A Dubliner in Dili

By Joe Humphreys

"Sebastio hanlaho!" barks Tom Hyland at a young man whom he meets on the streets of Dili. Hyland shakes his fist in the air and then a cheeky smile breaks across his face.

"Hanlaho ('eats mice') is the worst insult you can use," he explains, the reciprocal curse "malae! ('foreigner!')", ringing in his ears.
Sebastio's remark is equally sarcastic – for Hyland is as close as you can get to a local in Timor-Leste. When he paid a visit to president Xanana Gusmao last month (March) with a delegation from the Irish embassy, the man called "East Timor's Nelson Mandela" embraced the Dubliner and joked "but this man is not Irish; he is Timorese".

Hyland, born and raised in Ballyfermot, discovered East Timor (later named Timor-Leste) by chance in 1992 when he watched a TV documentary on its illegal occupation by Indonesia. A former bus driver who had then recently been made redundant by CIE, he set up the East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign, which over a number of years got successive governments to break ranks with their European counterparts by championing the Timorese cause.

Hyland won many accolades for his work, including an ESB/Rehab person of the year award in 1999 when Timor-Leste voted for independence. But the Dubliner wasn't happy to rest on his laurels, and made the transition from lobbyist to development worker, taking up an aid post in Dili in 2000.

He is now employed by the Timorese department of foreign affairs as an English teacher for its diplomatic corps. He is also involved in promoting education for Timor's mostly jobless youths.

Equally at home mingling with government ministers as with members of Dili's burgeoning martial arts gangs, Hyland says he gets as much from the Timorese as he gives. He cites the example of one local youth who has a habit of watching out for him, and ensuring the Irishman is looking after his health. "I was going out the other day and he said to me, 'Take care, Tom', like he was my father or something."

Appropriately enough, Hyland's home in Ballyfermot is today occupied by three Timorese students who recently secured scholarships from Irish Aid, the Government's overseas development arm. The three look after the love of Hyland's live - Toto, the last remaining member of a large family of stray dogs he once rescued in Dublin.

Of the international community's involvement in East Timor, Hyland praises the work of development agencies like Concern, and Irish Aid – the overseas development arm of the Department of Foreign Affairs. "The UN has played an extremely positive role here. There are some very dedicated people in that organization. I am also very pleased with the Irish Government's approach to Timor." Nonetheless, he says, there is scope for "strengthening our presence". He would particularly like to see Ireland taking on a "mentoring" role in certain sectors of the economy.

More broadly, Hyland longs to see the international community make a greater effort to "share expertise and knowledge" with the local population. While he doesn't expect others to live the way he does (in a modest apartment that doubles up as a drop-in centre for local youths), he believes the thousands of foreigners in East Timor – among them a large military corps - could do more to integrate. "Very few really interact with the Timorese, sit with them, hold their hand. Most interaction between the local population and the malae is a dust track in the face."

Hyland adds: "One thing you should never do is look down on the Timorese. They pick up on it very quickly and they hate it."