This work focuses on developments in the economy and foreign policy of Timor-Leste since its independence. The authors provide an overview of the country's national economic policies and initiatives and their outcomes while valorising its partnerships with the United Nations and key donor nations.
The title of the book might be misleading, however, since the analysis lacks context, particularly on the dynamic nature of internal relations and their impact on the economic development and foreign policies of Timor-Leste. Furthermore, the country's relations with ‘donor nations’ and the UN are not critically assessed, but instead rather lauded. Yet, although these inherently asymmetric power relations between Timor Leste and its ‘well-meaning big brothers’ have received more critical analysis in recent writings (e.g. Caroline Hughes, Dependent communities: Aid and politics in Cambodia and East Timor, 2009; and my Timor Leste: Politics, history, and culture, 2010) one of the author's arguments seems to imply that the successes of Southeast Asia's newest nation are the result of foreign engineering and ‘tutorship’; and thus to minimise the achievements of the people of Timor-Leste themselves. The book also does not make any mention of the numerous civil society and local NGO initiatives that are not only impacting but in some cases driving rural development. Even the challenges faced by Timor-Leste are presented in a muted manner; again lacking a nuanced analysis and thus predicting a rosy picture for the immediate future. To be fair, the authors' arguments are in line with the main goal of the book, which is to showcase Timor-Leste as an exemplary success story to other small nations.
The people of Timor-Leste should be proud of all their achievements in developing and transforming their nation through their commitment to a peaceful post-conflict reconstruction. These successes were not entirely achieved through the direction of their foreign advisers, donor nations, and the United Nations, but through their own sacrifices, hard work and commitment. Here again, the book does not seem to give enough credit to the Timorese.
The book is divided into an introduction and nine main chapters. The chapters address key issues through the dominant discourses of the United Nations. Such UN discourses are thus transplanted into Timor-Leste and national policies seem to coalesce around these. The introductory chapter provides a summary of the economic developments and foreign policies of Timor-Leste since its independence up to 2012. The subsequent chapters provide an elaboration of this overview.
Chapter 1 examines the economic history of the country, providing narrative explanations of the statistical data compiled by the UN showing a steady post-independence growth and developments in a number of economic sectors. The second chapter addresses Timor-Leste's framework for development and the ways it is in line with the UN's Millennial Development Goals (MDG). Through an examination of national policies for sustained economic growth, the authors highlight the establishment of the Petroleum Fund, and policies concerning land reform and capital development, as well as initiatives on business reforms and export promotions. Timor-Leste's policies on food security, anti-corruption, and the protection of vulnerable populations have made great strides towards the MDG.
After a brief overview of the history of oil and gas exploration and related treaties, the following chapter is devoted to the consideration of the Natural Resources Endowment and the ways in which Timor-Leste has utilised the receipts from its oil and gas resources towards economic development. The discussion of the Petroleum Fund Law, and its revisions and amendments that allow for increased withdrawals to fund increased state appropriations budgets towards the government's capital investments, receive extensive consideration.
Chapter 4 focuses on the economic development of the agricultural sector and the government's achievements towards food security. Chapter 5 examines the policies and achievements of the Timor-Leste government concerning women, children, and youth through the lenses of health, mortality, victim's support, education, and peace-building programmes.
The following chapter explores Timor-Leste's stance on climate change and its attempts to mitigate and adapt to this challenge. While actual data is virtually nonexistent for Timor-Leste, the authors attribute certain patterns of droughts and torrential rains to changing climate and interestingly not to the effects of the fairly regular cycles of El Nino and La Nina. However, Timor-Leste, under the UN's tutorship, is trying to respond to climate change issues by engaging with international agreements and conferences. At the community level, the Timorese are implementing customary laws on the protection of certain kinds of natural resources. Land management has also been improved. The government is also encouraging citizens to turn to ‘green’ energy, such as photovoltaic cells, which, however, are not yet feasible for common use throughout the nation. Chapter 7 focuses on Timor-Leste's policies and achievements towards the implementation of the MDG. Chapter 8 addresses Timor-Leste's foreign policies and partnerships with foreign nations. The chapter emphasises relations with the United Nations, the ‘donor nations’, the Lusophone nations, Indonesia, and Australia — while not paying attention to relations with Cuba, the country that rebuilt the country's medical system and trained its medical professionals. The authors also note the slow progress toward the admittance of Timor-Leste to ASEAN while highlighting the ASEAN nations, like Indonesia, that are supportive of Timor-Leste's membership. The chapter does not address the dynamics of the tense relations with Australia nor which ASEAN nations have been less than enthusiastic about Timor-Leste's membership, like Malaysia. Timor-Leste's oil and gas resources and policies that are a driving force behind its relations with some nations, especially Australia, ASEAN and Asian donor countries, are also not considered to any substantial degree.
Chapter 9 emphasises Timor-Leste's successes and expresses optimism for the realisation of goals set for 2030 by Timor-Leste's Strategic Development Plan through the investment of petroleum revenues and the eradication of the low-productive subsistence farming economy in which the majority of the population is currently engaged in. While some challenges are mentioned, there is no discussion of the enormous societal and cultural changes that would also have to take place in a mere 15 years.
This volume is a good general reference on Timor-Leste and will be useful to political economists. The tone and nature of the work, however, loses the diachronic context for and complex dynamics of the political economy developments described and indeed would have benefited from a more nuanced analysis.
