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Fragile states / Comment

East Timor: self-determination under threat

14/02/2008 By José Manuel Pureza

Photo by Luis Enrique Ascui/Getty Images

The February 10 attacks on President Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão bring into relief not just the fragility of Timorese institutions, especially in the area of security, but also the climate of malaise and turbulence that has characterised the country’s political system for the last few years.

Timor has lived its first years as a state in a situation not unlike that of an international protectorate, in that the United Nations has been directing the principal mechanisms of the government. In the first few years of independence, a clear split has become visible in the country’s political leadership: on one side is the party born of the struggle against Indonesian occupation – the FRETILIN, of former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri - while on the other are the dominant reconstruction models (giving primacy to the market and liberal-democratic institutional formulas), led by Ramon Horta and Xanana Gusmão.

This Comment article explores the challenges facing both Timorese politicians and the international community if the nation is to emerge from its troubled past and become a strong and healthy democratic state.

Download the full version of this publication, available in Spanish (43 kB)

Keywords

Conflict Fragile state Political Reform Security South East Asia Timor-Leste

Related publications

• The Crisis in Timor-Leste: restoring National Unity through state institutions, culture, and civil society
• Timor-Leste on the Brink: a new way forward

Bio author: José Manuel Pureza

José Manuel Pureza is Doctor of Sociology and International Relations at the University of Coimbra. He is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, where he coordinates the Peace Studies group.