He is Hadhrami Arab by ethnicity and comes from the Al-Kathiri tribe, a branch of which was also the Royal family of Hadhramaut that is now part of Yemen. He is one of very few Muslim politicians in a country that is 97% Christian. The main issues facing his second term as prime minister are environmental conservation, cultural conservation, accession of East Timor to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, free public education and public health services, and building the country's economy, notably the lagging services and manufacturing sectors.