Pacific Islands Monthly

Regional Co-Operation; An Ideal

For The Forum, Or Just Talk

By a staff writer

There are breakers ahead for the South Pacific Forum. It could founder on the waves of nationalism, with each member country paddling its own canoe to the exclusion of regional interests.

The warning was sounded at the fifth Forum held at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands from March 20 to 22 when, after three days of talking, the Forum closed with little solid achieve ment beyond agreement to refer projects, studies and reports to the already-overworked South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (SPEC) and other organisations or meetings.

One of the items on an over crowded agenda was a regional air line. Nobody got anywhere and the only effect of the discussion, or, so far as some members were con cerned, the non-discussion, was an uneasy feeling that nationalism was about to triumph over the very ideal which created the Forum—regional co-operation.

For the Fiji Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, the ultimate fate of a regional airline will be the acid test for the Forum.

Ratu Mara warned that failure to solve the problem of a regional airline, with at least two member countries wanting to fly alone, would transform the Forum into nothing but a talking shop. (See p 105).

And that was what the fifth Forum became. There was too much talk, several delegates said outside, with the knightly host, Sir Albert Henry, Cook Islands Premier, as the worst offender. He was on his feet a dozen times in a session, obviously enjoying batting on a home wicket, but talk obscured the real aims.

The agenda was overcrowded.

There were too many formal de cisions called for; technical papers fluttered though the air like con fetti, and the atmosphere, with the delegates sitting at a round table big enough to accommodate King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Sirs Galahad, Gawain etc, was hardly a “Pacific”

atmosphere. The intimacy of Wellington, of Canberra and the rest was crowded out of an overcrowded room. No one could have a quiet tete-a-tete with his neighbour.

Speeches were formal at a time when a series of chats might have cleared the air. The result was a less-than-satisfactory Fifth South Pacific Forum with probably more than a tinge of resentment lowering the spirits of some of the delegates.

The latest newcomer, Papua New Guinea in the person of its Chief Minister Michael Somare, put its finger on the malaise.

“We can sense,” he is reported to have said at the close, “that some thing quite important is missing from our attempts to solve problems of regional importance to us.

“I believe that a lot of the matters of technical but, nonetheless, of general importance discussed here have been discussed in other meetings through the South Pacific Commission auspices. Studies and feasibility surveys on matters dis cussed here have been conducted and oceans of paper have swamped our shores, “But I fail to see any action ac corded to these so-called expert studies which are very costly. I believe it’s time we took con

structive measures to implement some of our previous resolutions and put them into practice so as to benefit our people whose interests we are basically here to represent, and whose welfare should be up permost in our minds when we make decisions here.”

When Papua New Guinea first knocked on the Forum’s door in 1972, there were fears that, as the largest of the Island countries out side the ANZAC group, she would dominate the Forum. Mr Somare has emphatically denied that his country wants a dominant role, but, with comments like the foregoing, it might fill the role of counsellor and adviser to the rest.

That role at the moment seems to belong to Australia, whose Foreign Minister, Senator Don Willesee, several times got the discussions back on an even keel when they strayed, as they often did. More than that, Australia, and New Zealand demon strated that they still saw themselves as partners with the Islands, and generous ones at that.

When the talk turned to tourism and the Islands’ cultural heritage, Australia offered $250,000 as a first contribution towards a five-year programme for the preservation and development of Pacific cultures, but nobody suggested how the money should be spent. It is, however, for regionwide use and is additional to the sls million promised through the Australian South Pacific Aid Pro gramme and the $250,000 voluntary contribution to the SPC as well as the current project of assistance to the library and museum at Rarotonga.

New Zealand also showed her generosity. She gladdened Sir Albert’s heart, and that of other banana growers with the news that she will pay another 70c a 56 lb case for the next six months. NZ also plans to spend $35 million in the Pacific area over the next five years.

About $2.5 million will be for two ships to work between NZ and the Cooks, a generous gift which maybe

won’t fit into a regional shipping scheme which was one of the topics over which the Forum became truly bogged down. Such a scheme, despite SPEC’s work on it, and a long con ference in Tonga, seems as far off as ever. (See p 103).

All the Forum did, after Senator Willesee warned that it was too soon to talk about a regional shipping cor poration, was to agree to establish a regional shipping council. This will work through SPEC on the job of making further studies and investiga tions to help the Forum to arrive at a decision whether, or not, to form a shipping corporation—a case of “as you were” two years ago.

One thing the Forum did, as valuable as anything it did, was to act as a safety valve in the case of countries like Fiji and Tonga almost ready to blow a gasket over the recent expulsions of Islanders from Australia and New Zealand.

Australia produced a paper on the Labour Ministers’ conference in Sydney last October and on this hook Island speakers hung their complaints —Australians didn’t understand their labour problems or the workers’ environment; were Filipinos preferred to Islanders as workers, why not guest workers, and a dozen other queries which have been going the rounds in the Islands.

Both Australia and New Zealand explained their position. New Zealand cleared the air on those early morning visits on illegal immigrants by the police and Senator Willesee explained Australia’s difficulties with its own wild unionists and the need for some workers’ training scheme for the Islands.

Sir Albert Henry thought it would be a good idea, when he gave a paper on a labour exchange scheme, to swap workers, a kind of cultural exchange scheme for the working community, who never get anywhere unlike the

professional man, who gets training overseas, said Sir Albert.

His paper produced no concrete results beyond a commendation of the labour exchange to individual member governments, but, on the subject of labour relations, the Forum agreed to support plans for a seminar in Suva this year on problems of industrial relations and a further conference of Labour Ministers in New Zealand later this year.

Throughout most of the discussions, Fiji’s Prime Minister had little to say.

What he did say was, as usual, to the point, but at times there was too much talk and little action.

His main interest lay in civil aviation, but this subject wasn’t reached until the third day when President Hammer Deßoburt, of Nauru, produced a paper on the subject.

Ratu Sir Kamisese had earlier com plained that SPEC had devoted much of its energies to the business of the regional shipping line, and little at tention had been paid to the problem of a regional airline.

The SPEC agreement, he said, gave the bureau a role to perform in transport. He felt that should mean airlines as well as shipping.

Mr Mahe Tupouniua, SPEC’s director, who had had eulogies by the bucket poured on his head for the work SPEC had done since the last meeting, said he required a specific directive on civil aviation and the strength and support of a definitive Forum backing.

There was no doubt about needing support because, as NZ Prime Minister Norman Kirk pointed out, SPEC was a body for regional co operation and co-ordination, but, in the matter of civil aviation, “could be forced into the position of taking sides with one or another of the Forum countries whose interests con flicted with other member countries”.

So he thought there was a struggle ahead!

The Forum cleared the air by deciding that Fiji should call a meet ing of Ministers of Civil Aviation.

There was a long discussion on atmospheric nuclear testing and after many a speech which ranged over the whole topic, including the part played by China in nuclear pollution, it was decided, once again, to call on all governments, in particular the French, the only government in the South Pacific, to halt testing.

There were a dozen other topics, including a request from the Congress of Micronesia to be allowed to send observers to the meeting. They will be told to apply to the Prime Minister of Tonga, where the next Forum will be held —in July, 1975.

Other decisions made were: © SPEC to act, when appropriate, for members negotiating with the European Economic Community; © SPEC to provide an information service of the availability of aid in the region; O To give support to the SPEC report on the upgrading of telecom munication links and a feasibility study for a South Pacific regional telecommunications network; O SPEC to provide a report on the fuller dissemination of regional news; @ Members to consider plans to improve the regional approach to technical education; © SPEC to examine an offer by the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management to help in improving fisheries; © Forum members to meet before the Law of the Sea meetings in Kenya and Venezuela; • SPEC to study a UN Mission report, commissioned by SPEC, on trade expansion, and also consider Cook Islands’ proposals for the establishment of a regional centre for bulk purchasing; © Careful consideration to be given to the establishment of a Pacific Council, and O An approach to be made to a Law Conference to be held in Suva to ask them for a report on a pro posal by Western Samoa to establish a regional court of appeal.

The last word, as was the first word, was spoken by Sir Albert Henry. “I feel a bit sad that this Forum is now closing,” he said.

According to one observer, who was in it from the beginning, Sir Albert was the only one with a sad heart.

Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara ... civil aviation will be the test.

Sir Albert Henry ... he wanted a labour exchange.