Married to the cause

XANANA GUSMAO, the guerilla fighter and resistance leader who led tiny East Timor out of the bloodied grip of Indonesia, is sitting before 100 journalists and diners at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Central, articulating his vision for his liberated homeland. And he's lost for words, or a word.

The English vocabulary of the soon-to-be-independent nation's presidential candidate is impressive, but during his one-hour talk he occasionally struggles to find the precise word to convey his exact meaning. On each occasion, he pauses and turns his head to the right where his blonde Australian wife, Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, sits. Without hesitation, she prompts him and he grins, his teeth flashing in the midst of his bearded face.

It is clear that Sword-Gusmao, 35, a former ballet dancer turned human rights worker, is more than Gusmao's wife. The couple operate as a political team, an impression bolstered when she takes a turn at the microphone to speak about women's issues in East Timor.

Sword-Gusmao has set up a foundation to help women abducted and raped in East Timor during the struggle to reintegrate into their communities. She is visiting Hong Kong, Macau and Shanghai with her husband, who is seeking investment in his nation and aid for his veteran resistance fighters.

Next year, come the elections, she may find herself the First Lady of her adopted home. Voters go to the polls in May to elect the leader of the world's newest nation. But the prospect won't daunt her.

Sword-Gusmao speaks all four languages used in East Timor: Portuguese, English, the local dialect Tetun and Bahasa Indonesia, favoured by the young. 'On a professional level she helps me very, very much,' says 55-year-old Gusmao after lunch. 'On a personal level she is a loving wife and mother to this boy,' he says, cradling their playful one-year-old son Alexandre in his arms. 'We are trying to combine all that we have to serve the causes of our people.'