ABSTRACT

The processes of the formation of the new East Timorese government were riddled with a number of failures on the part of the UN and the East Timorese political elite who were vying for power in the new state. In addition, the fledgling nation was subjected to a rather hurried transition period that disallowed the establishment of stable governance infrastructures, particularly in terms of the judicial branch of the state. These shortcomings plagued the first government of Timor Leste and indeed contributed to compounding the myriad problems that in four short years led to the destabilization of the new nation and brought it to the brink of civil war in 2006. I first examine the structure of the Timor Leste government and its

parliamentary system that resulted from the processes of the UN’s nation engineering experiment described in the previous chapter. As Timor Leste began its arduous process of nation building, the first government was faced with a multitude of complex challenges. Before I look at the political challenges in Chapter 7, and thereby provide a synopsis of the events and dynamics that led to Timor Leste’s destabilization and subsequent regime change, in this chapter I provide an overview of selected issues that were also contributing factors to the crisis of the new nation. This chapter examines some of the early challenges that the first government of Timor Leste had to face after its euphoric May 20, 2002 Independence. More specifically, my synopsis will focus on those issues that pertain to the national language, truth and reconciliation, the Catholic Church’s political activism, economic challenges, and internal security problems. Some of these issues and lines of argument will be taken up again in the following chapters when considering the serious political developments in Timor Leste between 2002 and 2009 and their implication for the processes of building a viable nation. While in this chapter I briefly introduce the problems of internal security and the “politics of oil,” these will receive further treatment in the following

chapters, since they have important implications for and impact on the political and economic viability of Timor Leste.