Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão has made a stinging attack on International Aid Agencies and by implication the United Nations:
… if the situation of instability continues, this does not prejudice them, but on the contrary it benefits them. There are also comments from people working in Timor-Leste, who unfortunately have already worked in many fragile States – leaving them in the same condition in which they found them – saying that our country will continue to be unstable. This is not surprising, as these persons want Timor-Leste to continue to be ranked as an unstable country, as they surely prefer working in Timor-Leste than in Afghanistan or in Iraq.
Other people are infiltrating NGOs who, in the name of democracy and human rights, only seek to misguide our people and to generate mistrust among the Timorese.
Speech by Xanana Gusmão, At The Start of The Timor-Leste and Development Partners Meeting, Dili, 7 April 2010
This was in the context of what should have been good news:
Timor-Leste’s economy is on the cusp of moving from recovery to development, the top United Nations envoy to the fledgling nation said today, stressing the need for an economic expansion that is not based only on oil revenues.
Timor-Leste's economy at 'turning point' says top UN envoy
At the same time Prime Minister Gusmão announced that more oil revenue is to be spent on infrastructure to boost the economy.
Gusmão also attacked close supporter Australia:
In a fiercely anti-Western speech, East Timor's Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmão, has accused Australia of sacrificing the lives of 60,000 Timorese in World War II and secretly plotting for Indonesia to take over what was then Portuguese Timor in 1963. Mr Gusmão said that ''adding insult to injury'' Australia signed an agreement with Indonesia to share wealth from the Timor Sea while ''around 200,000 Timorese died trying to protect their rights during 24 years of war''.
Gusmao lashes Australia for duplicity
It is perhaps no coincidence that an announcement about the development of the contentious Greater Sunrise gas field is imminent. His remarks seem more in keeping with his history as a resistance fighter than as a head of government. The full texts of his speeches last week paint a more diplomatic picture as Gusmão grapples with creating a stable political and economic future for one of the world's poorest countries.
Gusmão is married to Australian Kirsty Sword Gusmão who had been a ‘spy’ for the resistance while working for as an aid worker. She met Xanana in prison and acted as a secret intermediary. Her role has received some criticism. She set up the NGO Alola Foundation in 2001 to support the women and children of Timor-Leste.
Photographs are from the official website of the Government of Timor-Leste
Update: 31 May 2010
From the Age today:
EAST Timor’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has signalled his country is prepared to forgo billions of dollars from the Greater Sunrise gas fields in the Timor Sea.
Stepping up pressure on Australian company Woodside over its plans to develop a floating liquefied natural gas platform above the fields, Mr Gusmao said “many developing countries fall victim to the corporate resource giants exploiting and plundering their sovereign resources’‘.
Timor ready to block joint gas project, says Gusmao
Update 2: 15 June 2010
Two recent news items:
Ramos-Horta urges AusAID to rethink funding cut Timor-Leste’s President is far from happy.
Relations strained as East Timor buys Chinese navy boats “Two 43-metre Chinese-made navy patrol boats ... initially to be crewed by Chinese sailors, will be launched in East Timor ... in what observers say is a slap in the face for Australian diplomacy.”
And a blog by News Limited’s Darwin-based reporter Paul Toohey:
Watching East Timor as China gets a military toehold “Australia has been a schizophrenic friend to Timor, variously abandoning it, liberating it, screwing it and helping it. And it is arguable that our debts to Timor are not yet paid in full. Perhaps mindful of that, Australia is letting Gusmao rant and rave, hoping he’ll calm down before he says – or does – something he might truly regret.”
The course of development aid does not always run smooth.
An excellent post at Global Voices by Janet Gunter about Timor-Leste and energy issues: East Timor: Expansion of the Energy Sector under Discussion