Student demonstrations against the Statute of UNTL
University student groups developed several protest actions in Díli against the Timor Lorosa’e National University’s statute, approved by the Council of Ministers 10th March last.
The Minister of Education, João Câncio Freitas, states that he was always available to debate the issues contested by the university students: “I was in the University one week before the wave of contests had started. At that time a contesting group came demonstrating straight away and I volunteered to receive them on the following week, on a Wednesday, because on Monday and Tuesday I had to be in the Parliament, at Commission F. Unfortunately they didn’t show up, in the mean time, the President called me. Once again I showed that openness to debate the problem”.
João Câncio Freitas says he was surprised with the fact that the students had carried out their contesting after missing this meeting, where everything could have been cleared. “I believe that, for the university students, this discussion, the debate, is a normal thing. Now, what surprised me a lot was the fact that they didn’t want to debate the problem and suddenly come out with this contesting. I was very astonished with all this”, confesses the Minister.
Still, the responsible for Education considers that, for now, the important thing is to debate the issue and remember that similar situations are happening in other countries: “I keep up with what is happening in Portugal and this debate also exists there, just as in other countries, such as Costa Rica, to give another example. The debate around these two ways of thinking is actually quite common: the previous paradigm versus what is happening now with the Shareholder Theory. The meeting of these two great ways of thinking normally generates conflict, generates contradictions and I see that it is what is happening in Timor-Leste.”
