Paul Cleary - Senior
writer, Sydney – The Australian
East
Timor’s slide towards autocracy is being hastened by new Prime Minister Rui de
Araujo.
Despite
coming into the job as an apparent cleanskin, Dr de Araujo seems to be
exploiting the country’s draconian media laws with a defamation action that
could send a journalist to jail.
Dr
Aruajo is suing over an article in the Timor Post by Raimondos Oki
who reported on the awarding of an $18 million contract to install computers at
the 20,000sq m Finance Ministry.
Should
Dr de Araujo succeed, the action will focus attention on the winding back of
democracy in East Timor. Former prime minister Xanana Gusmao introduced a press
council that controls who can work as a journalist, while the penal code makes
defamation a criminal offence.
The
benefits accruing to a small elite connected to senior politicians, and massive
spending on dubious projects, have put the government and President Taur Matan
Ruak on a collision course.
Mr
Ruak is associated with the newly formed Peoples Liberation Party that plans to
challenge the cosy government of national unity created by Mr Gusmao, who last
year appointed Dr de Araujo as Prime Minister even though he was a minister in
the former Fretilin party. He also put the former Fretilin prime minister Mari Alkatiri
in charge of special economic zones, a role that involves massive spending. Mr
Gusmao remains a cabinet minister.
In
a fiery address to parliament late last month, Mr Ruak effectively described
East Timor as an autocracy that serves the wealthy elite, where political unity
was used for “power and privilege” and regretfully “family and friends of
brother Xanana and brother Mari have benefited both from state contracts”.
“The
State of Timor-Leste is far too centralised. It centralises skills, power and
privilege. It excessively squanders resources. It creates first-class citizens
and second-class citizens,” he said.
Mr
Rauk has been alarmed by the planning for more costly and grander white
elephants, while spending on health and education has been cut.
On
the south coast, the government has budgeted about $US1.6 billion ($A2.14bn)
for oil infrastructure, even though it is almost impossible to build a
pipeline from the Timor Sea in depths of 2500m.
Other
fiscal black holes are the state oil company Timor GAP and a special economic
zone in the Oecusse enclave, in the north, which has a budget of $200m for this
year alone. The Oecusse project is of sentimental value because it is where the
Portuguese landed in the early 1500s. Mr Ruak ridiculed the plan to build an
international airport in a place with a population of 65,000.
PLP’s
support comes from Timorese who grew up during the Indonesian occupation. Some
were even educated in Indonesia and unlike the Gusmao generation, they are less
enamoured with East Timor’s association with Portugal and the Portuguese
language.
For
example PLP interim president Aderito de Jesus Soares is a lawyer who helped
write the nascent nation’s constitution and more recently served as the head of
the Commission Against Corruption. He is now completing a doctorate at the
Australian National University.
The
line-up so far includes Demetrio Amaral, who founded the environmental group
Haburus and has been awarded the Goldman award (known as the Green Nobel), and
Jose Belo, a former resistance fighter turned newspaper editor.
PLP’s
views on education and Indonesia set it well apart from the prevailing
consensus. Mr Soares, who studied in Indonesia, says Bahasa Indonesia should be
taught in schools, along with English and Portuguese.
“It
has to be taught in the school as an option. Junior and senior high school
should teach Bahasa Indonesia. How many families can afford to send kids to
Brazil or Portugal, or Australia? But many can afford to send their kids to
Indonesia,” he says.
East
Timor’s worrying trajectory does not seem to concern the Australian advisers
who are close to the government.
Former
Victorian Premier Steve Bracks, who has served as a special adviser to the
prime minister since 2007, said he had never criticised the projects condemned
by Mr Ruak. “The government of Timor-Leste is entitled to determine its own
priorities,” he said.
He
declined to comment on the media law and the criminal penalties for defamation.
Picture: East
Timorese journalist Raimondos Oki with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon during
a recent visit to New York
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário