[East Timor's adored first president says he welcomes the tough tasks ahead. Three years ago, Jose (Xanana) Gusmo was a political prisoner languishing in a Jakarta prison. Today he's president of the world's newest nation. His new job may be even harder than leading the armed resistance to Indonesian occupation: East Timor is plagued by massive poverty, a lack of basic infrastructure, an inexperienced civil service and a rudimentary economy. As he prepared for his Inauguration last week, Gusmo spoke to Newsweek's Joe Cochrane in Dili about the challenges ahead.]
Excerpts:
Cochrane: Where did the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor [UNTAET] succeed and fail?
Gusmo: The main UN mission was to eliminate the [governing] vacuum here and establish the structure of power – the administrative structure, the judiciary structure – to prepare this country for independence. That is why we cannot judge achievements in terms of everything that a government must do. Most important for me, the first achievement [was] the establishment of an environment of security and peace. Second, the presence of the international community here [gave us] East Timorese time enough to reconsider, to calm down, to rethink.
Do you think UNTAET could have done a better job?
Not at all. They established an environment that gave confidence to our people. Of course, economic growth is the task of the government, not the task of UNTAET. Our people in the countryside are living in very, very poor conditions.
Some people say that after UNTAET leaves, East Timor's economy will come down. We must learn from this. We need to face real problems.
How can you develop East Timor when your only major industry will be oil and gas?
To tell the truth, we are lucky. We are lucky for not having right now revenues from oil and gas. That will [come] five or six years later. It gives us five years to think about how to improve, how to [take] advantage of other sustainable resources, such as tourism, agriculture, fisheries. We can take advantage of these five years to change our mentality.
Are you worried there will be social unrest once the euphoria of independence passes and the East Timorese realize what a difficult road ahead they face?
No. The euphoria happened in October 1999 [when the Indonesian military withdrew]. Now the expectations will be directed at the government to respond to problems. We've had two and a half years to [realize] we will face difficult times.
Did you expect to have more things in place as you take over as president of East Timor?
No. I cannot demand more. I see all of this as a process. Of course we were very sad about the destruction, but we're also thankful for the destruction. It leaves us the sense that all the development that we can do in East Timor will all be done by us. We can build something new.
What is the quality of East Timor's leadership, aside from yourself and the top ministers in the new government?
I prefer not to be in the leadership right now. I'd prefer new leadership because ... we are all now learning how to do our jobs. It makes no difference whether it is me or others [in office].
You've gone from jailed guerrilla to leader of a sovereign nation. Are you scared at all about the future?
No. Concerned but optimistic.