Uniting East Timor 'harder than buildign it: PM
Uniting crisis-torn East Timor is more challenging now than the task of building it from the ruins of its bloody separation from Indonesia in 1999, Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said today.
Ramos-Horta, who is running for president in an election to be held on April 9, said the job of governing one of the world’s newest and poorest countries over the next five years will be tougher than the last because of a security crisis that could worsen as up to 500,000 voters go to the polls.
The next president and government, which will be elected in the middle of the year, must quickly deliver more revenue from offshore oil and gas fields to the impatient poor to ease tensions, he said.
“Because of the crisis that we have had for almost the last 12 months, I would say the second round now – the next five years – will be tougher than the first five years,” the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said.
