Today - Timor Leste's Ramos-Horta to decide on political future in January

by Muhamad Fadhil

04:46 AM Oct 23, 2011

SINGAPORE - Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta said he will decide in January whether to seek re-election in the 2012 Presidential Elections.

The 61-year-old took office in 2007 after serving as Prime Minister for about a year.

"I've been saying a few times that 90 per cent of the decision has been made. I would personally decline to seek a second term ... But, I may change my mind ... I will be making my final decision on my future in early January," the Nobel Peace Laureate said in an interview with MediaCorp during a visit to Singapore.

Whatever his political future holds, Dr Ramos-Horta said he will look back at his term with no regrets. He said he tried his best to adopt a "humanitarian" approach to reach out to the population of 1.2 million.

"The presidential office is open and accessible to the people. The state has to be open to the people. I don't have heavy arms security in the palace."

His "open door" policy is part of efforts at fostering national reconciliation. Timor Leste, formerly known as East Timor, broke away from Indonesia in 1999, gaining independence in 2002. Its pre-independence period was marked by unrest and occasional violence.

But Dr Ramos-Horta said reconciliation efforts in the past few years have proven to be successful.

"In 1999, we had violent strife. Thousands of Timorese voted to stay with Indonesia and many of them engaged in destructive violence. In the past ten years, a vast majority of them had returned ... Since then, there has not been a single case of reprisal by the pro-independence movement against them. Not a single case."

But he said challenges remain ahead of the country's tenth independence anniversary next May.

"Timor has reduced poverty by 9 per cent, infant child mortality rate reduced by 15 per cent, life expectancy went up, unemployment significantly reduced. A lot still to be done. Most of our institutions are still weak, some are dysfunctional like public administration. But, we are 10 years, not 30 years old or 50 years old, so we are very proud of what we have achieved."