Timor-Leste: The Path from Peace to Prosperity

Sep 3, 2020 | Jason Woodroofe
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Standing underneath the 27m tall Cristo Rei statue of Jesus and staring back across at the beautiful city of Dili it is hard to imagine that Timor-Leste is shrouded in a past of colonialism, occupation and civil unrest. Timor-Leste (often referred to as East Timor) is the third newest country in the world and is full of amazingly resilient and kind people. Many of them are veterans and survivors of a brutal Indonesian occupation that only ended in 1999. I had the privilege to spend several months in the country at the start of this year working alongside many of these amazing people doing research on local security issues. While the country has come a long way in just two decades, there remains a number of obstacles on the path to prosperity. This article is my personal take on what is a complicated nexus of the Timorese development, oil dependency and the country’s hopes for a prosperous future.