JakartaPost-July 3
Timor Leste’s first democratically elected head of state, Xanana Gusmao, returned to power on Saturday, eight years after he resigned as prime minister of Southeast Asia’s youngest democracy. The 77-year-old independence icon was credited with unifying the country during his first two stints in office, after the bloody guerrilla fight against Indonesian occupation. Gusmao’s party, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), won May’s election in a landslide, defeating the incumbent coalition led by resistance movement turned political party Fretilin. Gusmao was chosen as premier again after CNRT allied with the Democratic Party to gain a majority in parliament. The son of teachers of Portuguese-Timorese descent, Gusmao grew up in what was then a Portuguese colony. He joined the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin) in 1975, fighting for independence first from Portugal and then Indonesia. Born Jose Alexandre Gusmao, he adopted the code name Xanana, reportedly in connection with a popular doo-wop song. He quickly rose through the ranks of the resistance and became leader of Fretilin’s military wing, Falintil, in 1981, spending much of his life in the jungle with fellow fighters. When he was captured by Indonesian forces in 1992, he continued to lead the struggle from jail in Jakarta. After Timor-Leste voted for independence in a UN-backed referendum in 1999, Indonesian authorities released Gusmao from jail and he returned to his homeland revered as a national hero. In 2002, Gusmao became the country’s first post-independence president and worked to unify the country. Following his five-year term as president, he became prime minister in 2007 followed by a second term in 2012. Read more at:
