Felicity James – Timor-Leste is developing rapidly – 15 years after independence it's got one of the world's highest proportions of women in parliament – but a younger generation is facing growing unemployment levels.
Timor-Leste is preparing to elect a new parliament. The country's developing rapidly – 15 years after independence it has one of the world's highest proportions of women in parliament – but a younger generation is facing growing unemployment levels.
The sounds of an unfolding election campaign can be heard in the villages across Timor-Leste. Truckloads of young supporters roll in to watch political leaders dance with the crowds and pitch their visions for the new country.
Former President and resistance fighter Taur Matan Ruak says he is well aware young people will shape his parliamentary fate on July 22.
"If we don't know how to involve young people in the development process, they can become a time bomb," he says. "They will decide the outcome of this election and I'm confident that my party will win."
More than 60 per cent of Timor-Leste's population is under 25. Taur Matan Ruak's People's Liberation Party, with its anti-corruption message, wants their vote.
The current government is a "national unity" coalition between the two major parties – Fretilin, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor party, and CNRT, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction party.
Taur Matan Ruak's party is promising to spend more on education and start up a mandatory military service program, similar to those in Singapore and Israel, to deal with idle youth. He was 19 when he went into the jungle to help begin the country's fight for independence.
"Our generation started the fight for independence, so young people who are present here can be the new heroes of development," he says.
But some local observers say they are fed up with expensive promises. Juvinal Dias analyses the economy and government policy for La'o Hamutuk, a Timor-Leste NGO, with a focus on how the country can diversify its economy away from dwindling oil and gas revenues.
"Why are the new parties also promoting the same failures, the same mistakes, as the older parties did? I think they need to come up with a new alternative, saving the public funds."
The last labour force survey in 2013 from the Timor-Leste government found youth unemployment was sitting at more than 20 per cent, with higher figures for young men.
International figures from the World Bank are lower but show a rising unemployment rate among young people, sitting at about 14 per cent last year
According to two young men from the city hamlet, Taho-Iaran, nothing has changed. This region was known as "the red line" during Indonesian times, because the residents here fought strongly for independence. Now at most times of the day, young unemployed men sit in the streets.
Sabino de Araujo Soares Lere says without family or political connections in Dili there is no hope of finding a job. "In Timor-Leste, I feel there's a lot of corruption and nepotism."
Ronaldo Manuel Ximenes Caldeira is planning to join the many Timorese young people who have left the country to find work. "The government has not paid attention to the youth, they only take care of themselves and their families," he says.
"Right now, I take part in boxing training and I'm also doing a Korean course. If I finish my course and I'm selected, I will go to Korea."
Although voting is not compulsory in Timor-Leste, both young men say they will be posting ballots on polling day.
Do Timorese women have a voice in politics?
Before Adelaide de Carvalho became village chief, she was told to stay at home and cook.
"It's a big responsibility, only men can do it," she says, recalling the response from men and some women in Lausi village when she ran for the position.
"Women who want to stand for village chief, the big challenges come from the family, there is some discrimination from society and also men."
Adelaide says she wants to encourage other women in Lausi to be brave and start getting involved in family decision-making, to begin with.
"The big issue in my village right now is malnutrition. I'm planning to develop agriculture, to plant and then sell."
Timor-Leste's parliament has the highest proportion of women in Asia, and one of the highest proportions in the world. A quota system, requiring one in every three candidates on political party lists to be a woman, has resulted in women occupying 38 per cent of the seats.
It is a different story at the local level, where village politics has long been dominated by men. But in the district of Aileu, which includes Lausi village, this is changing.
Last year, Timor-Leste's government passed a law requiring at least one woman candidate in each village and hamlet election. At the same time, civil society groups have been working with women to train them in leadership, public speaking and advocacy.
Fatima Estrela Soares is a program manager with Plan International, working alongside the Women's Action for Aileu Development group, known as FADA. "I think the law has really helped, also to reduce gender-based violence."
Fatima says in 2009 there was only one female candidate for village chief positions across the district. She won.
Last year almost thirty women stood up and four were elected. Across the country the number of female village chiefs almost doubled, to 21 out of 442 positions.
But the question at a national level is whether high levels of representation have led to real power. Christina da Conceicao is the president of Aileu's FADA organsiation, and is running as a candidate for the Democratic Party in the national election.
"I will focus on women's health and also clean water, because women take water from long distances. The patriarchal system is a challenge because a long time ago, power was given to men."
Fundacao Patrias, another local women's organisation, says the quota system is a temporary measure but that for now, it is needed.
"There is a big gap in decision making," says the group's founder Laura Pina. "When in the future, women's situation in decision making has improved, we can eliminate the quota system."
During this election campaign period Rede Feto, the umbrella group for more than 30 women's organisations, met with the Fretilin party to make further demands. The party's secretary-general, former prime minister Mari Alkatiri, acknowledges there's more work to be done.
"We are attempting to upgrade the participation, not in terms of numbers, but in terms of quality. This is part of our hundreds of years of traditions and day-to-day life, it will take time.