Timor-Leste: The Looting of Timor-Leste’s Oil Wealth

Jun 1, 2019 | Bardia Rahmani, Diplomat
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In development speak, a “white elephant” is a building project that is extremely expensive but that has little use or practical value. It would not be a stretch to call Timor-Leste, Southeast Asia’s most democratic nation but also one of its poorest, a graveyard of white elephants. All along Timor-Leste’s southern coast lie the empty shells of multimillion dollar infrastructure projects – new, gleaming, but largely vacant – and the skeletons of those still under construction.