governments?

Whither Island governments?

A change by the Islands from the current, Westminster, dual party, sys tem of government to one-party government, and a Federation of the South Pacific were two seeds which Fiji’s Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kami sese Mara, let fall for germination when he gave the Dillingham Lecture at the East-West Center in Honolulu at July’s end.

Sir Kamisese, who spoke on “Cur rents in the Pacific”, made several comparisons between the traditional life-styles in the Islands and those of the Western colonisers, and instanced the confusion which came with Western civilisation when the Islanders followed the “two appar ently incompatible creeds of material ism and Christianity, which, how ever, also taught the people how to adjust and compromise”.

With the coming of independence Islanders were faced with a real dilemma. Should they go back to their first beginnings, or “press on relentlessly along the lines of indus trialisation and endeavour?”

“Is the Western pattern of govern ment necessarily the one best suited to us in the Pacific?” Sir Kamisese asked. “Or are those African coun tries right who have tried the Western democratic pattern only to find that the real answer to their problems, and the way to progress, was through one-party government”.

Quoting an African argument that “all would be better working for the common aim rather than engaging in the facade of two or more party government, much of which is sterile and unproductive”, the Fiji Prime Minister said that a one-party govern ment may be more effective from the people’s point of view since a government might well give more heed to opposition from its own ranks.

After listing the organisations through which the Islands co operated with one another, Sir Kami sese said it was good to see, not only the inter-island regional co operation, but, also, greater realisa tion of Pacific identity and Pacific responsibility by Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

Asked Sir Kamisese: “A federation of the South Pacific?” and added that he was asking questions rather than providing answers.