The Gilbertese plan a home-made

constitution for independence

By Professor David J. Murray

When the Gilbert Islands achieve their independence, probably in June next year, they will have a con stitution which will be completely home-made and will dove-tail with their traditional customs and their peculiar position living on specks of land in nearly two million square miles of ocean.

The islanders began work on framing their constitution in March last year and the whole process peaked in April this year with the Constitutional Convention on Tarawa, a meeting which went on for three weeks and attracted one of the largest gatherings in Gilbertese history. It was an important part of a continuing attempt to involve the people closely in devising a con stitution which would be generally understood and to which people would be committed.

In March. 1976, separate dis cussion groups were formed, in itially, on the invitation of the Governor. Mr John Smith, and dur ing the succeeding months these groups had meetings and extended

their membership.

In August, the Governor submit ted a list of questions to the meeting of the House of Assembly in order further to stimulate discussion. The list of questions there were 52 in both English and Gilbertese ver sions was entitled 'Questions to be answered before an Indepen dence Constitution can be Drafted’.

The questions covered basic issues about the form of institutions and distribution of authority, and though, as some commented at the time, they were oriented towards a Westminster model of parliamen tary government, they raised alter native possibilities.

The choice of questions reflected, in part, the discussions in the differ ent discussion groups, and the ideas put forward by them.

Following the meeting of the House of Assembly, the Council of Ministers agreed to a proposal that an advisory Constitutional Conven tion should be convened, and also that the Governor should invite a

Professor Murray, who is Professor of Public Admin istration at the University of the South Pacific, had a front row seat at the conven tion as official Adviser.

long list of national associations and bodies on each island to send rep resentatives to the convention.

Before the meeting of the re sulting Constitutional Convention, a team went to each of the islands to help explain certain of the issues in volved.

The convention opened on April 21 and was attended by 165 rep resentatives. Among them were rep resentatives of national associations, such as the trade unions, co-op eratives, civil servants and churches, and also representatives from each of the islands, presidents of island councils, representatives of women’s clubs and old men’s and is land associations.

Gilbertese on Nauru sent a rep resentative but those on Rabi Island in Fiji, though invited to send rep resentatives, did not do so, and. similarly, the Banabans on Ocean Island declined to send anyone as part of the Ocean Island group.

The convention met in the maneaba or traditional meeting house of the Teinainao Urban Coun cil on Tarawa, and was conducted, as it was put, in traditional maneaba

s ‘V le - Speaker ot the House of Assembly Ten Rota Honono P res ' ded , wl ! h asslstance trom Ten Reuben Uatloa The daily meetings aroused great interest, and, with the public allow ed to be present, there was a regular throng of people around the maneaba and sjtt ing on the fringes, Y et, despite the size of the gatherj ng> tbere was a well-informed and order y discussion of the major issues , and it was conducted throughout with the aims of developing a consensus that fitted the inter ests of all in the Gilberts ( and noticeably, was thought to fit , he wishes of the Banabans). , , . , The P hrase tha < recurred in almost every contribution was that thmgs must be right tor everyone ! ro ™ Makl " ,n the north to Arorae m the south. u The discussion was structured on the insistence ot the Unimane (or representatives trom the old men s associations trom the islands), aro , Ul ;d the 52 questions prepared and distributed the previous year, Initially, in considering these. there was tension between rep resentatives from the other islands and those they called the Young men of South Tarawa : but after a week of discussions there was a marked coming together ot the dit ferent groups and a mutual re

cognition —explicitly expressed

of the valuable contribution each had to make. In the upshot, with the possible exception of the decision in favour of a combined office of head of state and head of government (as currently in Nauru), the unanimity of the convention, in support of re commendations, gives to these a substantial degree of moral authori ty. even though the convention had. explicitly, only an advisory role.

In its recommendations, the con vention broke some new ground while in other ways it favoured a Westminster model of constitution.

The convention supported a unitary form of government, with an enlarg ed legislature cabinet executive, neutral public service, independent audit, and judicature.

What was new were the devices favoured in order to involve the public more in the process of government, particularly taking ac count of the difficult circumstances of the dispersed islands of the Gilberts.

Thus, it was recommended that the candidates for head of the ex ecutive should be nominated by the members of the Assembly from among themselves, but that the elec torate as a whole should then elect the head of the executive.

They also recommended that members of the assembly should be subject to the recall in order to keep them responsive to Island needs: and there was insistence that the proceedings of the House of As sembly should be arranged to ensure adequate discussion of bills and policy proposals in all the islands before a decision was taken on them.

Here they proposed that, nor mally, legislation should be con sidered initially in one session of the House, but that further discussion should be deferred to the ensuing session, and for proposals to be referred, in the meantime, to each of the islands.

One of the striking features in deed of the convention was the con cern to fashion a constitution that reflected the peculiar circumstances facing a country dispersed over nearly two million square miles of ocean and one also that accorded with the traditions of the Gilbertese people.

A report in English cannot ade quately convey the attention given to finding processes that expressed what seemed to agree with the un

derstanding and expectation of peo ple in Gilbertese society, nor the significance of recommendations on appropriate words or descriptions for institutions, offices and pro cesses that are unfamiliar to the Gilbertese, but seen as a necessary part of the independence constitu tion of the country.

It is unusual in the history of Bri tain’s dependencies for a constitu tion to be developed in a society where there is a single relatively homogeneous culture.

This has given to the people of the Gilbert Islands a chance to develop a constitution which is more adapted to their culture than is often possible, and the work of the Con stitutional Convention formed an important step in fashioning such a constituion.

The convention report has since been submitted to the House of As sembly but no final decisions can be taken on an independence con stituion until after a further general election.