Political

Currents

Png: Marine

Super-Spy?

A proposal now under study by the Papua New Guinea Government could have far reaching implications for PNG’s political role as the ‘mini-giant’ of the Pacific re

gion.

Angus Smales writes from Port Moresby that the PNG Government is evaluating a proposal to guard the fishing waters of its Island neighbours using Fokker Maritime sur veillance aircraft. A depart mental proposal suggests that

by selling a watchdog service to

nearby smaller countries the government could offset the high cost of buying and operat ing two or three Maritimes.

This would allow PNG to guard its own fisheries, be lieved to include some of the richest tuna resources in the world, while patrolling other countries’ fisheries zones up to 3000 km from the PNG capi tal.

The areas under study in clude the Caroline Islands 2000 km north of Port Moresby, the Marshall Islands to the east of the Carolines, and the Gilbert Islands 3000 km north-east of Port Moresby. PNG’s immediate neighbour to the east, the newly independent Solomon Islands, is also in cluded in the investigation.

Truk and Ponape in the Carolines, Majuro in the Marshalls and Tarawa in the Gilberts are proposed as bases from which regular distant patrols could operate. The Solomons operation could fly either from Honiara on Guadalcanal island, or from Kieta on the PNG island of

Bougainville.

The Fokker Maritime is a newly developed version of the well established F 27 Friend ship airliner which operates domestic services throughout the world, including services in PNG and Australia. The Mari

time comes with a price tag of more than SAS million, fully equipped with sophisticated surveillance and search and rescue equipment, and with

highly developed navigation

and control aids. External dif ferences from the passenger version are wing pod fuel tanks, a radar dome and wide vision ‘bubble’ windows. The extra fuel capacity allows the

Maritime to remain on patrol for 10 hours.

The Commander of the PNG Defence Force, Brigadier-General Ted Diro, said that purchase of the Dutch-built Maritime was still ‘very much under consider ation’. He said that Australian Nomad aircraft already opera ted by the defence force, and which are to be fitted with sur veillance equipment, were ad equate for some purposes. But he believed they were not

big enough for the major

fisheries protection work re

quired by PNG.

A Tilt To

Third World?

A firm Third World orien tation for the foreign policy of Western Samoa was advocated by its acting secretary to government, Terry Goggin, in a recent speech in Apia.

Mr Goggin is an officer of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs on secondment to the Western Samoa Govern ment. He was addressing the first meeting of the Samoana Economic Development Group, set up on the initiative of economist DrTe’o Fairbairn to encourage discussion of development issues.

Mr Goggin said; ‘To put it bluntly, the question is whether

Western Samoa, as a develop ing country, should achieve its economic and social goals by continuing to work through de veloped countries, or whether it should identify with and be seen to be identified with the developing countries of the world. I think the only answer is that Western Samoa has to be seen to be a developing

country standing alongside

other like-minded countries.’

Reviewing the evolution of

foreign policy since indepen

dence in 1962. Mr Goggin highlighted Western Samoa’s joining the United Nations in

1976 as ‘a major step’, giving

the country an international political and diplomatic clout it had never known before.

He said ‘The rest of the world does not take Samoa’s membership of the UN lightly.

Our vote is equal to that of the

most powerful countries.. .

‘ln the normal chain of events we could never expect Japan, or for that matter any country of similar importance, to be readily accessible to us or even to visit us. However, we have recently been honoured by a visit to Apia by Mr Saito, special adviser to the Japanese prime minister, to discuss both Japan’s candidature for the Se curity Council of the UN, and

also Japan’s relationship with

Western Samoa and the South Pacific.. . ‘Western Samoa’s prime minister, while visiting New York last year, had a long dis cussion with the US Secretary of State, Mr Cyrus Vance. One major outcome of that meeting was that the Assistant Secretary of State for the Far East and the Pacific, Mr Richard Holbrooke, visited Samoa in

January.

‘We have developed a level of contact with the United States which now enables us to

send the US letters or messages on matters that concern us, whether they be political, or civil aviation, or economic, at a level quite unavailable to us before.’

Of Western Samoa’s future perspectives in the Pacific. Mr Goggin said ‘We cannot escape the fact that the political make-up of the South Pacific today is not of British making.

The Solomon Islands became

independent in July.. Tuvalu

has become independent. The Gilbert Islands become independent next year. The New Hebrides is likelv to achieve independence in 1980.

There are major political

developments occurring in the

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and it is too early yet to state definitely what the situ ation will be like in 1981. But it appears that there could be several new' political entities, self-governing and in free as sociation with the United States. American Samoa has taken a major step forward by electing a Samoan governor and a Samoan lieutenant governor. Tahiti likewise has elected its own prime minis ter. ‘My point is that we now have a whole series of new countries with internal self government and those coun tries have experiences separate from Britain, the Common wealth. Australia and New Zealand. ‘We need to find ways to accommodate within regional organisations these countries

with differing political, admin

istrative and linguistic back

ground. . .

‘Western Samoa is keen to avoid putting the South Pacific into compartments, whether

they be English-speaking or

French-speaking, American

political systems, or British

oriented political systems.’

On the heightened inter national interest in the South Pacific. Mr Goggin said ‘West ern Samoa’s national interest will not be served by ignoring overtures from the rest of the world. ‘This is not without its prob lems both conceptually and practically. We have to ap

preciate. identify and analyse

the motivating forces behind

Brig-Gen Ted Diro .. . active consideration’

Terry Goggin . . . Third World, and no mistake

the interest that other countries show in this region. ‘We also have to have an ad ministrative capacity to cope with the policy issues that come with these overtures. We have to have, if I can put in a plug, a professional foreign service.’

‘Localise

The Experts’

Waeta Ben. speaking as acting prime minister of Solomon Islands, has urged a careful examination by Pacific govern ments of the use of expatriate experts.

He told a seminar on cus tomary land registration in Melanesia at the University of the South Pacific; ‘At present we have a self-perpetuating expert industry . . . Experts are employed by Pacific govern ments on all sorts of issues, and their advice is often good and

appropriate.

‘But some accounting of the cost of using experts must be made, not only to the aid donor

who usually pays the expert, but the cost to the local society.

A large amount of time is spent by government officials helping the experts collect the required information. Even be fore they arrive, much time and effort are expended in making arrangements for them.’

Mr Ben said that Solomon Islanders lacked experience in analysing problems and mak ing recommendations. ‘And as long as we continue to rely on experts, this second sort of ex perience will never be gained,’ he added.

The government was attempting to put the self

reliance concept into practice in the current seminar. Instead of getting an ‘expert on cus tomary land’, somebody had been recruited to help design the research project and train Solomon Islanders to do the re search and analysis that experts

usually did.

‘This is still using a form of expertise,’ Mr Ben said, ‘but it is using it in a way that gives Solomon Islanders the oppor tunity to gain the necessary ex perience. You could say that we are attempting to localise experts.’ Papua New Guinea and Fiji each sent two rep resentatives to the seminar.

Politics Of

Chamorro

Until this year, the language of Guam. Chamorro, has been essentially a spoken rather than a written language, writes Paul Addison from Agana. Few books have been printed in Chamorro and there is much disagreement about the spell ing of many Chamorro words.

To overcome the problems, the government set up a Chamorro Language Commission which has proposed a new alphabet and the holding of hearings in Guam’s 19 villages to debate its merits.

Despite the commission’s recommendations. Governor Ricardo J. Bordallo stunned

Chamorro speakers and politi

cal pundits alike when in Sep tember he issued an executive order to begin using the new al

phabet immediately.

The alphabet, which separ ates the Chamorro spoken on Guam from that in the North ern Marianas, changes the spelling of numerous common words. ‘New Chamorro’ scholars have applauded the changes as making it easier for the language to be understood and to perpetuate its existence.

They fear that children, bom barded on all sides by the

English language, are neglect

ing their native tongue.

Already, few island children speak Chamorro fluently and it has become common practice to speak English in the home, mixed in with a few Chamorro phrases. Proponents of the new alphabet have real grounds for

concern Chamorro is spoken only on Guam and in the Northern Marianas by a total of less than 50 000 people.

Clotilde Gould, from the Department of Education’s Chamorro language and cul ture division, was less than ex cited about Bordallo’s executive order. ‘lt’s like we’ve been caught with our pants down and now we have to ad here to it but we’re not finan cially prepared,’ she told a Pacific Daily News reporter.

Gould's concerns, voiced by many senior citizens and vil lage commissioners who want to retain present spellings, were heeded by Bordallo. The day after his order became publicly known, he reversed it and gave the six-member language com mission a year in which to con duct public hearings.

His sudden about-face was doubtless due to the political

repercussions of his arbitrary

order. Guamanians were to go to the polls to elect a new governor at the beginning of November, and Democrat Bor dallo was fighting hard to retain his position against a

strong challenge from Repub

lic candidate Paul Calvo (PIM October).

While many Guamanians are still debating the pros and cons of changing traditional spellings, one group, called PARA (People’s Alliance for Responsive Alternatives), has

gained widespread support in

its efforts to stop the decline of both the language and culture.

In March, hundreds of banner toting Guamanians marched to the offices of the Pacific Daily News and successfully demon

strated against the paper’s pol

icy of refusing to print advertisements in Chamorro

without an English trans lation.

At the newspaper rally, a PARA spokesman, Robert Underwood, summed up the feelings of the group; ‘Support of this kind of movement, is like being for justice or against justice,’ he said. Tt’§ easy to make the oppression of a language the oppression of an ethnic group. There obviously is a nationalistic sentiment in this language movement. You can’t divorce the language from the people who speak it.'

Nzbc Goes

Pacific’

Radio in New Zealand took on a new dimension in October when the Minister of Broad

casting. Mr Hugh Templeton,

opened Te Reo o Aotearoa , the Maori and Pacific Islands broadcasting unit of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corpor ation.

William Gasson writes from Wellington that the new unit has been created as a counter to demands for a Radio Polynesia to cater to the grow ing numbers of Polynesians liv ing in New Zealand. Mr Templeton rejected this idea on the grounds that ‘it would have been too limited in con centrating on Auckland’. He said: T believe it was more effective for Radio New Zealand to broaden its Maori programmes and to develop Pacific Island programmes to meet the needs of the Pacific Island communities here.' As the Polynesian com munity in New Zealand grows, with Auckland already the big gest Polynesian city in the world, there has been a height ened awareness in broadcast ing circles of the need to communicate with these com munities in their own languages.

Mr Templeton said the government hoped to expand and develop Radio New Zealand’s shortwave service to the Pacific a far cry from the situation two years ago when the government attempted to close down the shortwave ser vice but was stopped by a mass ive wave of protests.

Waeta Ben ... a close look at the expert industry’

Governor Ricky J. Bordallo . . . sharp about-turn

‘Two Chinas’

In Suva

The Fiji Government wants nothing to do with Taiwan

diplomatically, but is prepared

to continue commercial re lations. One of its latest moves was to advise senior public ser vants not to attend the Taiwan national day dinner-dance in October. One of the organisers of the function was Mr C.L.

Cheng, a member of the Chinese community in Suva and former Suva City Coun cillor.

In a memorandum, the government asked senior civil servants to note that it does not recognise the Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). As Fiji had established full diplomatic re lations with the People’s Re public of China, or mainland China, it advised non acceptance of the invitation to celebrate the national day of Taiwan.

Acceptance of the invitation

might imply that Fiji supported

Taiwan, said Mr Jioji Kotobalavu, Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Fiji had to abide by its commitment to China, and wanted China to know it was doing so. However, that would not stop Fiji from having commercial relations with Taiwan. Taiwan’s East Asian Trade Centre (Fiji) Ltd had been set up for purely commercial reasons.

A Chinese mission is to visit Fiji for a three-month study on the commercial and economic development of the country.

The amount of money to be offered as aid would be de cided when Fiji said what pro jects it wanted.

Ironically, several Taiwan technical experts are in Fiji

working on the big Seaqaqa

cane project in Vanua Levu for the native Land Development

Corporation.

Mr Lin, of the East Asian Trade Centre, said government officers had been invited to the dinner-dance, but as individuals and not in their

official capacities.

Mr Meng Te-yi, commercial

secretary at the Chinese Embassy, described the dinner dance as an illegal function.

Hammer’S Big

Libel Throw

Representatives of President Hammer Deßoburt of Nauru in October filed a SUS7.S million libel suit against the Gannett Publishing Group (PIM November). The suit was filed in the US District Court in Honolulu.

The charge is based on a story appearing in Gannett’s Guam newspaper, the Pacific Daily News, on May 30. The headline on the frontpage item was: ‘Marshalls separatist movement gets secret funds from Nauru’. Written by PDN reporter Cisco Uludong, it charged that ‘the Republic of Nauru secretly is backing the separation of the Marshall Islands from Micronesia’. PDN said that Deßoburt flew to the Marshall Islands ‘to personally deliver the cheque’ for a $678 600 secret loan, which the newspaper called ‘illegal’. It went on to say that the ‘phosphate-rich country has loaned thousands of dollars to finance a campaign by the Marshalls Political Status Commission, which supports separation, to reject the pro posed Micronesian consti tution’.

President Deßoburt, in his suit against Gannett, said the story was ‘untrue in every sig nificant respect’. The suit states that the news story, if true, would constitute an accusation of commission of four separate, serious criminal offences under Nauru law, including violation of the Nauru constitutional provision on handling of public funds, violation of the Nauru public monies ordinance, and violation of the statutes regard ing abuse of office and stealing.

The suit also charges that the PDN accused Deßoburt of a ‘violation of accepted and established international stan dards of diplomacy and inter national relations’. In its story, the newspaper wrote: ‘The sources said Marshallese separ atist leaders had earlier ap

proached Deßoburt’s prede

cessors about the loan but were politely turned down because Nauru officials did not want to be accused of “meddling” in Micronesia’s internal affairs.’

The suit says the news story was published with ‘reckless and malicious disregard as to whether it was false or not, without respect to damage which would inevitably be caused to the character and reputation of President Deßoburt’.

A release from President Deßoburt’s public relations firm, Communications-Pacific Inc. of Honolulu, reports Nauruan Secretary of Justice David Lang as saying in PIM in August that he had been involved in arranging a loan by the Republic of Nauru Finance Corporation to the Marshall Islands. Lang was quoted by PIM as saying the finance cor poration was ‘not connected with the government and operated as a separate statutory

company’.

Apia: Smoke

Of Battle

‘New Zealand gave us the money to build our hospital and now they are giving us money to fill it with patients.’

Bitter words, but they capture well the temper of debate now raging in Western Samoa over a plan to set up a cigarette fac tory at Vaitele near Apia. The speaker, a Mormon represen tative, Tufuga Sam Atoa, was

addressing a public protest

meeting in Apia.

Rothmans Industries (NZ) Ltd plan to establish the fac tory with assistance from the Western Samoa Government, which would use New Zealand bilateral aid money to finance its part in the project. Roth mans will own 51% of shares in the venture while Western Samoa will hold 40%. The remaining 9% will be offered to other Pacific countries.

Dr John Atherton, chief sur geon at Apia’s National Hospi tal’, told the protest meeting: in 1965 Western Samoa imported 12 million cigarettes; in 1970 this figure was 27 million; in 1975, the last figure available, it was 79 million. I estimate that this year the figure will be more than 100 million.

‘Cigarette smoking is

increasing at an alarming rate.

I say alarming because it is alarming to me. For the ciga rette companies it must be any thing but alarming. It must be a very satisfying state of affairs.’

The meeting’s chairman.

Professor Felix Wendt of the University of the South Pacific

School of Agriculture, urged

the government to reassess the situation and stop the factory.

Conceding that it would take courage to admit that a mistake had been made, he said; ‘Mak ing such a decision takes more than a politician it takes a statesman.’

William Gasson reports from Wellington that the issue has been making waves in New Zealand as well. Gasson quotes an Auckland Star editorial as saying: ‘There will be many who will think it a pity that New Zealand’s money couldn’t have gone to a more labour intensive industry one less hazardous to heath. .. ‘ln July the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Adams-Schneider, replied to Samoan claims that the project had been approved without

considering the long-term

health risks from smoking. He said the health implications had not been overlooked.

Smoking was clearly well

established in Western Samoa, observed the minister. It seemed reasonable that Samoa should ask to minimise the foreign exchange cost of cigar ettes and to benefit from the substantial number of jobs which would be created.’

The New Zealand Govern ment denied claims that it had put $2OO 000 into the project, and that aid money will go di rectly towards cigarette making. But it admitted that about $l5O 000 of New Zealand money will be used to build the factory.

President Hammer DeRoburt. . . ‘untrue in every significant re spect’