The Redundancy of Courage
Timothy Mo
 Like East Timor, Danu is a Portuguese colony, invaded and occupied by its giant neighbour, which is not named, but is based on Indonesia. The people of the occupying country are referred to throughout the book as the malai, similar to 'malae' the word for foreigner in Tetum, East Timor's national language. Danu is annexed by the malai and declared their 'fifty-eighth province', over which their green and white flag is raised. (Indonesia declared East Timor its 'twenty-seventh province', and its flag is red and white. In any case, by part three of the novel Mo's description of the malai flag has changed to red and white too (chapter 25))