ABSTRACT
The year 2012 marked a decade of formal independence for the Republic of Timor-Leste, a milestone that presents a timely opportunity for reflection on its achievements to date. In this article, the relationship between language policy and the medium-of-instruction (MOI) is examined through the lens of a young, ethnolinguistically diverse nation’s struggles to define its post-colonial identity. Timor-Leste offers a rich case study of the array of discursive influences on MOI policy in multilingual, post-colonial developing contexts. My intended contribution is to show how MOI policy emerges from historical and socio-political experiences and is shaped by complex interactions between external and internal forces (Chimbutane, 2011).
