taking shape?

New Caledonia: A new governing majority is taking shape?

As in French Polynesia, where the May 23 elections put new faces in control of the territory’s affairs, big changes are brewing in New Caledonia’s local gov ernment.

Throughout April-May dis creet negotiations went on be tween the Centrist Federation pour une Nouvelle Societe Caledonienne (FNSC) and the pro-independence Front Inde pendantiste (FI) with a view to forming a new council of gov ernment (a sort of cabinet).

This possibility has arisen because in coalition the two groups now have the numbers in the 36-member Territorial As sembly (TA) to pass a motion of censure against the present council, which is dominated by the Ralliement Pour la Caledonie dans la Republique

(Rpcr).

The three-years-old coalition between the RPCR and the FNSC fell apart earlier this year when the latter voted with the FI for the introduction of income tax in New Caledonia (PIM Feb p 5). In any new council, the FI (14 members in the TA) would have a majority over the FNSC (seven TA members). (The council con sists of seven members.) French High Commissioner Christian Nucci has been at tempting to steer the two groups towards such a decision because this would perhaps tempor arily defuse the indepen dence issue by giving some limited power to the five parties in the FI.

Within the framework of the French Government’s desire for a consensus on the question of independence, the fortunes of the firmly anti-independence RCPR have been in decline.

The 1982 session of the TA had a rowdy opening at the end of April when Mr Nucci de livered his opening address amidst booing and heckling from supporters of the RPCR

and the equally anti independence Parti National Caledonien (PNC). The hostile crowd of 300 was particularly abusive when Mr Nucci spoke of the need for consultation and compromise in the mapping of New Caledonia’s future.

Significantly, the session was boycotted by RPCR politicians who had demanded Mr Nucci’s recall to Paris because he had

permitted the expulsion of RPCR member Dick Ukeiwe, vice-president of the council of government (a sort of prime minister), from a meeting of the council of Great Chiefs.

With the FNSC abstaining from the vote, neither the RPCR nor the FI could com mand an absolute majority in the election for president of the Territorial Assembly, but in the third and final round of voting Jean Leques of the RPCR was elected, one vote ahead of Gabriel Paita of the Union Caledonienne (UC), largest party in the FI.

However, the fortunes of the RPCR deteriorated further in the following weeks when first Mme Marie-Paule Serve and then the Wallisian Petelo Manuofiua resigned from the

party. With these two defec tions from its ranks in the TA, the RPCR had only 13 mem bers, leaving the FI as the largest single group. Both Mme Serve and Mr Manuofiua are sitting as Independents, having said that they could contribute more in this way to dialogue and consultation between all sides on the question of New Caledonia’s future. Both listed the ‘rigidity’ of the RPCR among their reasons for resig nation.

Some indication of France’s intentions for the territory has been given by the publication of the texts of the government’s first two ordinances one setting up an office for the development of the interior (of the main island) and the terri tory’s offshore islands, and the other setting up a Melanesian scientific, cultural and technical office.

However, the third and most controversial reform, that con cerning land, got off to a bad start when Henri Emmanuelli, secretary of state for overseas departments and territories, re leased the preliminary text to the presk in Paris, after which it was published in the Noumea daily Les Nouvelles Caledon iennes on May 21-22.

This obliged Mr Nucci to hastily convene meetings with local politicians to explain the reform.

The proposed land reform, which has been widely de scribed as ‘vague’, sets up a land office with power to recognise ‘Custom’ claims to land. Par ticular attention would be given to individuals or groups with proposals for economic or agri cultural exploitation of land.

However, before ratification the ordinance has to be de bated, and perhaps modified, by the TA, after which it goes to the council of ministers in Paris.

Helen Fraser in Noumea.

Christian Nucci an angry reception when he called for greater consultation.