Goa Media Watch

TGF preface: For the past several years, TGF has noticed that the Goa Press has been publishing some very interesting but FALSE stories related to Portugal and the 451 year Portuguese administration of Goa. This is NOT to say that colonial Portuguese rule was all so " Bright and Beautiful". It wasn't. There are many facets of the Portuguese 451 years in Goa which can and should be critiqued and criticised. TGF supports critical introspection of any event. That is good for development. What TGF finds intriguing is this regular release of FALSE (to the point of being deliberately mischievous) anti Portuguese material in the Goa Press. 

The saddest part of it all : the Goa journos do not even bother to correct their errors - NOT even after several attempts to draw their attention to errors. Furthermore, these Goa Journos specialize in getting very defensive and edgy about their FAKE Words of Mass Deception.

The following article has been sent in by noted Portuguese Goan Information Technology specialist, Paulo Colaco Dias. It speaks for itself.

TGF
March 4, 2004

coming soon: A List of other Inaccurate or FAKE  Goa Press stories

Response to several inaccurate articles published in the Goan Press -  January and February 2004:

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Portuguese Citizenship from a historical perspective.

By Paulo Colaço Dias.

 have recently come across several inaccurate articles in the Goan press relating to Portuguese citizenship and the process to acquire Portuguese citizenship.

It is clear that there is a lot of confusion and many of these articles are based on misconceptions and wrong interpretations. Some ask how can Goans who do not know a word of Portuguese become Portuguese citizens. Others ask how did Abu Salem acquire Portuguese citizenship.

This article is an attempt to explain the process from an historic and facts based perspective.

There are three clear ways to acquire Portuguese citizenship.

1. The easiest to understand is the acquisition of Portuguese citizenship by virtue of blood relation - Jus Sanguinis - (through one’s mother or father who must be registered Portuguese citizens):

This is how Goans born after 1961 are eligible - by Jus Sanguinis. As the reader must know, full Portuguese citizenship rights have been granted to the people from Portuguese India since around 1757, by a Royal Decree signed by King José I and his Prime Minister, the Marquês de Pombal. All people from Estado da India Portuguesa (EIP) comprising Goa, Damão, Diu , Dadra and Nagar Aveli, were granted Portuguese Citizenship, and equal status under the law, with the Metropolitan Portuguese. This was then commonly known as Jus Solis - citizenship by right of birthplace. Portugal is known to be unique in this decision. Neither the French, nor the British, nor the Dutch did the same to their colonies in the east.

In 1952, in response to UN resolutions for the self-independence of the still existing colonies of the world, Portugal decided to rename all Portuguese colonies to overseas provinces and made them all integrant part of territorial Portugal. During those years, (after 1952 and until 1975) the internationally recognised map of territorial Portugal was 20 times larger than the size of continental Portugal, comprising of the 5 African overseas provinces (Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, São Tomé e Príncipe, Guiné Bissau), Timor Leste, Macau and Estado da Índia.

The EIP was, therefore, not a colony in 1961 but a Portuguese province and an integrant part of territorial Portugal and recognized as such officially and internationally (by UN treaties which even the Indian Union had officially signed and acknowledged). The people from EIP obviously enjoyed full Portuguese citizenship rights by Jus Solis (right of birthplace). In the same way Portuguese birth records were recorded in birth registry offices in Lisbon , Porto, Coimbra , Faro, etc., births were also recorded in Panjim, Margao, Mapuca, etc. The EIP was indeed internationally recognized as an integrant part of territorial Portugal so, records were kept there and there was no reason to send them to Lisbon .

In 1975, a new democratic Portugal re-established diplomatic relations with the Indian Union, withdrew all international disputes with India in the UN and acknowledged and recognized the annexation of the EIP by India , backdating it to 19 Dec 1961. It was then necessary to legislate what would be the future of those who were born Portuguese citizens in the EIP (all those born before 19 Dec 1961 in the EIP). As you must know, even though the Indian invasion of EIP was not officially recognized by international law up until 1975, immediately after 1961, India forced everyone to take Indian Citizenship if they wanted to remain living and working in the EIP or register as foreigners and apply for periodical visas, residence permits, police reports and clearance, etc. in their own home land. Some challenged the legitimacy of that law. The reader will probably be aware of the famous case of Fr. Mons. Francisco Monteiro, a man of principles, from Candolim, who was arrested and suffered torture because he refused to take Indian citizenship. A considerable amount of our Goans left and they were welcomed in Portugal but those who remained in the EIP were typically forced to acquire Indian Citizenship. Portugal was aware that this was happening. The Portuguese government even paid for lawyers including the defence lawyer for Fr. Monteiro. Some cases were even addressed by the Geneva Convention and international courts of law, but India decided to have the last say in the matter and gradually the issue faded away.

So, this is to say that in 1975, when Portugal issued an alteration in the Portuguese Nationality Law, the people from EIP were assumed by Portugal to have acquired Indian citizenship on a non-voluntary basis, i.e., it was assumed they were forced by the Indian Union to acquire Indian citizenship in order to remain free of problems in their own homeland.

In a genuine attempt to protect the interests of people from the EIP who might wish to remain Portuguese by their Jus Solis status (right of birthplace), the Portuguese law allowed them to retain their full citizenship rights ad eternum (indefinitely). What this means is that the people from EIP who were born Portuguese citizens (before 19 Dec 1961) never lost their Portuguese citizenship rights. The Portuguese nationality law granted them full citizenship rights indefinitely according to their Jus Solis status. Because they were born in what was considered by Portugal to be an integrant part of territorial Portugal .

The only problem was that the birth records were left in the EIP. In the events that followed the 18^th December 1961, all civil registry records remained in Goa . This is why our Goans need to register in Portugal today if they want to be recognised as Portuguese citizens. Therefore, it is wrong to say those born before 1961 are acquiring Portuguese citizenship. In effect, they are not. Those born before 1961 in the EIP are simply registering in Portugal their officially declaration that they wish to remain Portuguese citizens after the events of 1961. The Portuguese law still recognizes them the right to full citizenship by Jus Solis (birthplace in EIP) but there are no records of their existence in Portugal (the records were left in the EIP).

The children (born anywhere after 1961) of these can apply for Portuguese citizenship and, if granted, they will have acquired Portuguese citizenship by virtue of blood relation (Jus Sanguinis). As far as I know, no country in the world is known to impose language restrictions on citizenship granted through Jus Sanguinis criteria. Citizenship by virtue of blood relation is known to be a human right. Most civilized (if not all) countries will grant citizenship to their citizen's children without any conditions whatsoever. It would be impossible for Portugal to impose that Goans need to know Portuguese in order to acquire Portuguese citizenship by virtue of blood relation.

2. Acquisition of Portuguese citizenship by virtue of marriage to a Portuguese citizen: Here there is a requirement that the interested spouse *has* to be fluent in Portuguese language and possess knowledge of Portuguese culture. Also, it is a requirement that the spouse needs to prove connection to the Portuguese community. If the couple does not live in Portugal , it is almost impossible to acquire Portuguese citizenship through marriage.

3. Acquisition of Portuguese citizenship by virtue of residency in Portugal - Naturalisation. There is a requirement that you need to be fluent in Portuguese language and have lived and worked in Portugal for 6 consecutive years (if your country of origin is a PALOP - Official commonwealth group of Portuguese language speaking countries) or 10 years (if your country of origin is not a PALOP country).

Portuguese language requirements do exist for those applying for Portuguese citizenship and are strictly enforced, except for the case of blood relations, because it could probably be seen by a violation of human rights.

You will probably find interesting to know that 140,000 people from Macau and Hong Kong are registered Portuguese citizens (by virtue of having been born in Macau before 1987 - the year of the Sino-Portuguese joint declaration on the future of Macau ) and do not talk a word of Portuguese.

Because Portugal allows dual nationality, these people were allowed to remain Portuguese citizens. China does not allow dual nationality, but Macau is an exception and China basically said they are free to use their Portuguese citizenship outside China , which is, according to me, fair enough.

Portuguese language is not shrinking. As you must know, independent East Timor has adopted Portuguese as official language of the new country (much to the opposition from Australia and US who have strong interests there). Portuguese is still the 3rd European language most spoken in the world, after English and Spanish, and the 6th or 7th world language most spoken in the world in pair with Russian.

Abu Salem and Masood Azhar were found in possession of false Portuguese passports. So, they have not actually acquired Portuguese citizenship. Instead, they purchased a false (forged) Portuguese passport. Forged European passports are known to be on sale for huge amounts of money. Some British and French tourists have been killed abroad for their passports.

Paulo Colaco Dias
London, UK
March 3, 2004

PauloD@iname.com