, and where nationalism has been largely constructed on traditional\nlocal cultures with the challenge to distance itself from the influence of\nformer colonial powers, the role of arts cannot be dismissed or ignored. Young\npeople and children search for their identity at a very young age by observing\nand recognizing the environment around them in the search of who they are and Arte\nMoris provides such a space for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the year of its inception, Arte Moris was also awarded\nthe UN Human Rights Prize its advocacy of freedom of expression. But Arte\nMoris\u2019s aim is not just to promote the arts. It has a bigger vision that is the\nhope to help Timorese to rebuild their lives after the long bloody independence\nstruggle that has killed a quarter of its population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone\nwho has been in Timor-Leste would notice the significance of the murals and graffiti. It\nis one of the most inclusive means of communication in this small country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People often ask, how did I learn about politics and\nhuman rights in Timor-Leste? It is a country that has thus far remains rather\nisolated in the discourse in Southeast Asia region, and there are many\nmisconceptions about this beautiful country too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I must admit that I do not learn it from the books or\nfamous figures; I learn it from the people that I met during my trips for\ndifferent purposes. In 2010, I wrote my first piece on human rights in Timor-Leste.\nIn 2013, I visited the country for the first time under an official assignment,\nthen 2016 and it continues until today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arte Moris, a free art school must be credited as the\nturning point on how I learn politics and human rights through the appreciation\nof bottom-up approach. It is through the people on the streets and in the\ncommunities that continue to shape my view about the country, to which I will\nbe forever indebted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nsincerely hope the Government of Timor-Leste can reconsider its decision and to\nallow Arte Moris to continue its existence as a public space for arts. The\ncreativity and originality of the Timorese artists in Arte Moris and also\nacross the country is admiring. They represent the reality. Arte Moris has\nearned its recognition in the world; it would be a shame if it were not\nappreciated in its own land. Today, Arte Moris\u2019s status is threatened. Conserving\ncultural heritage in Timor-Leste is important, and that goes the same for the preservation\nand promotion concerning cultural value of historical buildings like Arte\nMoris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr <\/em>Khoo Ying Hooi\nis deputy head and senior lecturer at the Department of\nInternational and Strategic Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,\nUniversity of Malaya, Malaysia.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Dr Khoo Ying Hooi I am disturbed and frustrated with the news report that just released yesterday about the decision by the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, Taur Matan Ruak to hand the Arte Moris building for the office of the Veteran Council. I wrote a public commentary on Arte Moris in 2017, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analisa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4343,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions\/4343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neonmetin.info\/buletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}