DILI: East Timor police on Tuesday clashed for a second day with protesters angry over a plan to buy SUVs for lawmakers in one of southeast Asia’s poorest nations, whose leader issued a rebuke over the violence.
Demonstrators in the capital Dili burned tires, a government vehicle near the parliament building and hurled rocks toward the officers, who responded with tear gas.
The over 2,000 protesters — mostly university students from the capital — gathered near the National Parliament to oppose a plan to procure Toyota Prado SUVs for each of the 65 members of parliament.
It followed a similar protest on Monday, which prompted several political parties to announce they would ask parliament to cancel the plan.
Those same parties had previously approved the 2025 budget that included the funding for the vehicles.
Protesters have vowed to continue their rallies until the plan is formally scrapped.
“We want the decision to purchase the car to be canceled. This decision needs to be taken by the president of the National parliament,” activist Domingos de Andrade, 34, told reporters Tuesday.
Protesters carried a banner urging authorities to “Stop thieves.”
East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta told reporters Tuesday that there would be “no tolerance” of violence during the demonstrations.
“You can hold demonstrations to protest the government, parliament when they do wrong, but you must not resort to violence,” Ramos-Horta added.
In a joint statement on Monday, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction, the Democratic Party and the Enrich the National Unity of the Sons of Timor said the vehicles for lawmakers “did not reflect public interests” and pledged they would ask parliament to walk back on the plan.
East Timor, Southeast Asia’s youngest country, gained independence from Indonesia in 2002. The former Portuguese colony grapples with high inequality, malnutrition and unemployment, with an economy heavily reliant on oil.
Deadly riots erupted in neighboring Indonesia last month after a video of a police vehicle running over a motorcyclist ignited public anger over lawmakers’ lavish perks, low wages and unemployment.
East Timor police clash with protesters over plan to buy vehicles for MPs
https://arab.news/nkrfm
East Timor police clash with protesters over plan to buy vehicles for MPs
- The over 2,000 protesters, mostly university students from the capital, gathered near the National Parliament to oppose a plan to procure Toyota Prado SUVs for each of the 65 members of parliament
- Protesters have vowed to continue their rallies until the plan is formally scrapped
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump claims otherwise, posting that “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy,” Carney said. “What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 percent, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3 percent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We have a , but based off — based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I’m not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos.”
Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the US under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu” and he warned about coercion by great powers — without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed into the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
