| Subject: RDP: Baucau
bishop worried shortages of food will lead to unrest
BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific - Political Baucau bishop worried shortages of food will lead to social unrest RDP Antena 1 radio, Lisbon, in Portuguese 1300 gmt 29 Nov 99 Text of report by Portuguese radio on 29th November Presenter Dom Basilio do Nascimento, bishop of Baucau, East Timor, said he thought it was too soon to hold local elections in Timor. Speaking to RDP1's programme for Timor, Dom Basilio said it was necessary to put the house in order first. Nascimento Bearing in mind the conditions in the territory, I think it is too soon. I think it is necessary - many things need to be sorted out first. Firstly in terms of the healing of wounds, secondly in terms of identifying abilities, in terms of training, what I always call the awareness of citizenship duties. It is necessary to have these fundamental aspects controlled and if not controlled at least well publicized so people know what they are doing. Presenter The bishop noted some priorities for the transition to independence, such as to reduce the risk of protests, increase food supplies and improve communications and transport. Nascimento One of them would be to reduce what I call the risk of protest or risk of destabilization. This is fundamentally a question of food. In the last 24 years Indonesia created a mentality of dependency, it gave the Timorese the feeling that it was not necessary to work in order to eat and have money to spend. This is now so deep rooted in the Timorese mentality that it will take some time for attitudes to change. Well, but for leaders, especially for UNTAET UN Transitional Authority for East Timor this is a risk. In a house where there is a shortage of bread, everyone argues Portuguese saying . So if food supplies are not replenished I would say by March - and I say March because that is the time for the first corn harvest - if measures are not taken until then and there are food shortages, then we run the risk of destabilization. Reporter This time social. Nascimento Yes. A second priority for me is to improve communications. Back to November Menu Note: For those who would like to fax "the powers that be" - CallCenter V3.5.8, is a Native 32-bit Voice Telephony software application integrated with fax and data communications... and it's free of charge! Download from http://www.v3inc.com/ |