still leadership
pp. 32-33 · Read in the full issue
Leading from the rear is still leadership
By STUART INDER, who was in Wellington for the South Pacific Forum
I wish Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Prime Minister of Fiji, didn’t have to work so hard at reassuring the rest of the South Pacific states that he’s not attempting to usurp leadership of the area. He’s not usurping leadership—he is leading—and very well, too, so he ought to be allowed to get on with it without having to protect his rear from bayonet pricks.
T r c .u p L Cam F r y ■ w Pacific Forum in Wellington in August with that opinion uppermost.
The forum was, and is, an informal meeting of the political leaders of the self-governing South Pacific states—the Independent State of Western Samoa, the Cook Islands,
the Republic of Nauru, the Kingdom of Tonga and the Dominion of Fiji.
They sat down for three days in closed talks with Australia and New Zealand, and the things they talked about, and the decisions they made, are reported on p. 54.
Their decisions were few, and in themselves not of great significance.
This was a trial get-together, with the states feeling their way: they came without knowing what to expect. But j the back of g their minds F was the though( that a meeting of j sland leaders was needed to remind Aus tralia and New Zealand that new forces had developed in the Islands world.
The fact that it was a British
Commonwealth meeting was coin- ■ cidence — only the Commonwealth j states in the Pacific can so far claim j to be self-governing, but the forum j did agree that other states would be ; invited to take part as they became i independent.
New Zealand privately bit its nails ? in apprehension that the French i would misunderstand and accuse her i of playing host to an anti-French i bloc. With so much to lose should 1 the Common Market turn sour on r its promise to give NZ farm produce s special consideration when Britain r joins, the New Zealanders are being i careful not to upset the French. They \ played it low key at the conference, to the extent that one Pacific leader i said later he wished they had been n more active.
Australia wanted to see Papua c New Guinea come along, if only as a, an observer. The forum countries 8 were privately relieved that the mem- -j bership requirements precluded that Jj big, emerging territory of almost three a million, because they are frightened of T her potential. She is so big, has so.o much support from Australia, and so o little understanding of the problems 8i of the Polynesian triangle, that theyy fear she would be like a bull in an china shop.
They are right, of course. Papua bi New Guinea as at present constituted b can’t be considered part of the Southri Pacific Islands, and perhaps it neverii will.
Australia, too, did far more listen-r ing than talking at the conference and like NZ was impressed with thear smooth way everything went. Aus-8 tralia’s Minister for Territories, Mr..i C. E. Barnes, had only just returnedb: from his first, mind-boggling visit tooj the eastern Pacific and it’s a pity hear
NZ's Prime Minister, Sir Keith Holyoake (left), and Fiji's Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, in Welling ton in August.
is retiring from parliament soon. He’s a greater friend of the Islanders than he has been given public credit for.
Nauru turned up at the forum with probably even less an inkling of its possible direction than anyone. Nauru has been a loner, with little time available for or understanding of the need to mend fences in her own region.
President Deßoburt runs Nauru.
Having won independence for her almost single-handed in 1968, he has since used his considerable energy in efforts to consolidate the island's economic position. This takes him frequently to Europe, Japan and Australia and he has had little op portunity for social fraternising in the South Pacific. In any case, President Deßoburt is not nearly so interested in the intricacies of political affiliations and inter-government re lationships as say, Ratu Mara, and Mr. Albert Henry of the Cooks.
Because of what appears to be her aloofness, Nauru has been regarded ay the forum countries with some :oldness. even suspicion, and when jarlier this year at a PIPA meeting Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cooks lecided to investigate possibility of a regional co-operative shipping line hey didn’t even bother to tell Nauru, vhich has a shipping line of its own.
It’s a measure of the success of he forum that when it broke up, all he leaders went off with a better appreciation of each other and of sach other’s problems. If it did lothing more than that, it did what latu Mara hoped it would do. And ;ince Australia and NZ were also nvolved round the table, that’s pro gress enough for one meeting.
We can expect more pressure to levelop at the next, Canberra, meeting n February.
Ratu Mara put it in these terms it an address to the conference table: Since coming to New Zealand I lave been constantly asked why we ire having this meeting and what do ve hope to achieve. I can put it [uite briefly. We are all leaders of lew nations. As such, we feel the esponsibility of leadership so keenly hat we want to seek all the help md guidance we can, “We are leaders of nations emerg ng from a long period of tutelage yith countries of European culture, duch of this culture we have dopted parliamentary democracy, he rule of law and constitutions •rganised for orderly management of >ur affairs. We realise that we are •art of the modern world, with all ts economic, sociological and •olitical problems. And we realise in Jl humility that we cannot pursue
the purposes of our leadership through our own cultures alone. . . .
“We hope this meeting will be the launching pad for further co-operation in the region. This is the era of aid from the more-developed to the less-developed countries of the world.
This aid will be forthcoming and best utilised in a stable and orderly region.
“One final word. We emergent nations in the Pacific would like to maintain the friendly relations that have existed with our former guides and protectors, beyond independence and into the future. It may be that the operation of independence in this way—the Pacific way—is what will distinguish us from other parts of the world, where this has not always been so. And in Australia and NZ we have neighbours who have gone through this experience and can share it with us.”
It was the “Pacific way” that first put the spark to the idea of the forum when the Pacific leaders met in Suva for Fiji’s independence celebrations last October. They considered it a good idea that the leaders meet regularly with Australia and NZ and discuss common problems and wants.
The idea was taken a stage further when the leaders found themselves together at the PIPA conference in Nukualofa in April (PIM, May, p. 22). Fiji was asked to organise such a forum Ratu Mara did not want to appear to run it for fear his fellow leaders ,ake There was already this suspicion
as a result of an innocent remark Fiji made last year when she put her own man at the UN and offered to “voice the views of the Pacific”, There is a history of rivalry, and in earlier days war, between Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, and sovereignty naturally still counts for something. By world standards, inter-Pacific relations are close and forthright, but they are not perfect, New Zealand Prime Minister Sir Keith Holyoake helped Ratu Mara out of his dilemma by agreeing to host the forum and largely to organise it. Australia will provide the same service in Canberra in February, it was noticeable in Wellington how Ratu Mara continually soft-pedalled on what in fact is his undoubted leadership in the South Pacific. He wanted to avoid a wrist-caning from his colleagues.
Yet here he is, closest thing to a statesman the Islands have got (they’re a rarity in the world any how), an experienced, intelligent, eloquent spokesman with that mixture of charm and hard-headedness that opens doors. The deftness in his approach to Australia and NZ, the two countries which he knows will do most for the Islands if tactfully approached, deserves admiration, Here is a man who can plead with out appearing humble, press without appearing demanding, The j s i an( j s should sink their rivalries and make use of him while he’s available
sra
for me.