04 January 2007

gdtob dwnunder on Abel Pires da Silva ...2

From: gdtob dwnunder <gd2bdwnunder@yahoo.com>
Date: 4 January 2007 9:48:42 PM
Subject: Re: [ETSA] Re: Speech by President of Partidu Republikanu

For all of Ken's good points it nevertheless remains a bad idea.
 
Yes Abel, under Indonesian rule districts had a lot of autonomy...they also had lots of corruption, lots of Indonesian bureaucrats syphoning money and private enterprise profits to their own pockets and...oh yeah, as pointed out in the CAVR report....hundreds of thousands dead in the Indonesian province of East Timor...mostly Timorese as you already know.
 
As for the presidential system in Indonesia, it is not so centralised and not so executive as one might think.  In fact, this is a much more complex issue, as is the nature of the political system in Timor Leste, that because of the necessarily short commentary which only focuses on scoring a few points cannot be discussed in a forum such as this with the level of intellectual rigour it requires.  Similarly, the ways for building a viable and peaceful state in which all of Timor's citizens can benefit cannot be answered here, let's not pretend any of us are doing anymore than scoring a few points...myself included.

Abel Pires da Silva <abel_piresds@yahoo.com> wrote:
Good Idea Ken. We have less people to govern then before 1999, but look at out government: We have thousands of cars, Ministers complete with their vice minister (two?), general secretary, Secretary of state, all managing a single department. Two much bureaucracy..

Get rid of PM, Vice ministers, secretary of states, and Give autonomy to the districts to take care of them selves. During Indonesian time, districts enjoyed more autonomy then now. Sadly people like Alkatiri wants to centralise everything in their hands, even decision to let their minister to choose words in their speech....

On top of this people like Ana Pessoa does not want to speak Tetun when talking to the people and use an INTERPRETER instead. But guess what even worst? She was forced to correct her interpreter in Tetun for wrongly interpret her...What a silly administration is that?


Posted by at 33 comments:

gdtob dwnunde RE Abel Pires da Silva ...1

From: gdtob dwnunder <gd2bdwnunder@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [ETSA] Re: Speech by President of Partidu Republikanu

There is a mountain of comparative literature demonstrating that presidential systems in developing countries are more likely to perform poorly on virtually every development indicator, to be plagued with high levels of corruption, that issues of KKN will increase because of cronyistic power alliances that develop by those loyal to a president so as to retain their own privelege and status, that such countries are more prone to crisis and collapse, etc.  Presidentialism in post-conflict countries such as Timor Leste are also more prone to political exclusion of key groups in society as a result, hence giving rise to violent conflicts over the longer-term.  There are only a few exceptions to these trends which have been well-established in volumes of works looking at democratic systems in developing and post-conflict countries.  One must ask why or to what extent do these things apply to Timor Leste considering its recent crisis and that it had a mixed parliamentary and presidential system.
 
Here I only point to Gusmao's role in fomenting crisis as one issue because it is often neglected by Fretilin's critics.  So too is the role of would-be power holders that lined up behing Gusmao and in other instances killed fellow Timorese in the name of Gusmao (or at least claimed they had his implicit endorsement).  To think that Timor Leste will miraculously become transformed into a better functioning political system with an executive president is a pipe fantasy.  It is also incredibly dangerous for the country over the longer term.  In the Timorese context Gusmao is already a relatively old man that has lived beyond average male life expectency- he has even joked about this when visiting Melbourne Australia.  The point is that Gusmao will not live forever.  How will democratic transitions occur in the future if the political system's survival is dependent upon one person?  That is, the only reason anyone argues for an executive presidency is because they want to see Gusmao become president because, as they will argue, he is highly popular and is able to unite society.  Read differently, it is dependency on his charismatic leadership style.  However, the reason an executive system works in the US is because the system is well-established (for all its flaws).  At the same time, it is not true that Gusmao is nearly as popular as Australia's media or his supporters suggest.  In fact, it is arguable Gusmao has become a devisive political figure who has lost his moral standing as a leader able to unite the people (if that was ever fully the case).  It should also be remembered that the US is one of the few countries in the world where an executive presidential system actually performs well (depending on which sources you refer to of course).  The point is that Timor Leste should not make a tragic mistake by changing what is already a good system that needs institutional strengthening. 
 
This of course is the tragedy, the leader with the open heart potentially able to bring people together and act as a unifying leader (similar to the role of the King of Thailand) might have thrown this away, and in doing so has undermined other leaders that had the right skills for the right job.  Yes, choose your leaders, but make sure they can do their jobs properly.  And don't forget, so long as people are committed to a process rather than its destruction it is far more likely that one will encounter success, rather than conflict- the peace process in Aceh and recent local government elections in Aceh is the best example.  In other words, the crisis in Timor happened because people chose for it to happen.  You might not like it but that is simply the truth- pulling the trigger on a gun does not happen by accident.
 
 
Cheers

Abel Pires da Silva <abel_piresds@yahoo.com> wrote:
Are you sure you are describing Xanana? I thought you were describing Alkatiri! Xanana is certainly does not have managerial skills, but he has Heart, he opens ears, he feels the people!!

Alkatiri has managerial skills, but unfortunately he is Blind, deaf, and  love confrontation...

Ramos Horta only likes cameras + journalists, etc.

Choose your leader!



Posted by at 5 comments:

Abel Pires da Silva (3)

From: Abel Pires da Silva <abel_piresds@yahoo.com>
Date: 4 January 2007 9:02:40 PM
Subject: Re: [ETSA] Re: Speech by President of Partidu Republikanu

Good Idea Ken. We have less people to govern then before 1999, but look at out government: We have thousands of cars, Ministers complete with their vice minister (two?), general secretary, Secretary of state, all managing a single department. Two much bureaucracy..

Get rid of PM, Vice ministers, secretary of states, and Give autonomy to the districts to take care of them selves. During Indonesian time, districts enjoyed more autonomy then now. Sadly people like Alkatiri wants to centralise everything in their hands, even decision to let their minister to choose words in their speech....

On top of this people like Ana Pessoa does not want to speak Tetun when talking to the people and use an INTERPRETER instead. But guess what even worst? She was forced to correct her interpreter in Tetun for wrongly interpret her...What a silly administration is that?

Ken Westmoreland <ken_westmoreland@hotmail.com> wrote:
The problem is that East Timor's opposition is fragmented already,
with or without the Republican Party, the Millennium Democratic
Party, or any other small party. There are too many generals and not
enough soldiers. The size of Parliament is going to be cut, so the
existing opposition parties should be forming an alliance or merging
into a larger one, not splintering. Even if they manage to unseat
Fretilin from power, they've still got to work together in government.

It would be better to have an executive president, like the US or
Indonesia, and scrap the office of prime minister. With a
parliamentary system, like Portugal or Australia, you can't decide
who the head of government will be. Alkatiri would never have got
into power had there not been such a system.



Posted by at 5 comments:

Abel Pires da Silva (2)

From: Abel Pires da Silva <abel_piresds@yahoo.com>
Date: 4 January 2007 8:53:10 PM
Subject: Re: [ETSA] Re: Speech by President of Partidu Republikanu

Are you sure you are describing Xanana? I thought you were describing Alkatiri! Xanana is certainly does not have managerial skills, but he has Heart, he opens ears, he feels the people!!

Alkatiri has managerial skills, but unfortunately he is Blind, deaf, and  love confrontation...

Ramos Horta only likes cameras + journalists, etc.

Choose your leader!

Natacha Almeida <natacha_almeida@yahoo.com> wrote:
My concern is if east timor just had a president then it will be worse in term of governing a democratic state. Xanana, if elected in 2007, could be one the worst dictator in south east asia and certainly worse, than Alkatiri, in his centralistic approach over political decision making.These recent events have proved it clearly. He will ridiculously attack anyone,anywhere, or any political party that is not in line with his political ideas.  I mean this man is already a living god for some timorese, if he is to take the rule as a sole executive president without a proper power balance and sharing, one can just imagine what east timor as a state would be transformed into. If not a Xanana Republic then a banana republic would be the worst scenario.     
Ken Westmoreland <ken_westmoreland@hotmail.com> wrote:
Posted by at 14 comments:

Abel Pires da Silva (1)

Subject: Re: [ETSA] Timor leste: L'etat c'est moi

This is the person who did not want to hear different comments from other people. I posted my comment once on his blog and it was lasted on for few hours!

Bung Rahung kebenaran tidak mungkin dapat diperoleh hanya dengan menutup pintu bagi pendapat orang lain! Sayang sekali! Praktek anda mirip sekali dengan apa yang Soeharto lakukan semasa Orde Baru. Ibarat Guru kencing berdiri, Murid kencing berlari....

salam,
Abel
Posted by at No comments:

02 January 2007

Natacha Almeida

From: Natacha Almeida <natacha_almeida@yahoo.com>
Date: 30 December 2006 4:43:00 AM
Subject: Re: [ETSA] Re: Speech by President of Partidu Republikanu

My concern is if east timor just had a president then it will be worse in term of governing a democratic state. Xanana, if elected in 2007, could be one the worst dictator in south east asia and certainly worse, than Alkatiri, in his centralistic approach over political decision making.These recent events have proved it clearly. He will ridiculously attack anyone,anywhere, or any political party that is not in line with his political ideas.  I mean this man is already a living god for some timorese, if he is to take the rule as a sole executive president without a proper power balance and sharing, one can just imagine what east timor as a state would be transformed into. If not a Xanana Republic then a banana republic would be the worst scenario.     
Ken Westmoreland <ken_westmoreland@hotmail.com> wrote:
The problem is that East Timor's opposition is fragmented already,
with or without the Republican Party, the Millennium Democratic
Party, or any other small party. There are too many generals and not
enough soldiers. The size of Parliament is going to be cut, so the
existing opposition parties should be forming an alliance or merging
into a larger one, not splintering. Even if they manage to unseat
Fretilin from power, they've still got to work together in government.

It would be better to have an executive president, like the US or
Indonesia, and scrap the office of prime minister. With a
parliamentary system, like Portugal or Australia, you can't decide
who the head of government will be. Alkatiri would never have got
into power had there not been such a system.

Posted by at 2 comments:
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