Jill Jolliffe, Dili – A meeting of East Timor's parliament tomorrow will underline the surreal political world in which the troubled fledgling nation is now existing.
The country has no government, yet its 88 parliamentarians are being asked to approve its budget – after the fiscal year has ended – as well as electoral laws to eventually allow citizens to choose a new government.
President Xanana Gusmao has accepted prime minister Mari Alkatiri's resignation, but he has not passed the decree to formalise it, leading politician Mario Carrascalao observed, and six opposition parties have threatened to boycott parliament, but have now changed their minds.
It's as though the leaders are playing games with the people, who are completely out of it. The president is ruling under emergency powers, but a week after Alkatiri quit over accusations he was responsible for the months of violence, Mr Gusmao has failed to name a caretaker prime minister.
Eight cabinet members preempted Alkatiri's decision to quit by hours, leaving only a shell of the former structure, drawn mainly from hard-line Fretilin ministers known as the Mozambique mafia, where they lived in exile during the resistance war against Indonesia.
With Timor lacking not only leaders, but also a police force, power now seems to pass through the Portuguese-run Hotel Timor's coffee shop – a spot continually haunted by politicians, a horde of journalists and assorted camp followers eavesdropping for the latest piece of political gossip.
Only the occasional rumble of Australian armoured personnel carriers is a reminder that the matters at stake are deadly serious. Beyond the coffee shop windows peacekeepers protect around 75,000 displaced victims of successive waves of violence.
The key debate revolve around the legality of Mr Alkatiri reoccupying the parliamentary seat which he obtained in 2001 elections but left to become prime minister.
He is facing questioning by chief prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro over allegations that during the strife he armed a militia unit to attack his political opponents. He is suspected (but not indicted) of committing crimes carrying a penalty of 15 years.
He evaded a notification to appear on Friday on the grounds that his lawyers had not arrived from abroad.
The ex-prime minister also asserted in his letter to Monteiro that he enjoys immunity as a parliamentarian, although he still occupies a legal twilight zone between the two jobs. He is expected to turn up for his old job when the legislators meet.
Immunity can be lifted for any deputy charged with crimes carrying more than a two-year penalty, but there is a catch-22: the president must ask the deputies to approve its lifting, and Mr Alkatiri's party has an overwhelming majority of 55 out of 88 seats.
In a national address Mr Gusmao specifically asked parliamentarians to return to work to pass the budget. Monarchist deputy and lawyer Manuel Tilman points out that the $US315 million ($A427.38 million) budget proposed for 2006-2007 cannot be approved legally, so the country will have to lurch on under monthly extensions of the 2005-2006 version, valued at $US142 million ($A192.66 million).
The overdue approval of an electoral draft bill was a different matter, he said, as the babble of the coffee lounge intriguers rises. "We can't approve a budget without a government," he observes solemnly, because it requires specific projects and expense details, but we can pass an electoral law without a government – that's not a problem."