"Mr Tom ", as he is widely known in his adopted East Timor, today becomes Dr Tom Hyland. At a ceremony at the University of Limerick the former Dublin bus-driver and activist will be conferred with an honorary doctorate of laws.
His citation acknowledges Dr Hyland's considerable international reputation "in promoting the development of a just civil society in East Timor the most recent member of the United Nations". It is fitting, it says, that the university add to his reputation through "its most prestigious award".
Dr Hyland is now an English teacher in the independent, but very poor, new county, where he feels "at home". In effect, he is on a visit to Ireland. He told The Irish Times that he will be looking for Irish teachers to volunteer their services in a new Timorese school he is involved in establishing. The Timorese government has allocated a large site with buildings outside the capital, Dili, for a vocational school. It will have an English department run by Dr Hyland.
Funding for the main school is from Rotary Clubs in Australia and Indonesia. Dr Hyland is hoping that an initial $50,000 will be raised by a one-man Joycean show by Senator David Norris in Dublin for his English school. It will train up to 100 students, mostly from remote areas. The main purpose is to "make some inroads into the cycle of poverty by providing basic skills", he said.
Because the Indonesian government of occupation employed few Timorese there was now a chronic scarcity of accountancy, construction and technology skills, in particular. "This is against the background of hardly any jobs in the country." Dr Hyland is keeping up pressure on the Government to choose Timor as Ireland Aid's first Asian "programme country". He said the Taoiseach had told the Timorese Foreign Minister, Dr Jose Ramos Horta , that Timor would be chosen. But since Ireland's cut in Overseas Development Aid "this seems to have been put on the back-burner".
It is likely, however, that Vietnam will be favoured. Dr Hyland suggested that both could be chosen. With €2.7 million being spent in Timor this year, Ireland Aid, whose work Dr Hyland praised, sees Timor as "virtually a programme country". The Minister of State for Development, Mr Tom Kitt, is to visit Dili next month.
Last week the Ballyfermot activist received a warm welcome from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. The chairman, Dr Michael Woods, undertook to pursue positively with the Department of Foreign Affairs a Hyland proposal for a scheme whereby one or two Timorese interns could work at the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Ms Liz O'Donnell, former minister of state, suggested that Department scholarships might be available for Timorese administrators to study development education at Kimmage Manor, Dublin. Dr Woods said he would also take this up. Dr Hyland suggested another possible initiative - in information technology by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
He said the Timorese were being "robbed" of their oil by Australia's intransigence in negotiations over the 2001 Timor Gap oil treaty, which was originally between Jakarta and Canberra. Mr Michael D. Higgins urged that Ireland apply diplomatic pressure on Canberra.
Dr Woods suggested an international commission to help resolve the impasse, in which Australia has refused to participate in the International Court of Justice. Dr Hyland said that the original treaty gave Timor 90 per cent of a very small oilfield and Australia 80 per cent of a very large one.
The Timorese were only seeking "a fair and negotiated settlement" Praising the committee's solidarity, he pleaded that Ireland stay engaged with Timor's development, which was going to take much longer than the government there at first thought. "For Ireland there are many areas where we could walk the extra mile with the East Timorese," said Dr Hyland.