This article examines the evolving relationship between traditional and modern forms of political authority in local government in Timor-Leste. The “clash of paradigms” between traditional and liberal democratic ideas of legitimacy in Timor-Leste is widely considered to be an important issue for the stability of the nation-state as a whole, and integral to engaging local communities in nation building, peace building, and democratization. Drawing on fieldwork conducted by the authors in Baucau, Los Palos, Viqueque, Venilale, and Ainaro in 2008–2009, we examine the ways elected chefes de suku and chefes de aldeia are interacting with traditional authorities at the local government level. The findings suggest that the interaction of modern and traditional systems has produced several hybrid models of local political authority and legitimacy. Specifically, we identify three models: two “co-incumbency” models, and an “authorization” model emphasizing a separation of powers between traditional and modern authorities.

Xanana Gusmão recently mentioned that a “Second Maubere Miracle” is underway, implying that a major political reform will soon shake the roots of Timor-Leste's public administration. Decentralization, defined in a very broad sense, has been a constitutional mandate since independence, but successive governments have failed to engage this reform despite paying lip service to its necessity. This essay reviews the options before the policy makers – both in theoretical terms (distinguishing between the various definitions of decentralization) and in the pragmatic forms that have been contemplated so far – and discusses their implications for the process of rooting a modern democracy in the country both at the intermediate, district level and at the grassroots, suku (village) level. For this purpose, the essay brings together the author's own field research and the rich literature that has emerged in the recent past, including contributions by Timorese colleagues.

This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building in Timor-Leste. We deploy two sets of empirical data to analyse the role ambiguity plays in particular power dynamics: the East Timorese legislation on community authority, and ethnographic descriptions of a local form of conflict resolution at the village level. The ethnographic analysis points to the fact that local authorities see themselves and are seen by villagers as state representatives. However, the legal framework may be seen as an effort by the Timorese national authority to detach itself from local leaders, but it does so ambiguously. While the state positions local authorities as community representatives of the people it also assigns them an increasing number of functions over time, many of which would be elsewhere considered state responsibilities. We argue that this ambiguity plays a vital role in a long-term strategy to legitimise the state by appropriating local elements of political culture. That being so, local governance complexes are used to transpose and internalise modern practices and projects of social organisation and subjectivation, although they tend to be considered by many as longstanding cultural institutions. K E Y W O R D S development, law/human rights, local governance, politics, social change

In 2006, a mere seven years after the overwhelming vote in opposition to Indonesia's final offer of 'broad autonomy' and only four years after the restoration of independence, communal violence erupted in Dili, the capital of East Timor. This violence was framed in terms of tensions between westerners, known as kaladi, and easterners, known as firaku. This essay seeks to answer two basic puzzles. First, what are the origins of these communal labels? Second, why did these terms resonate so profoundly within East Timorese society so soon after independence? Tracing the history of these terms, this essay argues that across more than three centuries these communal labels have emerged during crucial struggles to exert central authority. In doing so, this essay highlights the relationship between regional identities and the social ecology of food.