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Subject: XG: Speech on the Swearing in of the second Constitutional
Government
PRESIDÊNCIA DA REPÚBLICA GABINETE DO PRESIDENTE Message of H.E. The President of the Republic On the occasion of The Swearing-in of the Second Constitutional Government Palácio das Cinzas, 14 July 2006 With the swearing-in of the Second Constitutional Government today we close a cycle of profound crisis that has threatened the institutions of our democratic State based on the rule of law and subjected our people to unpredictable and unjust sufferings and distress. Timor-Leste was blemished once again. Many things have been said and written about Timor-Leste as of late. Some hastened to announce that we would become a ‘failed State’. Others shed ‘crocodile tears’ insinuating that we had become prisoners of powerful global, political, military or economic interests. Yet, many continued to believe in us because they know that a people like ours who resisted against all forms of intimidation from the most brutal domination to the most malicious seduction for over two decades never gives up! We have dared to walk on the ‘razor’s edge’ unwaveringly and so we have arrived at this solemn ceremony that marks the inauguration of a new Government. All around us there are thousands of Internally Displaced Persons who are still afraid of returning to their homes, some are afraid of reprisals, others do not return because they lost all of their belongings, except for the burnt walls of their homes, which were destroyed and vandalised. But it was because of the innermost conscience of our responsibilities that we were capable of assuming institutional solidarity, which is so esssential, between all the organs of sovereignty in order to find the way towards reasonable political compromises and the key for solutions that are constitutionally legitimate, in full compliance with our Fundamental Law. People’s hopes, the expectations yet to be satisfied from those who dedicated their lives to the resistance struggle, and the ambitions of the youth, who are still awaiting for an opportunity to learn, to become qualified and to deserve, through their work, a better life and a brighter future in their homeland, are growing all around us. Today, the new Government is taking a heavy load upon its shoulders. Although this ceremony is only a modest step forward, it is important to remember the countless obstacles that hindered every small advance we made in the tormented path that we have travelled over the last months. We must make enormous efforts to bring reconciliation amongst all the Timorese and to heal the wounds that have divided us. But there is no reconciliation without truth and truth demands justice so that the wrongdoings, and the confidence in the impunity, will not be repeated. Finally, we will only find an answer to this serious and painful crisis when we give the voice back to the sovereign people, so that the people can express themselves about the way in which they have been governed and choose those who they can trust. Once the displaced persons are assisted, order is re-established in the streets, and the functioning of the public services are ensured, then it will be the time for us to prepare for the elections, which are the appropriate means to resolve the conflicts peacefully and to overcome the crisis, thereby strengthening the State based on the rule of law and consolidating the constitutional democracy.
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