the seams
pp. 10-11 · Read in the full issue
Micronesia gapes at the seams
By JOHN GRIFFIN Editorial Page Editor of the Honolulu Advertiser.
There’s a mixture of good and bad developments in the drawn-out process of negotiating a new political status for Micronesia, the vast central Pacific area which the US has ruled since World War II under United Nations trusteeship.
The bad news is that the district legislature in the Marshall Islands (site of US missile tests) has passed a resolution calling for separate negotiations on that district’s political future.
There’s also talk of the Marshalls breaking completely with the Congress of Micronesia which has been ne gotiating with the US on the future of five of the Trust Territory’s six districts.
The immediate issue is revenue sharing—a Marshalls proposal that each district be allowed to keep half of the taxes (mostly on salaries) col lected there and now going to the Congress of Micronesia. A revenue sharing bill was killed in the congress session just ended.
This has special importance because the Marshalls provide more than 60 per cent of the perhaps $4 million making up such revenue.
If the Marshalls isn’t bluffing, the result could be separate negotiations such as those now going on with the Marianas district. Or, if Washington wouldn’t go for that, there has been talk of the Marshalls asking the UN if they could team up with the tiny, independent and very rich (from phosphate) Republic of Nauru and the Gilbert Islands, a Micronesian group now part of a colony Britain seeks to leave soon.
At the least, however, the Marshalls move is another sign of the internal disagreements and tendency toward fragmentation which US officials con sider the most dangerous trends in a region largely held together by various kinds of colonial rule (Spanish, German, Japanese, US) over the last 300 years.
Such disagreements among Micro nesians have been increasing in the past few years as they have ap proached the major decision on their political future.
Back in the summer of 1972 it
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seemed the US and Congress of Micronesia negotiators had a deal on a status called “free association”.
Basically, that calls for Micronesia to have basic sovereignty and virtually complete internal self-government, while allowing the US to run foreign affairs and defence and have military bases (in return for substantial pay ment).
Since then the Marianas district has insisted on pushing off on its own, and leaders of other districts have disagreed on goal, approach, tactics and timetable.
The most notable achievement of the congress was passage in its just concluded session of a bill for a US financed constitutional convention to be held next year. A much-needed programme of public education on future status also is under way.
There are those who charge the US has encouraged fragmentation in the interest of keeping future base sites under the American flag. But most evidence indicates it has been Micro nesian differences and indecision (some understandable, some not) that has dragged out the negotiation process in recent years.
The better news in terms of pro gress is that the separate negotiations aimed at US commonwealth status for the northern Mariana Islands district of the Trust Territory are moving ahead.
Top negotiators for both sides held meetings in Honolulu, and indications were they expect to reach final agree ment of a formal meeting in May and sign it later this year.
There are, however, a couple of delicate points: While it’s agreed the US will have a large military base on Tinian, still unsettled are its extent and whether land will be US owned as Washington asks or leased as the islanders want.
Plans call for the base (air, sea and land-manoeuvre facilities) to be developed over seven years, to have a small permanent population (perhaps 1,500) but much expansion possibility in case of emergency need.
Then there is Guam, the nearby but separate Marianas island which the US has ruled since the Spanish American War.
Naturally enough, the Guamanians are looking closely at the kind of deal Washington is giving the northern Marianas and is offering the rest of the Trust Territory. For example, where the Territory of Guam is governed under an organic act passed by the US Congress, the northern
Marianas commonwealth (also an American territory) will have a con stitution drawn up by its people.
At the least, Guam will want its own constitution, and also perhaps more financial advantages from Washington. In fact, there are those in the US Congress who may insist on that—and it’s well to remember that the US Congress will be in creasingly involved in the status picture.
So the timetables on all this are drawn out at best.
Estimates run to three years before the Marianas Commonwealth will be established. That allows time for a plebiscite, constitutional convention and separate arrangements for Guam.
Meanwhile, military base plans are expected to move forward.
Eventually, after the northern Marianas catch up economically, they may want to join politically with much-bigger Guam (110,000 vs. 15,000 population now). Both have a majority of Chamorro people.
The outlook for agreement on the rest of Micronesia is much less certain, even leaving aside the new uncertainty over the Marshalls. Con gress of Micronesia leaders talk of five to 10 years before they will be in a new status. Events and changing attitudes may well alter this picture in the next few years. But for now a quote from a Micronesian seems appropriate.
This former government official said recently in noting the internal disagreement: “Maybe we should stop negotiating with the Americans and negotiate with ourselves for a while.” ® Footnote. The fourth round of talks between the United States and the Marianas Political Status Com mission headed by Senator Edward Pangelinan was scheduled to begin on May 15. First choice for meeting place is Honolulu or, if funds are low, Saipan.