Timor-Leste Scraps plans to buy free MPS cars after demonstrations

Timor-Leste canceled a plan to give its legislators free cars after thousands of people left the street to protest against it.

Tuesday, demonstrators burned tires and laid a government vehicle, while the police responded with tear gas – a few hours later, the government bowed against public pressure and abandoned the plan.

Despite this, many returned to the street, a demonstrator saying to the BBC that they estimated on Wednesday around 2,000 demonstrators in the capital Dili.

Although the demonstrations were initially triggered by cars, they have now extended to cover calls to remove life pensions for retired legislators.

The troubles are involved while the governments of Asia, from Nepal to Indonesia, were shaken by young angry demonstrators who target the perceived excesses of the legislators.

A student who chose not to be identified told the BBC that she had been struck by tear gas when she was in front of her university campus.

She says she is angry with the legislators to “(want) buying luxury cars to work while their people still suffer.”

Timor-Leste legislators have an annual basic salary of $ 36,000 (£ 26,377) from 2023, according to the Inter-Parle Union.

This represents more than 10 times that of the country’s average income, that a government report in 2021 is estimated at around $ 3,000.

The purchasing plan for legislative cars is not new – and in fact, there have been regular demonstrations against free cars provided to legislators since the 2000s, said CESAR.

In 2008, police arrested several students for protesting a plan to spend $ 1 million (£ 730,000) on new cars for deputies.

But it is only now that the movement has really taken off – while the country continues to fight against inequalities and high unemployment.

“We started this demonstration … when they decided to buy the cars,” said Cesar.

But the demonstrations this week exploded because “people are tired of things,” he added

“People do not have access to good education, water and sanitation … We have a lack of facilities, but they still create as many laws to benefit themselves,” said Cezario Cesar, one of the key figures leading the demonstrations to the BBC.

“We think it’s an injustice.”

The 30 -year -old university student added that legislators already had cars provided by the government – but it was planned to buy new cars to them, despite their existing cars “always (being) in good condition”.

Later Tuesday, parliamentarians voted unanimously to remove the purchase plan of new Toyota Prado SUVs for each of the 65 deputies in the country.

However, the demonstrations continued on Wednesday, with a certain skeptical as to politics.

“Rumors are that cars are already on the way,” Trinito Gaio, 42, told AFP.

“This is why all these students and I are here today, to make sure that my tax money is not going in … bad direction.”

The demonstrators also seek to reform a law that promises the old life pensions of deputies.

Timor-Leste has one of the youngest populations in Southeast Asia, with more than 70% of its population under the age of 35, according to the UN.

He is also one of the poorest states in the region – although he is often greeted as a lighthouse of democracy among his neighbors.

Fidelis Leite Magalhães, former Minister and President of the Timor-Leste Politics and International Affairs Institute, told the BBC that “people are used to the idea that demonstrations were part of a democratic system”.

“Life is normal in Dili,” he told the BBC on Wednesday. “This is one of the greatest demonstrations, but protests no longer lead to panic in society.”

This occurs while the neighboring countries of Asia have seen similar demonstrations against the government.

In Nepal, dozens were killed in large -scale demonstrations last week, while young people of the Z generation went down to the street to protest against the “Nepo babies” and the broader political elite. The troubles led the country’s leaders in just 48 hours.

In August, problems of cost of living and an anger similar to the elites also led to mass demonstrations in Indonesia, which increased sharply after a cyclist killed by a police vehicle.

Additional Gavin Butler reports