Xanana’s road to integrate Timor-Leste into Asean will be bumpy

Xanana with CNRT supporters. With the party’s win, it is building a coalition with the Democratic Party in the country’s parliament. — AFP

ITH the victory of his CNRT Party in the May 20 elections, and his ability to form a strong coalition with a smaller party, Timor-Leste’s independence hero Xanana Gusmao is moving closer to realising his ambition to integrate the young nation into the globally influential Asean, with the strong backing of its former coloniser Indonesia.

Initially other Asean members, notably Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, were reluctant to accept a new member, as it was feared it would slow Asean’s quest to establish a regional economic community. Asean, for example, found in a study in 2016 that Timor-Leste lacked human resources to catch up with the economic growth of Asean member states.