SYDNEY -- East Timor, or the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste as it is officially known, is no longer a new nation, but one wrestling with problems familiar elsewhere in Southeast Asia. The issues revolve around an entrenched and relatively prosperous political class existing amid a hinterland majority population still beset by poverty and seasonal food shortages in the tiny island-state.
Just over 15 years since gaining independence after centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, 24 years of Indonesian annexation, and a three-year United Nations-led interregnum, East Timor's 1.3 million citizens still treasure their democratic system.
