| Subject: ABC: Xanana announces new political
party
Also Gusmao to stand for PM of East Timor;
East Timor President Lambasts Ruling Party
ABC Radio Australia
Last Updated 28/03/2007 1:44:09 PM
TIMOR: Xanana Gusmao announces new politcal party
East Timor's election fever has gripped the President, who is due to
step down in May.
Xanana Gusmao has announced the formation of a new party. The new
C-N-R-T, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction aims to loosen
the grip of East Timor's biggest party Fretilin.
Presenter/Interviewer: Karon Snowdon
Speakers: Xanana Gusmao, President of East Timor, Jorge Teme, spokesman
for Fretilin Mudansa and former Ambassador to Australia
SNOWDON: East Timor's politics are in turmoil. Now there's another
party to add to the small nation's volatile mix of political divisions,
even enmities, and it was welcomed in the traditional manner in a ceremony
in Dili.
The new party's name is a deliberate reference to the former CNRT, the
peak non-partisan body formed by Xanana Gusmao in 1998. It reunified the
resistance movement and tried to end Fretilin's claim to be the sole
representative of the people's struggle against Indonesia. The new CNRT
has confirmed the much anticipated role of Xanana Gusmao as its leader.
Gusmao has not joined a party since he resigned from Fretilin in the
1980s. As the outgoing president, he won't assume the leadership until his
term expires after the election of a new president, that vote is due on
April 9th.
The plan is much the same as in 1998. The CNRT organisers say the party
and its new leader will restore a grassroots connection with politics and
provide unity to the nation.
GUSMAO: I thank them for their trust and we hope that together we try
something for our people.
SNOWDON: Xanana Gusmao, who is yet to say if he will actually stand as
a candidate for parliament. While his hero status served him well as
president, a different set of skills will be needed there. But his plan
with the CNRT is to sweep Fretilin from its dominance in East Timor's
parliament, where it's held a big majority for these first five years of
democratic government. But Fretilin itself has fractured. A breakaway
group, Fretilin Mudansa wants to break the strangle hold of the old guard
under former prime minister Mario Alkitiri.
Fretilin Mudansa also has its eye on the crucial parliamentary
elections to be held a few months after the presidency poll in April. The
group will not stand its own candidates, but will throw its support behind
CNRT and the presidential bid of Jose Ramos Horta, also a former early
leader of Fretilin. However, nearly all major players in the political
crisis which has gripped East Timor since last year's violence have been
tainted in the public's eyes by their roles then, or failure to resolve
the crisis.
Mudansa spokesman, Jorge Teme, says his faith in Xanana Gusmao is
justified.
TEME: There is no doubt, there is no doubt at all, because the people,
because the public are thinking, are talking, are arguing about when the
changes are coming. People are waiting for changes, because people cannot
stay within a crisis like this and we do believe President Xanana still is
charismatic leader. People cannot just simply forget President Xanana's,
married for 24 years, leading the guerilla movment, leading the fight for
his country, even though one individual says that Xanana is no good, but
you can measure by any estimation that Xanana still gets the support of
the people. And we do believe Xanana will win this election.
Listen at radioaustralia.net.au/asiapac/programs/s1883089.htm
---
The Financial Times
Gusmao to stand for PM of East Timor
By John Aglionby in Dili, East Timor
Published: March 26 2007 15:29
Xanana Gusmão, East Timor's president, announced on Monday that he would join
a new opposition political party and contest general elections due to be
held in the next three months.
The move would see Mr Gusmão, a revered former guerrilla leader and poet who
had said he wanted to retire from public life, become the leading candidate
for the more hands-on job of prime minister at the general elections.
Should he win, Mr Gusmão would replace José Ramos Horta, the Nobel laureate
who took over as prime minister of the tiny former Portuguese colony
following a violent crisis last year. Mr Ramos Horta, in turn, is the
favourite to win an election for the largely ceremonial presidential post
scheduled for April 9, although the former foreign minister is one of eight
candidates.
The moves by East Timor's two best-known leaders are seen as increasing the
pressure on the leadership of Fretilin, the leftist ruling party whose
leader, former prime minister Mari Alkatiri, was widely blamed for last
year's crisis.
Mr Alkatiri was forced to resign as prime minister last May after being
accused of involvement in communal unrest that left 37 people dead and saw
150,000 residents of the capital Dili flee their homes. Some 2,500 foreign
troops were deployed to restore order.
Mr Gusmão said on Monday that he would join the National Congress for
Timorese Reconstruction, or CNRT, which is expected to register formally as
a party in the coming weeks. It is using the acronym employed by the 1990s
umbrella group that led the international fight against Indonesian rule,
which came to an end with a United Nations-sponsored ballot in 1999.
Announcing his decision to remain in politics, Mr Gusmão told a group of CNRT
members that he wanted to end the widespread suffering that blights much of
East Timor's 1m population following a year of political turmoil.
"When I leave the presidency we will join together for the people's
salvation because they mustn't suffer again," he said.
Mr Gusmão's announcement came after he was presented with a petition that
CNRT members said had been signed by 6,250 people eager to see the president
remain in politics.
"East Timor needs a strong political party with good leadership, with a
leader who loves people," the petition said. "That's why we want you Xanana.
We only trust you."
Filomeno Aleixo, a member of the Fretilin central committee, on Monday
condemned Mr Gusmão's use of the CNRT acronym, which remains emotive in East
Timor. "It's his right to do what he's doing but it's unethical because he's
effectively hijacking a powerful historical symbol - the name CNRT - that
all Timorese know as something completely different from what he's using it
for," Mr Aleixo said.
---
Financial Times (UK)
Friday, March 30, 2007
East Timor President Lambasts Ruling Party
By John Aglionby in Dili, East Timor
Xanana Gusmao, East Timor president, on Thursday accused the ruling Fretilin
party of corruption, arrogance and mismanagement that had put the fledgling
country on a path of violence and economic stagnation since its 2002
independence.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Gusmao, whose job is largely
ceremonial, said the young country's governing elite had built a record that
compared unfavourably even with Indonesia's brutal 24-year rule, which came
to a bloody end in 1999 following a United Nations-sponsored referendum.
"Indonesia used to kill and lie but the economy continued to function," Mr
Gusmao said. "Now we're independent it doesn't any more. Now the roads
aren't repaired. The schools are rehabilitated but they're not done
properly. Buildings are built for the ministries but the people are
continuing to suffer."
The road near his house "has to be repaired twice a year, every year". "They
fill a hole and then three months later it's bigger than it was before. How
could that be if the government was doing its job properly?"
Mr Gusmao will step down from the presidency in May. His successor is due to
be elected on April 9 with José Ramos-Horta, the country's Nobel laureate
prime minister, seen as the favourite among eight candidates.
Mr Gusmao, who stepped down from Fretilin in the early 1980s, announced this
week that he intended to join a new party that will oppose Fretilin in
parliamentary elections later this year.
He said his country would never recover if Fretilin's current leadership
retained power. "[Fretilin] is rotten down to its hands, which are always
demanding money, and its mouth, which is always just saying: "Yes sir, yes ma'am,?" he said.
"Its heart and its body are still healthy though."
The former guerilla leader said a UN mission that arrived after a massive
breakdown of law and order last year should not be needed past mid-2008 if
the East Timorese could settle their differences.
Mari Alkatiri, the Fretilin leader, was forced to resign as prime minister
last August after an upsurge in violence left at least 37 people dead,
forced 150,000 to flee their homes and triggered the collapse of the police
and much of the military.
Mr Alkatiri dismissed Mr Gusmao and his new party, the Council for East
Timorese Reconstruction, as 'a pack of liars'. He accused them of fomenting
the violence that led to his forced resignation.
Back to March menu
February
World Leaders Contact List
Main Postings Menu
|
