East Timor’s deputy prime minister resigns after allegedly being called a ‘liar’

East Timor’s deputy prime minister resigns

DILI, East Timor — One of East Timor’s deputy prime ministers resigned after Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao allegedly screamed at him during a public meeting and called him a liar — dealing another blow to the young country’s stability.

Mario Viejas Carrascalao, who assumed the post 18 months ago, made the announcement in a letter published Wednesday in the national newspaper, Tempo Semanal.

He outlined a long list of problems facing East Timor, accusing the government of failing to address and sometimes participating in corruption and nepotism, and increasing their own well-being while ordinary citizens continued to live in abject poverty.

Without a compulsory education policy, many children still do not attend school, he wrote. The infrastructure is in shambles. Efforts to fight AIDS and tuberculosis are woefully insufficient. And foreigners increasingly dominate commerce, while local industry is virtually nonexistent.

Carrascalao — who is a member of the Social Democratic Party, a partner in Gusmao’s ruling coalition — said most of his efforts to make positive changes during his tenure were met with “silence, disinterest and passivity” — and sometimes even outright hostility.

But the final straw came when Gusmao allegedly hinted during a council of ministers meeting that Carrascalao, one of his two deputies, knew about $3 million in misused Ministry of Finance funds but failed to do anything.

“If the prime minister or his collaborators had read the newspapers, they would certainly discover what I did was to order that an investigation be undertaken,” Carrascalao wrote.

In another blow to his “personal dignity,” he said Gusmao had screamed at him at a public meeting and called him dumb.

“At the age of 73, this is the first time anyone has ever called me stupid or a liar,” Carrascalao wrote without providing further details. “My response is to resign from my position of deputy prime minister.”

Members of the government could not be immediately reached for comment.

East Timor is a tiny nation that declared independence in 2002 following decades of harsh rule by Indonesia and a period of U.N. administration. The country has been plagued by violence and political unrest since then.

Tempo Semanal said Carrascalao’s resignation could lead to the Social Democratic Party pulling out of the coalition, causing “a political earthquake in Dili.”

Online:

temposemanaltimor.blogspot.com/2010/09/former-vice-prime-minister-mario.html