Timor-Leste report by Chris White
On the gas contest, the literacy and health advances and the Third National FRETILIN Congress
Gas pipeline contest
The long and bitterly contested LNG pipeline is back on the agenda.
Peter Coleman Woodside Petroleum’s new CEO is at the negotiating table with Timor-Leste.
This is a turn around from august 2011. I listened to Mr. Alfredo Pires the Secretary of State for Natural Resources explaining Xanana Gusmao government’s stance for a pipeline at a lower cost than originally stated. President Ramos Horta and Opposition Mari Alkatiri similarly advocate for the pipeline from the Greater Sun Rise oil and gas in the Timor Sea through the deep trough to the southern coast with a LNG plant.
Woodside and the Australian government reject this pipeline as too costly, contrasting with the existing pipeline to Darwin.
A new FLNG floating natural gas corporate development from Shell in the Timor Sea is their alternative. But the Timor-Leste government rejects the FLNG as too risky in this uncertain investment world. I earlier supported Australian oil/gas advisors against the pipeline, but I am reconsidering.
Alfredo Pires showed how they want to use the oil/gas money to develop the south coast with gas going to villages and homes.
They want their say over their oil/gas development and energy security. I was convinced.
Alfredo Pires on October 20th said Australian media reports that Woodside agreed to build the pipeline were not to be relied on.
Later reports said the company has only ‘not ruled this out’ and welcomed ‘an opportunity to talk again’ but is pressing ahead with the FLNG.
Norway and other countries advising Timor estimate the cost of building an underwater pipeline is more than building a floating platform but way below Woodside’s former management. It is the cost and profit that is critical. We shall see what happens.
Timor Leste’s finance is from revenues from the oil/gas. The money is invested in the Petroleum Fund with the National Petroleum Authority. Funds go into the Budget that must be approved by Parliament. The 13-day Budget debate was televised and on radio. In some mountain villages the community views the TV linked to the receiver dish and solar panels. In March 2011 the government proudly launched their Transparency Portal on budgets and procurement.
As a petroleum-rich country, the debate in Timor-Leste is how to avoid the resource curse.
The Timor-Leste framework based on Norway for petroleum production, taxation, and revenue management is in the top international best practice. Indeed, Paul Cleary on October 5 wrote:
“WHEN five East Timorese officials recently attended a course on resource management at the University of Sydney, they found that many of the examples of world’s best practice were taken from their own country.
They learned about their $8.3 billion sovereign wealth fund, established in 2005, and the equivalent of Australia having saved $2 trillion in resource revenue…the lack of good policy at home means the courses are a case of follow our theory, not what we do. The academics have learned that Australia offers few examples of best practice, so they’ve had to look at countries such as East Timor…
And unlike East Timor, Australia’s state and federal governments have no plans to save some of their windfall revenue for when the boom ends…”
Debates on oil/gas
‘Black gold or black hole? Oil and development in Timor Leste’
from IPRIS Lusophone Countries Bulletin October
gives insights.
http://www.ipris.org/php/download.php?fid=651
On the oil debate NGO La’o Hamutuk has criticisms.
‘Some of the projects in the budget documents would be funny if they weren’t going to waste $200 million of Timorese people’s money which could be going toward health and education…’ http://www.laohamutuk.org/
Readers can get daily news reports and from ETAN http://www.etan.org
And http://timorhauniandoben.blogspot.com/
Literacy campaign
Two thirds of adult rural women and men could not read and write under the Portuguese colonialists and the Indonesian army.
I asked Bob Boughton Associate Professor, School of Education University of New England at the Fretilin Congress of the progress in literacy.
‘In December 2005, eleven Cuban educational advisers arrived in Timor-Leste to begin work on a national literacy campaign. Adapting the program known in Latin America as Yo, Sí Puedo (Yes I Can), the Cubans trained over 400 local tutors to run classes in every part of the country, using a method they call ‘alphanumeric’, delivered via audiovisual technology.
The campaign was launched in March 2007…three years later, over 120,000 adults, over one fifth of the total illiterate population, had successfully completed a thirteen week basic literacy classes since the campaign initiated by FRETILIN in 2006 began.
The Cubans have thirty five advisers working across the country, and several districts have been declared ‘free of illiteracy’, meaning 96% of the self-identified non-literates in that district have successfully completed the program.
The real challenge now is to convince the government to mobilise other agencies and departments and NGOs to build on the basic literacy acquired with the help of the Cubans, with a properly developed nationwide program of adult education.”
Read more in ‘Back to the Future? Timor-Leste, Cuba and the return of the mass literacy campaign’ in Literacy and Numeracy Studies Vol 18 no 2 2010.
Health gains
I cite Tim Anderson from ‘Cuban Health Cooperation in Timor Leste and the South West Pacific’ for Aid Watch-Australia
‘Cuban doctors and their large-scale medical training program came to Timor Leste in 2004, then to Kiribati, Nauru, Vanuatu, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands over 2006-2008…this ‘South-South’ program is transforming the health systems of those island nations.
By 2008 there were around 350 Cuban health workers in the region, with 870 East Timorese …in medical training. We may identify several particular benefits.
First, the health training is at a well recognised international standard of technical excellence.
Second, the program is oriented to the needs of developing countries, focusing on rural, primary and preventive elements, and making more use of human resources than expensive technology.
Third, the program is systematic, aiming to build public health systems, and not simply provide project aid or individual training.
Fourth, the ethos of training prepares students as public spirited community health workers rather than medical entrepreneurs; this in turn helps reduce the impact of the chronic ‘brain drain’ or the loss of trained professionals through migration.
By late 2009, more than a thousand young students from Timor Leste and the Southwest Pacific Island nations were studying medicine with Cuban professionals, most of them in Cuba…
…there must be a flexible incorporation of and investment in the newly trained doctors, investment in infrastructure, a commitment to ongoing training and to coordination of other health projects and programs.”
http://www.realityofaid.org/userfiles/roareports/roareport_eca617f3d4.pdf
In 2011 Timor Leste doctors graduates from Cuba speak in Australia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIsn6_7vefc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt5hVkUuL18
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/49355
‘The Global 2011 Human Development Report shows growth and development progress in Timor Leste. The report launched by the United Nations shows that Timor Leste has again increased its overall Human development Index value up to 0.495. This is an improvement of 22%… Life expectancy has improved, up half a year from 2010, and today a Timorese citizen will live on average 6.3 years more than in 2000 to 62.5 years 2011.’
I returned to Dili in September for the Third National FRETILIN Congress.
Australia, Indonesia, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and Japan gave solidarity greetings. Mari Alkatiri Secretary-General said that international support was crucial to independence and now human development.
Fretilin since the 2007 elections in opposition has reorganized its base and built a contemporary professional political party.
The popular Party President Francisco Guterres – Lu’Olo and Mari Alkatiri both were reelected unopposed this time pre-Congress by direct ballot by all members. Fretilin is one of the few political parties to hold a national secret and direct vote by all members for leadership positions.
The leadership list for the Central Committee, after vigorous debate, was elected as a transition era to 2017, when the new generation of leaders will be voted in.
Inspiring political addresses, singing, unified outcomes, media savvy releases, exhaustive public voting, debates into the early hours and celebrations at the end with international guests. The Congress was live on TV. Any repeat of the 2006 Congress divisions was not apparent.
Mari Alkatiri accused PM Xanana Gusmao of weak leadership and said corruption was making the poor in East Timor poorer.
Resistance radios
Introduced by a speech by Mari Alkatiri, two historic radios used in the 1970s radio link between FRETILIN and Darwin and the world were handed over by Rob Burbidge, Bob Boughton and myself to a standing ovation. Jose Teixeira MP and media spokesperson is an astute user of social media, so images are on You Tube shortly after http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4pYivWkYew
Congress delegates applauded Brian Manning Darwin co-ordinator from the Communist Party of Australia and WWF and those who staffed the radio, including Estanislau da Silva, who joined us on stage. Brian Manning’s story on the clandestine broadcasts is in ‘Rough Reds’ http://roughreds.com/rrone/manning.html
Rob Durbridge from SEARCH expressed solidarity, as did Deborah Durnan and the ALP’s Assistant Secretary Nick Martin.
FRETILIN survives
Fretilin’s survival over 37 years is historically critical. The Congress delegates debated a document signaling important Fretilin events, dates and those in the leadership.
Readers can study the history of Fretilin’s survival. Portuguese colonial masters ruling for 400 years and in WW2 from the Japanese fascists.
FRETILIN began as a resistance movement fighting for independence from Portugal’s fascist regime until in 1975 with de-colonialisation and then against Indonesian military occupation. This unique guerilla war linked to their international solidarity strategy led by Fretilin’s Diplomatic Front based in Maputo. For 24 years the resistance survived the Suharto fascist regime’s brutal occupation and army’s genocide.
In 1978 Nicolau dos Reis Lobato, then the Fretilin leader, was killed. The armed military wing of Fretilin, FALANTIL changes. Xanana Gusmao becomes the commander in 1979 and leaves Fretilin to lead the broad National Front CNRT. Ramos Horta overseas leaves Fretilin. Lu’Olo continues Fretilin leadership in the mountains, as does Mari Alkatiri from Mozambique.
Fretilin survives to the 1999 independence YES vote. The TNI planned Indonesian State-sponsored terrorism massacres thousands, move over 250,000 to West Timor and destroy over 80% of infrastructure and houses in an attempt to destroy the democratic outcome.
Mass Australian protest action, union bans and international outcry push President Clinton to move against the Indonesians. Howard and Downer reversed to be in the UN military intervention.
After UN stability, political leaders and people and international guests unite in independence celebrations.
All political leaders agreed on their Constitution. In their new democracy in the first Parliamentary elections in 2001, Fretilin polls 57.4% of the vote with 55 seats in the 88-seat Assembly and forms the first government with Mari Alkatiri as PM. Ramos-Horta is appointed Foreign Minister. Xanana Gusmao wins as the popular President.
The Fretilin government begins the enormous challenge of economic and social development of this poor nation. Health and literacy programmes begin. Paul Cleary in ‘Shakedown: Australia’s grab for Timor oil’ (see AO no 66) shows Downer despising Alkatiri due to his successful stance on oil negotiations.
In 2006, the violent ‘crisis’ erupts and culminates with powerful anti-Fretilin forces pressuring Alkatiri to resign as PM. President Xanana Gusmao appoints Ramos-Horta PM.
Peter Symonds argued ‘How Australia orchestrated ‘regime change’ in East Timor’ in Australian Options Spring 2006
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/timo-a25.shtml
In the 2007 elections Retiling gets a reduced vote and the highest percentage 29%. Banana Gismo becomes PM with his new CNRT party (National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction) winning government with the majority alliance of other smaller parties in Parliament the Alliance Majority. Ramos Herat is elected President.
No political leader from the national liberation struggle won a clear majority based on program or leadership. Retiling MPs go into opposition.
In September 2011 Thomas Mayor MUA Darwin gave this solidarity greeting to the Retiling Congress “MUA Here to stay! FRETILIN Here to stay! “
From daily news I see no holding back in criticisms of Xanana Gusmao’s government such as the 2011 Budget
http://fretilinmedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/statement-of-leader-of-fretilin.html
The campaign for justice 20 years on after the Santa Cruz massacre continues – read here
http://laohamutuk.blogspot.com/2011/11/reflections-20-years-after-santa-cruz.html
I have not dealt with the US and China military build up and impact on Timor Leste – not the least the US marines in Darwin.
Candidates are positioning for the 2012 elections. Most interestingly the Ex-General Commander of the Timorese Defense Force (F-FDTL), Taur Matan Ruak is now running for President. This may not be favorable to Fretilin or Ramos Horta who is yet to say whether he will run as President. I heard differing views on who will run.
Observers from Australia and overseas are coming to Timor-Leste for these elections.
Chris White lives in Darwin.
FRETILIN Third Congress Report here http://chriswhiteonline.org/2011/09/fretilin-here-to-stay/
APHEDA 2011 study tour report. http://chriswhiteonline.org/2011/09/apheda-timor-leste-2011-study-tour/
No comments yet.