East Timor elects new governor today

East Timor elects new governor today

By Virgilio S. Guterres and Lourenco V. Martins

DILI (JP): The 45 members of the provincial legislative
council will elect a new governor for East Timor today from among
three contenders approved recently by Minister of Home Affairs
Moch. Yogie S.M.

The three are incumbent Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares,
Manufahi Regent Nazario Jose Tilman de Andrade and Baucau Regent
Virgilio Maria Dias Marcal. Two other names that the council had
suggested earlier, but were scratched by Yogie, were Council
Speaker Armindo Soares Mariano and Dili Regent Domingos Maria das
Dores Soares.

The removal of Armindo's name from the list was a surprise to
many as he, along with Abilio, was considered the strongest
candidate for East Timor governor for 1997/2002.

Throughout its integration history, East Timor has been
fraught with problems and has always been the center of world
attention. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that it is
crucial for the province to have a highly credible leader.

The following are opinions of several observers about the
ideal profile of a governor for the province.

House member Salvador Januario Ximenes Soares is of the
opinion that the nominees that have been put forward are capable
of leading East Timor, but Abilio has the biggest chance as he
has five years' experience leading the province.

"It has been customary in our election process that if an
incumbent governor is renominated, it means that he is still
needed and will be reelected," Soares said in Jakarta recently.

He admitted that under Abilio's governorship in the past five
years, the province experienced tremendous progress.

However, if he was reelected, Soares said the first thing he
would have to do would be to introduce discipline and orderliness
to his administration. He said Abilio needed to establish a clean
bureaucracy capable of accommodating people's aspirations and
translating them into the reality of development undertakings.

"Clean apparatus must not be mere political slogans," he
stressed.

Soares hoped that with concrete steps and policies Abilio
would be able to disprove rumors about corruption in his present
administration. The rumors were flying before and during the
nomination process.

Asked about the importance of the next governor for the
settlement of the East Timor issue abroad, Soares said he hoped
that he or she would have a bearing on the process.

He pointed out that the issue raised abroad was in fact
inseparable with what has been happening in East Timor.

"As long as what happens in East Timor is favorable, the
reflection abroad will be so, too. However, if bad things happen
in East Timor, the reflection abroad will also be bad," said
Soares, who attended the All Inclusive Intra East Timorese
Dialogs I and II in Austria.

He went on to say, however, that irrespective of the East
Timor political question, which was still far from being solved,
the governor was not the only person who had to play a role in
East Timor.

In this respect, there is the church, the Armed Forces and
other community figures whose involvement in the problem is very
much expected, he said.

Soares was of the opinion that a settlement was far from being
reached as long as negotiations between Indonesia and Portugal
under the auspice of the United Nations secretary-general failed
to create a "take and give" atmosphere, with each side refusing
to budge from their original positions.

Embracing

Separately, resident Olandina Caeiro Alves said the ideal
profile of the East Timor governor was one who had two important
traits, namely the ability to embrace all layers of society, and
the political capability of contributing to the settlement of the
East Timor question internationally.

"So, one should not simply shout slogans on the stage or
merely (make promises) and then forget to dedicate himself to the
people once he is elected governor," she told The Jakarta Post.
She spoke in her private capacity as an East Timorese rather than
as a provincial legislative council member of the Indonesian
Democratic Party.

A non-governmental organization activist, Florentino Sarmento,
said: "We have always been expecting an ideal (governor) --
something that has never become a reality."

He expressed hope that the next governor would be "one who is
practical in his actions and has a realistic way of thinking".

He believed the incumbent governor had a better chance because
of his experience at the post.

"Abilio enjoys the support of both East Timorese and the
central government," said Sarmento, formerly a director of the
East Timor Agriculture Development Program.

"Another reason is that Abilio is one who has honest
intentions of bringing welfare to the East Timorese," he said.

He cited Abilio's efforts to fight for some sort of autonomy
for East Timor. These efforts, according to him, should be seen
as putting one's home in order so that the central government had
stronger leverage in its campaign to find a diplomatic solution
to the East Timor question abroad.

"At first these efforts were unacceptable to various groups in
East Timor and also the central government. However, many people,
including Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, have expressed
their support," he added.