Call for mini-Marshall plan

It is the newest country in the world and also happens to be the poorest country in Asia. East Timor’s population is just 1 million people, a third of whom are malnourished and have incomes of less than $25 per month.

This ‘United Nations poster child’, from a difficult start has fallen into full civil and political crisis.

The tiny country does have a future, thanks ironically to the man now subject to inquiries of allowing death squads to be set up to deal with his opposition.

Mari Aktiari is a tough negotiator, and had the difficult task of wringing the best possible deal, against ‘benefactor’ Australia, over rich oil recourses.

Australia, it seems, is willing to help in any way to get the new country established, anyway other than sacrificing an oil claim.

That focus, the oil negotiations, could well have been an important factor in destabilizing East Timor. For the governments attention was focused not on present needs, but on future wealth.

Meanwhile building a sustainable infrastructure, providing jobs and incomes has not been given its proper weight.

It is great news for East Timor that Hose Ramos-Horta might be taking over the reigns, heading a provisional government. Ramos-Horta is a consensus leader, a ‘peace at any price’ leader who should be capable of calming the situation down quickly.

But he then has to keep things calm, to start real growth in the country, to engage those citizens in a positive rebuilding program.

East Timor was born out of long struggle, of violence and jungle fighting. That energy desperately needs to be redirected into nation building.

The model is there, it is called the Marshall Plan, the reconstruction of post war Europe. Under the guidance of great economist and thinker, JK Galbraith, the Marshall Plan set out to involve countries and citizens in their own redevelopment.

We know, from great projects in many countries, the national pride which grows with creating a visible testament to growth.

In East Timor this might mean roads, or power plants. It means developing communication and transport networks as well as developing some kind of industry base.

There is a great opportunity for the country to join in the technology revolution, starting with registration of the primary domain name .et. It is catchy and a sure winner in the quirky internet world.

But the country needs a lot of assistance to develop and undertake such a plan. Sure they will be financially sound, down the track, when oil revenues start to flow. But even those revenues will not overcome the problems of a population not fully engaged with its growth.

They need a Galbraith disciple. They need an honest and sincere president, like Xanana Gusmao. They need a strong negotiator like Mari Aktiari. They need a brilliant consensus man like Ramos-Horta, and in this dog-eat-dog world, they need a super salesman, perhaps in the class of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado.

Most of all they need a national dream which every last person can understand and hold as their own. If anyone can do it is the East Timorese. They are a wonderful people, born out of the furnace of oppression and dogged to the last.

East Timor must overcome this current crisis and show an example to a world desperately in need of a lesson in strong community building.