East Timor MPs bow to protesters, vote to scrap lifetime pensions

Following student-led demonstrations against lavish perks for public officials in one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations, lawmakers in East Timor have voted to end a law that provides lifetime pensions to parliamentarians.

A lifetime pension, equivalent to their salary, was provided for former members of parliament (MPs) and some government officials under a law from 2006, according to the law.

However, 62 MPs unanimously approved a law banning former presidents, prime ministers, and cabinet ministers’ lifetime pensions on Friday.

Your demands have been met, to the benefit of all university students. After the vote, Khunto MP Olinda Guterres pleaded with the electorate to stop the demonstrations.

Jose Ramos Horta, an independence hero and Nobel Peace Prize winner, will now be sent the law to sign before implementing it.

After a budget item approved last year, approved in East Timor, $4.2 million was allocated to purchase Toyota Prado SUVs for each of East Timor’s 65 members of parliament for a price tag of $ 61, 500 per vehicle.

According to World Bank statistics, the plan sparked widespread outcry in a country where more than 40% of the population lives in poverty.

On September 15, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to demand that the plan be canceled.

Later, protester demands expanded to include issues like ending public officials’ lifetime pensions.

When MPs agreed to end the three days of tense protests by which time students clashed with police and responded by firing tear gas, the students’ protests ended with the students’ agreement to end the car purchases and their lifetime pensions.

Fortunata Alves, a 23-year-old university student, told the AFP news agency that the outcome demonstrated that “our fights are not futile.

East Timor only became independent in 2002 after enduring a 270-year Portuguese colony and enduring a violent occupation by Indonesia, which led to its own nationwide demonstrations last month due to the country’s high cost of living and unhappiness with its economic policy.

Following reports that politicians received a $3, 000 housing allowance on top of their salaries, the protest that erupted in neighboring Indonesia quickly turned into full-fledged violence.