Q&A with Jose Belo

Interviewed by Kristian Lewis

Can you tell me briefly about yourself and the newspaper Tempo Semanal?

My background is that I’m coming from a poor family, living in the rural area of Bacau. I was participating in the struggle, I was part of the clandestine movement and resistance army. I’ve been in jail several times and tortured by the Indonesians, and after independence I decided to become a journalist. After independence, the Timorese were fighting each other over political issues as they have no common enemy anymore.

In January 1997 I decided to become a journalist because of three main factors. 1; Because being a journalist is the voice of the voiceless, 2; to tell the truth about what was going on and 3; to be the bridge between the differences of the leaders and Timorese.

In regards to the newspaper, I became a journalist in 2000, started working with the APTN [Associated Press Television Network], then worked for the ABC, SBS and Channel 7 as their stringer on the ground. In 2005, I established a daily newspaper which died, and after the 2006 crisis, I established another weekly newspaper [Tempo Semanal], which a lot of people don’t like, because we always cover the harder stories, focusing on the injustice, human rights abuses, corruption, collusion, nepotism, mismanagement and misconduct of the leaders of the country.

Can you tell us about some of the recent controversial stories? I understand that you covered some large ones last year?

The most challenging story was on the Minister of Justice’s involvement in handing out projects to her friends and family and the fraud involved. We discovered evidence that involved the Minister herself, including several companies. At this point the Minister was trying to have me put back in jail. She failed and now the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Prosecutor General are investigating her. Very soon a court case on these allegations against the Minister will happen.

Covering stories like that about the Minister of Justice must put you under a lot of pressure?

It’s nice for a journalist when people challenge your stories, and when you do it’s a good story and the readers like it. Whenever you get a text message, a phone call threatening you, or the car is stoned and hit, it’s enjoyable. A challenge that is serious for my life.

Have you had death threats?

Many times, but it’s all right, it’s all right. People haven’t touched me, but I have been called by people saying that “your head will be off from your body,” “your stomach will be pulled out,” and I say “just do it, I’m here” and ask them to “come over to my house, you know my number or just come to my office.”

Apart from the Justice Minister story, what are some other burning issues that Tempo Semenal is covering?

Not only one Minister, but most of the Ministers, even including the President, Prime Minister and the Head of the Opposition. Another recent story was last week’s edition on the injustice that is being created by our parliament. They produced a law that is in their own favour.

Can you explain this law?

It is called the pension law for the ministers, the parliamentarians and for the President and Prime Minister.

Not for the people?

No, not for the people, and that’s what I am now struggling for and I am going to be burning on this issue, again and again until they produce an amendment over the law, or they have to kill me.

For a salary increase for ministers?

Not just for salary, also for repainting the house, paying an adviser, paying a cleaner. Those that have given themselves for this country for independence, their family is still living in misery, they don’t have meals. I just visited the family of a hero of mine named Nino Konis Santana, who died in 1998. His mother is living in misery, neglected by this country; is this what we fight for? I’m not fighting for this. I give myself for this bloody country for justice and the people need to have better living conditions, but not like that. I get a good salary, a month I get up to $1,500, but I can’t feed my kids because I have to deliver it to other people.

International donors say that $8 billion is spent here – where does the money go, tell me? The government spends billions and billions of dollars, but people are still poor, unemployment has increased. The money goes into a small pocket of people; we are creating a kingdom in this country. It is an elite group that enjoys independence, not all the people.

So the people who left when the going got hard are now reaping the benefits, and those who fought for their country are dying from starvation?

This is a dangerous situation for this country, as we are talking about the establishment of this country. It is mainly three factors here; injustice, the poor and unemployment. It’s not going to get any external threat from the defence force, no, but these poor people will be used by these political parties for their benefit. And now I’m campaigning not to vote for the 2012 election, because we vote for these people who go sit in the parliament, who are going to produce a law for themselves, not you or I.

I want to talk about another influential country in Timor, that is China and its economic influence. Would you like to talk about this influence?

I have raised this with the Australian authorities here, and I say that Australia and the Americans have lost the battle, the diplomacy battle in this country.

To China?

To China. They [AusAID] spend huge amounts of money, but the policy they adopt is wrong, Australia’s policy is wrong.

Why is this?

They are focusing more on human rights, on democracy, justice, which the people can’t see. The Australian aid supports the corruption, trying to fight the corruption but giving money to the corruptors. The Australians lost the opportunity to help.

What do you feel that China wants in return for donating all of these buildings, even if they aren’t the best quality?

I think, what the authorities here say is that the Chinese give this with no conditions, but there are assumptions. For me and for the public, there are some suspicions over this issue, which is that if the Chinese gives you something it is not given for free. As WikiLeaks said, there is some stuff that they’re interested in and as I told the Australian Ambassador, the Australian authorities here, that I’m a little bit disappointed with them, which is makes me sad. With the big money they can’t help us with the road conditions, it’s only spent making rich some of the Australians who come here as advisers. They should put this money in the infrastructure, such as the schools, where the students still sit on the ground. They should help us distribute this Australian aid.

It does sound like you do have a few problems with the Australian government after all, maybe?

No, I don’t have any problem, I’m giving a suggestion as somebody who likes Australian taxpayer money to be spent properly for this country.

So what you’re saying is that while Australia has been generous, the money is misdirected?

That’s right, the Australians very generous, the Australian ordinary people have [thumps his chest] here. The Australian ordinary people are the ones who stand side by side with me.

What is the feeling of the average Timorese towards Australia today?

Confused, because of these officers, who issue the Australian taxpayer money. We like the Australian ordinary people, but the policy on the top is wrong.

Back to the Chinese issue, a lot of Chinese businesses are opening up, and it appears from when I’ve talked to the locals that it’s very tough to compete and it’s often from Chinese illegal aliens here in Timor.

That will be another crisis. A crisis which is going to be competition between the locals and the Chinese. It’s a time bomb. The locals feel that the Chinese are robbing them, and these are the Chinese from the mainland. I feel like we are re-occupied.

A Chinese economic invasion perhaps?

Yeah, it’s not only economic invasion, it’s a real invasion of the Chinese people on the ground. I feel the World Bank, the donations they call CEP, Community Empowerment Project, which happen in this country in 2000 spent billions of dollars, millions and millions of dollars to strengthen the local economy. The money, it’s thrown in by the European Union, the Americans, Australians, and Japan, and has failed to empower the local economy.

Another burning issue relates to the upcoming elections. Who do you think will likely win and what do you think will be the repercussions?

We are dividing into 23 parties, but the winner, it’s very, very hard to get one of the parties to get a majority vote in the Parliament. But the two strongest parties are Fretilin and CNRT. Then Fretilin is always claiming that they are a very strong party, they are going to win majority, but if you look at their recent elections they announced, they are losing another three seats in the Parliament at this stage. Because the polls that just came out now said that 170,000 political supporters to the party, which means that 17-18 seats, when in 2007 they got 21 seats.

What is the total?

The total is 65 seats, so CNRT is now going to be very strong party with Xanana [Gusmao, CNRT leader and Prime Minister] doing more, more, more delivery, even though there is still some corruption, collusion, nepotism issues which are going to be used by the opposition against him.

So Xanana will get re-elected?

At the moment, people believe that Xanana is going to be re-elected as the Prime Minister again, but Xanana has to find another party to…

Form a coalition?

But Xanana already indicated at the last meeting in May, Xanana said he doesn’t want to run the Government with another party.

Would he form a coalition with Fretilin [leading party during the independence struggle, now main rival to CNRT]?

Possible, Xanana is Fretilin, Fretilin is Xanana. Why I say “Xanana is Fretilin, Fretilin is Xanana” is because Xanana is the one who kept Fretilin alive in 1981.

You still see a lot of Fretilin flags and t-shirts everywhere.

Nah, you can see flags all over, but I can put up flags, Indonesian flag outside of my house in the past, just to tell Indonesia that I’m Indonesian, but my heart is not Indonesian. That’s the motto of the people here.

So they can still be nationalistic, but not support Fretilin?

Not Fretilin. Some of my relatives say, my family discussions, and these young people, they are very pro-Xanana. They were trying to go around to the old woman to petition with them, “oh we were the one, vote for this party CNRT.” After the elections we didn’t get this money but these old ladies and old men who vote for the Fretilin got the money. “So now lets all go to the Fretilin.” And the old people say to them “well, I think we never get this money before, and we should vote again for this Xanana party. Maybe after we vote for them if Xanana win, we might increase in payment in pension for the elderly could be increased.” It’s a joke, but its real.

Two nights ago, someone called me up, “if you write about this story aren’t you afraid that you could be killed by this people?”

I said to them, “my conscience is stronger than a atomic bomb.”

Your conscience is stronger than an atomic bomb?

You can’t destroy my conscience, you can destroy my head, you can kill my body, but you can’t kill my conscience.

Kristian Lewis recently completed a Bachelor of International Relations with Honours at Deakin University and is the ACCESS Events Coordinator.

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