Francisco Kalbuadi Lay
[1] As of early 1988, Lay was manager of CV Amigo, a company owned by General Kalbuadi that was operating in East Timor.
This scheme, which initially enjoyed the blessing of Bishop [Carlos] Belo and then Governor [of East Timor] Mario Carrascalao, eventually left around 800 young underpaid Timorese stranded in Indonesia, with many young Timorese dying of unnatural causes in Indonesia and also some of them forming a military-backed gang in Jakarta.
"[1]TAPOL, a British NGO established to monitor human rights issues in Indonesia, reported in 1991 that the scheme was "... being encouraged by the military on the assumption that rebelliousness among young East Timorese is caused by unemployment and dissatisfaction with their lot," and that "Tutut's recruitment drive [had] the approval of BAIS, the Strategic Intelligence Agency, which [was] keen to reduce the political pressure in East Timor."
[1] Following his return, he was recruited by Domingos Soares [de], another collaborator with the Indonesians, to manage a provincial government-protected illicit gambling business at Tasitolu near Dili.
[1] Bishop Belo then recruited him to manage the Don Carlos Foundation, one of the charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dili.
In that capacity, Lay travelled with the bishop to Australia shortly before the UN-supervised East Timorese independence referendum in 1999;[1] at the end of that year, Asiaweek described him as an "aide" to Belo.
[8] In early 1994, TAPOL reported that Lay had travelled to Geneva with an Indonesian delegation that was negotiating with the UN Human Rights Commission over a possible chairman's consensus statement concerning East Timor.
[2] Lay's specific task, according to TAPOL, was "to keep watch over" Xavier do Amaral, who had briefly been the inaugural president of East Timor in 1975, and was part of the Indonesian delegation.
[2] The TAPOL report also asserted that Lay had accompanied Amaral to 'reconciliation talks' about East Timor held near London[2] in December 1993.
[1] In mid-1998, columnist Brian Toohey wrote in the Australian Financial Review that: "Hand attracted ... controversy by representing ... Sumampow, whom he has described as 'a very good friend'.Although Hand [had] been a vocal critic of Indonesia's occupation of East Timor, Sumampow made a large part of his fortune by gaining a lucrative share of the former Portuguese colony's coffee, sandalwood, marble, hotel and retail industries.
Sumpampow's access to East Timor was facilitated by his close association with General Benny Moerdani, who planned the 1975 [Indonesian] invasion [of the former colony].
[20] In December 2016, the Lusa News Agency reported that a decision on the issue was expected soon, as the investigation had concluded that Brazilian players had been registered for the Timor-Leste national team with false birth or baptism certificates.
[41][42] In 2017, Lay defeated the incumbent Secretary General of the CNRT, Dionísio Babo Soares, in an election for that post at the party congress.
[43] In that year's parliamentary election, Lay returned to the National Parliament at #5 on the CNRT list, but he resigned on 6 September 2017, the second day of the session.
[44][45] With the CNRT going into opposition after the election, Lay also lost his ministerial post upon formation of the VI Constitutional Government on 15 September 2017.
[58] In a statement, made from the office of the president, for which the East Timor Law & Justice Bulletin later heavily criticised him as illegitimately interfering in civil political processes,[60] he said that the parliament should have waited until the High Court had resolved the corruption proceedings against Lay before allowing him to resume his membership.
[62] Meanwhile, in January 2022, former President José Ramos-Horta came out of retirement to stand as a candidate in that year's presidential election, as he considered that Guterres had violated the constitution.
[66] Also in July 2023, Lay told a news outlet based in Belu, an Indonesian regency that shares a border with East Timor, that the new government would continue striving to develop infrastructure in all regionsm with a view to supporting sustainable economic growth.
[71] During the remaining months of 2023, he made official visits to Cambodia[72][73] and Malaysia,[74][75] and attended a working party meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, at which he, as the newly appointed Chief Negotiator for Timor-Leste's accession to the WTO, indicated a "strong personal commitment" to leading East Timor through the final steps of that process.
[81][82] In April 2024, Lay launched the Timor-Leste Trade Information Portal, aimed at making import and export easier and less costly.
[89][90] At the end of that month, in Beijing, he signed an MoU with the People's Republic of China focused on strengthening investment cooperation in the digital economy and promoting green development, along with an additional agreement with the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) to advance infrastructure projects in Timor-Leste.
[91] In October 2024, during an official visit by Xanana Gusmão and several of his ministers to Lisbon, Lay signed a cooperation agreement to develop the Revive programme for the support of high value historic public properties in Timor-Leste.
In his speech at the opening session, he drew attention to Timor-Leste's commitment to the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices, improvement of soil productivity and implementation of community-based water management.
