The Judicial System Monitoring Program says four important laws are still pending in National Parliament, including the Government Pension Law, the Law on the Institute of Public Memory, the Anti-Corruption Law and the Land Law. 
JSMP Executive Director Luis de Oliveira Sampaiu said the year was nearly over but the four laws had not been put on the agenda in parliament.
“Because between these four laws, there are other laws which have already lapsed, and with the Land Law it’s important because we see people killing each other for land, but they haven’t had a debate on the law yet,” he said in his office recently.
Director Sampaiu said there was a lot of corruption in Timor and some people still faced difficulties, so the National Parliament should approve the four laws before making other laws.
“Therefore, we think they should approve these four laws before they move onto new laws, as we see now corruption is increasing rapidly involving directors, ministers and ex ministers.
And it’s necessary to alter the Government Pension Law,” he said.
On the other hand, MP Josefa Alvares Soares said the Law on the Institute of Public Memory was previously debated but it was suspended, as the National Parliament prioritized other laws like the Veteran Law.
“Previously many veterans didn’t receive their money and many of them died while they were waiting to receive money, so we thought it was a priority and we suspended the Law on the Institute of Public Memory to discuss the Veterans Law instead,” said MP Soares.
She said maybe the laws could be redrafted for debate within the next few months, before the end of the year.
“Recently I heard the President of National Parliament question this too, so we’ll just wait for the four laws to be redrafted to we can debate them.”
Meanwhile, MP Mateus de Jesus said they hadn’t forgotten the laws or abandoned them, but there were other laws that were a priority and once they’re approved they would try to look at these four laws.
“We will look at the four laws, as they are very important,” he said.
