East Timor News Digest 8 – August 1-31, 2012
- UN chief says East Timor ready to protect itself - Associated Press. August 15, 2012
- Ban says East Timor's rights abusers should face justice - Voice of America. August 15, 2012
- East Timor swears in larger cabinet, critics angry - Agence France Presse. August 9, 2012
- Alcohol fueled violence a growing concern in East Timor - IRIN. August 2, 2012
- Dead men do tell tales – and myths - Melbourne Age. August 28, 2012
- Indonesian army says Timor Leste did not take land belonging to Indonesia - Kompas. August 6, 2012
- Indonesian officials discuss border tension with East Timor - Jakarta Post. August 4, 2012
- Clash erupts between Indonesians, East Timorese in 'free zone' - Jakarta Globe. August 1, 2012
- Timor's road still rocky despite peaceful poll - Crikey.com. August 20, 2012
- The Timorese elections and their aftermath - Direct Action. August 8, 2012
UN chief says East Timor ready to protect itself
Associated Press - August 15, 2012
Guido Goulart, Dili, East Timor – East Timor is ready to maintain stability on its own without the hundreds of international peacekeepers who have stayed in Asia's newest country a decade after it declared formal independence, the United Nation's chief said Wednesday.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon started his 2-day trip to the small, half-island nation by meeting with President Taur Matan Ruak, the former army chief and 1-time guerrilla fighter who took office May 20 and replaced Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta.
The visit comes after the UN Security Council praised the country of 1.1 million people for holding peaceful presidential elections.
Protests after last month's parliamentary elections resulted in violence that left one dead. But Asia's poorest country is now planning for the last of nearly 1,300 international peacekeepers to leave by year's end.
"Timor-Leste does not need UN peacekeeping operations at this time," Ban said in the capital, Dili. "The National Police of Timor-Leste have strengthened their capacity. They have successfully helped the three rounds of parliamentary and presidential elections."
He added that the United Nations would stay in East Timor in other capacities.
A Portuguese colony for three centuries, East Timor voted in 1999 to end 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation that left more than 170,000 dead. Withdrawing Indonesian troops and proxy militias killed 1,500 people and destroyed much of the country's infrastructure.
"All the perpetrators for the crimes against humanity and war crimes must be brought to justice," Ban said, adding he and Ruak discussed the issue. "I know that according to our experience, political stability cannot be sustainable when there is no justice for the crimes against (a) civilian population."
Formal independence was declared in May 2002, and the international community invested billions of dollars and deployed UN peacekeepers to help stabilize the new democracy. But extreme poverty, gang violence and disputes between the military and police resulted in the government's collapse in 2006.
Ban says East Timor's rights abusers should face justice
Voice of America - August 15, 2012
Kate Lamb, Jakarta – United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says East Timor is ready for UN peacekeeping troops to withdraw as planned by the end of 2012. During a two day visit, the UN secretary general also stressed the need to bring human rights abusers to justice, a notion that, for now, is at odds with the country's development plans.
Brutally occupied by Indonesia for 24 years, the tiny half-island nation of East Timor was granted independence in 2002. But after it veered to the brink of civil war in 2006, some 3,000 UN military, police and civilian forces were deployed to ensure the country's stability.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference in Dili Wednesday that the country is preparing for the several hundred remaining troops to leave.
"Timor-Leste [East Timor] does not need UN peacekeeping operations at this time," he said. "The National Police of Timor-Leste, they have strengthened their capacity, they have successfully helped the three rounds of presidential and parliamentary elections since they have taken ownership and leadership since March 2011."
This year has been viewed as a key marker of East Timor's progress and for the most part, things have gone well. The country's presidential and parliamentary elections ran relatively smoothly – a key test for the planned withdrawal of UN troops at the end of the year.
In response to statements from rights groups such as Amnesty International, the UN head also noted that perpetrators of past rights abuses would be brought to justice.
Jakarta-based analyst Edward Rees says such action is seemingly at odds with East Timor's current development model. "It is certainly out of step with everything the Timorese government has been saying for at least the last five years," said Rees.
"And if the UN is calling for justice for the events of '75 to 1999, then you would think they would be doing it at the Security Council, as opposed to in Dili, because the power to pursue those issues lies in Washington and Tokyo and London and Canberra and not in Dili."
Between 100,000 and 200,000 East Timorese were killed during Indonesia's quarter century long occupation of East Timor and human rights abuses were widespread. But East Timor's leaders have consistently favored pursuing economic development over due process for past crimes.
With a huge reliance on natural resources and almost half of the population scraping a living from subsistence farming – East Timor has major development challenges ahead.
East Timor swears in larger cabinet, critics angry
Agence France Presse - August 9, 2012
East Timor's president swore in the nation's new coalition cabinet Wednesday, announcing three additional ministerial posts that the opposition has dubbed an "unnecessary" use of the poor nation's money.
President Taur Matan Ruak announced 16 ministers, three more than the former government. Six are from Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), which leads the coalition government after winning the general election in July.
"I am satisfied with this structure. But what I ask of you all, the new ministers, is that you work efficiently. I also ask that you don't repeat the mistakes made by past ministers," Ruak said, after corruption allegations marred the former cabinet.
Fernando "Lasama" de Araujo, president of the minority Democratic Party (PD) that joined the coalition after the CNRT failed to win an absolute majority, will be deputy prime minister and minister for social welfare. Jose Luis Guterres of minority Frente-Mudanca, another ally, was appointed foreign affairs minister.
The size of the new cabinet, with three additional ministerial posts, drew criticism, especially from the ranks of the opposition Fretilin Party, which came second to the CNRT in the July legislative elections.
Fretilin said the government's creation of new ministries was wasteful for the tiny half-island nation of just 1.1 million people, half of whom live under the international poverty line.
"This will increase spending on government ministers and vice ministers, and it's completely unnecessary for such a small country," Fretilin vice president Aresenio Babo told AFP upon seeing an earlier draft list. "The only explanation is creating jobs for friends to satisfy coalition and individual interests."
Michael Leach of Australia's Swinburne University in Melbourne said that the Timorese would judge over the five-year term whether the spending had been in the public's interest. "Ultimately, the public will decide if their performance justifies the extra cost, or if it's seen as a form of reward to governing party members and supporters," he said.
East Timor won independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a bloody 24-year occupation. Presidential and legislative elections this year were seen as key tests of the nation's stability as UN peacekeepers plan to pull out of the once restive country by the end of the year.
Alcohol fueled violence a growing concern in East Timor
IRIN - August 2, 2012
Dili – National police and NGOs in East Timor have noted an uptick in alcohol-fueled violence, especially among unemployed youths.
Vidal Campos Magno, now 29, grew up surrounded by conflict, was a teenager during the final years of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, and then went through the turmoil that followed the 1999 referendum for independence.
"I was involved in the fighting. I remember hanging around with friends, then we'd plan to go and hurt this person or that person. We had to fight because of the political situation."
It wasn't until he was accepted into university that Magno decided to change what he calls his "bad behavior." Now a project coordinator at Ba Futuru, a local peace-building organization, he draws on his experiences to help young people, including former gang members and ex-prisoners.
One of the common problems, he said, is that unemployed youths are stuck in a cycle of alcohol and violence. In East Timor, unemployment among young people is estimated at over 40 percent, and approximately 16,000 young people enter the labor market each year. The problem is expected to grow, with 41 percent of the population under 15 years old, according to government data.
"There's a lot of youth unemployment and sometimes young people hang around and drink alcohol, then go to the main road to fight each other or throw rocks at cars. This is their reality," said Magno.
An analysis of drug and alcohol issues in the Pacific by the Australian National Council on Drugs in 2008-2009 concluded that "alcohol is still a substance of concern" in East Timor, but noted a lack of official data.
The most recent national data reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) was in 2006, before a political crisis displaced more than 100,000 people, a tense and violent presidential poll in 2007, and a presidential assassination attempt in February 2008.
There are no government-funded rehabilitation facilities for people addicted to drugs or alcohol, but Pradet, a national mental health NGO, was one of the first groups to provide treatment. It has offered community awareness workshops to prisoners, police and community leaders since 2009, funded by AusAID.
Pradet director Manuel dos Santos told IRIN drug use was still a relatively small problem, but there are fears that it could increase. "Our border does not have a secure system for controlling drugs, so people are consuming more and more, but there's no specific research to find out how much."
The regional office of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Bangkok, Thailand, which oversees East Timor, has no record of drug use or seizure trends in the country.
A December 2010 policy brief by a national conflict-monitoring NGO, Belun, found a "worrying degree of drug use," including the consumption of sabu- sabu, an illegally manufactured amphetamine, and korneta, a plant that creates a feeling of euphoria.
Dangers unknown
Dos Santos said most people in East Timor are unaware that over-consumption of alcohol is harmful. "Many who participate in the training are surprised when they find out about the negative impacts of alcohol. Before they receive the information, they say they used to keep drinking until they fell asleep."
He said workshop participants had recommended creating defined places to sell alcohol, introducing a law restricting children from buying alcoholic drinks, and increasing the tax to make such drinks more expensive.
There are no regulations for the alcohol content in drinks, and no age restrictions on purchasing them. The popular local palm wine (tua mutin) and palm brandy (tua sabu) are both sold in recycled plastic bottles along the roadsides.
"In East Timor, drinking alcohol is part of our tradition, so if you sit down with two or three people, they feel they must drink. But sometimes it causes accidents and sometimes it causes fights," said Domingos Maia, the drug and alcohol trainer of the National Police of East Timor (PNTL).
Domestic violence
The police link alcohol to domestic violence. "Often we see fathers and husbands fighting with their families after drinking too much alcohol," Maia said.
The most recent demographic survey by the Ministry of Health, in 2010, did not track alcohol or drug consumption, but found alcohol was a significant factor in domestic violence. Of the women who experienced domestic violence, 60 percent said their husbands "get drunk very often," compared to 26 percent who said their husbands did not drink alcohol at all.
In 2009, Belun started tracking alcohol-related violence through an Early Warning Early Response Monitoring System, set up with the assistance of Columbia University, New York, after noting a rise in alcohol-fueled violence.
Constantino Escollano Brandao, a research and policy specialist at Belun, said alcohol is often a catalyst for violence caused by underlying problems. "For young people [this] could be the stress of finding a job, social jealousy, or not being able to afford to stay in school." In the eastern district of Ermera, known for its celebration of the annual coffee harvest in July, drunkenness and causing trouble while drunk have been banned since February 2012, under a traditional form of law and order known as Tara-bandu.
Fines start at US$25. "Since the Tara-bandu there has been a positive change because the number of parties has been limited, and the sanctions discourage drunken people from causing problems," Brandao told IRIN.
In the capital, Dili, where alcohol and drugs are readily accessible, youth coordinator Magno said the answer is not prohibition or punishment, but education.
"Many young people are stuck in a very negative mindset and it's not easy to change their bad behavior... but to reduce the violence we also have to reduce the alcohol."
Dead men do tell tales – and myths
Melbourne Age - August 28, 2012
Joyce Morgan – On a steamy afternoon in Dili, I am heading to a rehearsal of an East Timorese-Australian co-production when my phone rings. The caller has instructions about the route to take to the venue on the capital's outskirts.
"Ask the taxi to come by Banana Road. There's rock-throwing and gunfire the other way," he says.
Creating theatre in one of the world's youngest, poorest and at times troubled nations presents many challenges. And the unrest that followed East Timor's recent elections has added another layer of difficulty to what is billed as the first international professional theatre piece created there.
Its director Thomas M. Wright is talking with Timorese actor Osme Gonsalves as I arrive – without incident – during a break in rehearsals.
The pair first met making the 2009 movie Balibo in which Wright played one of the murdered Australian journalists and Gonsalves, Timor's best known performer, appeared as a driver. They became friends during the filming and since then Wright, co-founder of Melbourne's innovative and uncompromising Black Lung Theatre – has been back and forth between Australia and East Timor and dreaming of creating a co-production.
The result is Doku Rai (You, dead man, I don't believe you), a work that intertwines myth, music and meta-theatre. It brings together Australian artists – including Thomas Henning and Gareth Davis – with Timorese performers who include Gonsalves – a former street kid and guerilla-turned court jester – a herpetologist, a tattooist and Timor's leading rock star.
Wright recognises a shared sensibility between Black Lung, whose members live and create together, and way the Timorese artists work.
"When I met these guys we were all four years younger and all of us were really angry," says Wright. "These are people really frustrated about the situation in their countryand want to do something about it."
But Doku Rai is not political polemic. "It is about creating a shared myth between these groups of people," says Wright. "We wanted to make something that is built on people's personal stories. It plays out as more of a metaphor than a history lesson."
Among the stories it draws on is one based on a man musician Meli Fernandes knew as a child. Today Fernandes is the lead singer with Galaxy, Timor's best-known rock band. But growing up in the country's east, he was terrified by a local village bully, a man who hated children.
"[This man] spent his life in the market, being the boss, calling everyone to give him [free] food, give him cigarette, betel nut," says Fernandes. "He hated kids. If they play with slingshot, he come after them. He kicks them like a ball."
But as he sat in the market one day, the man who hated children was hit by a stray bullet. Even in death he instilled fear. "For 30 minutes people were still afraid. People just standing around him. No talking, just silent. They wanted to make sure is he dead or is he just pretend?" says Fernandes.
A mythic tale from Gonsalves about a man who cannot die is also interwoven in the the work which was created over two months during which the artists lived and worked together in an abandoned hotel on remote Atauro Island, a couple of hours by boat from Dili.
Wright acknowledges the process was intense and at times confronting. "You take two groups of people from totally different backgrounds and then scrutinise the process and question your own motives," he says. "And you are living together for 24 hours a day in 30-plus degrees climate."
As well as his work in East Timor, Wright has recently filmed Jane Campion's Top of the Lake mini-series in New Zealand. He also starred in Malthouse-Sydney Theatre Company's controversial Baal.
Wright wanted to tell personal stories in Doku Rai, but political events impacted as July's post-election violence, although short-lived, led to the creative team being separated. Half were on Atauro Island and the other grounded in Dili until it was considered safe to travel. It meant that four performances scheduled for Dili were cancelled, although a performance on the island went ahead and became a major community event drawing several hundred islanders.
"The making of this work really has been like the creation of a family," says Wright.
Music has become an increasingly important element as the work has developed, as has film footage, created by Amiel Courtin-Wilson, whose film Hail just won The Age Critics' Award for best Australian feature film at the 2012 Melbourne International Film Festival.
With funding of nearly $250,000, including from several major festivals, Doku Rai is likely to have a life beyond its Melbourne outing. Wright hopes it might travel internationally, not least because so little is known about our neighbour, little more than an hour's flight from Darwin.
"This show is ultimately about saying – whatever you think you know about these people and this place you don't know a f – -ing thing," says Wright.
[Doku Rai is at Arts House, Melbourne, from August 29 to September 2.]
Indonesian army says Timor Leste did not take land belonging to Indonesia
Kompas - August 6, 2012
Joe Leribun, Jakarta – The government of East Timor did not take over any land in the region of the border in the Nusa Tenggara Timor Province. A problem arose due to a mistake in the surveying of the border so there was some construction erected by some East Timorese that encroached on Indonesian territory.
The Chief of Staff of the TNI Land Forces, General Pramono Edhie Wibowo, discussed this matter after a ceremony for the promotion for extraordinary achievement of First Sergeant Nicolas Sandi Harewan dan Sub-Lieutenant Melkior Nandi, at the Land Forces Head Quarters in Veteran Street, Jakarta on Monday, 6 August 2012.
"The problem at the border with East Timor was really not about the taking of any Indonesian territory but was a just a measurement error by those who put the building up not the government of East Timor and because of that error the building ended up encroaching on our territory,' he said.
To resolve this problem, the Indonesian Government will coordinate with the Government of East Timor. "We will resolve this problem. We will solve it properly. It is just a construction problem and not a surveying error by the two countries" said General Pramono.
As reported previously, there are 5 survey points along the Indonesian-East-Timor border, particularly at the Kecamatan of Bikomi Nilulat in the North Central Timor Kabupaten in Nusa Tenggara Timor Province and the Passabe Sub-District in the East Timor Distict of Oekusi which risk a significant possibility of conflict because the land border has not yet been agreed between the two countries at these points. The five points that could give rise to conflict are at Subina in Inbate Village, Pistana in Nainaban Village and Sunkaen Village, Tububanat in Nilulat Village, Oben in Tubu Village and lastly at Nefonunpo in Haumeni Ana Village that are presently disputed.
Earlier, on 31 July 2012, residents of Haumeni Ana Village in the North Bikomi Kecamatan in TTU Sub-District were involved in a fight with residents in Passabe in Oekusi District, East Timor that was triggered by the construction of an East Timor Customs and Immigration Office that encroached 20 meters onto Indonesian soil. Residents from the two countires threw stones and sharp instruments at each other over a period of 15 minutes. The fight was stopped by Indonesian and East Timorese defence personnel and did not result in any deaths or injuries but made the local people alert and concerned. Editor: Hertanto Soebijoto.
[Translated by Warren L. Wright BA LLB with assistance from Mr Kurniawan Bagus Sardjono.]
Indonesian officials discuss border tension with East Timor
Jakarta Post - August 4, 2012
Yemris Fointuna – The situation on the border of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province of Indonesia and East Timor remains tense following a clash between residents from Timor Tengah Utara regency and Ambenu, Oekussi district of East Timor over territorial claims on both sides.
No casualties were reported in the clash on Wednesday, in which both sides used sharp weapons, but the incident has further inflamed the situation on the border.
As of Thursday noon, hundreds of residents in Haumeni Ana village were still on alert, monitoring the activities of Timor Leste (East Timor) residents in the disputed zone. Earlier, they had demolished an immigration station built by the Timor Leste government.
Residents also approached an Indonesian Military (TNI) post and protested against the TNI allowing Timor Leste to build several facilities in the neutral zone.
NTT Governor Frans Leburaya met with Udayana Military Commander Maj. Gen. Wisnu Bawa Tenaya in Kupang on Thursday to discuss the tensions between residents in Haumeni Ana village and those from Ambenu, Timor Leste.
The closed-door meeting was held at El Tari Airport in Kupang – After the meeting, Leburaya told the media that TNI soldiers and Timor Leste authorities had coordinated to avoid conflict involving residents on both sides of the border.
"Every party must restrain itself. Should there be territory that is still being disputed, it should be vacated because according to the agreement, the disputed territory is a neutral zone," said Leburaya.
According to him, the military commander had visited the disputed location and held a meeting with a number of parties to prevent provocation that could affect the situation on the border.
Timor Tengah Utara Military District Command chief Lt. Col. Arm Eusebio Rebelo Hornai said in a press conference that tension between residents on both sides was frequent due to the Timor Leste government's stance of setting up a number of offices, including an immigration station, in the neutral zone.
When reached separately, Indonesia-Timor Leste Border Security Unit commander Lt. Col. Andre Saputro denied the clash between Haumeni Ana residents and Oekussi residents had taken place.
"There was no conflict. Some residents were apparently angry because Timor Leste wished to build a number of facilities in the neutral zone, but there was no physical conflict," he said.
According to him, security forces from both countries had coordinated to prevent a physical clash between residents living around the border.
Clash erupts between Indonesians, East Timorese in 'free zone'
Jakarta Globe - August 1, 2012
Indonesian and East Timorese civilians are guarding a neutral buffer zone between both countries a day after a land conflict sparked a clash there, a local official said on Wednesday.
The clash erupted on Tuesday evening after a group of East Timorese residents tried to clear land for an immigration office they wanted to build in the zone, Indonesian news portal Tempo.co reported.
The zone, which belongs to neither country, is an area bordering East Nusa Tenggara that is several meters wide and supposed to be free from buildings.
A group of Indonesian residents from nearby Haumeni Ana village in Northern Central Timor district, East Nusa Tenggara, resisted the land clearing, and both groups started throwing stones at each other, Tempo reported. No one was injured but an East Timor security post was damaged, the news portal added.
Lodovikus Lake, head of Bikomi Nilulat subdistrict, which includes Haumeni Ana, said the East Timorese had violated the zone by insisting on building the immigration office, even though the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) had earlier told them to stop.
"They keep doing activities in the free zone, upsetting the [Haumeni Ana] residents, who then tried to send them away," Lodovikus said in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Wednesday.
He added that the situation was returning to normal on Wednesday but residents of both countries were still standing guard around the zone.
Timor's road still rocky despite peaceful poll
Crikey.com - August 20, 2012
Warwick Fry – There has been plenty of warm inner glow around East Timor about the exemplary conduct of the general elections in July. But it's not all motherhood and sunshine – the country is far from stable, and basic infrastructure and social programs are missing.
Nowhere were the challenges more apparent than with the swearing in of the new government and the cabinet by the President Taun Matan Ruak on August 8. TMR slammed the incoming government (which is essentially the same as the former government) for its failure, despite the influx of oil revenues, to deliver on essential infrastructure and social programs. He said:
"State institutions contribute to the unbalanced development of the territory. Our centralised public administration has large, heavy structures in the capital, often providing poor quality services, and is almost absent from the districts where most of the population lives and social and economic deprivation is greatest. The state is not serving the vast majority of the Timorese people as yet."
Electoral stability is one thing. Socio-economic inequality another. The divide in Timor is growing, and glaringly evident in the capital Dili, with villas and five-star hotels overlooking unrepaired roads.
As for the election, it quickly became apparent that a swing to Fretilin (the biggest single party, forced into opposition by the CNRT coalition in 2007) was not happening. A gain of two seats and a 3% growth in the 30%- plus overall vote was not enough for Fretilin to form a government. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmaos CNRT on the other hand, surged ahead as it picked up an extra eight seats when four of the smaller parties dropped out by failing to make the 3% quota. Again, this was not enough for the CNRT to form a government in its own right, but with the two remaining small parties (the PD – the Democratic Party and the Frenti-Mudanca – with just over a combined 13% of the vote), it could form a coalition.
Then the problems started. Xanana and his team have been the subject of a stinging editorial by Jose Belo, of the independent weekly Tempo Semanal. An additional 11 vice-ministries (with 25 secretariats), six of which would be family teams, was described by Belo as "the creation of a new oligarchy".
On July 15 there were outbreaks of violence after a nationwide broadcast of the CNRT assembly to decide on the composition of the new government. The decision to exclude Fretilin was couched in inflammatory language, some spoken by delegates who had favoured East Timors integration into Indonesia. President Taur Matan Ruak seemed to be in accord with the Fretilin leaderships claims that the violence (cars were stoned and tyres burnt) was deplorable and inexcusable. It was indeed terrifying to some of those caught up in it. The President held that it was less about Fretilins exclusion (anticipated by the leadership) than the provocative way it was presented in the CNRT Assembly broadcast.
The violence was indeed sad, and reflected in the faces of the Timorese around me. Working at a desk a few yards away from me was a young Timorese journalist and translator who is a cousin of the young man fatally shot during the July 15 incidents by overzealous police investigating the "disturbances". Armindo Alves Pereira was dragged out of his home and shot twice while being pushed into the police van. My only glimpse of what might be interpreted as anger from my discussions with his cousin related to erroneous reports that more than 50 cars had been burnt and destroyed (since refuted by the UN Police) during the outbreak of violence. "If Fretilin had wanted to go out and burn cars, they would have burnt 500," the man told me.
And nowhere was this attitude more resonant than in the dignity of the funeral of Armindo Pereira Alves, the son of a Falintil commander killed in the mountains while fighting the Indonesian occupation. The police officer who shot Armindo on July 16 was a former member of the Indonesian militia. It was a potential flashpoint. A young Timorese waiter (a Fretilin supporter), visibly nervous, physically held back my companion when we walked towards a contingent of police in riot gear and armoured vehicles to where a crowd of people were lining the route of the funeral march.
But the dignity of the peaceful march bore witness to a growth and development in the political maturity of the people of Timor Leste that could be an example to the less stressed societies of more "developed" nations such as Australia.
How this will bear up under current economic and fiscal policies is another question. Most Timorese in Dili live from day to day. Taxi drivers will take you almost anywhere in the capital for $2 (which I find embarrassing after Australian bus fares), yet they pay Australian prices for petrol, and pay a foreign company to lease their taxis at $35 a day. Many Timorese live on a basic wage of $20 a week. Many of the drivers I speak to are students who have dropped out of university.
Much of the service economy is propped up by the UN presence. One weekend I counted eight UN vehicles parked outside a bar. I havent heard of any contingency plans for the waiters and waitresses working in the beachside bars and restaurants when the UN leaves, slated for later this year. But meanwhile the next generation of Timorese crave further education and skills. In any restaurant many of the staff can be seen spending the "quiet time" bent over books.
The direction of the economic policy of the new government will be apparent in the next budget, to be handed down soon. It will deserve keen scrutiny as Timorese face an uncertain future.
[Warwick Fry is a freelance journalist based in East Timor.]
Comment by James Dunn
Timor Leste is facing some serious problems but this is a rather too pessimistic account, perhaps reflecting the author's short experience in a country that has been through horrenous experiences in the past 40 years or so. True the nation's infrastructure is weak but the capacity to overcome them is present. It is a pity that the leaders did not settle for a coalition government that would make use of able leaders from all parties. The uneven development causes a degree of dissatisfaction, but this condition has been common to most newly independent countries in the first decade or so. Anyone who knows about East Timor's past does not think in terms of warm inner glows.
The Timorese elections and their aftermath
Direct Action - August 8, 2012
Max Lane – Timor Leste's third parliamentary election since the restoration of independence in 2002 was held on July 7. The largest of the incumbent parties, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), almost secured an absolute majority of parliamentary seats. It has formed a coalition government with two smaller parties, the Democratic Party (PD) and Frenti-Mudansa (FM). Fretilin was the second largest party and will be the opposition again in parliament.
CNRT outpolled Fretilin in this election, reversing the relationship at the time of the 2007 election. CNRT received 36.7% of the vote, winning 30 seats out of 65. In 2007, CNRT received just 24 percent of the vote and 18 seats. This year, Fretilin won 29.9% of the vote and 25 seats. PD won 10.3% of the vote and eight seats, while FM won 3.1% and two seats.
Voter turnout declined from 80.5% in 2007 to 74.8%. Twenty percent of the vote went to 17 parties that were unable to achieve the 3% threshold legislated in the first Fretilin-dominated parliament. If there had been no threshold, there would be 10 parties represented in the parliament rather than four. All of the smaller parties that had contested the 2007 elections dropped in their vote, except for the very small Socialist Party of Timor (PST), which bucked the trend and increased its vote four times up to 2.4% – but still less than the minimum 3% it was targeting.
These parliamentary elections follow two rounds of election for the post of president. In the second round on April 19, the candidate supported by Xanana Gusmao, Taur Matan Ruak, won with 61% against Fretilin's Lu'olo at 39%. In the first round, incumbent President Jose Ramos Horta, campaigning without a party organisation, had won just under 19%, coming third.
Strategic setback
Fretilin's 29% vote must be seen as a strategic defeat. Its vote dropped from 66% in 2002 to 29% in 2007. The 2012 vote indicates that Fretilin has failed to rebuild momentum despite an energetic adversarial opposition strategy for the last five years and a large internal membership mobilisation. It not only did not increase its vote but fell behind CNRT, which it defeated in 2007. Fretilin did receive swings in its favour in some districts, but these were negated by losses in others. Nowhere did the swing to Fretilin even begin to overcome the collapse that took place in 2007.
Perhaps more research is needed to have a full understanding for this defeat, and the surge for CNRT. However, there are some factors which must be taken into account.
First, there has been a general improvement in the material conditions of life for most Timorese over the last several years, including during the course of the last government. This is confirmed in UN Human Development Index reports. It also relates to the fact that Timor starts from a very low base after the destruction in the last phase of the Indonesian occupation.
The Gusmao government also implemented a number of policies that were undoubtedly popular. These included old-age pensions, pensions for veterans of the guerrilla struggle, free maternal care, wages for village heads and a 30% subsidy on the price of rice (imported from Indonesia). With the massive expansion of government revenues over the past two years, coming from oil and gas royalties, there has been some significant improvement of infrastructure (compared to what little existed before). This has been achieved through government funding of a substantial expansion of small- scale private business activity. This program also had many direct and indirect beneficiaries.
The Fretilin opposition and some NGOs have alleged waste, mismanagement and corruption, or at least collusion or nepotism, within the government, especially in relation to private sector contracts with the government. However much of this there is, it clearly had less influence on the election results than the improvements that have been experienced. It is also interesting to note that polling by the country's Anti-Corruption Commission found that corruption was not an issue of concern for the majority of the population.
There is little doubt also that Xanana Gusmao, as the central leader of the national resistance since the late 1980s, has much greater authority and charisma than any of the current leaders of Fretilin.
While Fretilin has been able to consolidate its core membership, and win some small swings (mainly less than 10% in specific districts), it has been unable to expand its base. Apart from the above factors assisting Xanana and CNRT, it is probable that the current Fretilin leadership around Mari Alkatiri also accrued a certain unpopularity due to its aggressive governmental style before 2007 and its very adversarial opposition style since 2007. It is clear that some of the population attribute the chaos of 2006 to Alkatiri's decision to sack from the army soldiers striking over pay issues. Since 2007, when it took a position of calling the government de facto and unconstitutional, it has acted towards the Xanana government as if it were a mortal enemy.
This extreme approach comes despite the fact that there is no fundamental ideological difference between CNRT and Fretilin on the general direction of economic development. Expressed differences are on specific policy decisions only. After the Fretilin failure in this year's election, some Fretilin voices argued that they could accept the government's National Development Strategy and would be willing to join a national unity government. But after five years of extreme oppositionism, there was little enthusiasm for a unity government among CNRT politicians. When a post- election CNRT congress rejected the idea of a unity government and some CNRT politicians made denigrating remarks against Fretilin, scores of Fretilin members protested by setting alight and stoning cars in some areas. In one incident, as police suppressed these actions, one Fretilin member was shot dead.
Subsistence society politics
The CNRT and Fretilin results, as well as the fate of the strongly ideological campaign by the PST, must also be assessed in the context of the political culture of Timor's majority subsistence rural sector. While Timor Leste's economy during the Indonesian occupation and since has operated within a capitalist framework, the mode of production in which a majority of people work is closer to subsistence, with only tiny surpluses entering the market. Private ownership of land and exploitative economic relations are still generally rare.
The strong sense of social injustice that pervades the desperately impoverished Timorese rural population takes the form of discontent with neglect by the Dili elite, manifested in few services and projects and a lack of sustained presence of political leaders in poor rural areas. Neglect and delivery are the key concepts of popular political consciousness. This is reinforced by a strong remnant of the radical ideological sentiments of the early national liberation movement, embodied in the word maubere – a strong word for the common people, privileging them as the central members of society.
A popular consciousness based on neglect and delivery vis-a-vis the Dili elite and government has a different dynamic than that which emerges out of relations of class exploitation at the site of production. The ability of the Xanana government of the last five years at least to begin to deliver some things that people feel they need favoured it as incumbent. At the same time, some people's assessment that Fretilin had little chance of winning, especially after its failure in the presidential elections, may have meant they assessed that it was not going to be in a position to deliver. Fretilin's strong sense of historical rights over other groups may also have undermined confidence that non-Fretilin villages would receive delivery.
PST campaign
The PST increased its vote to just over 11,000, or 2.4%. This was less than some of its members, sympathisers and observers in Timor expected, some of whom estimated 3-5% as a minimum. These expectations were fuelled during the campaign when the PST president was enthusiastically welcomed in many villages. Furthermore, the PST's door-to-door campaign resulted in almost 30,000 political contracts being signed by householders with the PST campaigners. These contracts committed the PST to a range of specific policies, including cheap housing, electrification and other deliveries. However, these 30,000 contracts with households, representing 60-80,000 people, did not deliver 60,000 votes, but 11,300.
In explaining the 400% increase in the PST vote on the one hand, and the limitations of this increase on the other, there are probably two key factors. The PST president, Avelino Coelho, had developed a very strong reputation for caring about the rural villages and strong credibility in terms of delivery through his role as state secretary for energy policy and the delivery of free renewable energy to more than 18,000 rural households. However, this did not appear to be an important element in the vote for the PST, whose votes did not come from those villages where the electrification program had been most intense. Coelho's platform as state secretary proved not strong enough to counter Xanana and CNRT's central role as main agents of delivery. It is more likely that delivery, even in the electrification program, was attributed to the government in general.
Outside the PST's promises of delivery, it also ran a strong ideological campaign around the slogans "Factories for the workers, land for the peasants". The campaign openly defended both socialism and a transition to communism. It used traditional symbols of Marxist-Leninist politics as well as of the 1975 national liberation struggle. Its political education focused on explaining the role of cooperatives, not simply as economic production units, but also as units of cultural and political mobilisation.
In a society where widespread and intense class exploitation is not the dominant character of village social relations, collective, militant political mobilisation against oppressors and its radicalising impact are still weak. However, the lack of a radical tradition based on class struggle is also balanced by the radical tradition of mobilisation against the Portuguese and then Indonesian occupiers. Fretilin in 1975, also inspired by Portuguese and African radicalism, did implant a national liberation popular radicalism.
Thus, the PST's increased vote seemed to be less due to the impact of the electricity program and more a reflection of the party winning the position of being the main representative of that radical tradition. The PST scored some votes in 85% of the 442 sucos [divisions of subdistricts], including in those where it had no activity. In some of these it won only a few votes, in others several hundred. This seems to be the beginning of a conscious ideology or policy-oriented vote, responding to that aspect of the PST's campaign.
There can be little doubt that an economic and political system based on mobilised cooperatives would be superior to the capitalist underdevelopment that Timor Leste is bound to experience. However, convincing a majority of the rural population about such collective mobilisation will require a stronger corps of socialist educators than presently exists. The PST has a major task to deepen the education and experience of its militants (and their numbers), whether recruited from village or campus. The election campaign appears to have been a good start to that process.
New government
As expected, on August 8 a new government was formed, based on the coalition between between CNRT, PD and FM. In the list of ministers, vice- ministers and state secretaries appointed, there were some listed as "independents" as well as figures from the three parties. Xanana Gusmao is prime minister. The president of PD, Ferdinand Lasama, is vice-prime minister and minister for social welfare. The head of FM, Jose Luis Guiterres, will be foreign minister.
The government is committed to the economic plans set out in its National Development Strategy Plan proposing a path of capitalist economic development, financed by income from Timor's oil and gas revenues. Timor Leste will for some years be one of the few capitalist countries where there will be massively increased government spending compared to previous periods. This increase in the role of government spending will frame the political debate and possible interventions by progressives trying to improve the conditions of the people.
While the PST did not win any seats in the parliament, Xanana Gusmao offered a position as state secretary for the Council of Ministers to PST president Avelino Coelho, which he has accepted. With the new appointment of a president of the Council of Ministers, namely the former state secretary Agio Perera, it is not clear what Coelho's new functions will entail. Coelho is listed as an "independent", indicating he has been appointed in an individual capacity and not as a representative of the PST. This was the basis of his appointment in the previous government.