Do we like them?Do we like José Ramos-Horta?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Decent and on the right side of the harm test, with a contested gas push and a murky investment episode keeping him out of the top bracket.
José Ramos-Horta is a Nobel laureate who was sworn in as Timor-Leste's president on independence day in 2022, after winning the run-off with 62 per cent of the vote against 37 per cent for his rival. We couldn't open his full biography this time, so this column leans on news reports rather than a full life story. What the reporting shows is a veteran statesman who is still travelling the region and arguing for his tiny country.
The big recent stoush started in April. A Guardian and OCCRP investigation alleged that people linked to a sanctioned scam network were tied to a proposed resort in Dili, and that its public face had been given a diplomatic passport. Ramos-Horta rejected it, saying “The articles published do not provide any factual evidence.” He also said Timor-Leste is open to legitimate investment and will stay vigilant. An opposition MP questioned him in parliament over why the credentials were granted, and no source we read shows any finding against him.
There's also a fight with the courts. In July 2025 the Court of Appeal struck down part of a law that had let a junior judge be put in charge of the court. Ramos-Horta had appointed that judge by decree, and he denied violating the constitution and dismissed the ruling as interference in judicial independence. Where you land depends on whether you read it as a president using his constitutional powers or as a leader brushing off his own courts.
On the harm check, we found nothing hateful in his own words. At his 2022 swearing-in he pledged to defend all citizens and fight violence and discrimination against vulnerable people, and a UCA News report we saw in search results says he urged Timorese to respect LGBT people. Same-sex marriage still has no legal recognition in Timor-Leste, and we found no concrete law or policy from him either way. We found nothing on anti-vax or election-denial claims.
The contested bit is energy. He has pushed hard for piping Greater Sunrise gas to Timor-Leste's south coast rather than to Darwin, and warned he would look to Chinese investors if Australia and Woodside didn't back it. Supporters see a poor country fighting for its own resources, while environmental groups see a fossil-fuel build-out. That's why the harm test gets an asterisk and not a clean pass.
On Myanmar he has been consistently outspoken. In late May he proposed a retired four-star general as a special envoy and a no-preconditions meeting between the military, ethnic armies and the democratic opposition, aiming to ease civilian suffering. Myanmar's junta replied that it regretted the remarks and called them interference. In 2025 he also argued that personal diplomacy could help bring about a ceasefire.