Palau now Belau

Political

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Palau now Belau in new republic

Palau in the north-west Pacific has become the Republic of Belau, the last district of the US-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands to assume constitutional government. New Year’s Day marked the inauguration of the new republic which is still negotiating the final structure of its compact of free association with USA. Writing from Guam, M. L. BERG tells of the election of the government of Belau.

Haruo Remeliik as president and Alfonso Oiterong as vice president lead the newly : elected government of Palau, the country which has now f become known as the Republic [ of Belau. Belau is the last district of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands to assume constitutional government fol l lowing general elections held in November.

The other districts of the Trust Territory the Feder ated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana and Marshall Islands moved faster than the Palauan people in taking this ; step, but there was a reason.

Because of the protocol of their culture the Palauan people moved at a speed which allowed careful consideration of a de cision which affected the lives of so many people.

The parliament of the repub lic consists of a senate of 18 and a house of delegates of 16, with a president and vice-president elected separately by simple majority in general elections.

Each delegate represents a stale of the republic. The sena tors are elected on a population basis, giving some states several senators and combining some states in single electorates.

President Remeliik went into office with 1919 votes from the total poll of 6425. He is from Peleliu (Beleliou in Palauan) and was a deputy district ad ministrator at the time of his election. During the term of office of the Seventh Palau Legislature, the body which brought the new republic to the stage of constitutional govern ment, he was chairman of the Political Status Commission.

He is seen as the man who played the most crucial role in

the adoption of a constitution acceptable to the Palauans.

The runner-up for president was Roman Tmetuchl. a suc cessful businessman who is ac tive in politics and who had served as an earlier chairman of the Political Status Com mission. He received 1603 votes. There were three other candidates for president.

Vice-president Alfonso Oiterong, elected in a separate poll, is from Imeliik Slate on Babellhuap Island, the largest island in the group. He resigned from his post as Palau Director of Education to run for the vice presidency. Mr Oiterong was also a prominent worker for adoption of the constitution. A feature of the election for vice president was that the defeated candidate, Tosiwo Nakamura, had been Mr Oiterong’s deputy in the education adminis tration.

Striking a balance between north and south is seen by Palauans as a conspicuous trait in their way of life, and the background of the two men leading the government has been accepted as a symbol of success for the new republic.

This is because Mr Remeliik is from the south ... his region is called loueldaob which means ‘below the sea’ . . . and Mr Oiterong is from the north.

The 18 senators elected in November were: Kuniwo Naka mura, Johnson Toribiong, Joshua Koshiba, Edward Temengil, Moses Uludong, Kaleb Udui and Peter Sugi yama (Koror State); Hank Takawo and Olkeriil Rehuher (Kayangel and Ngerchelong); John Tarkong and David Ngirmidol (Ngaraard); George Ngirarsaol and Seit Andres (Ngiwal, Melekeok and Ngche

sar); Baules Sechelong (Airai); Masami Siksei and Lucius Malsol (Imeliik, Ngetpang, Ngeremlengui and Ngerdmau); Miichungi Solang (Peleliu); Abel Suzuki (Ngeaur, Tobi and Sonsorol).

The 16 delegates elected were: Kambalang Olebuu (Kayangel); Johnny Reklai (Ngerchelong); Laurentino Ulechong (Ngaraard); Hideo Termeteet (Ngiwal); Kazuo Asanuma (Melekeok); Ignacio Anastacio (Ngchesar); Mengiraro Ngiratechekii (Airai); Tern Obakerbau (Imeliik); Demei Otobed (Ngetpang); Blau Skebong (Ngeremlengui); Akiko Sugi yama (Ngerdmau); Santos Olikong (Koror); Takeshi Kintol (Peleliu); Carlos Salii (Ngeaur); Mariano Carlos (Sonsorol); and Pablo Kyoshi (Tobi).

Shortly before the new government look office the members of the Political Status Commission, led by Mr Reme liik, flew to USA for continuing talks on the terms of the compact of free association which has yet to be adopted.

The compact was initialled in

Washington on November 17 but a considerable amount of negotiating is expected before a final agreement can be drafted and accepted.

Public servants

under attack

Papua New Guinea public ser vants were angered in December when the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr lambakey Okuk, unleashed a savage at tack on them at a meeting of the National Parliament. Mr Okuk told parliament he was ‘after blood, and I am deter mined we should get and will get a better public service system’.

He said that too many public servants regarded parliament

as a ‘cattle yard where the members are rounded up to be counted.’ Mr Okuk was an nouncing that the government had issued an invitation to the Premier of the Australian state of New South Wales, Mr Neville Wran, to visit PNG and to give advice on ‘how to put the public servants back in their place’.

In Sydney Mr Wran’s office confirmed that he would be visiting PNG some time after the February by-elections in NSW but declined to comment on the nature of the visit. Mr Okuk’s statement to the PNG parliament was received with some irony in Sydney because Mr Wran was in the middle of a dispute with his own public service, including an industrial action which had left the NSW parliament without the services of some of its staff.

Mr Okuk told the PNG parliament that Mr Wran had ‘broken the back of the power

of the bureaucracy so that power has gone back where it belongs to the elected leaders.’ Mr Okuk was highly critical of top economic ad visers to the government, ac cusing them of believing that they held sole control over the country’s financial affairs.

Fiji unity plan

loses support

Two developments on the Fiji political scene have effectively ended any immediate moves towards forming the much discussed ‘government of national unity’ which would have shared government be tween the two major political parties.

Instead, the ruling Alliance Party will look to its own position with the intention of remaining in power at the 1982 general election, and the oppo sition National Federation Party will pull out all stops to take office in its own right at the same election.

Development number one which led to the polarising of attitudes was a flat refusal by the National Federation to be come involved in what it de scribed as ‘unofficial moves to join a one-sided situation’. De velopment number two then came from the Alliance Party which withdrew its overtures for sharing power.

It now seems most unlikely that there will be any review of the situation before the 1982 election, with each party hardened in its attitude.

The concept of a government of national unity has been bandied around in Fiji politics for some lime. There have been differing definitions, however, of exactly what would be en tailed in such an arrangement.

Some saw it as a coalition with inter-party consultation but others were concerned that the stronger party in any foresee able arrangement would con tinue to hold the real power.

The basis of much of the dissent lies in the presence of two major racial communities in Fiji Fijian and Fiji-Indian and in the fact that the opposition National Feder ation Party is predominantly Fiji-Indian.

For some time the Prime Minister and leader of the Alliance Party, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, has been suggesting a modification of the two-party system in an attempt

to share government to the best advantage between the two communities. His own party has Indian representation but this in itself has been insufficient to overcome the problems created by the almost total Indian image of the oppo sition party.

In the early stages of Ratu Mara’s overtures it appeared likely that the National Feder ation would accept some form of government of national unity (PIM Aug 1980 p 53).

Since then however the pro posal has foundered, and it was strongly criticised by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Jai Ram Reddy, in an address to the annual convention of the National Federation. Mr Reddy said there had been no formal consultation on any pro posals and he believed the government was continually demonstrating a complete dis regard for real multi-racialism.

The Fijian Association, which is one of the three constituent bodies of Ratu Mara’s Alliance Party, met soon afterwards and reacted angrily to Mr Reddy’s criti cism. The association rec ommended that in view of the attitude taken by Mr Reddy’s party there should be no further overtures for a government of national unity, and that the Alliance Party should look to itself and concentrate on re maining in power at the 1982 elections. The Alliance Party itself met soon afterwards and endorsed the recommendations.

Alliance speakers accused Mr Reddy of having buried any chance of achieving a govern ment of national unity, and denied claims that there had been no formal consultation.

Ratu Mara told the conven tion there was no doubt that Mr Reddy had publicly discour aged the concept of a govern ment of national unity. He had effectively cleared the way to perpetuate the present system of government and opposition, and to encourage the present government to prepare itself for re-election.

Diplomatic observers in Fiji are now forecasting a ‘period of aggressive politics’ following the collapse of the move for a government of national unity. A background bulletin from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs commented re cently. ‘With the collapse of the government of national unity proposal, the very situation of polarisation which Ratu Mara was seeking to avoid now seems more imminent. However, the proposal may not be completely destroyed, and could be revived after the general election. If the Alliance government is re turned with a comfortable majority and with a sizeable Indian representation, there might be less reason to revive the government of national unity option. However, should the Alliance party win without significant Indian participation, the government might be more attracted to renew the national unity proposal.’

Mo decision on

nuclear waste

Despite some suggestions late last year that Japan was back ing down from its proposal to dump encapsulated low-level nuclear waste in the north-west Pacific, latest reports indicate that the situation is still far from resolved. Separate reports from Micronesia, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea in the past few weeks have told of continuing campaigning against the Japanese proposal.

A radio news broadcast in Australia in November quoted Japanese sources as saying that the proposal had been discon tinued for the time being.

However a cautiously-worded subsequent statement to PIM from the Japanese Embassy in Australia suggests that there is no change.

The statement, from the First Secretary Science and Tech

Neville Wran

Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara Jai Ram Reddy Unity plan topples - now it’s each to his own party

nology, Mr Shigeru Aoe, re ferred to ‘Japan’s proposal for trial dumping of low-level radio-active waste’.

Mr Aoe said the Japanese government was still exploring the possibility of the pro gramme, but no finality had been reached. He continued: ‘At this stage we are providing an explanation of the nature of the programme and its safety factors to people in countries concerned in order to assist their better understanding of the programme. The Japanese government has no intention of proceeding with the plan with out due regard to the wishes of the Pacific nations.’

Meanwhile there is concern in some areas of the Pacific that Japan is not the only country in Asia which will increasingly face the problem of nuclear waste disposal. Correspondent William Gasson writes the fol lowing from New Zealand: Although Japan produces nearly 90% of the total nuclear capacity in Asia and by 1990 plans to have around 58 nuclear plants operating compared with 70 in the United States at present South Korea, Tai wan and India have one, two and three plants respectively and plan more. This picture of growing Asian nuclear generat ing power comes from two researchers of the East-West Center, Honolulu, Kirk R.

Smith and Mark J. Valencia, in an article in East-West’s sum mer quarterly publication Per spectives.

Their research suggested that Asian nuclear energy generating countries will face

difficult decisions this decade relating to the growth of nu clear power, reprocessing nu clear waste, the expansion of controversial domestic sites and multi-national reprocessing and disposing facilities. During the decade Japan plans to increase the nuclear proportion of its electricity production to 30%, South Korea from seven to 45% and Taiwan from about five to 40%.

The researchers said that Japan, Taiwan and South Korea would enter the 1990 s with economies depending as highly on uninterrupted supplies of nuclear fuel and fuel-cycle services as any in the world.

The authors added that the amount of nuclear waste pro duced was formidable. Each

year the average 1000-megawatt plant produces a few cubic metres a pick-up truck load of very dangerous high level waste. ‘ln addition, however, several thousand cubic metres of less concentrated wastes and several tens of thousand of cubic metres of slightly radioactive tailings from uranium mines are produced as the result of the operation of the fuel cycle facilities necessary to supply the power plant,’ they added.

While a commonly accepted suggestion was to bury the waste in isolated, seismically stable, dry continental areas, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea lacked the space, the authors said.

In the absence of large land masses in Asia except for

India and China the authors suggested that the seabed and other international disposal op tions for high level waste would probably receive more attention and support from these countries during the 1980 s.

Chile extends

Pacific links

Chile has appointed a high level ministerial commission to plan the structure of its pro posed Institute for the Pacific.

Plans to form the institute are a direct result of Chile’s intention to develop an active Pacific presence, governed largely by its geographic position. Chile has 4000 km of coastline on the Pacific and also has an Antarc tic territory.

The Chilean Embassy in Australia reported last month that the projected institute would increase efforts to strengthen Chile’s ties with the Pacific Basin nations in all areas of international exchange political, economic, cultural, trade and tourism. The Com mission is led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Other ministerial-rank members are the Ministers for Economics and for Education. Institutions represented in the Commission are the National Tourism Bu reau, Chile’s universities and the Chilean Navy. The Presi dent of the Republic, General Pinochet, is represented by a special delegate.

The future Institute of the Pacific has been conceived as a centre for research, analysis and development of exchanges to promote Chile’s action in the Pacific, the embassy said.

These pictures, provided by the Waste Management Centre of the Japanese Nuclear Safety Bureau, show two aspects of the build-up of radioactive waste. Right: Labelled drums containing concrete mixed with low-level waste, and stacked on pallets, accumulate in a waste storage depot pending dis posal. Below right: A procedure test at sea illustrates the man ner in which Japan hopes to dump some of the waste. Circu lar objects at the top of the picture are movie cameras to monitor the operation. Japan ese technicians say there is no extreme urgency to begin dumping the waste, but stock piling cannot continue for a protracted period. Japan now has 21 nuclear reactors raising steam for electrical generators.