Political

Currents

Hebrides’ Red

Letter Day

December 21, 1978, was a red letter day in the political his tory of the New Hebrides: on that day more than a year of effort was crowned with suc cess when a government of national unity was finally an nounced.

The new government is headed by a Roman Catholic priest. Father Gerard Leymang, as chief minister, and Anglican Father Walter Lini, deputy chief minister and minister for social affairs.

Both Fr Lini’s Vanuaaku Party and the ‘moderate’ par ties represented by Fr Leymang have five places in the new government.

Agreement between the two sides was not achieved without casualties: on December 15 the former chief minister, George Kalsakau, was removed from office by a no-confidence vote in the Representative As sembly. The motion referred to his ‘difficulties’ in negotiating with the Vanuaaku Party. Next day Mr Kalsakau was appointed speaker of the Rep

resentative Assembly.

The new government is: Chief Minister Gerard

Leymang; Deputy Chief

Minister and Minister for Social Affairs Walter Lini (VP); Finance Minister Guy Prevot; Minister of Internal Affairs Maxime Carlot; Minis ter for Education Donald Kal pokas (VP); Minister for Health John Naupa (VP); Minister for Public Services George Kalkoa (VP); Minister for Trade, Industry and Tour ism Aime Malere; Minister for Transport and Communi cations Luke Dini; Minister for Natural Resources Thomas Reuben (VP).

Major concessions made by the two sides in the quest for

unity were: acknowledgement

by the VP of the legitimacy of

the Representative Assembly

and of the predominance of the role of the Chief Minister in the government; agreement by the moderate parties to hand over to VP ministers major and sensitive portfolios such as education and health.

Chief Minister Leymang said in an interview with the

French/Bislama fortnightly

Nabanga: ‘The unity achieved within the government will not be felt from one day to the next throughout all the islands and villages of the archipelago. The consequences of the division that we have experienced until now will not disappear over

night.

‘But I believe in the Melanesian team that we have now set up.’

December also saw action on another front when 2000 people demonstrated in Vila against the plan to reduce the Vila Base Hospital to a ‘clinic’ (PIM January). The contro versial plan had been aired by Minister for Social Services Father Leymang before his el evation to national leader

ship.

As the New Hebrides takes further painful steps along its thorny road to independence, it is worth recalling some unusually frank remarks on the country’s historical back ground made during his visit to the condominium last year by French Secretary of State for Overseas Departments and Territories Paul Dijoud, who told a press conference:

‘The divisions in the society of the New Hebrides are largely the product of history.

We must acknowledge that England, like France, transposed here from the beginning of the con dominium, and by the very act of creating the condominium in the first place their European differences and col onial quarrels. ‘We established here, fun

damentally speaking, two

peoples, French-speaking and

English-speaking, where

clearly a people of one heart should have been established. ‘The time has come when these quarrels are outdated, and I have clearly stated; for me, the New Hebrides’ future must first of all be bound up with reconciliation. Clear and strong reconciliation between those who represent here the interests of England and those of France, and who in the past have not always managed to march in step. And reconcili ation also between those who speak English and those who speak French, and who some times feel that language divides them. ‘However, it is an enrich ment for this country to have two languages - in future, two official languages which will

give them possibilities of

developing wider contacts in the future than many other

people.’

Introducing

Kiribati

The new independent state of the Gilbert Islands will be known as Kiribati (pronoun ced Kiribasi) when it is proclaimed early in July. The name represents the local pro nunciation of the English word ‘Gilberts’.

This announcement was made at the close of the Gilbert Islands constitutional talks in London last December.

Britain’s Minister of State for Foreign and Common wealth Affairs, Lord Goronwy- Roberts, in his closing speech to the conference congratu lated the Gilbert Islands del egation on the efforts made over a period of years ‘to involve people widely in the discussions on the constitution and thus extend understanding of it and underline its legit

imacy’.

He said the Gilbertese had chosen a presidential system and the British Government well understood their reasons. ‘You have sought to find ways of keeping the form of government as simple as poss ible, so that it may be on a scale which you can hope to sustain in the future,’ he said. ‘I may say that this contrasts with the attitude that I have seen else where in British territories moving to independence. It is more important that resources

Chief Minister Leymang ... believing in his Melanesian team

At Admiralty House, London, December 7... Gilberts’ Chief Minister leremiah Tabal and Britain’s Lord Goronwy-Roberts seal the independence deal with a handshake

should be used for worthwhile - development than for the ma chinery of government.’

Lord Goronwy-Roberts

noted that, ‘through good hus bandry’, the Tilbertese had built up a substantial reserve fund from phosphate income, and that it was not the normal practice of the British Govern ment to give budgetary support to a territory which had rev enues of its own. However, in * view of the fact that indepen dence was coming to the Gil bertese at the very time that income from the country’s only

major resource would suddenly

disappear, an exception would be made in their case.

On the vexed question of Banaba (Ocean Island), whose delegation had walked out of the conference when they failed to win their demand for \ separation from the Gilberts, the minister made the follow

i ing points;

• The British Government had only made the decision that Banaba would remain within the boundaries of the I Gilberts ‘when it was clear there was no possibility of I resolving the basic issue of sov

ereignty by negotiation’.

• The conference had agreed on measures to protect Banaban interests, including a Banaban veto on any changes in the safeguards of the land rights and freedom of access

which they have enjoyed.

• The British Government had been concerned not only to guarantee Banaban rights on Banaba, but also to safeguard the future of the Banaban com munity, most of whom would inevitably continue to live on Rabi Island, Fiji, after their royalties from phosphates on Banaba cease in about a year’s time. Accordingly ne had told the chairman of the Rabi Council that he was ready to discuss their request for interest from the time that the ex-gratia offer of SAIO million to the Banabans was made in May 1977, and the British Government was also prepared to make available to the Banabans a fund of up to $A 1.7 million for development pro jects on Rabi. • The British Government plans a resources survey on Banaba in the hope of identify

ing projects to be undertaken once the British Phosphate Commission has withdrawn.

Guam: Paul

Downs Ricky

Paul M. Calvo, 44, took over as Guam’s governor for the next four years on January 8 after

soundly defeating incumbent

Governor Ricardo J. Bordallo in Guam’s November election (PIM October 1978).

The Republican team of Paul Calvo and Joe Ada beat the Democrats Ricardo Bor dallo and Pedro Sanchez, by 13 650 votes to 12 540. Mr Ada, who has been serving as speaker of the fourteenth Guam Legislature, now be comes the island’s lieutenant governor.

The election turnout was one of the highest ever about 84% of Guam’s registered elec torate.

Although Mr Bordallo was confident he would win a sec ond term in office, he suffered defeats in numerous villages considered Democratic strong holds. The defeats, coupled with poorer showings than expected in the island’s southern villages, sounded his death knell.

In his victory speech Mr Calvo said; ‘We’ve been given the chance by the people of Guam to show what we can do with no obstacle.’ And Joe Ada called the victory ‘a clear man date of the people’.

Now, for the first time in Guam’s history, the island will have a governor and legislature

from the same political party.

Republicans maintained their solid majority in the Guam legislature in the election, win ning 14 of the 21 seats. There will be three women senators in the unicameral legislature, four persons of Filipino descent but no Statesiders.

For the Democrats, the only rejoicing came with the selec tion of Antonio B. Won Pat as Guam’s non-voting represen tative in the US Congress. Won Pat. however, was running unopposed.

Mr Calvo' ’s victory capped a

long political history for the

millionaire businessman. Born in Guam’s capital, Agana, in July 1934, he attended high school on Guam and gradua ted from Peacock Military Academy in San Antonio.

Texas. He received a bachelor of science degree in commerce from the University of Santa Clara, California, and served as senator in the eighth, eleventh and twelfth Guam

legislatures.

Mr Calvo is president of the multi-million dollar corpor ation Calvo Enterprises which owns a finance company, a

liquor distributing company,

six cinemas, an insurance company, a bowling alley, a management company, a con struction company and other diverse interests.

Mr Calvo has said he will di vest himself of his business interests now he is governor.

Guam’s direction in the next four years is expected to be more pro-business than under Mr Bordallo.

Micronesia:

Unions Stir

Micronesian labour activity is

a comparatively new phenom

enon which has had little sig nificance except in the Trust Territory district of Palau, writes Paul Addison from Guam.

In Palau, unionists in October held their first Workers’ Convention (PIM

January) bringing together

officials from labour associ ations representing 200 workers at Van Camp fisheries, the Micronesian Industrial Corporation copra plant, the Palau Continental Hotel and taxi drivers.

According to guest speaker Robert Coble, vice-president of the Guam Federation of Teachers, the most contro versial issue in Palau is the year-old strike at the Palau Continental Hotel (PIM July 1978). The Palau unionists called for legislation to force the hotel to negotiate with strikers, who are seeking a SUS 1-an-hour minimum wage.

Coble said efforts are also underway in Palau to form unions for teachers, port workers and government workers.

During their strike the Palau Continental Hotel workers have received support from

Trust Territory High Com

missioner Adrian Winkel, US congressmen Philip Burton of California and James Aberezsk of South Dakota, the Hawaii AFL-CIO, and the Labor Council of the Western Pacific.

In late October, Coble said in the GFT newspaper. Union , the ugly American image of the Continental Hotel chain is serving as a detriment to US- Palau relations and could be the focal point of forcing Palauans to reject close affili ations with the US in the politi cal status activities coming up.

He added: ‘Continental officials, operating with an eighteenth century anti-union attitude, have acknowledged that the real reason they’re refusing to negotiate with the striking Plauans is their fear that Continental Hotel em ployees in Guam. Truk, and Saipan will then want to nego tiate also.’

Victory smiles on Guam ... Lieutenant-Governor Joe Ada (left) with Governor Paul Calvo. Photo Rick Padden

GFT and the Labor Coun -| cil’s efforts to support the strikers have included financial ' contributions and a ‘Boycott Continental’ advertising cam

paign.

The present labour scene on \ Guam appears to justify the al- I leged fears of Continental officials. Here, high pressure unionism is fast becoming a way of life for thousands of

previously unrepresented

‘ workers.

Spearheading developments

[ is the Operating Engineers

f Local 3 which last year made significant advances towards turning Guam into a major union base.

Until 1978, the GFT, representing such diverse groups as teachers, bus drivers and port workers, was the dominant island union. Other unions on Guam include local , chapters of the American Fed eration of Government Em ployees, the American Postal Workers’ Union and the Team sters’ Union. Almost 4000 of the islands 31 000 workforce belong to labour unions.

But with a series of person-

I nel changes and quick-witted

actions, the Operating i Engineers, a branch of one of American’s largest unions, has

been rapidly establishing itself

as a vocal proponent of

workers’ rights.

‘We’re here to stay,’ Joaquin Perez, 32, Operating Engineers’ business represen tative, told PIM in mid- November. ‘What we’re saying is, don’t put your heads in the sand. Because when you come up we’ll still be here.’

The union’s inroads into Guam’s labour scene started in August 1977 when the US Labor Department came to Guam to look into the multi million dollar construction industry. Construction, one of Guam’s largest industries, was until then, and still is, manned largely by some 4000 aliens from the Philippines and Korea. US Labor officials had a two-pronged remedy to the situation raise construction wages by controlled increases to increase the number of Guamanians working in the

industry, and implement train

mg programmes for local workers.

Pay increases went into effect in September 1977 and have increased every six months since. The training pro grammes took longer to im plement and are still a matter of bitter dispute.

Both Guam employers and Operating Engineers wanted to operate the lucrative pro grammes. The union finally won contracts (PIM October 1978), but not before em ployers had complained the union had circumvented com petitive bidding requirements.

Guam employers complained to Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall who started an inves tigation into the procedures.

Seven months after the investi gation there was still no report, and the frustrated employers complained to US Senators Jesse Helms and Orrin Hatch, conservative Republicans, who have taken the matter up with US authorities.

In spite of the disputes, a training programme operated by the union with $1.75 million

Labor Department contracts, has gone ahead and has so far trained about 100 workers in 10-week construction skills programmes.

In October, disturbed by re ports that Guam employers were not taking on many of the union-trained workers, the executive director of the train ing programme, a union em ployee, Mark Stechbart, filed charges with the US Labor Department and the US Immi gration and Naturalisation Ser vice, against Heide Cook, a Guam construction employer.

The union charged that Heide Cook had violated federal

labor regulations.

Stechbart then accused the Guam Employers’ Council, the union’s most vociferous opponent, of fomenting a ‘con spiracy of silence’ among Guam contractors to destroy the programme. The council acknowledged it had sent out more than 50 letters pointing out problems in Stechbart’s op eration along with a magazine

article called ‘Locking up Guam for (Operating Engineers) Local 3’. The coun cil is currently trying to set up its own training programme in competition with the union’s.

Operating Engineers’ battle with employers has left scars.

Three companies involved in the union training programme protested to the US Labor Department about Stechbart and said his actions could jeop ardise the training pro gramme’s future. ‘lf he has had difficulty placing the first group of trainees the second group of trainees will be almost imposs ible to place as local contrac tors are not very receptive to threats of US Labor and Im migration investigations by a known union employee,’ they wrote to the Labor Depart ment.

Operating Engineers was not

discouraged. After battling the

employers. Local 3 took on the port’s manager and the Guam Federation of Teachers. It

lodged charges with the

government of Guam alleging unfair labour practices by the manager. The GET was ac cused, in charges presented to the American Federation of

Labor, of ‘raiding’ Operating

Engineers’ territory at the port and signing up members who should rightfully belong to it.

Both the 1800-member GET and the 500-member Engineers belong to the Labor Council of the Western Pacific, which monitors labour activity on Guam and throughout most of Micronesia.

Tuvalu And

Uncle Sam

Although the proposed treaty of friendship between the United States and Tuvalu (PIM January) was concerned with the renunciation of US claims to islands in the Tuvalu group, the questions involved go much further than that, writes a correspondent on Funafuti.

The US claims to Funa futi, Nukufetau, Nukulaelae and Niulakita were orig inally made in the so-called Guano Act of the US Congress i in 1856, and were reaffirmed as recently as 1965.

Advertisement in Guam's Pacific Daily News . . . stirrings of unionism in Micronesia

Tuvalu's secretary to govern - ment, lonatana lonatana, says that the purpose of the nego § nations was to ‘make official’ the amiable attitudes now existing between the two coun tries, with mutual and maxi mum benefit to both.

The Tuvalu Government I came to the conference table

primarily seeking American

developmental and or financial I assistance, recognition of its * 200-mile fisheries zone, and

guaranteed defence against

military aggression. The US.

; on the other hand, wanted as * surance of non-discrimination J for its fishing vessels wishing to [ operate in Tuvalu waters, and I access to, as well as use of, the nine-island group during times ! of emergency or international

[ crisis.

During the course of the two-day talks it was agreed that there would be no specific ref erence in the treaty to either military or development aid. or fisheries licensing, and that the main thrust of the document would be to declare simple friendship between the two nations. It is generally under stood, however, that the treaty opens a wide door for licensing negotiations with fish can neries in American Samoa,

which are partially supplied

with tuna by Taiwan and Korean vessels operating in Tuvalu seas. It is also expected that further Tuvalu-US talks will be held on diplomatic mat ters, such as additional Peace Corps support and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

The recent negotiations mark the second time that Prime Minister Lauti and

William Bodde, director of the State Department’s Office of Pacific Island Affairs, have met regarding a friendship treaty.

Mr Lauti, who journeyed to Honolulu last September hoping that the US claims in Tuvalu could be renounced on the new nation’s independence day. is confident that no further talks between the governments will be needed before a treaty acceptable to both can be signed. There remain, how ever. certain points in the wording of the draft treaty which Mr Bodde will have to refer to Washington before making a further visit to Funafuti.

Refugees For

W. Samoa?

Moya McTamney, a New Zea land Red Cross field officer, has suggested that Western Samoa might consider accept ing a quota of refugees from Indochina. She told the weekly Savali that most of the refugees at present were of Chinese ori gin, and that the Chinese com munity in Apia would be able to help them.

Ms McTamney was with the Red Cross in Vietnam from 1969 to 1971, and has since worked with refugees, includ ing a recent group of 200 who were taken into New Zea land.

Reporting her remarks, Savali editor Mike Field writes that the government of West ern Samoa has not given official consideration to taking refugees from Southeast Asia but that ‘some senior govern ment officials have mentioned the possibility of taking or

phans from the region’.

Field comments: ‘This indi cates a considerable lack of

knowledge about the refugee

situation. At no stage during the Vietnam war, or since, has there ever been a large number

of refugee orphans. Orphaned

Vietnamese children were, and are, popular among parents looking for children to adopt.

The situation has got to the

point where largescale kidnap

ping and selling of children is carried out in South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia so that Western fam ilies can have Oriental chil dren’.

Mr Field says of Ms

McTamney’s suggestion: ‘Re

cent groups of refugees coming out of Vietnam have been suspected of not being genuine

refugees. Suggestions have

been made that they bought their way out of Vietnam and that they left with the under cover assistance of the Viet namese government. But the large numbers of Vietnamese, Cambodians and Lao people on the Thailand border are un

doubtedly refugees and if

Samoa were to offer its assist ance it would at least be a token gesture to help overcome what is almost a desperate situ ation.’

The Return

Of Maurice

Divisions among the former Rightwing controllers of New Caledonia’s Government Council, for many years their stronghold, led to a major turn about in the November 15, 1978, elections to the council, writes Andre Chaville from Noumea.

In the elections, the oppo sition obtained a majority on the council, and Maurice Lenormand came back into power after 20 years’ absence.

Who is Maurice Lenor mand? Probably the first European in New Caledonia to imagine that it was possible to vote against the ‘Tories’ of New Caledonia. Until then, poli ticians came from the major

trading companies, or were

wealthy miners or cattle breeders. In addition he was a

‘Metropolitan’, a Frenchman from France, so obviously a ‘foreigner’, who in addition had married a Melanesian

girl.

Maurice Lenormand did not only take a Melanesian wife.

He took up the defence of the Melanesian people, obtained for them the right to vote, to attend schools, to live outside of the reserves, to buy beer and obtain French citizenship. His party, the Union Caledonienne

governed the territory during

the Loi Cadre period of the mid-fifties, thanks to the Melanesian votes. It was only by breaking down the whole structure of self-government and returning to the status of a territory, that the Europeans were able to retrieve at least part of their privileges. The re sult of this political blunder was to place the territory in a position to be restricted by the Billotte laws, limiting its powers of decision concerning its own mineral resources.

Those laws are applicable today, and claimed by many to be the main reason for the pre sent economic recession.

After being found guilty of attempting to blow up the offices of his own political party, Maurice Lenormand was banned from the political scene for many years. This providential bomb did more than misfire, it in fact took the reins of the party out of his hands and caused the gradual fragmentation of the Union Caledonienne. Today, if all its original members were to return under its banner, the party would still have a ma

jority in the assembly.

The Melanesian vote was also split and attracted else where. Today Union Caledon ienne is not the official Melanesian party, although it still represents a fair share of that population. It is not a ‘black man’s party’ either, having many staunch sup porters among the Europeans.

On November 26, the as sembly elected a new presi dent. A moderate, Jean-Pierre Aifa, was successful. Strangely enough, Aifa, not so long ago, was Lenormand’s lieutenant in Union Caledonienne, and his son-in-law, strange coinci dence!

Tuvalu Secretary to Government

lonatana lonatana ... making

amiable attitudes official.

New Caledonia’s Maurice Lenormand ... aged a little since this photograph was taken but still capable of a second coming’

Sus Aren’T

The Answer

An editorial writer in the Honolulu Advertiser recently took a searching look at the US I colonial record in American Samoa and Micronesia and was not much impressed. The editorial said: ‘lt’s more with sadness than surprise that one learns a new General Accounting Office re port finds American Samoa gets more money than it can handle, doesn’t know on what the money is being spent, and has failed to make progress toward economic indepen dence. ‘The same things might also be said about the Trust Terri tory which the US has adminis tered in Micronesia since World War 11. In both cases, US policy has ranged from

unbenign neglect in the 1950 s

to over-indulgence in the 1970 s with little guidance toward real economic development. The result is territories over

dependent on a continuing

flow of federal funds from

Washington for jobs and basic support. With a mixture of gen

erosity, ignorance and some

design, we have fostered con tinuing client states.

‘Complete self-sufficiency is

unlikely if not impossible for American Samoa because of its small size (less than the District of Columbia) and growing population of some 30 000

which is relieved only by steady

out-migration to Hawaii and the West Coast. In fact, all states are dependent in degrees on federal funds. But Washing ton has too often pumped money and federal aid programmes into American Samoa beyond the capacity to manage them, notes the GAE, an investigating agency of Congress. This has too often been done without proper oversight and technical assis tance and without relationship to economic development. The result is a form of uninspired welfare state. ‘The long-range answer may be some form of unity with the much larger, poorer, yet often

more impressive nearby nation

of Western Samoa, indepen dent since 1962. But at best that is a long way off, given American Samoan attitudes and options as American nationals. ‘This problem predates the US territory’s first elected Governor, Peter Coleman, who took office late last year. The GAO report says he agrees with the findings. But it will be Coleman’s difficult job to bring more private economic development and make better use of federal programmes. .. ‘ln Micronesia, the prospects are somewhat different be cause most of the area is going into a form of complete inter nal self-government that will involve a continuing relation ship with the US with reduced

funding from Washington.

Local leaders there have ack nowledged the need to cut back, perhaps by 50%, a bu reaucracy which, as in American Samoa, has grown fat with federal funding. Last year, almost 11 000 of some 18 000 jobs in the Trust Terri tory were government posi tions. Some reductions, or at least alterations, in the present standard of living there seem inevitable. ‘As with American Samoa, economic development in Micronesia with a growing population and limited land is a major problem. But with ocean resources and perhaps increasing interest from the Japanese (who in the 1930 s had producing economies in the area) there are possibilities. US aid will also continue in a var iety of ways. ‘There are positive aspects in

the US colonial record, a re cord under which some would include the Philippines, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. We have been best in education and political development and perhaps some aspects of public health. But, in their small but significant ways, American Samoa and Micronesia present

lingering challenges for the

world’s greatest power. As in Vietnam in its different and larger way, we can realise the answer is not as simple as

spending money.

‘Nor is it in taking a kind of perverse pride as some do in saying Americans were never very good colonists anyway.

We have to do better even if it costs less.’

The editorial was repro duced in full by the American Samoa Government’s official News Bulletin.

A Coalition

For Fiji?

Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Prime Minister of Fiji, has not given up his hope that Fiji may one day have a coalition government. He has long had doubts about the Westminster style of government in the Fiji context.

He now intends to have par liament debate the question of a national government, which he would like to see come about through an agreement between both parties, the rul ing Alliance Party, and the faction-ridden National Feder ation Party, which grew out of troubles in the canefields in the

early sixties.