The government of Timor-Leste continues to launch daggers at all things Woodside over development of Greater Sunrise. This from a government press release:

In grandiose platforming at the UBS Resources Conference, CEO of Woodside Don Voelte amusingly attempted to convince a crowd that the Greater Sunrise project was progressing.

"It’s time for this project’s day is in the sun," said Voelte in a meager attempt to provide folly to an untenable position while providing weak and misguided justification for a field that will not be developed under the auspices outlined in the fifteen page speech; a plan flatly rejected by Timorese regulators for non-compliance.

I don't think that's actually what Voelte said, not unless he was drunk, but you get the point. This is the most important bit, I think:

What Voelte failed to share with his audience: the commercial reality is if the development plan is not approved by 2013 or if Sunrise LNG production has not started by 2017, the CMATS treaty can be cancelled and Sunrise activity suspended until a new treaty can be negotiated between Australia and Timor-Leste.

The government is obviously in no rush to go ahead with Greater Sunrise. The comical events of the past few weeks only confirm this.

When government ministers get caught up in "scandal", few foreigners jump to their defense. With finance minister Emilia Pires, however, it's been a different story. As you may recall from my last post, Pires has been in the firing line for some comments she made in a private email four years ago. The Timor Post last week ran a front page story about some students who had made banners and were calling for the finance minster to go back to Australia.

The situation had become somewhat farcical, but Pat Walsh came to her defense recently:

I simply want to say that I have worked with Emilia Pires in the service of Timor-Leste for some 30 years and I can guarantee she is not a traitor. On the contrary, she is and remains an exceptional Timorese woman and patriot who has contributed significantly to the independence of this country.

From the time of their arrival in Melbourne in the late 1970s everyone in the Pires family including Emilia, her parents and siblings, worked hard for Timor-Leste at many levels engaging tirelessly in community organising, information dissemination, cultural promotion and political campaigning in and outside Australia. This much admired family has very obviously continued this commitment in Timor post-independence.

Emailgate, as I've called it, is really a storm in a teacup. It's an attempt to damage the character of one of key members of the government, and it's a timely attempt given the current nationalist sentiment, which those students were evidently caught up in.

The debate over the Greater Sunrise gas fields is creating a wave of nationalist sentiment in Timor-Leste. Flicking through the local papers, an us-versus-them attitude is becoming increasingly popular.

Speaking last month at the Timor-Leste Development Partners Meeting, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao had some harsh words for, well, pretty much everybody.

The various centuries of colonial occupation were filled with struggles for independence promoted by the different kingdoms. The last one was the Manufahi rebellion, in 1912.

Still reeling from the consequences of war, we had the Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945. Although short-lived, this occupation covered the entire country and caused great suffering to the Timorese, including the deaths of around 60,000 people.

According to reliable opinions, this suffering could have been prevented if the Australian forces had not come to Timor-Leste in order to wage war here, so as to prevent the Japanese from invading Australia.

According to historians and researchers, the United States of America, England, Australia and New Zealand met in Washington D.C. in 1963 and secretly agreed to Timor-Leste’s integration into Indonesia as the best solution for world peace. This was the time of the anti-colonial wars, and we got see the result of this agreement in 1975!

In this infamous year, Timor-Leste suffered another brutal invasion, this time by Indonesia, with the green light from the United States of America, which recommended to President Suharto that it be finished quickly. This military occupation and the resulting war would not have lasted 24 years if the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany had not provided Indonesia with weapons, tanks, fighters and training, so as to annihilate the resistance of our small guerrilla army.

Adding insult to injury, after recognizing the integration – the only Western country to do so – Australia signed an agreement with Indonesia, in 1989, to share the wealth of the Timor Sea. Meanwhile, around 200 thousand Timorese died trying to protect their rights during the 24 years of war.

The conflicts in our past were not between kingdoms and ethnicities, but instead between the Timorese and all those who came from the other side of the sea, the foreigners.

He said all that to a room full of international donors. It raised a lot of eyebrows, but it seemed to signal the beginning of Xanana trying to drum up the support of the people. That same day, Gusmao also unveiled the summary of his 20-year National Strategic Development Plan. All 300 pages of the full report are available on the L’ao Hamutuk website.

The full Strategic Development Plan makes seemingly wild promises of development and prosperity without sufficient data in terms of how they will be achieved. L’ao Hamutuk noted this on its website.

Unfortunately, the content is not as impressive as the appearance. The Summary presents an "inspirational outlook" of a prosperous Timor-Leste in 20 years, with no illiteracy, water supply infrastructure, primary health care and secondary education for all, national wireless broadband, and no poverty. But the draft plan itself, which is often inconsistent with the Summary, gives scant specifics about how Timor-Leste will achieve this inspiring vision.

The report is written in terrible English, but it seems to reflect Xanana’s attempt to rally support in the leadup to legislative elections in 2012, or else legislative elections this year, depending on who you talk to.

Underlining this is the Xanana roadshow, which the prime minister is taking to every sub-district in the country. This from a government media release:

The objective of this visit is to start the public consultation process on the National Strategic Development Plan that is being prepared by the Government, a medium to long-term plan covering the 2011 to 2030 period.

In the words of the Prime Minister: “We will cover all Timor-Leste to let the people know that we are committed in making their dreams come true, expressed in Vision 2020”.

Making their dreams come true. That’s what he’s promising. L’ao Hamutuk is currently breaking down some of the most important parts of the Strategic Development Plan.

Xanana is presenting himself as the man who can lead the people of Timor-Leste into the future and all this is happening while the Greater Sunrise debacle is being used to drum up nationalistic feelings. The government is firm in its position that the gas must be piped to Timor-Leste, despite Woodside saying the option doesn't make economic sense.

The subsequent anti-Australian attitude gave the opposition Fretilin party the perfect opportunity to launch an attack on the finance minister, Emilia Pires, for an email she sent in 2006 in which she said she would rather see Timor-Leste integrated into Australia than be led by then-Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

So now I see this current situation as a blessing in disguise to rectify the evils which we allowed to happen….. your warnings are not bad to ensure whoever comes next is aware of it,…… but my fear is that people will start blaming everyone else and not look deep into our home where the roots of the problems lie…… until these are acknowledged and addressed with honesty and humbleness…. East Timor will never have a peaceful future…… so if we are going to leave it in the hands of people like Mari….. I can tell you right now…. I would support integration with Australia…. at least the management of the country will be under some really managers and the ausies will know how to enusure our people gets their 3 feedings a day and some decent housing…. and I am sure some good roads, good telephone communications, will know how to read and write, etc… etc…. the price to pay is that you no longer call yourself East Timorese…..

Pires is now in a tight spot because of everything else that has been going on. If people start to see her as pro-Australian, it could be very damaging. This isn’t the first time the opposition has gone after the finance minister. Last year, she was accused of giving well-paid jobs to her friends.

While she may not be adept at using fullstops, it seems a little unfair to label her now as an anti-nationalist or pro-integrationalist. The emails were sent in 2006 amid mounting problems at a time when, clearly, she was very much anti-Alkatiri.

I’m curious how these emails were leaked in the first place.

Also of interest at the moment is the relationship between President Jose Ramos-Horta and the government. Ramos-Horta held a meeting with Woodside executives and Joint Venture Partners last week, which apparently outraged the government so much that State Secretary for Natural Resource Alfredo Pires has been banned from sharing results of a Sunrise feasibility study with the president.

Ramos-Horta had been sitting on the fence and pushing for negotiations between Australia and Timor-Leste. He has reportedly given up on the matter now.

We'll see what next week brings.

As you may have read, the debate over the Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields is heating up, fueled in no small part by the Australian media. The situation is becoming increasingly odd. Woodside execs were here recently and they met with President Jose Ramos-Horta, who is of course trying to solve everything.

STL reported this yesterday:

The Parliamentary Majority Alliance (AMP) is dissatisfied with President Jose Ramos-Horta’s attitude in welcoming Woodside Company's delegation recently and suspects Horta of causing uncertainty. Therefore, the AMP coalition has forbid State Secretary for Natural Resource Alfredo Pires from publicizing the feasibility study’s findings on the Greater Sunrise’s gas and oil field.

That's the study that everyone, including Ramos-Horta, is criticizing the government for not bringing to the table. This only serves to make thing worse.

From Radio Timor-Leste:

President Jose Ramos Horta has said that political leaders of the coalition and opposition parties have agreed to postpone elections for municipality systems to 2012.

President Horta made the comment yesterday after he held a meeting with political leaders at Hotel Timor discussing about the government's plan to implement municipality systems in the country this year.

President Horta added that there was lack of infrastructure and human resources that could support the government to implement municipality systems in the 13 districts.