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Subject: Timor-Leste Local Media Monitoring March 10, 2004
Timor-Leste International and Local Media Monitoring March 10, 2004 Timor Post Democracy starts with the leadership, says Xanana During a speech at the opening of a seminar about democracy at the Hotel Esplanada, the President of Timor-Leste, Xanana Gusmão, said that democracy does not come from the bottom, it starts from the leadership. He said that people have learned about democracy and the country's leaders have to show good example. Church will open a University, says Bishop Nascimento The Bishop of the Diocese of Baucau, D. Basilio do Nacimento, said that the he's happy with the findings conducted by a team about the feasibility of opening a Catholic University in Dili. The Bishop said that the result of the preliminary study shows that is viable for the Catholic Church to open a Catholic University. The Bishop said that the report recommends that the Church take into consideration the strategic importance for having a Catholic university. (The article does not explain the strategic importance that the University would play). Private sector important for this nation The President of ASSET Loro Sa'e (a business association), Oscar Lima, said that its important to create a system for the development of this country where the private sector and the Government can be partners. He said that the private sector are the pillars of the development in any society but the Government needs to support their activities. Anti-corruption workshop in Baucau During a workshop on anti-corruption held in the District of Baucau, the Inspector General, Mariano Lopes, said that eradicating corruption cannot rely only on a few, but it needs the entire population to pull together. He said that every citizen needs to understand corruption, nepotism and collusion so they can prevent it. Mr Lopes said that the workshop is a continuation of the national program which was established for 2003-2004. He said that people have to let go of the corruption mentality acquired during the Indonesian times. He says society has an obligation to this. Mr Lopes said that most of the cases he had investigated are usually bad administration but are in certain ways, linked to corruption. Is it Fretilin or PSD that received USD$50.000? questions Isaac In a confusing article in today's edition, it says that during a parliamentary plenary session yesterday, Member of the National Parliament, Leandro Isaac, (who used to be the Vice-President of PSD responsible for the Infrastructure) asked if it was Fretilin or in fact, PSD party who had received a USD$50,000 bribe. Mr Isaac alleged that Petrotimor's representative in Timor-Leste, Pedro Carrascalão, used his position to take piles of Petrotimor's documents (the content of the documents is not clearly explained in the article) to the office of PSD. The article states that Mr Isaac said that these documents were related to Petrotimor and that Petrotimor had asked for them to be distributed as part of PSD's political campaigns. Mr Isaac is quoted as saying that the documents presented Petrotimor proposals for Suai, Maliana and other parts of the territory. Mr Isaac said that at that time, he rejected the proposal from Petrotimor because he was not interested in "filling others' pockets". Mr Isaac alleges that during the PSD political campaign, the party did not have very much money and Petrotimor wanted to give USD$50,000 to PSD. Mr Isaac said that in November (doesn't say which year) the President of the PSD party said that he had sent the party's savings account number to Petrotimor. The article states that in December 2003, Mr Isaac, said he had heard that this money was deposited into the party's savings account. The article also suggests that, later on, the money was instead deposited into Pedro Carrascalão account. The article states that Mr Isaac said he doesn't actually know whether PSD has received the money. Meanwhile a member of the PSD at the National Parliament, João Goncalves, has told the media that PSD did not receive any money from Petrotimor or from Oceanic Exploration. He said that Mr Leandro Isaac was acting on revenge as he had been expelled from the PSD party. STL Seven people died in Covalima The Head of the Health Department in the District of Covalima, Jose Amaral, said that during the month of February, seven people died in the hospital from heart problems, malaria and pneumonia. He said that two of those patients died because of cerebral malaria. Mr Amaral said that only 18% of the population in the District of Covalima had access to medical treatment because of the shortage of nurses in the hospital Jose Filipe External Affairs World Bank, Dili Office Ph: 723 0554 Tel: 332 4649 Email: ffilipe@worldbank.org Support ETAN, make a secure financial contribution at etan.org/etan/donate.htm Back to March menu |