Fidelis Leite Magalhães

Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães is an East Timorese political economist, public policy specialist and politician, and a member of the People's Liberation Party (PLP). He is the incumbent President of the Council of Ministers, serving since May 2020 under the VIII Constitutional Government of East Timor led by Taur Matan Ruak. Previously, from 2018 to 2020, he was Minister for Legislative Reform and Parliamentary Affairs in the same government, and, from July 2019, also acting Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs and acting Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry.

This name uses Portuguese naming customs: the first or maternal family name is Leite and the second or paternal family name is Magalhães.
Fidelis Leite Magalhães
Magalhães in 2019
President of the Council of Ministers
Assumed office
29 May 2020 (2020-05-29)
Prime MinisterTaur Matan Ruak
Preceded byOffice established
Minister for Legislative Reform and Parliamentary Affairs
In office
22 June 2018 (2018-06-22) – 29 May 2020 (2020-05-29)
Prime MinisterTaur Matan Ruak
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Member of the National Parliament
In office
2017–2018
Chief of Staff to the President
In office
20 May 2012 (2012-05-20) – June 2015 (2015-06)
PresidentTaur Matan Ruak
Succeeded byRui Augusto Gomes
Personal details
BornMaliana, Bobonaro,
East Timor
Political partyPeople's Liberation Party
Spouse(s)Maria Angela Neves Oliveira
RelativesNívio Leite Magalhães
Alma materJohn F. Kennedy School of Government, London School of Economics, University of Hawaii-Mānoa, University of Lisbon[1]

Early life and career

Magalhães was raised in Maliana, the capital of what is now the municipality of Bobonaro in the west of East Timor. He is the second child of Manuel Magalhães and Regina Cardoso Gouveia Leite, who had five daughters and three other sons, including the PD politician Nívio Leite Magalhães, State Secretary for Youth and Labor from 2017 to 2018.[2] Manuel Magalhães was killed during the 1999 East Timorese crisis.[3]

While still a child, Fidelis Magalhães joined the resistance against the Indonesian occupation. At the age of 13, he became a member of the Sagrada Família (Holy Family), a resistance movement with religious features. Magalhães was also a member of a youth gang, Tuba Corente (Firm Chain).[2] Members of that gang were searching for their identity, a process that could be "aggressive and even violent".[4]

Due to the wave of violence leading up to the 1999 East Timorese independence referendum, the Magalhães family had to flee from Maliana to Dili, when Manuel Magalhães was arrested and the family's house was destroyed.[3] Following the departure of the Indonesians in the same year, Fidelis Magalhães left school and started working for the Jesuit Refugee Services as a driver, to support his family.[2]

Magalhães also began to work in the field of human rights, under the guidance of Father Frank Brennan. At the end of 2000, he was promoted to the position of Human Rights and Refugee and Returnee officer with Jesuit Refugee Services. In 2001, he represented East Timor's civil society at the UN Session on Human Rights in Geneva. That was his first trip abroad, and he was asked to participate in a series of meetings only a year after he had begun to teach himself English. He has since described the experience as "surreal".[2]

From mid 2001 to 2002, Magalhães worked for various organisations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where for a short period he was its Spokesperson and External Relations Assistant.[2] He also served as the president of the Maliana Youth Committee, which consisted of all the youth organizations in the district.[2]

In late 2002, Magalhães received a US State Department scholarship managed by the East–West Center to study at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He graduated with honours majoring in political, social and literary theories, and was also a top student in Latin American and Iberian literature.[2] Under the same scholarship, he also studied for a short time at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.[2]

From 2006, he worked in various capacities. In 2007, he was the Participation Expert on the national dialogue in East Timor for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). In the same year, he was appointed head of the Post-Transitional Dialogue, which was funded by Norway. He then served as team leader on a number of initiatives, and was a principal adviser on development and political issues.[2]

In 2008, Magalhães collaborated with Bishop Gunnar Stålsett, Norway’s Special Envoy to East Timor, in founding the High Level National Consensus Dialogue initiative. Some months later, he obtained a Chevening Scholarship to study Political Economy at the London School of Economics. After completing his studies at the LSE, he was awarded a Gulbenkian Fellowship to read International Political Economy in Lisbon, Portugal. While in Lisbon he also attended post-graduate courses in International Relations at the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the Technical University of Lisbon (ISCSP-UTL).[2]

Political career

In October 2011, Magalhães returned to East Timor, where he joined Taur Matan Ruak's campaign team in the 2012 East Timorese presidential election. Initially, he was Vice-President for Socio-Political Research and Communication; later, Taur Matan Ruak appointed him as his official spokesman.[2]

After the announcement that Taur Matan Ruak had been elected as President of East Timor, Magalhães was appointed as his representative to ensure a smooth transition to office. On the day of Taur Matan Ruak's swearing-in on 20 May 2012, Magalhães became his Chief of Staff.[2]

In June 2015, Magalhães resigned as Chief of Staff to return to studying in the United States, this time to study Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). He was succeeded by Rui Augusto Gomes, previously the President's adviser on economic issues.[1][5] At the end of that year, Magalhães became one of the co-founders of the People's Liberation Party, which is closely associated with Taur Matan Ruak.[1]

After Magalhães had completed his HKS studies, he became Taur Matan Ruak's senior political adviser; he remained so until the end of the President's term on 20 May 2017, when he was elected as one of six deputies to Taur Matan Ruak as PLP party leader.[1][6]

Magalhães campaigning in Lolotoe in 2017

In the 2017 East Timorese parliamentary election, Magalhães was ranked as #2 on the list of the PLP, and was therefore elected as a member of the National Parliament.[7] Following his election, he became the leader of the parliamentary PLP, and President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security (Commission-B).[8]

In the early election in 2018, Magalhães was ranked #7 in the Alliance for Change and Progress (AMP), which included the PLP, and was again elected to the National Parliament.[9] In the AMP, Magalhães was Vice President of the Alliance.[10]

On 22 June 2018, Magalhães was sworn in as Minister for Legislative Reform and Parliamentary Affairs, which meant that he automatically had to give up his parliamentary seat.[11]

In 2019, Magalhães was appointed as Timor-Leste's Chief Negotiator[12] for the World Trade Organization. Since July 2019, he has been the Chair of the Sixth Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development, organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).[13] Also in July 2019, he was appointed as acting Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs[14] and acting Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry.[15]

On 12 May 2020, following the breakdown of the AMP coalition during the first few months of 2020, the Council of Ministers approved a restructure of the ministry that included the abolition of Magalhães' portfolio of Minister for Legislative Reform and Parliamentary Affairs, and the absorption of its responsibilities by the Ministry of Justice. On 29 May 2020, Magalhães was sworn in as holder of the new, more senior, position of President of the Council of Ministers.[16][17][18]

References
  1. Gavel, Doug (17 April 2016). "Fidelis Leite Magalhaes MC/MPA 2016 is prepared to face the obstacles waiting for him at home". Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  2. Trindade, Josh (30 May 2012). "Short Bio: Fidelis Magalhaes, Chefe Casa Civil (Chief of Staff) – Office of the President, RDTL". Karau Dikur. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  3. Staff writer (Spring 2002). "Nivio's Story" (PDF). Focus: The Magazine of Australia's Overseas Aid Program. Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID): 19. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  4. Magalhães, Fidelis (8 October 2013). "KRIME ORGANIZADO - Fidelis Magalhães, and this is his personal opinion". Viva Mauk Moruk!. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  5. Mídia PR (11 August 2015). "H.E. The President of the Republic appoints his adviser Dr Rui Gomes to serve as Chief of the Civil House". Presidência da República de Timor-Leste. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  6. "Estrutura". People's Liberation Party.
  7. "2017 Timor-Leste Parliamentary Election: List of Parliamentary slates from all parties" (PDF) (Press release). La'o Hamutuk: Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring & Analysis. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  8. "Comissões Especializadas Permanentes: Comissão de Negócios Estrangeiros, Defesa e Segurança (Comissão-B)" [Permanent Specialised Committees: Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security (Committee-B)] (in Portuguese). 2017. Archived from the original on 4 October 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  9. "Aviso: Lista Definitiva de Candidaturas Eleição Parlamentar 12 de Maio de 2018" [Notice: Final List of Candidates Parliamentary Election 12 May 2018] (PDF) (Press release) (in Portuguese). Democratic Republic of East Timor. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  10. "Órgãos eleitorais de Timor-Leste acusam oposição de publicações falsas em época de eleições" [Timor-Leste electoral bodies accuse opposition of false publications at election time]. SIC Notícias (in Portuguese). Lusa. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  11. "Primeiro grupo de membros do VIII Governo timorense tomou posse em Díli" [First group of members of the VIII Timorese Government take office in Dili]. SAPO (in Portuguese). 22 June 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  12. WTO. "Accessions Newsletter N° 97 — December 2019" (PDF). World Trade Organization.
  13. United Nations, Economic and Social Council. "High-level political forum on sustainable development" (PDF). Sustainable Development Goals.
  14. Matan Ruak, Prime Minister Taur (12 July 2019). "DESPACHO N.o 028 PM/VII/2019" (PDF). Jornal da República (in Portuguese). II (27): 903–904. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  15. Matan Ruak, Prime Minister Taur (12 July 2019). "DESPACHO N.o 027 PM/VII/2019" (PDF). Jornal da República (in Portuguese). II (27): 901–903. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  16. Soares Martins, Evaristo (14 May 2020). "PM Taur Matan Ruak Gains Two Deputies in Government Restructure". Tatoli. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  17. Colo, Cipriano (29 May 2020). "Eight New Members Sworn into TL Cabinet". Tatoli. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  18. "Timor-Leste's Eighth Constitutional Government (updated 17 July 2020)". La'o Hamutuk website. La'o Hamutuk: Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis. Retrieved 22 December 2020.

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