Even if there are problems, democracy is learned by practice, not from textbooks. This would be an achievable short-term goal. In turn, this would prepare the electorate for the trickier task of choosing a constituent assembly to write a constitution and elect a government before the transition to independence. It would also produce a cadre of experienced elected officials at the time of the transfer of power. But over that period, East Timorese can work on the good habits of democracy as an insurance against autocracy, one-party rule and the ravages of corruption.
Democracy is slow and can be painful.
But if it's good enough for the U.N. and the key donor countries, then the East Timorese deserve a chance to experience the good and the bad of representative government of their own. That is ultimately what so many of them lived and died for last year. Giacoma , who now lives in Washington, D.C., was a desk officer for East Timor at the U.N. in New York during last year's referendum. In May he finished a six-month assignment as a political affairs officer with Untaet.