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New Timor-Leste govt beset with problems as Gusmao walks away

Rejection of ministerial appointments has pitched the president against the already shaky government of PM Taur Matan Ruak
New Timor-Leste govt beset with problems as Gusmao walks away

Former guerilla fighter Taur Matan Ruak delivers his first speech as Timor-Leste's prime minister at the Palacio Nobre Lahane in the capital Dili on June 22. (Photo by Valentino Dariell De Sousa/AFP)

Published: July 30, 2018 04:47 AM GMT
Updated: July 30, 2018 09:27 AM GMT

Timor-Leste's new coalition government is already running into trouble. Led by Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak, the coalition Alliance for Progress and Change was elected to lead one of Asia's most Catholic countries on May 10.

The first indication of strife was President Francisco "Lu'Olo" Guterres rejecting almost a dozen ministerial nominations mainly over corruption allegations.

Then the 65 member single house parliament, where none of the cabinet sits under the nation's system, rejected the PM's proposal that anti-corruption commissioner Aderito Tilman be re-appointed for a second five year term.

Some swift work on the part of his People's Progressive Party saw a second name Sergio Hornai, former head of the Public Defence Office, now added to the list. He is expected to get the job in a parliamentary vote in coming days.

Now, the president is mulling whether to take legal action over the government's vote on July 20 to rip $140 million from the nation's petroleum fund in order to top up the pay of public servants who have been underpaid for months due to the failure of the short-lived minority government of Fretilin's Mari Alkatiri to pass any legislation.

Alkatiri's government was elected in 2017 and dismissed nine months later. Guterres was elected in March 2017 in a separate quinquennial presidential election and four months later the general election was held. After that government's failure, Timor-Leste held its recent elections but political tensions between Guterres and Ruak remain unresolved.

The disagreement on the appointment of nine members of cabinet — two other nominees were replaced and accepted — has caused tension between the presidency and the new government, particularly Xanana Gusmao, leader of the coalition's biggest party, who despite being approved by the president for two cabinet posts decided to walk away from the official side of the government on July 25.

Instead, Gusmao will focus on continuing negotiations with energy companies led by U.S. group ConocoPhilips and Australia's Woodside over where gas worth as much as US$50 billion will be processed, be it Australia or Timor-Leste. The tiny nation now controls the gas reserve after agreeing on a new maritime boundary with Australia in March. The agreement is far more favorable to Timor-Leste than the one it was pressured into in a 2006 treaty between the two countries that was torn up by the United Nations Arbitration Court in 2016.

Gusmao has harshly criticized the president's decision to not accept the government's cabinet nominations.

"Allow me, your excellency, to begin by greeting you, wishing you all the best," wrote Gusmao in a letter delivered June 24 to Guterres.

"I express this sentiment to you because I am extremely concerned about your mental, psychological and political health in this troubled process where you have to measure your skills in the light of a constitution that you have written, mastered and interpreted with an unusual wit, inaccessible to vulgar citizens like me," he wrote.

The deadlock over the blocked nominations is seven people from the National Congress of the Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT): Francisco Kalbuadi Lay, Helder Lopes,Tomas do Rosario Cabral, Vergilho Smith, Jacinto Rigoberto Gomes de Deus, Sergio Gama da C. Lobo, Amandio de Sa Benevides and two Jose Manuel Soares Turquel de Jesus and Antonio Verdial de Sousa who are from coalition's other partner KHUNTO.

The prime minister took out from the list of nominees two of the names initially proposed who are currently involved in lawsuits already in court: Gastao de Sousa, proposed as minister of Planning and Strategic Investment — whose responsibility was assumed by Gusmao — and Marcos da Cruz, deputy minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, who was replaced by Rogerio Mendonça de Araujo.

Another issue is that many of government members from PLP and KHUNTO are have no experience in governing a country. Many of the government members from Taur Matan Ruak's PLP have a lack of experience but these mainly young intellectuals have a reputation for being arrogant and ambitious.

All these  factors have contributed to the discontent among the members of government from CNRT and KHUNTO — a martial arts street gang turned political party only formed for the 2017 election. According to insiders,  the government members from PLP are trying to block access to the PM by government members from CNRT and KHUNTO.

Meanwhile the government also faces pressure from the public because the price for the fuel, rice, oil and other basic needs are increasing.

Nepotism is endemic within the new government but it's hard to name people due to Timor-Leste's libel laws. In almost every government ministry there are many relatives who are receiving political appointments. But the benefits for corrupt officials are on hold because the parliament has not approved a new state budget yet. This cannot even be tabled until the government's proposed five year program — debated in parliament last week — has been accepted by the legislature and then by the president.

The poor quality of the government members is an issue that is going to contribute to continuing criticism from the opposition and civil society.

Both Ruak, Guterres and Gusmao all have lot of work to do, and compromises to make, to ensure that the shaky start to the nascent nations 7th parliament — and a resolution to how to exploit its new energy reserves — so things  can start to run more smoothly and begin to address Timor-Leste's myriad of problems.

 

Jose Belo is a journalist and commentator based in Dili.

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