10 April 2010

Fretilin considers friction in coalition government is motivated by money

Diario Nacional April 9, 2010 language source: Tetun - MP Antoninho Bianco from Fretilin has said that the issue of loyalty to Prime Minister Gusmao which surfaced in the political domain in Timor-Leste recently is motivated by unequal distribution of the money of the people by parties making up the coalition of the Parliamentary Majority Alliance (AMP) led by Prime Minister Gusmao.

"AMP is now fighting each other and does not want to listen to the Prime Minister because their main interest is merely money and they don’t have any interest at all in the common interest of the people and therefore it is obvious that some ministers decide to have their own programs without listening to their Prime Minister because they want to have money for their programs that goes into their own pockets,” said Bianco.

MP Lucas da Costa from the Democratic Party recently said that some ministers are not loyal to Prime Minister Gusmao following the blowup of the news involving the friction between the office of Prime Minister and Minister Zacarias Albano da Costa.

Minister Da Costa has replied to the statement saying that it is PD that is not loyal to Prime Minister Gusmao.

Bianco added, “The consequence of the friction within the AMP is that some ministers tend to focus on their parties with their programs and therefore it is hard for the Prime Minister to guide.”

He also said that Prime Minister Gusmao is afraid of taking actions against these ministers because of the risk of making the coalition fall apart.

The coalition of the government is made up by five political parties: CNRT, PD, PSD, ASDT, and UNDERTIM.

MP Aderito Hugo da Costa from CNRT, the spokesperson for the coalition, said that the position of ministers is political and therefore if any minister does not want to work with the Prime Minister the door is open for him or her to resign.

He also added that the coalition should work together as a team and therefore the team should not play with short message service (SMS).

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