I agree in whole with your first point. I think there is a phrase that sums it up "Who will save you from your saviour?" once liberated are those who liberated the best people to put in charge? After all Washington was given the chance to be King, he declined.

Quote Originally Posted by Tribesman
I doubt it would be a simple geographic difference in so small a landmass.
The thing there is that there is a major geographical difference in the small land mass . Ignoring the islands (as that isn't really much of a difference) , you have the Western region , which is entirely seperated from the rest of the nation , small enclaves seperated from the rest of the state are nearly always a big problem .
I admit it was based on my biased view of geographical sizes. There is another saying "the tyranny of distance" which makes it difficult for a nation as large as Australia hard to commute and communicate across its length and breadth.

So I should really have evaluated the situation on the speed/bandwidth/homogenity of communications and the monetary aspects of the situation. East Timor is a poor country, and while wealth may not solve some problems it can head off quite a few (clean water, food and the ability to run a government).