Metinaro received the NSDP Consultation

Fri. 17 of September of 2010, 11:04h
Metinaro_PORTAL

The Prime Minister’s consultation on the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP), continued on September 6th, 2010, in the Metinaro sub-district, Díli district.

Adão Araújo, Metinaro sub-district Administrator, put his sub-district into a geographic context: to the South it is surrounded by the Remexio sub-district, Liurai Suco, to the North by the Ataúro sub-district, to the East by Lacló, Uma Kaduak Suco and to the West by Hera, from the Cristo Rei sub-district. Metinaro has only 2 Sucos: Duyung and Sabuli.

The concerns presented by the Administrator were related with housing for veterans, widows, orphans and people with a disability, the connection between villages, bridges, electricity in the villages; drinking water and their support networks; the Youth Training Centre; administrative headquarters at the villages; the increase of the number of health professionals and their accommodation; the ambulances; the increase of the number of teachers and their accommodation; the PNTL building; the Fishermans’ Centre; the increase of the number of civil servants; the opening of small industries and the reconstruction of touristic sites.

The Sabuli Suco Chief, Matias Agapito Oliveira, by reinforcing the above mentioned concerns, highlighted the population’s expectations concerning the NSDP.

Faced with these concerns, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão reminded that in September 4th, 1999, Kofi Annan as the UN Secretary-General, announced the Popular Consultation result, and while 11 years have past, there is still restlessness due to minimum conditions and thus it is necessary to resort to reflection.

Regarding the Suco Chief’s concern about the possibility of fulfilling this plan, the Prime–Minister made another reflection: “in 1975, when the indonesians invaded the territory, they came with assault vehicles, airplanes, helicopters, mortars and canons. The elders witnessed our fight with Mauser and G3 weapons, while the enemy invaded Díli with War boats, shaking our mountains. Yet we still defended the possibility of realizing the plan for the independence of our country.

“We kept our self-confidence, lived in poor conditions, were targets for enemy bullets and now that we are at a moment of independence, it is up to us to reflect that, in our past resistance history, we never lost the hope to reorganize the fight for independence and no one took responsibility for the suffering for independence, yes ... it was suffering”, said the former resistance commander.

“Today we witness, in our deliberations, about what was given to us by independence. In this Era of independence something has evolved. Yes, very slowly, the recovery attempts prevail , the State continues to move forward and we were able to complete eight stages, on the way to the ninth but not all is properly developed”, reflected the Prime Minister.

“Eight years past, on the way to a ninth, what have the timorese accomplished for themselves? Let’s reflect, it is important so that we don’t go back. Just as in 1978-1979, we experienced the destruction of our support bases, we resorted to a reflexion on the origin of our defeat, why our bases were destroyed by the enemy, we tried to find, in our own experiences, our weak points and the enemy’s strong points, reinitiating the strategies with recovery and correction measures”, reminded Xanana Gusmão.

The Prime Minister referred that “two years ago, a lot of money was spent trying to find a solution for the 2006 crisis, so I ask everyone to eradicate the temptation of implementing this 2 year cycle. We completed the 10th anniversary of the Popular Consultation, and we said Goodbye Conflict, Welcome Development as something necessary to change our mentalities for the benefit of development”.

Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão was accompanied by the President of the National Parliament, Fernando La Sama de Araújo, the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Timor-Leste, Sukehiro Hasegawa, the Minister of Infrastructures, Pedro Lay, the Secretaries of State of Culture, Virgílio Smith, for Agriculture and Arboriculture, Marcos da Cruz, representatives of relative institutions, the District administrative structure and the Díli district Police Superintendent, Pedro Belo.

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