APODETI's first president was Arnaldo dos Reis Araújo, a 60-year-old cattle farmer who had collaborated with the Japanese invasion forces during World War II. Araujo spent several months in Jakarta during 1974, where he met government officials who quickly found ways to support his organization. Later, he became the first governor of East Timor under Indonesian rule. The first vice-president of the party was Hermenegildo Martins, owner of a coffee plantation. Another key APODETI leader was a former schoolteacher named José Abílio Osório Soares. Echoing the sentiment that East Timor could not survive as an independent state, he professed a strong faith in Indonesia's willingness to help. In 1975 he said: "We do not need neocolonialism, just some control from Indonesia; and if we need some things maybe we can get them from Indonesia."