Word: horta
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Early poll results indicate that Nobel Peace Prize laureate José Ramos-Horta has won a landslide Presidential election in the tiny Southeast Asian nation of East Timor. Formerly the country's Prime Minister, Ramos-Horta may very well be trading jobs with his Presidential predecessor, Xanana Gusmão, who is tipped to become Prime Minister after legislative elections slated for June...
...been ruled largely by the same coterie of independence campaigners whose 24-year struggle to free East Timor from Jakarta's grip resonated with the nation's 1 million citizens. Gusmão fought for East Timor's freedom as a guerrilla commander in the mountainous jungle, while Ramos-Horta pleaded his homeland's cause in the halls of the United Nations. Even Francisco Guterres, Ramos-Horta's opponent in this week's presidential run-off, had been a veteran resistance fighter against Indonesia, under whose rule up to 200,000 East Timorese perished. "The old generation in East Timor...
...Even though the Presidential post is largely ceremonial, Ramos-Horta, 57, has vowed that he will roll up his sleeves and tackle some of his nation's many problems. East Timor is the poorest country in Southeast Asia, and despite hopes that offshore oil and gas reserves will boost the economy, many East Timorese still struggle just to feed themselves. Incomes have stagnated, while unemployment has risen. Equally worrisome, geographic and factional divisions that had been papered over during the independence struggle are now tearing at the nation's delicate social fabric. Last year, an internal army dispute between soldiers...
...there are many challenges," concedes Ramos-Horta. "But don't dismiss us too quickly as a failed state ... Our society was nearly destroyed by Indonesian occupation. It will take more than a couple years to fix things...
...those presidential candidates is Ramos-Horta, who says it's unfair to dismiss his country as a failed state so soon. "There is no civil war or bombs bursting on the streets," he says. "These are just growing pains of a young country." His main rival, Fernando de Araujo, leader of the democratic party and, like Gusmao , a resistance hero, disagrees. "We are a new country, but we are not a new society," he says. "Our people can see with their own eyes what has happened. It has been five years and what is there to show for it? Almost...