President José Ramos-Horta in his Mini Moke.
"José Ramos-Horta, president of Timor-Leste, doesn’t behave like a leader who has narrowly survived an assassination attempt. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate buzzes around the capital city of Dili in a bright blue Mini Moke, a lightweight British utility vehicle with a convertible canvas top and no windows or doors. On his daily commute to the Nicolau Lobato Presidential Palace, his security detail trails him in a grey Mitsubishi as he weaves through traffic – motorbikes, yellow taxis, 4x4s, rainbow-hued microlets (minibuses) – and leans out to signal a turn or wave at an excited child.
Timor-Leste, a small nation occupying one half of the Southeast Asian island of Timor, is one of the region’s most vibrant democracies, with high voter participation, a committed free press and, at least since Ramos-Horta was shot in 2008, a relatively peaceful political climate.
The president noses the Moke, which he bought secondhand in Australia and fixed up himself, past a line of guards in feather headdresses who bang drums on his arrival. After being elected in April 2022 with 62 per cent of the vote, he decided that the gates of the presidential palace would stay open all week...."
https://monocle.com/...et-newtab-en-gb
Edited by mab01uk, 21 September 2023 - 06:19 PM.
