splits IF parties

Senate election splits IF parties

The RPCR (Republican) party’s Dick Ukeiwe won New Caledonia’s September 25 Se nate election on the first round of a three-cornered race. Under an electoral college voting system, Mr Ukeiwe gained 173 votes, with outgoing Senator Lionel Cherrier (FNSC, and supported by three of the Independence Front (IF) parties, Union Caledonienne, FULK and PSC) getting 114, and Kapea Nepamoindou, candidate of two of the IF parties, LKS and UPM, scoring 32. There were three abstentions and two invalid votes.

New Caledonia has two de puties and one senator in the French Parliament, and Mr Ukeiwe’s win gives the anti independence RPCR two of these posts.

Speaking to the press before the election, Mr Ukeiwe said his candidature marked the RPCR’s desire to participate in French institutions, and their primary objective of remaining within the framework of the French Republ ic. Staying with France, Mr Ukeiwe said, “one stays with the liberty, security and peace of the Republic, which permits the peaceful coexistence of all races in New Caledonia.”

There would be no progress and benefit for New Caledonia without the French presence, he added.

On the question of the auton omy statute proposed by France, and due to be brought to the territory in November by Minis ter for Overseas Territories Georges Lemoine, Mr Ukeiwe said the RPCR position was “yes” to decentralisation, but a

firm “no” to any statute which could be a transition to independ ence. “Political autonomy is the antechamber to independence,” he said. “We note that all of France’s former territories who were given statutes of internal autonomy then went on to inde pendence to leave the French Republic. We want to be the window of French culture in this part of the South Pacific,” he added.

Problems within the IF deepened with their split over strategy for the Senate election.

Secretary-general of the UC, Eloi Machoro, said that the IF felt that the election was of only

relative importance, and they

preferred to concentrate on work

ing towards independence. Hop

ing to block a win by the RPCR, he called on the IF parties to support Lionel Cherrier. (Mr Cherrier of the FNSC took over the Senate post following the death of his then coalition partner Henri Lafleur not long after the 1974 Senate election).

Mr Machoro said that support for Cherrier did not put in doubt the objective of Kanak socialist independence, and would de monstrate that the IF was not racist.

However, at the eleventh hour, the IF parties LKS and UPM put up former priest Kapea Nepamoindou, saying it was “unthinkable” that the Front should not be contesting the elec tion. LKS leader Nidoish Nais seline said that by supporting the Centre party, the FNSC, the IF was playing into the hands of the French Government, which hoped to achieve a consensus for autonomy, and to isolate both the

hardline “departmentalists” of the RPCR, and the radicals of the IF. With Ukeiwe, one of the moderates from the RPCR, and Cherrier, a pro-autonomist, con testing the Senate seat, IF voters would be forced to abstain, Mr Naisseline explained. Moreover, he said, for the IF not to present a candidate would be to destroy its credibility, and to deny its claim for Kanak socialist

independence.

Shortly after his election vic tory, Mr Ukeiwe left to take up his Senate seat. Before leaving he clarified his party’s views on the statute of autonomy. He said that the RPCR was very clear in rejecting any statute which per mits the separation of New Caledonia from France. “Like all French people we want a maximum of decentralisation and deconcentration this is jus tified by our distance and isola tion from France. We are not against managerial autonomy, but we are opposed to any statute of transition, any step towards

independence.”

However, one of the results of the Paris round table discussions in July, which were attended by all groups, was the statement from France that the forthcoming statute would be “specific,

evolutionary, and transitory.”

The RPCR did not sign the state ment, and Mr Ukeiwe told PIM that they would prefer to see details of the statute before giv ing a clear “no” to it.

Recriminations between the two IF factions continued after the election, with Mr Machoro accusing Naisseline’s LKS of “treason,” and trying to usurp the UC’s position as the major party in the Front. Mr Naisseline maintained that the Front’s prob lems were more a question of ideology, and that as an umbrella group the Front had never come to grips with the deeper ques tions. (The LKS and the UMP

are against the plans of UC, FULK and PSC for independ ence in 1984, saying that the Front and the country are not adequately prepared for it).

Mr Naisseline claimed that the FNSC had on several occasions “blackmailed” the Front in the course of their 17-month partner ship, and that Mr Nepamoindou had been the original choice as candidate of the IF.

The UC’s steering committee, which met in early October, de cided that the question of a cen sure motion against the LKS and UPM should be left until the UC’s annual conference, which was due to be held on Ouvea Island in late October. What they did decide, Mr Machoro said, was that they would carry on with their own plans towards independence, and that those parties of the Front which were prepared to work with them could do so. As far as the Front was concerned, the UC, FULK and PSC would continue to exist as the IF, but the other two parties were not excluded, and would be welcome at weekly

meetings.

Mr Machoro explained that the UC conference would work on a precise calendar for independ ence, with 1984 to be the year of transition. The membership and future of the Front would be reviewed at this conference, Mr Machoro added. (The five parties came together as the IF in 1979, with a loose common platform aiming at Kanak socialist

independence).

LKS spokesmen told PIM that they had no plans to resign from the government council, and they were “always ready for a frank and deep ideological debate with the other parties, and would con tinue with their emphasis on the economic development of the country”.

Problems within the Front were once again touched upon by

Noumea Notebook Helen Fraser

Mr Machoro in his speech at the graveside of murdered UC sec retary-general Pierre Declercq on the occasion of the second an niversary of his death. Mr De clercq was murdered at his sub urban Noumea home on Septem ber 19, 1981.

In summing up the last year’s political activities, Mr Machoro said the IF suffered from a lack of co-ordination, a lack of self confidence, and also a lack of political maturity.

Over 500 people attended the memorial service at the tribal

area of La Conception where Mr Declercq is buried. A religious service was followed by a silent march to the graveside, where speeches recalling Mr Declercq’s life and political activity were given by Roch Pidjot, IF deputy to the French Parliament, Chris

tian Burck, president of the De clercq Memorial Committee, and Eloi Machoro.

Although two men were ar

rested following Mr Declercq’s

murder, both have been released on bail, and no date has yet been

set for a trial.

Helen Fraser.