New Hebrides: ‘A gross mistake

for Europeans to interfere’

Jhe following items present the viewpoints of two authorities in different aspects of Pacific Island affairs on the problems faced by two of the most important - currently volatile - countries in the region, New Hebrides and Papua New Guinea Well-known French anthropologist Jean Guiart argues strongly that the troubles on the New Hebridean islands of Santo and Tanna would be much less acute if outsiders stopped interfering in them. He was being interviewed by Jean Massias director of the French/Bislama weekly Nabanga. The second item is the text of the final report by the Australian lawyer Brian Egan, former Public Prosecutor of Papua New Guinea. Adopting a different viewpoint from Mr Guiart Mr Eoan comes close to saying that the reason for the severe law-and-order problems now besetting PNG is the absence of outside interference in the shape of the ‘kiaps’ of the past, who are presented by Mr Egan as having exercised a ‘benevolent dictatorship PIM records the documents at length because of their importance, and their interest to Islands readers.

Nabanga: Jean Guiart, how do you explain the movements we’re now witnessing in Tanna and Santo?

Jean Guiart: There have been problems in all Pacific countries during the period of transition to independence.

These have been more or less serious depending on the econ omic interests involved. For

example, on Bougainville there

was a relatively strong move ment due to the copper mine.

But it settled down when ar rangements were reached for a sharing of profits between the central and local govern ments.

It’s entirely normal that there should be problems in the New Hebrides, but what is much less normal is that these

problems are being exploited.

Take the case of Tanna: the

people there were squabbling

among themselves a hundred years ago along the same lines as they are today. There were the same people fighting each

other with, relatively speak

ing, very little loss of life. There were also the same people more or less banishing each other, sending each other off to the other side of the mountain, and then getting into nego tiations about the right to return.

It was a whole game that they played, and it’s never

really stopped. There were

concepts defining certain enti ties, or ‘things’. These had quite

precise names. They described

certain modes of behaviour, for example, or the exact paths to be followed in maintaining contacts between groups, pre cise routes to be used on other journeys, tracks which had their own names not to be

used by everybody.

These concepts form part of

rather symbolic entities which still exist and which, quite nat urally, as throughout the Pa cific, have with time taken on particular colorations; when someone wanted to avoid

being absorbed by a neighbour

who was a Protestant, he be came a Catholic. After that he would accept a French school in his area and not an English one.

Then today there are people who deal with one European rather than another. These

Europeans imagine they have

influence. In fact they are being made use of in this game of contestation and dispute which actually has the effect of maintaining some kind of bal ance between groups, and be

tween regions and sub-regions.

It is entirely wrong for Europeans to interfere. If no

one was interfering, things

would be a lot calmer, there’d be much less fuss.

But Tanna is Tanna, and it’ll stay that way for a long time.

Ways have not yet been found to transform Tanna, to trans form its inhabitants, to provide them with a new system of ideas, a new society. So, in their relations with one another,

they see no reason why they

shouldn’t just keep travelling

along their old traditional tracks.

N. Is it your impression that some people, let’s say they’re Whites, are manipulating events in Tanna?

J. G. There are in fact attempts at manipulation both by outside forces and by the Tanna people themselves who, whichever side they’re on in their local disputes, are trying to manipulate the Europeans in Tanna and use them as screens for their own interests.

There have been new el ements come into the scene in the last few years, and they are playing a not inconsiderable part in what’s now going on in Tanna. They are centred on a contest between two clans about the way profits from the possible development of tour ism on the island will be div ided up. Each side is trying to ensure that it will have sole rights to take tourists to the vol cano, and strives to exclude the other from any degree of con trol of Tanna’s potential tourist

industry.

N. In an interview on Radio New Hebrides you gave the im pression that you felt this ma nipulative game, from both the European and Melanesian sides, was going on just as much in Santo as Tanna. In what ways, in your opinion, can the Santo scene be compared with that on Tanna? And in what respects is it different?

J. G. In Santo and this is one of the differences from Tanna there was a drastic de population in the last century.

Two-thirds of the population died of smallpox. This was caused by Australian labour recruiters who littered the beaches with articles of cloth ing which had been worn by smallpox victims in order to close off a whole labour

recruiting area from competi

tors.

The population panicked.

They cleared out of the area and it remained deserted. This deeply affected people, as had the passing-through of the

Spaniards who destroyed and

pillaged an entire valley.

The Europeans came along

and-established themselves in the Segond Channel in these depopulated zones. There were no problems because the Santo

people regarded the area as pies blong waet man (‘the White

man’s place’).

Potential difficulties arose when colonists’ claims to land

beyond their coconut plan

tations were not accepted by the Melanesians, whereas the colonists believed in good faith that they had the right to push the limits of their holdings further out, even though they had been settled in one par ticular place for 30 years.

The birth of the Nagriamel was due mainly to a plan to set up a cattle project, outside the coconut plantation limits, on the plateau in the interior.

Chief Buluk’s group, which had evacuated these lands at the time of the epidemic, still had some residual rights in the

region.

The birth of Nagriamel was therefore a land-related re

sponse to Europeans moving

outside previously settled limits.

Nagriamel came on the scene at a time when there was a sort of vacuum. Just after the war, there had been a series of movements which aimed to organise a degree of economic and social independence from the Whites. Melanesians began to build their own roads, to set up health centres like the one at Ndui Ndui (Aoba), and schools, and to attempt a con centration of production for sale to a single buyer.

These were entirely reason able economic notions which were made use of by a Franco- British businessman at the time of the Malekula Native

Company. This enterprise

operated for a while but then

collapsed.

Nagriamel picked up the

pieces and installed itself out side Santo on the spot where

the defunct company had been established. Generally speak ing it was a place where people were seeking some kind of ‘hook’ to hang on to in order to ward off domination by a larger group of neighbours.

N. How do you see the pre sent situation on Santo?

J. G. Some people have pan icked. The big planter families have gone and the Americans have abandoned their projects.

I think the planters could have stayed. The problems stem ming from colonialism at the time of independence in the Pacific arise mainly in terms of demographic pressures. As Santo has lots of open space, apart from pockets like Hog Harbour and Port Olry, there are all sorts of arrangements that could be made to every

body’s satisfaction.

But the planters panicked

and they thought it was necess ary to use Nagriamel to protect themselves. There are also two or three people who believe that the Melanesians can be used as troops in the service of

European politicians. Which is

a gross mistake.

N. Do you really believe that there are Whites in Santo who are manipulating the Nagriamel? Don’t you think

you’re describing a situation

that existed some years back, rather than the present situ ation?

J. G. It’s the same thing as on Tanna: who’s manipulating whom?

There are two or three Europeans who harbour il lusions. They have no political training, and no grasp of the situation of the New Hebrides in the Pacific. No Pacific state, I don’t care which one it is, can accept a secession as a fait

accompli. They’ve all had prob

lems of this kind and they’ve settled them. They’ve got no wish to see these things start up again, and all of them want tranquillity in the region. One need only recall what hap pened in Nigeria with the Biafra affair: once these things start, there’s no controlling events.

That’s why these people who are pushing their own barrows in Santo will get no support.

N. Don’t you think that strong police repression in Santo would be likely to ignite the powder keg?

J. G. In any political situ ation there are more subtle means of pressure. The Nagriamel has lost its initial drive, it no longer has the same content, the same prestige or authority. It’s seeking a new image, but it’s altogether on the wrong track.

In this pre-independence situation, Jimmy Stevens could be appearing as the great founding father. Remember that it was in fact Stevens who initiated, about 15 years ago, the first approaches to the United Nations.

This situation is not an easy one for a government which still lacks all the experience re quired. But I’m convinced that if there weren’t Europeans around who are convinced they have a mission to interfere, things would not have gone so far as they have. Once again, it’s grossly mistaken for Europeans to meddle in a situ ation of this kind on the eve of a country’s independence.

They have neither the standing nor prestige to remain political leaders. Our function, our call ing, is to be educators, to train people, to work as experts in particular fields, to be businessmen if you like, but it is not to dabble in the day-to day affairs of a country that we have never really governed or

organised.

N. Don’t the problems in Santo and Tanna foreshadow difficulties after independence for a government which is sup posed to represent the whole population of a country which is, after all, an archipelago?

J. G. It shouldn’t be any more difficult than it has been in Solomon Islands. This state is a federation and the central government negotiates every

single day with representatives

of the islands. This isn’t written into the constitution, but that’s how it is and that’s how it will remain.

There is no way that Melanesians can be governed against their will, that’s the fundamental phenomenon of Melanesia as a whole: the strength of local autonomies.

Legislative texts will not

change a thing. The

Melanesians, among them selves, are very well aware of this.