A year from elections—and where are we?

By Fidelis Magalhães[1]

Dili is a truly political town.  As soon as I landed at the Nicolau Lobato airport after my almost two years of studying abroad, the first words I heard were elections, sustainability, democracy and corruption. There was neither the typical British small talk about the weather nor the Portuguese litany of small talks about the underperformance of football teams—not so much in my case as I am a fan of the strongest team: Benfica.

In what at first appeared to be a primordial quotidian habit of the Dili residents, I also noticed some changes.  The typical politically loaded small-talks carry new traits. Now people seem to be able to discuss politics without thinking of it as a matter of life and death. The pre-occupation with who governs is no longer an existential anxiety.

People are able to distance themselves from political parties and generally more critical of political elites. This is a positive result of the 2006 “krize” and the subsequent political upheavals. People have learned--despite via a hard way--that blind political loyalty will result in nothing but in suffering to the “ema kiik” (small people). So in a way the progressive disassociation between political parties and “the people” comes as fresh news. This view of politics also provides a wider space to negotiate party affiliations according to one’s own choosing and whenever one sees fit. There is hope that in the long run party identity becomes less important as marker of one’s identity and secondary to that of the nation.

Two years ago when there was so much cross party animosity and people often joined political parties simply according to the choice of their elders to avoid party conflicts from trickling down into the domestic sphere. The Lorosa’e-Loromonu issue also played a determinant factor in the voting behavior. Many people voted for a party that represented their region. This reason was stronger than acknowledged by politicians. Presently the topic has subsided, but continues to be latent with explosive qualities. The Democratic Party (PD), purportedly, is facing East West divide in the leadership level.

The change of perception of party politics also forces political parties to work harder. For the next election political parties can no longer rely on the invocation of some primordial loyalty alone. FRETILIN and CNRT, as key players, will have to be more innovative and will have to sharpen their party programs and become less dependent on the good old fight over the legitimacy of resistance narrative or any form of “symbolic capital”.

On the economy:

In terms of the national economy, there is more money in circulation. There are many more visible constructions taking place in the territory. In Bobonaro’s coastal sub-districts alone there are a number of new brick-makers and many houses are being renovated. In Maliana town new buildings are mushrooming and the local market is full of goods to sell. I even bought a new memory card for my Nikon DSLR camera there.

Even the worsening of the road conditions from the border to Dili is also partially due to the need to facilitate big trucks carrying goods from Indonesia to Timor Leste. In sort there is more money around and the growth is real. But the question should be on the quality of growth and not quantity. There is still high unemployment and most people still have no job.

We are experiencing a growth without employment. What’s more, most of the constructions are either carried out by Indonesians or Chinese workers. Now many more Indonesian construction workers flood in. Local customers also prefer Chinese or Indonesian workers because of their faster rate of completion and generally better results. On top of that Timorese workers often postpone their work due to numerous social and religious events.

In response to the increasing number of foreign workers, there is a stronger call for a tighter immigration control. Suara Timor Lorosa’e, a leading national newspaper, reported on January 24, 2011 that Timor Leste’s department of immigration will work with other relevant institutions to stop the inflow of foreign workers who violated their visas. It also pinpointed Indonesian and Chinese workers in particular. Rather than tackling it as an immigration concern, there is another option to address the issue. The inflow of foreign workers may be a blessing in disguise. Timorese may take advantage of the situation for their benefit. The Chinese and Indonesian workers may be true “capacity builders”. More than the ones acquired through international technical assistance. As a country enjoying a relatively comfortable income from the petroleum, and hence sizeable public spending, money is not an issue for the time being. On the contrary, like many late developers, what it lacks are human skills and entrepreneurial aptitude. This Schumpeterian challenge is a serious one. Chinese and Indonesian workers may allow Timorese to compete and learn from them. It may even allow skill transfers and overtime the quality of their performance may also improve. This is despite in the long run the labor market would be harmed, as there is infinite supply of labor in China and Indonesia. There are other alternative policy tools, such as establishing a minimum wage, to avoid problems of oversupply of labor and to ensure that the cost will not drop drastically. There is no need to adopt a xenophobic and overtly paranoid immigration policy.

Furthermore, the argument that Timorese have inalienable rights to employment should be abandoned. Making job acquisition a nationalist concern does not help much. Rather, the key lies with the capacity and training of the labor force. Hence the government should provide access for Timorese workers to be properly trained in business, entrepreneurial and other relevant skills. Employment should be based strongly on the skills and quality of work. One cannot claim one’s rights to employment when the result of performance is poor. It is the customers who will be disadvantaged. We should think of a scheme where workers and costumers receive what they deserve based on fair price.

On Corruption

Corruption is a hot topic in Timor Leste. It is widely believed that corruption is rampant. One should, nevertheless, bear in mind that many of the accusations are merely rumors. It is important that people are not unjustly accused. For this there has to be trust in relevant state institutions with tasks to address the matter. On that note I would like to address some issues concerning the Anti Corruption Commission.

When some voices pointed out the need to have an anti corruption commission, I disagreed. My disagreement was based on two factors. First, I did not think that, as a new country with very limited resources and without institutional framework in place, an anti corruption commission would work. I feared that millions of dollars would be wasted in something doomed to fail. My second disagreement concerned the fact that the commission was too important to be subjected to the simple trial and error approach. Or in Timor, “depois mak hare’e approach”. Like our experience with many other commissions, I was worried that this commission was going to be another one designed for short term public relation gains. The failure of such initiatives, in my view, may create general public distrust towards state institutions. In fact the cost of having a dysfunctional commission is so insurmountable. The best way to make corruption thrive is by discrediting state institutions that are meant to fight against it.

Political parties should, therefore, inform the public that for the fight against corruption to be successful there has to be trust in the institution. The commission is lucky to have people like Aderito de Jesus, its president, and José Neves as one of its deputy presidents. They are among the best Timorese equipped for the job. The fact that Aderito agreed to take on the job was also laudable. He was surely aware that the popular demand of him was unrealistic. While the public demanded a high profile case to be filed to the prosecutor’s office within the shortest possible time, it normally takes up to three years to set up an institution and for it to achieve its full capacity in carrying out its functions. In addition, some of the key drivers of corruption lie in the way the public justifies bribery and rent-seeking as part of common transactions. This requires public education which takes longer and lacks sensationalist quality hence often goes unnoticed. So now that we are only a year away from the next elections, I hope political parties will not try to undermine the legitimacy of the commission during their political campaign. Instead, the campaign period should be used as an opportunity to show their support for it. Whoever comes into power next year should guarantee that they wiill be willing to cooperate with the comission once in power.

 [1] He is the former head of the National Consensus Dialogue and Adviser to the President of the Republic.