The Idealist by Nicholas Jose

Author:Nicholas Jose
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Giramondo Publishing
Published: 2023-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

2

It was the ninth of November when Jake landed in Dili for the second time, Monday, a working day. It was his birthday. Anne and Nicole had given him presents over breakfast back home and a slab of rainbow cake to take with him.

His birthday was a date to remember, the date of Kristallnacht when the glass was smashed and the Nazis launched their assault on the Jews. On the same date fifty years later the Berlin Wall that divided Germany into East and West came down. The ninth of November was a date with two faces, a rampage of destruction and an assembly of hope. It marked the inexorable turning of the wheel of history for both good and evil, at what cost to human lives.

Jake sensed the relevance of the omen to the situation in Dili, coming just a few days before the anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre. Seven years earlier, on the twelth of November 1991, the Indonesian army had opened fire on East Timorese students as they prayed for their slain comrades in the Santa Cruz cemetery. Hundreds of troops took part and hundreds of innocent people were killed. The footage of the atrocity, smuggled out, showed the world what Indonesia would do to keep its hold over the country. Since then both sides had maintained pressure and any resolution was as far off as ever.

On the eve of the anniversary there were signs of intimidation being stepped up again, rumours, nervous observations and, from pro-independence activists, anticipation of the bloodshed that would turn the tide their way. Journalists and international supporters were descending in large numbers. Jake had seen the reports in Canberra before he left, the intercepts, the chatter. Words on the wind. Military and paramilitary were on the move.

Jake shuddered as he wrote his birthday date on the arrival card. He had to remember that his passport showed a different date of birth for its bearer.

Armed police were on the alert at the airport as the disembarking passengers lined up for checking. This time Jake’s bag was thoroughly searched. They made him unlock his briefcase for inspection and found the birthday cake in its foil wrapping, and nothing else except plumbers’ manuals and empty notebooks, and a camera that the officer picked up and opened. It had no film in it. Jake showed the man a family photo of himself with his wife and daughter.

No one had intercepted him at Darwin airport this time. Even Gavan didn’t know he was coming. Jake knew the word for plumber in Tetun but he didn’t say it to the immigration official for fear of giving too much away. He knew ‘plumber’ in Portuguese from Vince in Canberra and he had learned it in Bahasa. Jake showed the passport page that proved his status as an Australian aid worker. Tukang pipa, he said clumsily, pointing at his chest. But the officer wasn’t budging. It was the nationality he disliked and the evidence of a prior visit. Jake could only repeat that he was a plumber.

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