Vanuatu PM sees bright future

for ‘the big island’ of Santo

PIM Associate Editor MALCOLM SALMON spent a week in Vanuatu in January. He interviewed Prime Minister Father Walter Lini and Opposition Leader Vincent Boulekone, spent a day in Santo, and generally nosed around. His reports follow.

There is rich irony in the fact I that the office now used by Vanuatu's Prime Minister Father Walter Lini in the for mer French Residency in Port- Vila was used until the country became independent on July 30 1980 by the last French Resi dent Commissioner, Inspector- General Jean-Jacques Robert - with whom Fr Lini’s re lations were strained, to say the least. But when I interviewed him in his office in January Fr Lini seemed in no mood to savour such twists of fate. His talk was all of the present, and above all of the future.

He told me: ‘Generally, things are settling down. The security situation is stabilised.

There is freedom to move around. ‘The civil servants are de veloping a spirit of loyalty to the Vanuatu Government, shedding their old sense of commitment to either the British or the French. One problem is that we need to secure better quality people for the civil service we consider we've inherited too

many from the former ruling powers. ‘Economic development is at the centre of our attention.

There are many proposals be fore us, some small, some very big. We have to study them closely. ‘For example, there is a proposal for an oil refinery here which would employ 3000 people and have an annual profit potential of SUSIBO million. ‘Then there is our plan to establish a shipping register along the lines of the Liberian operation. (See Ships, this issue.) ‘Another major problem with heavy economic implications is the matter of French aid. ‘As the French proposals stand, especially as they affect education, we don’t feel comfortable with them. They don't line up with our way of thinking. They tend to take us back to the dual system of education we’ve lived with for so long. And they have aspects which we feel could tie us to an extent that we couldn’t look our brothers and sisters in New Caledonia and French Polynesia in the eye. ‘Last week we took a step

which we hope will help to resolve the situation: we set up a commission charged with work ing out the details of a unified national education system: edu cational experts from a number of countries will work for six weeks and come up with a report. We don’t really know what the French reaction will be, but we hope that the experts’ recommendations will provide us with a firmer base in our negotiations with them. ‘What is certain is that the French Foreign Ministry people with whom we’re now negotiat ing seem much more conscious than the Overseas Departments and Territories officials with whom we had to deal in pre independence days of the re gional implications of what they’re doing. They are keenly aware that failure to reach an aid agreement with us would be a setback for France in the region. We see this as a positive factor.’ 1 told the PM of my im pressions of a day’s visit to Santo which I’d made earlier in the week of its depressed economic state, of the loss of population in Santo Town (down from more than 6000 in May 1980 to about 3000, with

most of those who’ve left being ni-Vanuatu), of the two cruise ship visits slated for Santo in 1981 as against 18 in 1979, and also of what I was told of the continuing ‘traumatisation’ of society following the calamity of the secession.

In reply, Fr Lini said quietly: ‘Such wounds cannot be healed in a few days, or even a few months. But we’re convinced that Santo has a very important future. ‘The government has plans for a major upgrading of Santo’s wharf facilities, and the building of a copra mill nearby.

The one that was burnt down by the rebels was a long way off.

The job of tar-sealing the road to the airport will soon get under way. ‘ln agriculture we have high hopes of the rice project at Big Bay, and we will be seeking Commonwealth Development Corporation aid for a palm oil development project. ‘Since it is the main agricul tural island in Vanuatu, we intend to go ahead with our plan to move the Department of Agriculture from Port-Vila to Santo.’

About major construction projects on Santo, the PM mentioned in particular the secondary school to be built with an Australian aid grant of $2.5 million on a beautiful site at Matevula.

As an immediate measure to ease the problems on Santo, the government had recently set up a commission with the task of restoring production on aban doned plantations and cattle runs, some of which have fallen into a state of serious neglect.

Announcing establishment of the commission, Lands Minister Sethy Regenevanu emphasised that management was the sole prerogative of the commission, and its activity had absolutely nothing to do with ownership,

Prime Minister Lini addresses a crowd at Santo Town Hall on his first post-rebellion visit to the island in September of last year.

Voice of Vanuatu picture.

either by expatriate title holders or custom owners.

On parliament, Fr Lini said by-elections for seats which have fallen vacant will be held during the first half of 1981. ‘We are at present working on the legal aspects of stripping MPs who’ve been deported of their status,’ he said.

The PM said that while everybody agreed that there should be a strong parliamen tary opposition, Vincent Boulekone as Leader of the Opposition, despite his good intentions, seemed in his view sometimes to ‘go too far’, and put himself in danger of undermining his own credi bility.

On relations with the inde pendence movement in New Caledonia, Fr Lini said he thought it unlikely that a New Caledonian government-in-exile would be established in Vanuatu. ‘But,’ he went on, ‘our ap preciation and understanding of the New Caledonian problem will become deeper and deeper.

Vanuatu will become more and more vocal about what France should be doing in New Caledonia.’

There was a knock on the door and the PM’s private secretary John Beasant entered to say that Speaker of the Representative Assembly Maxime Carlot had arrived for his appointment. My interview was over but not before Fr Lini had a warm word to say, offering New Year’s greetings to all readers of PIM.