Tahiti Letter

French Polynesia’s Year of Decision

From Al Prince In Papeete

IF 1975 was the “Year of the Statute” here, 1976 may well become the “Year of the Elections”, and, more importantly, “the Referendum”, with France giving French Polynesia the choice of being (1) independent, (2) an Overseas Department of France, (3) a region of France, or, (4), an Overseas Territory, as it is now, but with a new law providing more autonomy. As 1975 drew to a close, the more imminent possibility for 1976 was the dissolution of the French Polynesia Territorial Assembly, which approached the new year powerless and deadlocked for the first time in its history.

But as the old year ended on uncertainty about the future, the new year began with two certainties—(l) Charles Schmitt will replace Daniel Videau as French Polynesia’s Governor soon, giving the territory its first governor who has never had an overseas post; (2) Olivier Stirn, the French Minister of Overseas Depart ments and Territories, will be making a return visit to Tahiti, probably in January.

The political life in French Polynesia has never been the same since Mr Stirn first visited Tahiti last March, opening a dialogue on a new statute, which he sub sequently proposed, to make French Polynesia a more autonomous Overseas Territory. But since March, the discussions here and in Paris and between France and Tahiti have shifted more and more away from the new statute to a simple choice—independence or a region or department.

While never saying anything about a referendum, Mr Stirn hinted at such a possibility in a mid-November interview when he said; “The Polynesians must cer tainly decide one day if they want to remain French or become independent”.

Mr Stirn will find anything but a calm political situ ation when he returns here. Instead, the situation has developed into a hornets’ nest with the local government unable to govern, the governor unable to break the deadlock, the major political parties calling for the dis solution of the Territorial Assembly and the holding of new elections, the formation of a leftist Socialist party and the interjection of racist statements in the local political dialogue.

On November 13, the majority in the 30-member Territorial Assembly shifted from the autonomist party headed by Frantz Vanizette to the Gaullist party of Gaston Flosse. The majority shifted by one vote when the councillors voted on the formation of a committee to study the new statute proposed by Mr Stirn. The deciding votes were cast by councillors Adophe Bohl and Lucien Rattinassamy, who later said they were still loyal to the autonomist camp, having only switched sides on this one particular vote.

But before going to Paris with the committee headed by Flosse, Bohl and Rattinassamy attacked the Popaa

(the Tahitians word for white man) in the Territorial Assembly. In interjecting the first openly-racist political dialogue here, the two councillors specifically attacked President Vanizette and councillors Henri Bouvier and Daniel Millaud, saying that the Tahitians have a suf ficient maturity to discuss the situation with the Minis ter of Overseas Territories without the assistance of the popaa.

Bohl and Rattinassamy continued the attack by say ing that if the popaa want to make politics, “why don’t they form their own party? Polynesian parties that speak in the name of Polynesians should not be man aged by popaa”. They said their only regret was that they had not taken this stand earlier and not put a popaa as President of the Territorial Assembly.

The two councillors subsequently received several threatening telephone calls. There was even a report that Rattinassamy received at his home an envelope containing a rifle bullet wrapped in cotton wool. It was, therefore, not surprising that the two men were given a heavy escort by the gendarmes when they went to the airport to fly to Paris with the statute committee headed by Flosse.

THEN, with Flosse and his group in Paris, President Vanizette called an extraordinary session of the Territorial Assembly at 12.15 am on November 19 with 20 councillors present, only five of whom represented Flosse’s so-called “new majority”. Despite the unusual hour, some 300 persons sat in the audience, represent ing all walks of life, including truck drivers, gardeners and longshoremen.

Vanizette, turning the gavel over to another coun cillor so he could speak from the floor, opened the session by saying, “We don’t want to be boxed into a dilemma. We don’t want a region, or independence. (Applause). I think that the French Parliament will understand us”. (Applause).

Gaullist councillor Nedo Salmon charged that the session was illegal. When Vanizette asked for proof, four of the Gaullist councillors left the hall, with Salmon saying he planned to lodge a protest.

The statute proposed by Mr Stirn was then brought up and rejected by a 15-0 vote with one abstention.

The assembly session ended at 3.25 am after Vanizette refused to set a date for the next session, thus leaving the assembly blocked.

The autonomists, therefore, defied the administrative powers, stacking the cards in their favour for the first time in order to achieve their main objective of having the assembly dissolved. However, the assembly cannot dissolve itself. This is something that can only be done in Paris. And Mr Stirn indicated in a communique that the action of Vanizette’s so-called “new minority” in rejecting the statute on November 19 was illegal.

The same day that Mr Stirn issued his communique from Paris, Governor Videau held a press conference in Tahiti, saying that France had no intention of taking such a drastic step as dissolving the Territorial Assem bly. Governor Videau also ruled out a referendum on the statute, adding, “One uses a referendum when part of the territory wants to separate itself from the whole; when it demands its independence”.

Governor Videau accused Vanizette of abusing his power as Assembly President by calling a session at an hour when it was impossible to bring the other coun cillors back from Paris in time and by assuming that only he can call a meeting of the Assembly. The Governor said he had asked the State Council to rule on the situation within 90 days, hoping to get an answer within three weeks.

President Vanizette had until December 31 to call another assembly session, which he said he had no intention of doing. After December 31, Governor Videau can call the assembly together in an extra ordinary session. But if President Vanizette does not transmit the governor’s call for a session, or if the president and vice-president of the assembly are not present, none is held.

With the Territorial Assembly rendered powerless, the 1976 Budget cannot be voted. The governor will have to intervene after January 1 to release money on a monthly basis equivalent to a twelfth of the 1975 Budget.

Meanwhile, President Vanizette accused Governor Videau of bluffing. He also described Councilloi Salmon’s motion before the Administrative Appellate Court a bluff, saying the court has no authority to rule on territorial assembly actions other than elections.

Vanizette said he regretted the present situation of a blocked assembly, which, he said, could last until the renewal of the assembly next May. The only solution, he said, is dissolution, which all the political groups have demanded at one time or another. He said Flosse wanted dissolution when he was leader of the minority, but now that the government has helped him regain the majority he (Flosse) does not want the assembly dissolved.

As for the future, Vanizette said, “We don’t want independence. We’re not crazy”.

However, French National Assembly Deputy Francis Sanford was talking about independence.

“We want to remain French, but not at the price of disguised departmentalisation as Mr Stim wants to impose on us. We want to remain on the whole French but we want to assure ourselves the administration of our affairs”, he said.

Mr Stirn has now proposed to us departmentalisation, regionahsation or independence. For us, the choice will be difficult to make, but between departmentalisation and independence, we will choose independence—if we are forced to”.

Noting that the autonomist party he heads asked Mr Stirn in a telegram 9n February 6 to dissolve the assembly, Sanford said in mid-November that in the weeks to come his party would take other action to force the dissolution of the assembly and hold a referendum.

Thus, as the new year approached, the political situation in French Polynesia was stalemate, the only hope for ending the deadlock being Mr Stirn’s arrival m January, which could well coincide with Mr Videau’s departure and the arrival of the Territory’s new governor.

FRANCE conducted its second underground nuclear test of 1975 on the French Polynesian atoll of Fangataufa, some 800 miles southeast of Tahiti, on November 26. The test, code-named Hector, was des cribed by the French Defence Ministry in Paris as pro viding “satisfactory results”.

The test, originally scheduled for October, was the second and last test to be conducted at Fangataufa for the foreseeable future, France having decided earlier to move its underground testing facilities to Mururoa, the site of previous atmospheric tests. France’s first under ground nuclear test occurred on June 5.

France moved its nuclear testing underground be cause of pressure from other countries, mostly in the South Pacific, who were worried about radio-active fallout. French officials have estimated that the under ground tests costs more than $l6 million each, com pared to $4-$5 million for atmospheric tests.

About two weeks before France’s latest underground blast, French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing claimed that France is now the third nuclear power in the world, far behind the United States and the Soviet Union, but well ahead of Britain.

France, like the People’s Republic of China, has not signed the nuclear test ban treaty. And its nuclear wea pons are not under the direct control of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, since France does not belong to the NATO integrated command structure. ★ ★ ★ ★ r>LANS have been disclosed for a 2,650-metre long A airport runway at Nukuhiva in the Marquesas. This will enable larger aircraft to service the island on a more frequent basis from Tahiti. Also planned are a two-lane motor vehicle tunnel under the current runway at Tahiti-Faaa International Airport sometime next year and a second runway in the next five or six years for all light aircraft.

The plans were disclosed at the week-long 12th informal meeting of the directors of civil aviation in Asia and the Pacific. Delegates from 18 countries attended the meeting.

The Nukuhiva runway project has been divided into two phase, the first at an estimated cost of 16.5 million French Pacific Francs, which is about U 55206,000. The first phase will involve the construction of a 1,500metre-long runway, which would be expanded to 2,650 metres under Phase 2 of the project. No dates for the project were mentioned.

In presenting a working paper to the meeting, France noted that the Marquesas Archipelago, 800 nautical miles northeast of Tahiti with some 5,000 inhabitants, in the recent past had only the copra boats as a link with Tahiti.

Said the spokesman: “When a few years ago French Polynesia entered the aviation era, the Marquesans longed for an airport of their own, but owing to the volcanic nature of their islands and to the fact that they have no surrounding lagoon, meeting their wish appeared an uneasy task.

“Commercial flights were then started, using a third small airfield, Manihi, as a stepping stone between Tahiti (300 nautical miles away) and the Marquesas (a 500-mile hop). The aircraft used, which had to operate on runways less than 800 metres long, were a Piper Aztec and a Twin Otter. Obviously, those planes, or in fact, any other now available and having similar take off and landing requirements, cannot be operated safely, regularly, or economically on such a distance over the ‘blue sea’.”