Change of Plans ....but not strategy
As foreshadowed in the Apr/May newsletter, Connect East Timor (CET) has now had to make a difficult decision to postpone the Pilot Project implementation in Balibo and Lacluta sub-Districts till the middle of 2007. The reason for this is primarily due to the high level of uncertainty in relation to security surrounding the recent troubles in Dili. While the threat level has now reduced, CET has lost the window of opportunity to deploy the Pilot Project in August as originally planned.
BUT…the postponement also brings some advantages:
· It will allow more time to prepare the communities, hopefully in close partnership with their respective friendship groups in Australia. To this end we are in contact with the Balibo friendship group in Kedron, Brisbane, and the Cities of Geelong and Wangaratta in Victoria which have relationships with Viqueque and Lacluta, respectively.
· It will create an opportunity to brief the new Minister for Communications, Dr. Inacio Moreira, as well as the new Prime Minister, Dr José Ramos-Horta, and seek the continued support of the Government of Timor-Leste for our Campaign. Contact has already been initiated.
· We will use the interval for preparation and training of community and government contacts on the Connect East Timor system (see below).
Alan Collier, CET’s Project Manager for the Demonstration and Pilot Projects, is scheduled to visit Timor-Leste from 30 September till 8 October 2006 for briefings to government and the Balibo and Lacluta communities, and to undertake an initial reconnaissance of these sub-Districts for the Pilot Project. Further details will be provided in the near future.
New Priorities in Timor-Leste
During his acceptance speech, Dr José Ramos-Horta clearly signaled his Government’s priorities. (Several people associated with CET were very moved by this speech….if you would like a copy, please contact the Campaign Office.) The following extract is very pertinent to CET.
“This Government is not going to find excuse for inertia. This Government
will try to serve the best interests of the poor. ….The poor and forgotten in the rural areas will be our main focus and we are going to mobilise all our financial and human resources to rapidly revitalise economic activity in those regions, through small projects that will have a rapid impact. We are going to support more the public servants who serve in the Districts, we are going to support the Liurais and the Chefes de Sucos, restoring the dignity and secular moral power of the Liurais, giving them the means to serve the people.”
If CET cannot deliver in this political context it may never reach its goals! CET neatly ‘fits the bill’ of a small project that will have a rapid impact.
Update on Demonstration Project
Advice received earlier this week from David and Margaret Hall, PALMS volunteers in Atabae (see last newsletter), was that all radios are working well. While there was a problem with one of the batteries in the village of Rairobo, this has now been fixed.
They also advised that, apart from an increased population due to people sheltering relatives and friends from Dili, Atabae remained peaceful throughout the crisis.
An extract from a recent report by Jorge Leite might also be of interest; in his words except as shown in [*]: “At Biamarae [an isolated village in Atabae sub-district], someone from Maliana border stole the cow and people at Biamarae need police help. Biamarae called to Atabae police [via the CET village radios] and Atabae police called to Maliana police and [they] arrived in time to arrest the person that stole the cow [sic]” So as well as saving lives, helping government and NGO programs and supporting education and health service delivery, the radios are also ‘doing their bit’ for law and order in Atabae!
Brisbane Training Course: 16- 24 October 2006
Connect East Timor is planning a training course in Brisbane from
16-24 Oct 06 for a representative from each of the following sub-Districts: Atabae, Balibo and Lacluta. These people either are, or will be, the Connect East Timor contacts in their communities and will assist us not only with the implementation of the Pilot Project but also afterwards to support the working systems.
We are also hopeful that someone (our primary contact for the Pilot Project) from the Ministry of Transport and Communications will also attend.
Apart from technical content, an important part of the course program (in fact much of the first two days) will be devoted to issues in development and cross-cultural working. This will be delivered by PALMS Australia (the organization sponsoring the Campaign). The course program will allow for representatives from Australian based friendship communities to participate in these sessions.
If any donor or supporter would like to attend these sessions, please contact the Campaign Office for more information. It would be a great opportunity for some ‘hands on’ cross culture learning and experience!
Date Claimer: Evening of 16 October 2006!!!
Please reserve your diaries for the welcome function we are planning on the first day of the Brisbane training course!
This will be a great opportunity for the CET donors, volunteers and supporters to meet our East Timorese guests attending the course, as well as representatives from PALMS and the Australian friendship communities in Brisbane and hopefully, Victoria as well. Alan Collier is also planning to give a short presentation on his visit to Timor-Leste in his capacity as CET Project Manager.
More details will follow…but please reserve the date now!
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