Perched on the end of a sweeping bay facing the ruined East Timorese capital, Dili, an enormous statue of Jesus Christ attests to Indonesia's failure to capture hearts and minds.
The edifice, which is surpassed in height only by Rio de Janeiro's Christ statue, was built byformer Indonesian President Suharto and the state-owned airline Garuda to commemorate the 20th anniversary in 1996 of the now-liberated territory.
But it is regarded with supreme distaste by the heavily Catholic East Timorese, and it is hard to find anyone making a religious pilgrimage to it.
According to a new biography of Timorese spiritual leader Bishop Carlos Belo, From the Place of the Dead, the statue was intended to impress international public opinion by signalling the occupying power's support for Catholicism.
Although Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, Christianity is one of five state-approved religions.
But the construction coincided with renewed efforts to discredit Belo, who said that instead of erecting statues, Indonesian authorities might start treating his people decently.
Another Catholic, the New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Phil Goff, was equally unimpressed with the statue when he flew around it by helicopter at the weekend.
"It is not my idea of a work of art," he said.
It is grandiose in a country where there are far more serious priorities.
Goff acknowledged that Indonesia built plenty of more useful infrastructure in East Timor, such as 2700km of asphalt roads not provided during earlier Portuguese rule, but said this was often for ulterior motives such as making it easier for troops to control the people.
Indonesia had put its own nationals in key institutions such as schools, forcing the children to learn its language, and the country was now left with grave skills shortages as a result, he said.
The Christ statue stood in stark contrast to the coastal town of Manatuto, over which Goff also flew and which was about 95 per cent destroyed by pro-Indonesia militia, raising suspicion this was because paramount independence leader Xanana Gusmao was born there.
