Comrades,
Took me a while to catch up with this, as news travels slowly from the north, but me ol' mate Mari Alkatiri has been sworn in as the Prime Minister of East Timor at the age of 67, for the next four years.
Having closely followed affairs in the country since Balibo, I was surprised to find myself dining in the same Portuguese restaurant in Dili as the dude back in 2012.
His entourage even then had to be seen to be believed - heavily armed goons in suits, lots of hangers-on, press, attractive women, even a weird westerner groupie who was not admitted - the experience was odd, strange, and a little edgy with more than a few shooters stuffed in socks ready to go...Alkatiri's charisma filled the room, and you certainly got the impression he's a man who's not to be messed with under any circumstances.
It's been 11 years since Alkatiri was last Prime Minister, running the shop right after independence through '02-'06, after making a name for himself as one of the original, best & fiercest freedom fighters there was for FALINTIL, the military wing of FRETILIN, as well as being a first class political cadre, eventually forming an East Timorese Govt. in exile in '76 at the age of 26.
But he's always been looking over his shouklder and has never had a lot of friends - when negotiations fail, he prefers to let his .44 do the talkin'.
He also just happens to be a Muslim, in a country that is 97% Roman Catholic.
Alkatiri had a falling out with Xanana Gusmão over direction and policy, and was effectively banished to the outer provinces, being last appointed as the President of the enclave of Oceussi.
But he was not happy with that, not happy at all; it's a long way from Dili.
Gusmão eventually gave up on domestic politics and took on the leading role in re-negotiating the Timor Gap Treaty that Gareth Evans shamefully signed with Ali Alitas back in '89 [while he's done some fine work at the UN on nuclear disarmament since, Gareth will never live that one down]...it went all the way to the International Court of Farkin' Justice and back and forth over the decades, and was only settled out of court in the last fortnight at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Copenhagen, on pretty good, although confidential, terms, amid much jubilation among the population of Timor Leste.
So, after almost 30 years, the proceeds of the rivers of fossil fuels in the Timor Sea, that were theirs in the first place, finally flow into the Timor Leste Govt. coffers, as they should, by right and by law.
Even though the arse has now fallen out of the oil and gas markets, they're still worth in the vicinity of $US60 billion.
If he hadn't long before now, Gusmão, at age 71, goes down in Timorese history as their greatest ever hero and now elder statesman.
The first thing Alkatiri promised to do on assuming office, was to "bring the people out of poverty".
Good luck with that Mari, but at least he now has half a chance with the new cash - and he'll need it.
The Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor [FRETILIN], against the odds, won the last general election, and formed a minority Govt. with the small Democratic Party - not enough to govern outright - but it keeps Gusmão's splinter group, the National Congress for East Timorese Reconstruction [CNRT] in effective opposition, so the popularly-elected President Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres, also of FRETILIN, on being offered with no alternatives other than the Party's long-serving Secretary-General, had no choice but to give Alkatiri the nod, and he was in.
And so it goes, elected unopposed.
The revolution in Timor, it seems, turns full circle.
Lirio Da Fonseca/Reuters
And the Miracle of Democracy has also been getting a good work-out across 'The Ditch', with Our Cuz in NZ being gripped by "Jacindamania" with the General Election slated for this weekend.
Since her recent ascendancy to the leadership of the Labour Party, Jacinda Arden has taken the Pinko's from being a lost, hopeless cause to a damn good chance of winning, with the latest opinion polls putting her 44%/40% ahead of Bill "Boring as Bat Shit" English on a two-party preferred basis.
That Mad Maori, Winston Peters, was widely expected to hold the balance of power, but his New Zealand First Party's poll numbers are falling like a lead balloon, as the electorate seems to have become more polarised.
Jacinda is the perfect candidate really, a North Island country cop's daughter who worked in a chippie to put herself through University, then landed her first job in Helen Clark's office - she doesn't talk like a politician, espouses populist agrarian socialist views, and, the meeja love her because, let's face it, she is 'photogenic'.
However, the NZ way of doing democratic things is a very curious one, with a set of "reserved seats", mainly for Maori, that are determined by "party lists", and "constituent" seats, that are decided on a first past the post basis on the popular vote in electorates.
Without an Upper House, the "MMP" is over complicated, and there is a significant push for change.
I did note that Arden was ambushed on the campaign trail mid-week while meeting and greeting voters in New Plymouth by a hundred or so folk dressed as pirates.
Long John Silver accosted the Opposition Leader and reportedly presented her with a a "piñata briefcase" and asked "Now you've promised something for everyone, what are you going to give us pirates? The lootin' and pillagin' industry is not what it used to be, you know. Profit margins are really being squeezed out here on the coast in the current climate."
Craig McCulloch/Radio NZ
And if that is not enough, Icelandic politics has imploded once again, over a paedophile scandal of all things.
Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson has resigned and called for a fresh election, only nine months since the last poll, on account of his father had written a character reference for a mate of his, who happened to be a child sex offender who did time and was trying to get his criminal record expunged under a quirk of Icelandic law.
The perceived sins of the father are visited upon the son.
Given that Bjanari is from the Bright Future Party and was ruling in a very shaky coalition, now is the perfect time for Iceland's anarcho-socialist Pirate Party, who already have ten seats in the 63 seat Althing, to campaign for a working majority and make Reykjavik the capital of a Brave New Uptopian World, like they promise they will.
You can only hope.
Stranger things have happened.
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