Word: timorous
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Democracy can be a messy business. The tiny Southeast Asian nation of East Timor, just five years old, learned that lesson this week after parliamentary elections on Saturday resulted in no one party capturing a majority. Preliminary official results released on July 5th gave former ruling party Fretilin 29% of the vote, while the National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT), the party newly formed by popular ex-President and independence fighter Xanana Gusmão, trailed with 24%. The split vote means that East Timor - already fractured along geographical and socioeconomic lines - will most likely be ruled...
...EAST TIMOR...
...five years of independence, the former Indonesian province has 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...
...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...
...argue that even after 60-odd years of independence from the Dutch, the Indonesians themselves have yet to build a rock-solid nation-state. "Nation-building is a slow, laborious process," he says. "The biggest mistake foreign observers made was thinking that things could be done overnight in East Timor. It will take time, effort and lots of work." Just a year ago, both Ramos-Horta and Gusmão had hinted that they might retire from politics - and give the younger generation a chance to govern. Now, it appears, both aren't quite willing to give up the reins...