Australia obviously has a keen interest in the outcome of the East Timorese election, to be held on June 30. East Timor is Australia's nation-building project. Australia sent troops to East Timor in 1999 to help the tiny country on its way to independence from Indonesia and it helped restore calm when violence broke out in 2006.

Australia's hope is for a strong, stable democracy to take hold. To that end, it also hopes that the International Crisis Group is right when it predicts that ex-president Xanana Gusmao will win the coming election.

Mr Gusmao is pragmatic and popular, both with East Timorese and Australians. He understands the need to invest in infrastructure, such as schools, public health services and roads. He is not believed to support the creation of an expensive military. He supports the rule of law. He respects the importance of a fair, transparent electoral process. He is a modern champion of democracy.

The Australian reported last week that East Timor's new Prime Minister, Estanislau da Silva, wants to give military chiefs power to spend millions from East Timor's oil and gas fields to upgrade the country's defence force. Vast amounts would be spent on weapons, a 3000-strong defence force, and missile-equipped warships to protect the sensitive maritime zone.

It is a bad idea. The money needs to be spent on reducing poverty among the East Timorese, by which we mean all of them, not to entrench the power of a few military chiefs, intent on corrupting the nation's future.

The East Timorese did not invite Australia to comment on its military ambitions but the plan is flawed. East Timor does not have the resources to create an armed force of the size necessary to protect it from the only obvious potential threat, Indonesia. It should focus instead on managing its relationship with Indonesia – and, of course, with Australia.

Mr Gusmao's ally, President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta, won 22 per cent of the vote in the first round of the recent presidential elections and 69 per cent of the presidential runoff. The International Crisis Group says Mr Gusmao's newly formed party could win between 20 and 25 per cent of the vote on June 30 and would then form a government with other groups.

Army rebel Alfredo Reinado who escaped from prison last August along with 50 other inmates, is already threatening strife, refusing to lay down arms he is believed to have stolen during a raid on a police station.

The election is an opportunity for the East Timorese to again demonstrate how important are their new freedoms, and for mischief-makers to reform themselves, to the point of taking a blow from voters on the chin. Whatever can be done to ensure the process is fair, transparent and, above all, peaceful should be done.