The Lost Boy

Are governments supposed to say this kind of stuff?

This from a government statement on "Ricegate":

In regards to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports regarding rice, rice and more rice, boiled, baked and fried Fretilin style, the Spokesperson of the IV Constitutional Government, and the Secretary of State for the Council of Ministers, Ágio Pereira said, "While the continued campaign ad nauseum is becoming domestic fodder, Arsenio Bano is still repeating this propaganda.”

There is a peculiar media war going on between the government and the opposition FRETILIN party. It's like watching a couple of children squabble over who has the best lunch box. Here's another from the government:

The Secretary of State for the Council of Ministers and Official Spokesman for the Fourth Constitutional Government bemused by the statement said “In Australia there is a word called ‘porkies’ which means a distortion of the truth.

Fretilin leaders seem to enjoy telling ‘porkies’”.

This must surely be the first time the word "porkies" has been used in a government statement.

The problem with this back-and-firth is that it doesn't really address the issues at hand. FRETILIN digs up whatever it can and the government goes on the defensive and starts harking on about how corrupt FRETILIN was back in the day, which does little to address current concerns. Any valid points the statements might make are undermined in the first couple of paragraphs. I have to wonder who is writing these statements.

Are the people of Timor-Leste supposed to accept that this government is corrupt because the last was? How reassuring is that for the man on the street? This media war is amusing to watch, but it solves nothing.

FRETILIN has been better at using the English-language media to its advantage in recent months. The government's attempt to deal with this is to come out with these odd statements. Where will it end? Hopefully the toys will not be thrown out of the pram.