ML: What conditions did you have to meet to be nominated as a Presidential candidate?

AVELINO: I had to be nominated by 5,000 citizens and show full documentary proof of that. The PST campaigned and collected 10,000 signatures. We decided to try to get signatures from around the country, with a minimum of 500 from each district. We collected 2,500 signatures in Dili. It was a major advancxe for the building of our party.

ML: What sets the general framework for your Presidential campaign?

AVELINO: East Timor is in a general crisis. It is marked by new divisions within society, divisions which did not exist before as well as a food crisis. In the past, over the centuries, even in the most difficult times there has been stigma relating to being from the East or West. The people have always struggled together. It is the political elite, the leaderships of the government and parliament, which must take responsibility for these developments.

ML: How is it there direct responsibility?

AVELINO: They have allowed an economic system to develop where everything is based on cronyism. As a result personal conflicts, conflicts among themselves over their own immediate interests, become a source of conflict among the nation itself, among the people. This disease has even spread into the Armed Forces and the Police. But the crisis is more basic than that.

ML: What do you mean?

AVELINO: There are a whole range of policies that are deepening a social crisis. The decision, for example, to make Portuguese the national language, apart from reflecting a racist outlook, is also contributing to unemployment of our youth. And this will get worse. Just imagine there are now thousands of young people studying in the universities in Indonesia. They will soon return as professionally trained people in their twenties but they will not speak Portuguese, so they will be officially unemployable. There has absolutely no thought been given to this issue.

Hundreds of young people have been sent to Cuba to study too, but there is no work being done here to establish the infrastructure to ensure they will be able to work when they get back.

ML: So you are campaigning for a change in language policy?

AVELINO: Yes, we would prioritise tetun as the working language, with Indonesian as a supplementary working language. This means all the graduates from Indonesian universities, including in law, can start working straight away instead of being idle. It is part too of rebuilding a sense of national dignity and throwing off dependence on foreigners. We would cut right back on the money being spent on so-called foreign experts.

ML: You see foreign domination as still a major problem?

AVELINO: Yes, almost all of the projects financed by the government are going to foreign companies, with some local person as the local partner. Even fishing is being dominated by a Thai company while our fishermen are left without a livelihood. If you are not connected to some official you have no chance. The small handicraft enterprises are also closing one after the other. The worst area is in agriculture.

ML: What do you mean?

AVELINO: We have a food crisis. We have become dependent on the import of rice. There are shortages and prices are sky-rocketing. There are all kinds of rumours as to what is happening to imported rice. Cooperatives, which should be the basis of our agricultural production, are collapsing. We must invest in agriculture; we have the money but we are not investing it.

ML: You mean oil and gas money?

AVELINO: Yes, but the money is not being used. It is being saved somewhere – it is not clear to the people where, or how or who is managing it. So we are not using this money top invest in agriculture while cajoling foreign investors to come in. Our policy is to use the oil money immediately for agricultural and industrial development. We should also be able to lower the very high taxes that ordinary people pay, while the rich and foreign investors pay almost no tax. And to press for foreign investors to come in without any policy to prepare Timorese people to be able to work in the sectors that foreigners develop, if it happens, is the same as pawning the whole country.

ML: But will you be able to do much as President in the East Timorese system.

AVELINO: I am also confident that the Socialist Party will increase its representation in the parliament. But the key thing is that as president it would be possible to speak directly to the whole people. Out fundamental priority would be to promote direct participation in politics by the whole people. Every kind of peoples organization must be supported and developed. There must be mechanisms, that is organizations which allow for every single person to become involved in the decision making process and in keeping watch over the implementation of decisions.

This is the only way we can create a culture of political leadership in the service of the people and the nation rather than in the service of friends and family. It is also the only way to get rid of crony and thug politics. Can you imagine, the parliament has already passed a law providing a pension for life for members of parliament. Meanwhile there is no pension for veterans of the guerrilla struggle, just medals. We need proper pensions for our civil servants as well. But we are for repealing the lifelong pension for members of parliament.

ML: The factionalism of the political elite seems to be extreme now?

AVELINO: Yes, and it has developed very sharply in the Armed Forces (F-FDTL). There has been a long history of internal conflict in the army going right back to 1975. This exploded again in 2006 over issues related to facilities, promotions and other personal interests but it was put forward as if it was about defending the nation and state. Then (former PM) Alkatiri supported the army high command while Xanana and Horta supported the “petitioners” who were raising grievances. Now the situation seems to be reversed. Xanana and Horta seem to be close with the Army leadershio and have ordered the Australian forces to go after the “petitioners’ and the other dissident group under Alfredo Reinado.

ML: So will they keep going after Reinado and the “petitioners”?

AVELINO: Now they seem to be offering an amnesty to Reinado if he surrenders his weapons. They realise they are losing support in the western districts. There is a lot of anti-Xanana Graffiti now in the western parts of Dili. Xanana is not standing for President, instead it is Horta. But if Horta doesn’t win it will be the end also for Xanana and his proposed new party. Meanwhile FRETILIN is less and less popular, especially with the government’s failure of rice policy. Many youth are looking for an alternative, Some look to Reinado, especially in the western areas. If Xanana and Horta can’t win back that support they will be wiped out in the coming elections.

ML: How do you assess the role of the Australian forces in these developments?

AVELINO: I hope you and others will call on the Australian government to make sure the Australian forces only play a mediating role here. They shouldn’t be taking sides in domestic Timorese political struggles.