Max Lane
East Timor's local elections are now in their eighth month. In Aileu, close to Dili, the Socialist Party of Timor (PST) achieved second place after Fretilin, pushing the Democrat Party into third place. Overall, in the districts contested so far, the PST has been averaging third position, up from the sixth place it achieved in the 2001 elections.
The PST has won a total of 27 positions, including three suco (village) chiefs and 10 aldeia (sub-village) chiefs. The other positions were on village councils.
On July 24, the PST also established a new regional committee covering the districts of Manatuto, Baucau, Lospalos and Viqueque. Its office was established in the village of Caibada, in the district of Baucau. Caibada has been a main base of Fretilin since 1975.
Speaking by phone from Dili, PST general secretary Avelino da Silva told Green Left Weekly that it was initially very difficult to organise PST branches in Baucau. In the local elections, the party nominated only candidates in Caibada and Tirilolo, but did not win any positions.
Da Silva said the PST is confident of doing well in Liquica. "We will be attending the community meetings in the Liquica area to present our candidates and are preparing around 500 candidates to stand for local government positions in Dili."
The vote in Dili will take place in September.
In the suco of Kairu in Manatuto, da Silva said, the PST had started with 80 members in 1999 and has 450 members. It won 550 votes there in the local elections.
"We had built an office and had several activities there, including an agricultural cooperative", said da Silva. "One activity we had carried out was a demonstration outside the office of the camat [district administrator] to demand the building of a road. Our local party secretary had led the demonstration. The camat was aligned towards Fretilin.
"When it was clear that our secretary would be nominated as a candidate, the camat accused him and other PST activists of being members of the Assosiasi Halibur Kultura Maubere, a mystical group that was supposed to have illegal weapons. Nine people were arrested, including all the PST election candidates.
"Later, when the community meeting was organised, the camat said that our secretary and his comrades could not stand because they were criminals. In fact, the case against them had all been dismissed in the court in Baucau!"
In the end, the PST's local secretary won the position of suco chief. Four of the six aldeia were won by the PST and two by Fretilin.
Da Silva emphasised that agricultural issues would remain high in the Liquica campaign.
"During the Indonesian period, there were some advances in building irrigation works in East Timor", he said. "There was some surplus and farmers began selling product to Bulog [logistics agency]. This collapsed in 1999 and now agriculture has returned to a subsistence level.
"Almost all rice is now imported from Indonesia and it is virtually impossible for Timorese farmers to compete.
"Getting agricultural production going again will be a key issue in the Liquica campaign. The government must guarantee it will buy the farmers' rice. Assistance to enterprises must be directed to agriculture instead of giving it to all the enterprises in the town, which have all failed anyway."
From Green Left Weekly, August 3, 2005.
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