Tahitians

'taken for a ride'

From a Tahiti correspondent A call for independence was the Tahitians’ first reaction to the new political statutes proposed by the Paris Government in late January.

“From General de Gaulle to Giscard, we’ve been taken for a ride. We’ve had enough of talking. I only want to talk about one thing independence.” This was the reac tion of Francis Sanford, French Polynesia’s deputy to the French

National Assembly.

Main substance of the new statutes is an upgrading of the “Council of Government”, with each counsellor being given the right to supervise a “sector” of the territorial administration. Provision would also be made for an elected vice-president of the Council, and the Governor, while retaining the presidency, would lose his right to vote in the Council. The new statutes have been rejected by both conservatives and autonomists in

French Polynesia.

Mr Sanford made his statement in

Sanford...enough of talking.

Tahiti after sending a letter to Governor Schmitt explaining his reasons for refusing to meet Mr M.

Poniatowski, French Minister for the Interior, responsible for over seas territories. Sanford claimed, “They’ve been trying to fool the Polynesians too long for us to con tinue with empty talk.”

Expanding later on his remarks, Sanford was quoted as saying he had been somewhat overcome by the up surge of feeling from within the ranks of the United Front for autonomy. He said the violent reac tion could be explained by the peo ple’s feeling that the government had continually lied to them.

Moreover he himself had been ac cused of being a “spokesman for the liars in Paris”. He had therefore urged the French Government to accept the new statutes “tabled in the Senate by Pouvanaa A Oopa, otherwise French Polynesia will get its independence”.

The 65-year-old politician re called: “Ten years ago I was the most hated man around in the eyes of the wealthy because I had used the words internal autonomy. I’m starting again now with indepen dence. I’m not scared, I’m used to it.

And I know I’m right.

“Look, internal autonomy has become something respectable. It’ll be the same with independence.

“I also think of the Tahitian flag.

There were the most furious rows about that. A captain in the gendar merie pulled one down at the air port and asked loudly where the toilet was ... Today the Tahitian flag is flown everywhere. People find it a normal thing. It’ll be the same with independence!’

As the call for independence re sounded throughout French Polynesia, the first reaction from Paris was a telegram on February 14 to Sanford direct from Mr Poniatowski inviting him to talks on the problem in Paris.

The continued operation of the CEP nuclear test centre in Tahiti is a delicate matter for both sides, politically and economically.

However, more than people in other French areas in the Pacific, the Polynesians have kept their own way of life and are better able to resist the high consumer-debt building pattern the French have created in, say, New Caledonia.