East Timor has its first president. To no one's surprise, Mr. Xanana Gusmao won last week's election by a landslide. He will need every bit of that popularity as his country deals with the difficult times ahead. East Timor starts from scratch; it will need the help and patience of the world, and the forbearance of its neighbors as it grows into a mature and viable nation.

Mr. Gusmao's victory was a given. A legendary fighter for Timorese independence, the poet and former seminary student took up the cause in 1975 when Indonesia invaded East Timor after 400 years of Portuguese colonial rule. He became a guerrilla fighter for the armed wing of the proindependence party Fretilin, a Portuguese acronym for the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor.

Mr. Gusmao assumed command of the armed independence struggle in 1981 and quickly won recognition for tactical brilliance. After being captured in 1992, he continued the fight from jail, eventually becoming Indonesia's -- and one of the world's -- most famous political prisoners. He was released in 1999, a year after Indonesia's President Suharto was forced to leave office and just after the people of East Timor voted for independence in a referendum.

The results of last week's ballot, in which Mr. Gusmao polled 82.7 percent of the votes cast, were never in doubt. He had opposition only to ensure that the country's first ballot would not appear undemocratic. But the president's powers are limited. Mr. Gusmao's appeal is the most powerful weapon he has as his country tackles the difficulties ahead.

East Timor was born in a paroxysm of violence. When the Jakarta government announced that it was ready to hold a referendum on the province's future, anti-independence forces, supported by elements of the Indonesian government and military, went on a rampage, killing thousands of people and forcing many others into exile. The campaign of intimidation did not work -- the results overwhelmingly favored independence -- but the blood bath uprooted hundreds of thousands of people and created a refugee nightmare. Many of the displaced have returned home, but tens of thousands still remain in camps across the border in West Timor.

East Timor is desperately poor. It is subject to droughts and its only export is coffee. The country reportedly has only one native doctor among its citizens. Despite substantial oil and gas reserves, East Timor will rank as one of the poorest nations in Asia. The government's $60 million budget was entirely paid for by the United Nations and other donors this year.

Compounding these difficulties is the likelihood of political division within East Timor. While Mr. Gusmao is the president, the real power rests with the prime minister, Mr. Mari Alkatiri, and Parliament. Mr. Alkatiri is also a member of Fretilin, and a childhood friend of Mr. Gusmao, but he, along with many other rebel leaders, spent the war years in exile in Mozambique. During that time, they drifted apart from Mr. Gusmao, but when they returned after the referendum, the party won a two-thirds majority in the Parliament, largely by associating themselves with Mr. Gusmao's name.

There are real differences between the two men's views of the future. Mr. Gusmao wants to create a "national unity" government that shares power with small parties; that would help facilitate reconciliation and the construction of a truly national identity. The prime minister and his supporters worry that such a strategy will create paralysis, the very last thing East Timor needs. The country's constitution, which was written by a Parliament controlled by Fretilin loyalists, gives the prime minister the upper hand; Mr. Gusmao's role is primarily ceremonial.

Yet the president is not powerless. He is a genuine hero, with a folksy nature that goes far in his country; the prime minister is a politician, more inclined to maneuvers than mass audiences. Mr. Gusmao is a Roman Catholic, like the majority of East Timorese. Mr. Alkatiri, by contrast, is Muslim. The question then is whether the president's popularity can help balance the formal powers assigned by the constitution.

The president's vision is more convincing. Militia members are still provoking violence and impeding the return of refugees. The only way to halt their efforts is to build a genuinely united country that embraces all East Timorese. And only when the violence stops can the country begin the economic development that will be essential to its future. Mr. Gusmao recognizes that. To help him, all donors should stress the message that reconciliation should be a key objective of the Dili government.