Timor-Leste goes to the polls on Monday to elect a new president. After a profoundly troubled history, this small and still impoverished country the election should, happily, be relatively unproblematic. The elections have so far seen limited conflict, with a Fretilin-PD disturbance in Dili’s outer west reportedly leaving some homes burned. Election rallies have otherwise […]
Tag Archives: Timor-Leste
Timor-Lestes prime minister, Xanana Gusmão, has deferred his decision to step down as his countrys leader until April 2015. He had announced earlier this year that he intended to leave office firstly in September, then in October. He has since said that he wishes to stay on to oversee negotiations with Australia over a resolution […]
It will take some months to play out, but Australia is finally before an international tribunal to determine whether or not it has acted legally over the division of the Timor Sea with Timor-Leste. At stake is the territorial boundary between Australia and Timor-Leste and, therefore, control of tens of billions of dollars worth of […]
Australias relationship with Timor-Leste has been an inconsistent one but, despite some partisan positioning, has considerably improved since the events within Timor-Leste in 2006. In particular, as Timor-Lestes close neighbour and largest development aid provider, Australia looms large in Timor-Lestes international orientation. Because of the relative size and potential capacity to influence, Australias decisions can […]
Timor-Leste is a country born of a keen awareness of its security needs and aspirations. In the period of transition from Portuguese rule, the country and its people descended into a brief but bloody civil war, then almost immediately faced incursions from across the western border. Its people underwent 24 devastating years of occupation and […]
Australia’s relationship with East Timor is at risk as the deadline looms on a hotly disputed and lucrative liquid natural gas project — with no resolution in sight. West Australian-based Woodside Petroleum has until February 23 to reach an agreement with the government of East Timor over the site of processing LNG or else the […]
East Timorese newspaper Tempo Semanal published an article this week which claims that the new Timorese Government represents "an oligarchy", and criticises the new government for its size and for the fact that it contained some brothers and sisters. There was criticism of the last Timorese Government for many reasons, including corruption. However, this same […]
When Timor-Leste’s new Cabinet was announced, there was a flurry of critical comment within Timor-Leste, about both the size and composition of the ministry. Some critics were unhappy that an expanded ministry would cost more and potentially lead to more corruption while others railed against Timor-Leste becoming an oligarchy rather than a democracy. The positive […]
In a country in which there are no public opinion surveys and in which the still developing media could not be said to reflect, much less shape, the views of most people, trying to understand why the people of Timor-Leste vote as they do was not an exact science. Such judgments that could be made […]
On Sunday evening, 15 July 2012, a congress of CNRT party members in Dili voted to go into an alliance with the Democratic Party and Frenti Mudanca to form a new alliance to make up Timor-Lestes Fifth Constitutional Government. In response, members of Fretilin rioted, burning more than 50 cars and stoning UN police sent […]