Gilberts take another
pp. 31-32 · Read in the full issue
step forward
By a Tarawa correspondent
On November 11 the Queen signed the Order in Council which will give the Gilbert and Ellice Islands a “Member” system of government.
The present House of Representatives will be dissolved after its November-December meeting, elections will be held in January or February, and the meeting of the new Legislative Council should take place in March, 1971.
At present the GEIC has a House of Representatives with 23 elected Members and seven officials. The Resident Commissioner sits as president. The House has no legislative function but considers draft legislation, policy papers and other business placed before it by government. Members have the right to ask questions of the govern ment and to initiate debate by use of motions.
A Governing Council, composed of the Resident Commissioner, five officials and five elected members (including a Chief Elected Member) has legislative power and must be consulted by the Resident Commis sioner on all matters of policy.
The new constitution is the outcome of more than a year of dis cussion and negotiation. For some time members of the House of Representatives have sought a greater say in policy decisions. Now, with the granting of legislative responsibility to the Legislative Council, the way is open for a transition to internal self-government within a few years.
Official representation in the Legislative Council will be reduced to five, and the number of elected members will be increased to 28.
Of the five new constituencies, one will go to the Gilberts and four to the Ellice.
The effect of the increased elected membership will be to give all islands of the Gilbert and Ellice group (with the exception of Niulakita, the tiny southernmost Ellice Island) at last one representative—a recognition of strong local feeling towards individual island identities and, for the Ellice Islanders, a greater concession to their minority status.
One of the most significant changes will be the election of a Leader of Government Business by the elected members from among them selves. He will become the major government spokesman in the Legislative Council and will assume a large part of the role formerly played by the Assistant Resident Commissioner.
The Resident Commissioner, in consultation with the Leader of Government Business, will choose four elected members of the Legis lative Council to serve, with the official members, as an Executive Council. He will be president of both councils.
Those appointed to the Executive Council will be assigned responsi bility for various aspects of government activity and will be expected to answer questions and introduce legislation on their subjects in the Legislative Council. Heads of Departments, few of whom will sit in the Legislative Council, will be expected to work closely with the appropriate “Member” as part of a training programme for future ministerial government.
Local reaction to the constitution has, generally, been favourable.
The desire of politicians for another step towards full responsibility has now been met. The fears of many Ellice Islanders that constitu tional progress could result in their domination by the Gilbertese, have been allayed, at least for the present, by assurances that the constitu tion provides adequate safeguards for their interests.
With further progress in the future, though, the issue of separation of the two groups could well rise once again and will certainly be a major point of discussion as internal self-government looms closer.
It’s also possible that the colony will be separated from the Western Pacific High Commission in the not too distant future. Local members have been advocating such a split for some time. Major reasons put forward are the delays in decision-making, the lack of detailed know
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ledge of the colony’s peculiar problems in the High Com missioner’s office and a feeling that such a link is no longer appropriate for the colony as it progresses towards self government.
Looking further into the future, it seems unlikely that there will be a strong demand from the people of the colony for full independence from Britain. There is a growing awareness of the economic problems that will follow the exhaustion of the Ocean Island phosphates and the consequent need for the GEIC to be closely associated with some larger and wealthier country. The link with Britain is a traditional one and, at the same time, there is no indication that any country closer than Britain is prepared to assume responsi bility for a handful of scattered coral islands in mid-Pacific.