In February 2008, three days after the Darwin conference from which this volume arose, violent attacks took place on the president and prime minister of Timor-Leste took place. President Ramos-Horta arrived in Darwin for treatment just as some of the authors represented here were leaving the town, having participated in a two day discussion on the theme Democratic Governance in Timor-Leste: Reconciling the Local and the National. The timing of the conference seemed almost prophetic given the concerns raised by the delegates regarding the ongoing conflict and violence in Timor-Leste. Some contributors revised their papers for publication in light of the horrifying attacks on the lives of Timor-Leste¿s leaders; others let their discussion stand as it had been presented at the conference. The result is an important collection of articles that provides highly pertinent insights into the current dilemmas of the government and people of the new republic to Australia¿s north. The book gives voice to East Timorese commentators as well as to Australian and other international scholars. The volume explores the necessity to come to terms with the past in order to move on to a better future. It also considers the role of the state and parliament in the new democracy while seeking to set these against the cultural and social practices of the people at whom development is aimed. Finally, it examines the role of the agencies that have sought to assist in the country¿s transformation from a colonised to a post-colonial society with a sound economic future. This work will add considerably to the growing literature on the opportunities and dangers facing what has often been classed as a `fragile state¿.David Mearns is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Charles Darwin University. He has a long history of research in Southeast Asia and more recently in Indigenous Australia. In 2002 he published Looking Both Ways: Models for Justice in East Timor and has worked as a consultant to the United Nations in Timor-Leste.
