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PM Xanana Gusmao: Australia stole oil so should not yell about corruption in Timor-Leste

Jornal Diario Nacional, Dili, Monday 10 August 2009

Timor-Leste (TL) will not surrender in the tussle over oil with Australia, because of this, Australia should not yell about corruption in the Parliamentary Majority Alliance (AMP) Government led by Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao.

“Six Australian journalists died here and yet they want to keep lying, why? Because they want to steal our oil, it’s this that Australian journalists should also look at, they should not come and criticize my government, I Xanana, I have already said, don’t think that I am afraid, the Indonesian generals are all generals because they fought with me, we had great difficulties during 24 years, but we did not surrender, so in this tussle over oil don’t come and yell about my government, this I am saying don’t do it boy, you will not win boy,” the head of the government Xanana Gusmao said angrily last Friday (7/8) at Bairro Central, Dili, in relation to reporting in the Australian media that PM Xanana had awarded rice supply contracts to his daughter.

PM Xanana underscored that, he (red: Xanana) fought in the jungles, all the Indonesian generals are all gone, but he (red: Xanana) is still here. “So I warn Australian Journalists that they should not tamper* with my government, during 24 years, they signed to steal Timor-Leste’s oil, now they come with a lot of talk, continuing to say that we are a good for nothing people, no, you don’t play with me, sometimes we smile with one another, but don’t play with Xanana, as far as I am concerned, it is we who are governing better,” said the head of the AMP government.

Xanana Gusmao declared that they can all say what they like but he does not care, because his goals are the well being of the people and their future. He added that the FRETILIN opposition can also scream all they like at his government, asking that PM Xanana sack Minister Lucia Lobato and Minister Emilia Pires because they are not performing or because there are indications of corruption, but he is not startled by these accusations.

“I myself have been accused of favoring this person or that, I am not startled, because whichever member of my government is accused, I have to defend them. I have already said often , if there is a concrete case that has filed in Court, and the court notifies me of such, and a member of this government has this problem to come and answer in court, it will be I who will go and arrest that Minister, if he is proved to be wrong I will get someone to replace him or her, but if it is proved he or she is right, then I go back, and it is this that is the duty of the leader of the team, otherwise if I listen that this one is corrupt and I sack him or her, and that one is corrupt, but corrupt of what, if it is with me myself then I will go,” PM Xanana Gusmao said.

*Note on translation: Mr. Gusmao was cited in the article as having used the tetum word “book”. It is defined in the Standard Tetum-English Dictionary, Geoffrey Hull, 2nd Edition as meaning: “book vti. To move; to touch; to tamper with; to irritate; to seduce.”