East Timor
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...
ese politician and diplomat. Initially, he was a member of the
Fretilin
The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor ( pt, Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente, abbreviated as Fretilin) is a centre-left political party in East Timor. They presently hold 23 of 65 seats in the National Parliame ...
political party, but he left that party in 2011 to join the
Frenti-Mudança
The Front for National Reconstruction of Timor-Leste – Change (, Frenti–Mudança) is a political party in East Timor led by Vice-Prime minister José Luís Guterres.Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, East Timorese Ambassador to Australia, Secretary of State for the Region of Oecusse and Minister of State Administration.
Early life and education
Teme is from the East Timorese
exclave
An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...
of
Oecusse
Oecusse (also variously ''Oecussi'', ''Ocussi'', ''Oekussi'', ''Oekusi'', ''Okusi'', ''Oé-Cusse''), also known as Oecusse-Ambeno (; ) and formerly just Ambeno, officially the Special Administrative Region Oecusse-Ambeno (), is an exclave, mun ...
, on the north coast of west Timor.
In 1998, Teme received a scholarship from the New Zealand Overseas Development Agency (now the
New Zealand Agency for International Development
The New Zealand Aid Programme is the New Zealand Government's international aid and development agency. The New Zealand Aid Programme is managed by the Pacific and Development Group in the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) ...
) and relocated to
Palmerston North
Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...
, New Zealand, where he also worked with activists for the liberation of East Timor from Indonesian occupation. Additionally, he became the spokesman for the East Timor Students Association (ETSA) in New Zealand. He studied at
Massey University
Massey University ( mi, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa) is a university based in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with significant campuses in Albany and Wellington. Massey University has approximately 30,883 students, 13,796 of whom are extramural or ...
, which awarded him a Master's degree in Policy and Politics of Development in 2002.
During the
1999 East Timorese crisis
The 1999 East Timorese crisis began with attacks by pro-Indonesia militia groups on civilians, and expanded to general violence throughout the country, centred in the capital Dili. The violence intensified after a majority of eligible East Timo ...
, Teme's family home was burned down, so that Teme and his wife and children were initially without their own accommodation when they returned to East Timor.
Political career
In the Parliamentary election held on 30 August 2001, Teme was no. 12 on the Fretilin list, and was elected to the Constituent Assembly, from which the National Parliament later emerged. However, on 20 September 2001 he was appointed as Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in the II UNTAET Transitional Government. Teme remained in that office after the transition of East Timor to independence on 20 May 2002, as part of the I Constitutional Government led by Prime Minister
Mari Alkatiri
Mari bin Amude Alkatiri, GCIH ( ar, مرعي بن عمودة الكثيري '; born 26 November 1949) is a Timorese politician. He was Prime Minister of East Timor from May 2002 until his resignation on 26 June 2006 following weeks of politica ...
.
From 29 May 2003 to August 2005, Teme was East Timor's first ambassador to Australia. He was also responsible for other countries, such as New Zealand and Samoa. Due to the unrest in East Timor in 2006, Prime Minister Alkatiri was forced to resign, and within Fretilin there was an attempt to remove him as its general secretary. Teme joined the Fretilin Mudança reform movement, and in the 2007 presidential election campaign he supported the new prime minister and independent candidate
José Ramos-Horta
José Manuel Ramos-Horta (; born 26 December 1949) is an East Timorese politician currently serving as president of East Timor since May 2022. He previously served as president from 20 May 2007 to 20 May 2012. Previously he was Minister of Fore ...
against his party leader
Francisco Guterres
Francisco Guterres, popularly known as Lú-Olo (born 7 September 1954), is an East Timorese politician who served as president of East Timor from 20 May 2017 to 20 May 2022. He is also the president of the political party Fretilin, and he was t ...
. Shortly before the first ballot in that election, Teme was accused of alleged sexual harassment of an embassy worker.
In August 2007, Teme became Secretary of State for the Region of Oecusse in the IV Constitutional Government under Prime Minister
Xanana Gusmão
José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão (; born 20 June 1946) is an East Timorese politician. A former rebel, he was the third President of the independent East Timor, serving from 2002 to 2007. He then became its fourth prime minister, serving from ...
, although his party, Fretilin, was in opposition to the ruling coalition. Subsequently, the Fretilin Mudança group split off from Fretilin as Frenti-Mudança (FM), and Teme became its Secretary General. In the parliamentary election of 2012, FM ran for the first time with its own list, and won two seats. On 8 August 2012, Teme was sworn in as Minister of State Administration in the V Constitutional Government, a coalition between the
National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction
The National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction ( pt, Congresso Nacional de Reconstrução de Timor, CNRT) is a political party in East Timor founded by former President Xanana Gusmão in March 2007 in preparation for the 2007 parliamentary ...
(CNRT), the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
(PD) and FM; he therefore renounced his seat in the national parliament.
In February 2015, when Prime Minister
Xanana Gusmão
José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão (; born 20 June 1946) is an East Timorese politician. A former rebel, he was the third President of the independent East Timor, serving from 2002 to 2007. He then became its fourth prime minister, serving from ...
national unity
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
was formed under Fretilin member
Rui Maria de Araújo
Rui Maria de Araújo (born 21 May 1964) is an East Timorese politician who served as its prime minister from 2015 to 2017. He is a physician and member of Fretilin.
He was Minister of Health from 2001 to 2006 and Deputy Prime Minister from 20 ...
, Teme rejected an offer to be a Vice Minister in that government. Instead, he resumed his seat in Parliament and became deputy parliamentary leader of the two-member FM parliamentary delegation.
Teme is one of the founders of the ''Amigos de
Taur Matan Ruak
José Maria Vasconcelos (born 10 October 1956), popularly known as Taur Matan Ruak (Tetum for "Two Sharp Eyes"), is an East Timorese politician who has served as the prime minister of East Timor since 22 June 2018. He was also President of Ea ...
'' (A-TMR) movement, which supported the former president and his
People's Liberation Party
The People's Liberation Party ( tr, Halkın Kurtuluş Partisi, HKP) is a Marxist–Leninist communist party in Turkey. The HKP is based strongly around Hikmet Kıvılcımlı's ideas and philosophy.
The party was established on 15 June 2005, the 3 ...
(PLP) in the campaign for the parliamentary election of 2017, regardless of party affiliation. As the FM failed to overcome the four percent threshold hurdle in the election, Teme lost his seat in the National Parliament.
Geoffrey Hull
Geoffrey Stephen Hull (born 6 September 1955) is an Australian linguist, ethnologist and historian who has made contributions to the study of Romance, Celtic, Slavonic, Semitic, Austronesian and Papuan languages, in particular to the relationshi ...
and Francisco do Amaral) (Winston Hills, NSW, Australia: Sebastião Aparício da Silva Project, 2001; )
*''Tetum, Language Manual for East Timor'' (5th ed.) (with Geoffrey Hull and
Dionísio Babo Soares
Dionísio da Costa Babo Soares (born ) is an East Timorese politician, and a member of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT). From June 2018 to May 2020, he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, under the VII ...
) (Winston Hills, NSW, Australia: Sebastião Aparício da Silva Project, 2005; )