Jorge Teme

{{Short description|East Timorese politician and diplomat}} {{Use British English|date=November 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Jorge Teme | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = Jorge da Conceição Teme small.jpg | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1964|5|24|df=y}} | birth_place = {{ill|Naimeco|de}}, Portuguese Timor (now East Timor) | alma_mater = Massey University | death_date = | death_place = | party = {{ubl|Fretilin (to 2011)|Frenti-Mudança (since 2011)}} | office1 = Member of the National Parliament | term_start1 = {{Start date|2015|2|16|df=y}} | term_end1 = {{End date|2017|7|22|df=y}} | office2 = Minister of State Administration | term_start2 = {{Start date|2012|8|8|df=y}} | term_end2 = {{End date|2015|2|16|df=y}} | prime_minister2 = Xanana Gusmão | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | office3 = Secretary of State for the Region of Oecusse | term_start3 = {{Start date|2007|8|8|df=y}} | term_end3 = {{End date|2012|8|8|df=y}} | prime_minister3 = Xanana Gusmão | predecessor3 = | successor3 = | office4 = East Timorese Ambassador to Australia | term_start4 = {{Start date|2003|5|29|df=y}} | term_end4 = {{End date|2005|8||df=y}} | predecessor4 = | successor4 = | office5 = Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation | term_start5 = {{Start date|2001|9|20|df=y}} | term_end5 = {{End date|2003|3||df=y}} | leader5 = {{ubl|Mari Alkatiri|(as Chief Minister to 20 May 2002)|{{nowrap|(as Prime Minister from 20 May 2002)}}}} | predecessor5 = | successor5 = | spouse = | children = | website = | footnotes = | profession = }}

'''Jorge da Conceição Teme''' (born 24 May 1964) is an East Timorese politician and diplomat. Initially, he was a member of the Fretilin political party, but he left that party in 2011 to join the Frenti-Mudança party. He has been 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 of Oecusse, on the north coast of west Timor.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Leach |first1=Michael |title=In Timor-Leste, the election campaign enters its final week |url=https://insidestory.org.au/in-timor-leste-the-election-campaign-enters-its-final-week/ |website=Inside Story |access-date=30 November 2020 |date=16 December 2021}}</ref>

In 1998, Teme received a scholarship from the New Zealand Overseas Development Agency (now the New Zealand Agency for International Development) and relocated to Palmerston North, 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Diary of East Timor Protests |url=http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/etprdet.htm |website=Peace Movement Aotearoa |access-date=16 December 2021 |date=28 September 1999}}</ref> He studied at Massey University, which awarded him a Master's degree in Policy and Politics of Development in 2002.<ref>{{cite web |title=News and Media Information |url=http://www.massey.ac.nz/~wwpubafs/2004/Archives/issue-06.htm |website=Massey University |access-date=16 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203002034/http://www.massey.ac.nz/~wwpubafs/2004/Archives/issue-06.htm |archive-date=3 December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last=Teme |first=Jorge |year=2001 |type=Masters thesis |title=The impact of foreign aid on recipient countries : a case study of foreign aid flow to East Timor in reconstructing and developing the country post-independence |publisher=Massey Research Online, Massey University |hdl=10179/6698}}</ref>

During the 1999 East Timorese crisis, 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Obituaries |url=http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr/43/pr43-010.htm |website=Peace Movement Aotearoa |access-date=16 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130222161618/http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr/43/pr43-010.htm |archive-date=22 February 2013 |date=May 2012}}</ref>

==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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Scheiner |first1=Charlie |title=Constituent Assembly winners names and parties |url=https://www.etan.org/et2001c/september/09-15/13constit.htm |website=www.etan.org |access-date=14 December 2021 |date=September 2001}}</ref> However, on 20 September 2001 he was appointed as Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in the II UNTAET Transitional Government.<ref name="ii utg">{{cite web |title=II UNTAET Transitional Government |url=http://timor-leste.gov.tl/?p=135&lang=en |website=Government of Timor-Leste |accessdate=14 December 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref name="i cg">{{cite web |title=I Constitutional Government |url=http://timor-leste.gov.tl/?p=129&lang=en |website=Government of Timor-Leste |access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news |title=East Timor picks young ambassador |url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/east-timor-picks-young-ambassador-20030312-gdvd25.html |access-date=25 November 2021 |work=The Age |date=12 March 2003 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="gg 2003-05-29">{{cite web |title=Governor-General's Program 29 May 2003 |url=https://www.gg.gov.au/program/thursday-29-may-2003-government-house-canberra-following-resignation-right-reve |website=Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia |access-date=14 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151229125708/https://www.gg.gov.au/program/thursday-29-may-2003-government-house-canberra-following-resignation-right-reve |archive-date=29 December 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Media Release: Timor-Leste New Ambassador Presents Credentials to the Governor-General of Australia |url=https://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/easttimorstudies/2006-March/000009.html |access-date=14 December 2021 |publisher=Democratic Republic of East Timor |date=30 March 2006}}</ref> 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 against his party leader Francisco Guterres. Shortly before the first ballot in that election, Teme was accused of alleged sexual harassment of an embassy worker.<ref name="seat 2007-04-02">{{cite news |title=Horta's diplomatic protege accused of sexual harassment |url=http://www.timortruth.com/articles/Hortas_diplomatic_protege_accused_of_sexual_harassment_020407.pdf |access-date=14 December 2021 |work=The Southeast Asian Times |date=2 April 2007}}</ref>

In August 2007, Teme became Secretary of State for the Region of Oecusse in the IV Constitutional Government under Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, although his party, Fretilin, was in opposition to the ruling coalition.<ref name="iv cg">{{cite web |title=IV Constitutional Government |url=http://timor-leste.gov.tl/?p=7526&lang=en&lang=en |website=Government of Timor-Leste |access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref> 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 (CNRT), the Democratic Party (PD) and FM; he therefore renounced his seat in the national parliament.<ref name="v cg">{{cite web |title=V Constitutional Government |url=http://timor-leste.gov.tl/?p=11254&lang=en |website=Government of Timor-Leste |access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref>

In February 2015, when Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão resigned and the new VI Constitutional Government of national unity was formed under Fretilin member Rui Maria de Araújo, Teme rejected an offer to be a Vice Minister in that government.<ref name="is 2015-02-18">{{cite web |last1=Leach |first1=Michael |title=Generational change in Timor-Leste |url=https://insidestory.org.au/generational-change-in-timor-leste/ |website=Inside Story |access-date=14 December 2021 |date=18 February 2015}}</ref> 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'' (A-TMR) movement, which supported the former president and his People's Liberation Party (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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Apuramento Eleisaun Parlamentar 2017: Resultado Provizoriu |url=http://www.cne.tl/apuramento.2017/public.php |website=CNE |access-date=14 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114010243/http://www.cne.tl/apuramento.2017/public.php |archive-date=14 November 2019}}</ref>

== Publications == * ''[https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/6698 The impact of foreign aid on recipient countries: a case study of foreign aid flow to East Timor in reconstructing and developing the country post-independence]'' (Palmerston North: MPhil thesis, Massey University of New Zealand, 2001; {{OCLC|155419130}}) *''Baikenu Language Manual for the Oecussi-Ambeno Enclave (East Timor)'' (with Geoffrey Hull and Francisco do Amaral) (Winston Hills, NSW, Australia: Sebastião Aparício da Silva Project, 2001; {{ISBN|1864087064}}) *''Tetum, Language Manual for East Timor'' (5th ed.) (with Geoffrey Hull and Dionísio Babo Soares) (Winston Hills, NSW, Australia: Sebastião Aparício da Silva Project, 2005; {{ISBN|186341875X}})

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == {{commons category-inline}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teme, Jorge}} Category:Ambassadors of Timor-Leste to Australia Category:Ambassadors of Timor-Leste to New Zealand Category:Ambassadors of Timor-Leste to Samoa Category:Frenti-Mudança politicians Category:Fretilin politicians Category:Government ministers of Timor-Leste Category:Living people Category:Members of the National Parliament (Timor-Leste) Category:People from Oecusse Municipality Category:21st-century East Timorese politicians Category:1964 births Category:Massey University alumni