New Timor-Leste ruling coalition must tackle food and oil

Progressio congratulates the people of Timor-Leste on peaceful parliamentary elections that point to a new coalition government after the former governing party Fretilin (Revolutionary Front for an Independent Timor-Leste) saw its majority reduced from 57 per cent in 2001 to 29 per cent.

Dr Steve Kibble, Progressio's advocacy coordinator for Africa, Middle East and Asia, said: 'The peaceful and fair elections are an important political step towards consolidating democracy and overcoming instability in Timor-Leste, the world's newest democracy, but the new coalition government will face a host of challenges, not least tackling predicted food shortages this autumn.'

The immediate challenge facing the new government of Timor-Leste, which is the poorest Asian nation, is likely to be food shortages affecting a fifth of the population by October as a result of a predicted 30 per cent fall in food production following drought.

Progressio will be working with its partners in Timor-Leste such as Luta Hamutak, Caritas Dili, the Catholic Church Commission for Justice and Peace, Rede Feto Haburas, Human Rights Foundation and FONGTIL on their priorities for the new government. Progressio, for its part, hopes the new administration will:

• start a public debate on how to use the largely unspent oil reserves in its Petroleum Reserve amid widespread poverty
• develop coherent policies for the poor to create opportunities for the marginalised, particularly in agriculture
• develop clear policy on relations with its powerful neighbours: Australia on oil boundaries and division of revenues, and Indonesia on justice following its illegal 24-year occupation of Timor-Leste
• pursue justice and reconciliation on violence both from the Indonesian occupation and the civil unrest in 2006 following police and military divisions
• undertake security reform to create a functioning indigenous police and military
• deal with youth groups' violence linked to massive youth unemployment, gender/domestic violence and ethnic division
• rehouse over 60,000 internally displaced people
• install a strong and independent judiciary

According to Progressio's partner KOMEG, the domestic election observation network , and other observers such as the Carter Centre, the EU and the Solidarity Observer Mission for East Timor (SOMET), the 30 June poll was peaceful, free and fair; mirroring the presidential election of José Ramos-Horta in May.

Among Progressio's partner organisations in Timor-Leste are: Luta Hamutak, an economic justice monitoring group; Rede Feto, an umbrella women's organisation of 18 member local NGOs giving a coherent voice to those working on issues affecting women in Timor-Leste; Caritas Dili, a socio-economic development foundation of the Catholic church; Haburas, a national foundation for environmental issues; FONGTIL, an NGO coalition for Timor-Leste.