Quitting office Timor Leste style...via SMS

When Jose Ramos-Horta resigned as Timor Leste's foreign minister yesterday, he did so via a mobile phone text message. He told a news briefing in Dili that he had sent an SMS to Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri announcing his intention to quit. He received a reply in the same format from the prime minister. "I explained myself in a subsequent text message," he said. The country -- Asia's youngest nation -- has been embroiled for months in a political crisis and text messaging has emerged as the fastest and most
reliable means of communication. Thousands of protesters clamouring for Alkatiri's resignation have been mobilising themselves via SMS and news of him stepping down today spread rapidly through text messages. Alkatiri said he was giving up the post to avoid the resignation of the nation's popular president, Xanana Gusmao, who had threatened to quit himself unless the prime minister left office.