XANANA Gusmao, the poet-warrior who led East Timor’s bloody
struggle for independence, on Wednesday officially won the
presidency of what will be the first nation of the third
millennium.
The bearded former guerilla commander secured almost 83%
in Sunday’s vote against his sole challenger Francisco Xavier do
Amaral.
When the clock ticks over from midnight into May 20, the man who
has expressed more enthusiasm for growing pumpkins and photography
will become head of state of the tiny poverty-stricken nation.
Gusmao endured jungle life and imprisonment in an Indonesian
jail to lead his people to freedom but was a reluctant presidential
candidate.
His pleas to stay out of politics fell on deaf ears. East
Timorese said there was simply no one else.
But despite the independence hero’s vast popularity, the road
ahead as president will not be easy, according to observers.
Friction with Fretilin, the veteran pro-independence party to
which Gusmao once belonged and which now dominates the government
and parliament, is well-known.
Gusmao accused ”elements” of the party of urging people to vote
against him by spoiling their ballot papers.
A key source of tensions is Gusmao’s advocacy of amnesties for
East Timorese involved in the orgy of violence, destruction and
forced deportations in the months surrounding the 1999 UN-run
ballot on independence.
Fretilin executive Mari Alkatiri, the chief minister who will
become prime minister on independence, had said he would vote for
neither Gusmao or Amaral. But on Wednesday Alkatiri congratulated
Gusmao ”from the bottom of my heart” on his victory and said they
could work together in the future.
Gusmao (55) pledged in his final campaign rally on Friday to use
the largely ceremonial post to encourage not only reconciliation
but democratic differences of opinion.
On Tuesday he said he would press for amnesties for his
one-time militia enemies after they have been tried and convicted.
He said a policy of reconciliation helped free the territory
from 24 years of Indonesian occupation. ”It was not because of our
weapons but because of our policy, our policy of reconciliation.”
He pledged to be an activist and not an ‘office president’ and
defined his future role as ”the watchdog” for the people to ensure
that government and lawmakers do not stray far from their
aspirations.
Gusmao, a former civil servant in Portugal’s colonial
administration and a corporal in its army, began campaigning for
independence in 1975 after the Portuguese departed.
He took to the mountains and forests to fight Indonesia within
weeks of that country’s invasion in December 1975, assuming the
leadership of Fretilin’s guerrilla wing Falantil in 1981.
He was captured in Dili in 1992 and was jailed the following
year in Jakarta for life.
From behind bars he continued to direct the resistance and
earned himself the description ”poet warrior” as he wrote poetry
and painted in his cell.
He was released in September 1999, eight days after East Timor
voted to separate from Indonesia in a poll that was engulfed by
violence from Indonesian-backed militias.
Now married to Australian Kirsty Sword with whom he has a baby
son, Gusmao has since focused on reconciling pro-Indonesian and
pro-independence supporters. – Sapa-AFP