East Timor’s new Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta has been sworn in a new cabinet in at a ceremony in Dili. The ceremony marks further progress towards a return to order for the country, which was hit by serious street violence and unrest. Factional fighting erupted three months ago, leaving at least 21 people dead and thousands displaced. President Xanana Gusmao said the swearing in “closed a cycle of profound crisis” that had threatened the nation. “We must now make enormous efforts to bring reconciliation among the East Timorese and to heal the wounds that divide them,” he told ministers.

But more than reconciliation, the country needs to develop basic civility and trust. East Timor faces serious problems in developing a stable government because of the overall lack of civic glue that is needed to hold a country together. The country suffers from a major infantile egocentrism syndrome which impedes development of civil society. It has high levels of illiteracy, very bad health conditions with a total fertility rate of 7.7 and rising, and high prevalence of communicable diseases with the highest tuberculosis rate in region.

In East Timor religion plays a major role in civic society. It nurtures irrationality; inhibits material pursuits; it is focused on the other world & life after death, fatalism and resignation. While most Timorese are Catholics, most of them also harbor and practice animistic beliefs. The focus is on the present or the past which discourages planning, punctuality, savings. Behavior is frequently opportunistic. Some joke that all planning is spontaneous.

The family is a fortress against the broader society, the only thing to be trusted. Mistrust breeds extreme individualization, social instability, lawlessness, as evidenced in the seemingly indiscriminate violence of May and June.
Authority is centralized; unfettered, often arbitrary, as Alkatiri????????s firing of almost half of the Army has demonstrated. Stubbornness and great resistance to change or to new learning is endemic; the existing ???????mental models??????? seem to have very deep roots.

Ethics tend to be elastic, with a wide gap between utopian norms and behavior, and much mistrust. Lesser virtues such as a job well done, tidiness, courtesy, matter little or not at all. Time is often ignored, punctuality is missing; from school age children learn to be tardy, it is rare to see a punctual person. Excuses are used constantly to justify delays or failures. People promise results for a date, then do not get the results for some time, and then give all kinds of excuses (???????My grandmother died in her village in the mountains!???????)

Education often is not seen as important. Schooling is mostly ???????form??????? with very low quality. Stubbornness and great resistance to change or to new learning is endemic; the existing ???????mental models??????? seem to have very deep roots.

People work to live; work does not lead to wealth; work is for the poor, it is not respected. Since work is bad and to be avoided, there is no point in doing it well. There is an insidious pervasiveness of error. The people simply do not care.
Income derives from connections, particularly government & family. Competition is a sign of aggression and a threat to equality and privilege. Improved status raises jealousy quickly. Innovation is not valued, rather considered suspicious; slow adaptation of innovation. High levels of external locus of control means that people work or fulfill responsibilities when someone is looking or keeping track, but not when they think they are not being observed which leads to a form of cynicism.

Women are subordinated to men in most dimensions of life, although some manage to get an education and political power, they are usually from the upper class. Males clearly dominate females who behave and dress conservatively, do not speak out of turn, etc. Women face pervasive violence, both in public and private life. Marital violence is widely reported. It is said that Tetum (one of the main local languages) has three different words for wife-beating. In more than 95% of domestic violence cases, the perpetrator of violence is a man and the victim is a woman. Women face higher rates of illiteracy, malnutrition, and overall poverty. Parents prioritize sending their sons to school as daughters can lead to a high bride price if they are reasonably attractive and married young

In order to increase the probability of developing a stable society major attention should be given to the development of civility, the creation of conditions which would increase the possibility of trust between groups. Also, much has to be done to improve health, but that links to education, which must try to break the fatalistic attitudes. Obviously, educating women should be a major priority.

And there is so much more that could be said.