Pacific Report

Fiji, Png: Two Elections, Two Issues

Two issues are coming to dominate 1982’s election campaigning in the two largest Island countries of the South Pacific: in Fiji (which goes to the polls in July) it is race, and in Papua New Guinea (where voting begins in June) it is a medium-term threat of political instability. In Fiji, the Fijian Nationalist Party, which briefly brought down the Alliance Party in 1977 by splitting the Fijian vote, is campaigning vigorously on practically the same platform it used then ‘Fiji for the Fijians’. This time its manifesto is calling for the reservation of 46 of the 52 House of Representatives seats for ethnic Fijians, free and compulsory primary and secondary education for Fijians, and the return of all Crown and freehold land to Fijians. In the event, these policies might actually help the ruling Alliance Party, for nervous Indians may feel that life under the Alliance is to be preferred to all that.

But the fact remains that the campaigning is more racist than in any previous election. In Papua New Guinea, the only hope of immediate formation of a government after the election is if either Michael Somare’s Pangu Party or lambakey Okuk’s National Party wins an outright majority. Sir Julius Chan’s Peoples Progress Party couldn’t possibly do it. The situation is causing deep concern to the more thoughtful politicians, who feel that something must be done to bring improved party-political behaviour to PNG before the country runs into serious political instability. No leader can depend on support for long, with the result that government at best is confused, and at worst inefficient and ineffective as key politicians blatantly demand favours for their loyalty.

Micronesia Talks Off And On?

The United States has asked the Marshall Islands Government to resume talks on the Compact of Free Association, which broke down in February when the US sought to exclude from the talks ‘subsidiary matters’, including radiation problems. High Com missioner of the Trust Territory Mrs Janet McCoy told Marshalls Foreign Secretary Tony deßrum that the US was now willing to resume discussion on radiation problems, and suggested that the talks, which until February were held in Washington, should be resumed in Honolulu. At press time, information on the Marshalls’ reply was not available, but deßrum had indicated his government’s willingness to continue discussion. The February breakdown of the talks followed a US demand that the right of ‘military denial’ (the right to refuse admission to Micronesia to other powers) should be valid for 100 years instead of the 15 years defined in the compact. The US also claimed unrestricted access to Kwajalein’s missile test base for the next 62 years under the 99-year lease signed in the 1960 s and running from 1944. The Marshallese said they could not accept this lease because it was forced upon them. The US also refused to discuss radiation issues connected with the storage of nuclear weapons and the servicing of nuclear-powered submarines in Micronesian bases. The turn-around in the US position on this issue appears to have opened the way for the talks to resume.

Conference Plans Action On Environment

A plan of action for management of the natural resources and environment of the South Pacific region was adopted by an international conference in Rarotonga in March. The conference declared that deforestation and fisheries major matters of concern in the region should be carried out on the basis of reliable information to ensure sustainable production. It also stressed the need to adapt traditional conservation practices and technology, and systems of land and reef tenure, in managing regional resources. On nuclear issues, the conference declared: The storage and release of nuclear wastes in the Pacific regional environment shall be prevented.’ On nuclear tests: ‘The testing of nuclear devices against the wishes of the people will not be permitted.’ France and New Caledonia refused to accept this clause, and Wallis and Futuna abstained from the vote on it.

Twenty countries and territories were represented at the conference which was jointly organised by the United Nations Environment Programme, the South Pacific Commission, the

South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Day to-day implementation of the action plan will be the responsibility of a small secretariat set up within the South Pacific Commission.

‘No-Confidence’ Move Fails In Vila

A planned parliamentary motion of no confidence in Vanuatu Prime Minister Father Walter Lini failed in March following intervention by the secretary-general of the ruling Vanuaaku Party, Barak Sope. Mr Sope said in a nation-wide broadcast on March 18 that a member of the Vanuaaku Party had tabled the motion, but ‘had not followed the right channels’. He said any challenge by a party member to Fr Lini’s leadership should be made through the party structure, and not parliament. Fr Lini is also president of the Vanuaaku Party. PIM understands from sources in Port-Vila that former minister Reuben Seru was closely associated with the move. Along with another Vanuaaku Party minister, George Worek, Mr Seru had shortly before been dropped from the cabinet (PIM Feb p 33). PIM understands that although six names appeared on the no-confidence motion, there were not six signatures. In the event the no-confidence motion was never formally presented in parliament.

‘No Trident Base For Belau’ Admiral

Rear-Admiral Bruce DeMars, commander of US naval forces in the Northern Marianas, has denied reports that the US plans to build a Trident submarine base in Belau. While touring the Trust Territory, Admiral DeMars said at Koror: The US navy has no plans now or in the foreseeable future for building any submarine base in Palau (Belau). The development and deployment of the long-range Trident 1(C-4) missile has rendered it unnecessary for forward basing of US navy ballistic missile submarines. The increased range of the Trident systems means that a Trident equipped ballistic missile submarine does not have to operate far forward for it to be able to execute its strategic mission.’ Rear- Admiral DeMars said Guam had seen the phase-out of the shorter-range Polaris missile, and any basing of Trident submarines in Palau, which had none of Guam’s facilities, would require a prohibitively huge investment to construct the required logistic support installations. He added: The fact of the matter is that the US navy has never considered a Trident base in Palau, and one has to question the motives of those individuals who purport to have information to the contrary.'

U.S. Ships’ Visit ‘A Mistake’ Mara

The decision to allow two United States Navy ships USS Marvin Shields and USS Robert E. Peary to berth at Suva after the US Government refused to ‘confirm or deny’ that there were nuclear arms aboard the vessels, was a mistake by the Fiji foreign affairs department, Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara has said.

Cabinet decided in 1980 not to allow nuclear-powered vessels or vessels carrying nuclear weapons to enter Fiji ports. Ratu Mara said that if a request to disclose whether a vessel was or was not carrying nuclear weapons was refused, they would presume that nuclear weapons were being carried, and refusal of entry would be automatic. Ratu Mara said he had issued a directive to Foreign Affairs that he must personally see all applications from other countries seeking permission to send such warships on visits to Fiji ports. He said he had been very much embarrassed by the visit of the two US warships. Shortly afterwards, the ships were politely refused entry to Port-Vila, Vanuatu (PIM Mar p 17).

New ‘Rimpac’ Exercises Off Hawaii

New exercises involving naval units from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Japan took place off Hawaii in April. Code-named Rimpac 82, the exercises were part of a series conducted under this name by ‘Pacific Rim’ countries.

Meeting For N-Free, Independent Pacific

Port-Vila, Vanuatu, will be the venue for the fourth Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific Conference in March, 1983. Prep arations for the 10-day conference expected to be attended by about 100 delegates from throughout the Islands and a number of Pacific Rim countries, were discussed at a meeting in Hawaii late in March. The conference follows similar gatherings in Fiji in 1975, Ponape, Caroline Islands, in 1978, and Hawaii in 1980. The 1980 conference established the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC), as a continuing co-ordinating centre. This body is organising the Port-Vila meeting.

Business As Usual For Tonga’S Tourism

Tonga’s tourist facilities escaped virtually undamaged from Cyclone Isaac in March. An announcement by the Tonga Visitors

Bureau says: Tonga depends on tourism as a major income earner. As it adds up the cost of Cyclone Isaac, the tiny kingdom is heartened to discover its essential tourist industry to be unscathed and fully functioning . . . accommodation remains available at pre-cyclone level . . . self-contained for electric power, and mostly with independent water supplies, major international hotels rode out the cyclone with little more to show than some easily repaired broken glass. Motels and guesthouses in Tongatapu and Vavau were often as lightly affected and there was much that was untouched. Air and sea communications were effectively so little time out of service that it has been possible to avoid re-scheduling of bookings made for the present time . . .

The escape from damage of Tonga’s tourist industry is a major factor in favour of rapid recovery from the cost of Cyclone Isaac.’

‘Sunnyside Up’ For Paris, Vila

The Vanuatu Government has budgeted for expenditure for 1982 of 2 472 000 000 vatu (SA24 720 000), an increase of five percent over the 1981 figure. Local revenue is expected to contribute 68 percent, with 30 percent coming from British and French aid sources, and two percent from reserves. Finance Minister Kalpokor Kalsakau reported a trade deficit of $22 930 000 in 1981, as against $24730000 in 1980. Copra, much of which was stored and not exported in 1980 because of the Santo secessionist revolt, accounted for 76 percent of total export revenue in 1981. Cocoa exports of 953 tonnes earned $1 119 000, the highest return for 10 years; fish $8 260 000, coffee $46 000, beef $1 600 000 (a record), and sawn timber $214 000. The government was spending $2 million on expanding cattle projects. A new tax of 10 percent on hotel accommodation and licensed premises was to come into effect in April. Mr Kalsakau warned that unless the quality of copra improved, the sole purchaser of Vanuatu copra in Europe would stop buying it. The minister also reported that relations with France had improved vastly, and that aid talks in Paris had been cordial and constructive.

If Indonesia-Png Relations Went Bad?

‘Heavies’ from the Australian and Japanese worlds of economics, business, diplomacy, journalism and geopolitics gathered in Melbourne on March 25-26 for the Tenth Australia-Japan Relations Symposium. Among the speakers was Japan’s Ambassador to Australia, Mizuo Kuroda. Robert O’Neill, professorial fellow and head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, told the symposium that the East Asian-West Pacific area contained ‘four politico strategic contests, and one area of possible concern’. The four were Soviet-US rivalry, Sino-Soviet rivalry, the Korean conflict, and the ASEAN-Indochina tensions. The ‘area of possible concern’ was ‘super-power rivalry for influence amongst the recently decolonised, or yet-to-be-decolonised, states of the southwest Pacific’. In discussion on Dr O’Neill’s paper, Creighton Burns, editor of The Age, Melbourne, warned that the potential threat in the latter area came not only from super-power rivalries.

For example, he said, the possibility of worsening relations between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea had to be taken seriously into account. He said Australian defence department strategists had studied this possible scenario. During the previous week, the National Party leader in PNG, lambakey Okuk, had been quoted as saying that PNG had been assured that there was nothing to fear from the movement of up to a million Javanese into Irian Jaya. ‘But with Irian Jaya a stone’s throw away, these assurances sound horribly like those that were given to the people of Afghanistan and Poland,’ Mr Okuk was reported to have said.

Protest Yacht In Moruroa Accident

Pacific Peacemaker, the Australian anti-nuclear protest yacht, was disabled by a French police boat off Moruroa Atoll, French Polynesia, on April 2. The accident occurred when a derrick on the police boat struck the yacht’s mast, bringing it crashing down on its stern. The derrick was being used to lower a rubber dinghy carrying water police who were about to fix a towline to the yacht in order to move it away from the area. At last report, Pacific Peacemaker was in Papeete, where its skipper, Bill Ethell, was arrested and charged with illegal presence in French Polynesia’s waters.

Guilty Verdict In Noumea Trial

In Noumea in March, a multi-racial jury of four found a white farmer guilty of ‘involuntary homicide’. The settler, Guy de Saint-

Quentin, 49, was accused of killing a Melanesian man, Emile Kutu, 41, last June (PIM Aug ’Bl p 6). The court heard that Saint- Quentin fired two rifle shots at a vehicle in which Kutu was a passenger. He was among a group of five Melanesians who had driven to Saint-Quentin’s property at Gomen, about 300 kilometres from Noumea, in an effort to recover the wages of one of the group. Saint-Quentin said in his defence that the men had been drinking, and had behaved aggressively.

Slow-Boat Poll In Kiribati

Kiribati went to the polls on March 26 to elect a new 36-seat parliament, but it was expected to take at least a month before the results were known because of the remoteness of some of the republic’s islands. When the House of Assembly meets it will accept nominations for the post of president of the republic, at present held by leremia Tabai. Those nominated will then have to face a general presidential election, and the result of this is not likely to be known before well into May. The assembly may nominate for president not fewer than three and not more than four candidates, all of whom must be elected members of parliament. Term of office for the president is four years, the same as for parliament, and a president can serve only three terms.

President Tabai has served only one term so far.

Islands Protests At N.Z. Radio Cuts

Radio Vanuatu in March joined in protests by radio services of Island countries against the closure of Radio New Zealand transmissions and transcription services. The radio’s director, Joe Carlo, pointed out in a letter, signed also by members of his staff, that Radio Vanuatu regularly broadcasts New Zealand Broad casting Corporation transcription service programmes on its English-language transmission, including the popular Pacific Link public affairs programme and the new Pacific Connection musical programme. lan Mclntyre in Port-Vila. 40 YEARS AGO, THE YANKS WERE COMING March 17, 1982, marked the 40th anniversary of the arrival in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) of a convoy of US warships and escorted troopships. The arrival signalled the beginning of a four year occupation by US and Allied military forces. The occupation is remembered as a period of ‘dollar prosperity’, but also as a period which changed the face of the country as the US poured its massive resources into creating a defensible base for the war against the Japanese. War did not come to the country, but Santo was bombed several times by Solomons-based Japanese aircraft. The only casualty, commemorated to this day by a memorial plaque, was ‘Bossy’ a cow. To mark the occasion, Radio Vanuatu asked Major Ernie Reid, longtime Port- Vila resident and former commander of the New Hebrides Defence Force, to make a broadcast speech. A party of US visitors arrived in Port-Vila on March 31. They were with the first wave to go to the New Hebrides from the US 40 years ago.

Cooks Government Buys Rarotongan

New Zealand has decided to sell for SNZS.S million its stake in the Rarotongan Hotel to the Cook Islands Government. The sale will be financed by a New Zealand Government loan of $5.5 million at seven percent interest over 28 years. Cook Islands Government officials and the hotel staff were ‘delighted’ at the decision, said the Cooks’ Minister of Economic Development Vincent Ingram. The Cook Islands already owned a third of the hotel and Air New Zealand and the Tourist Hotel Corporation held the other shares. William Gasson in Wellington.

Huge Undersea Mountain Found

The Russian research ship, Kallisto, which is making a seismological survey of the ocean bed in Samoan waters, has discovered a very large undersea mountain about 160 kilometres south of the island of Upolu, and close to the Tpnga Trench. The mountain, which is said to rise to a height of seven kilometres, has been named Uo Mamae (‘Constant Friend’) at the suggestion of two Samoan Observatory technicians on board the vessel. If the height of 7000 metres is correct, Uo Mamae is as tall as some of the highest mountains on the earth’s surface. Mt Everest, the highest, is 8850 metres, Uo Mamae would rank with China’s Pik Komunizma (7496 metres), the world’s 12th highest mountain.

Tuvalu’S Nivaga In Trouble

The freighter Nivaga, the only asset Tuvalu, as the Ellice Islands, acquired when severing partnership with the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati) in October, 1975, is confined to port. On her last voyage, from Suva to Funafuti early in February, she was found to be taking water.