Pacific Report

Coalition Government In The Cooks

Cook Islands Prime Minister Sir Thomas Davis and Opposition Leader Geoffrey Henry have announced the formation of a coalition government. They said in a joint radio broadcast in early August that the coalition cabinet would comprise four members of Sir Thomas’ Democratic Party, and three from Mr Henry’s Cook Islands party. A correspondent of the New Zealand Press Association in Rarotonga reports that although he was not mentioned in the broadcast, a prominent Democratic Party member, Vincent Ingram, is believed to have precipitated the move. The NZPA report says that the government feared that Mr Ingram might not support the budget due to be brought down later in the month as he was not included in the cabinet named after the party won last November’s election by 13 seats to 11. The coalition had been formed to head off the crisis that would follow any such action by Mr Ingram. y

Paris: Final Vote On Jv.C. Statute

The French National Assembly on July 31 gave a final reading and passed into law a new statute for France’s overseas territory ofNew Caledonia, giving it internal autonomy leading to a referendum on its future in 1989. The bill was passed by 321 votes (the Socialists and Communists) to 151 against, from the various Opposition parties. The final text was the same as that passed in the second reading in the lower house, the Opposition-controlled Senate having refused to debate it and a joint Senate-Assembly commission having failed to reach agreement on a compromise text. The Senate has no further blocking power. The law gives a broad measure of self-government to the inhabitants of the island, and recognises the legitimacy of the customary law of the Melanesian 43 per cent of the population. Roch Pidjot, the independent deputy from New Caledonia who is president of the island’s Independence Front, abstained in the first two votes but

voted against the bill in the final reading. He charged that the law “sweeps aside the rights of the Kanak people,” and “plays into the hands of the most reactionary forces in New Caledonia. ” Georges Lemoine, Secretary of State (junior minister) for Overseas Departments and Territories, appealed to the IF to reconsider its decision to boycott the forthcoming elections for the Territorial Assembly. He said the IF’s position risked leading New Caledonia “towards a zone of uncertainty which no one would know how to control.” He said the date of the election would be fixed in the coming weeks. Opposition spokesman Jacques Toubon of the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) also appealed to the IF to “come back to reason and consider that there is no future for the inhabitants of New Caledonia outside France.”

Png Plans Repatriations To Irian Java

Papua New Guinea announced at the beginning of August that it would start repatriating within two weeks more than 9000 Irianese who have crossed the border from Indonesia’s Irian Jaya province in the past few months. The announcement was made by the secretary of PNG’s foreign affairs department, Paulias Matane. He had just returned to Port Moresby from a meeting of the joint border committee with Indonesian officials in the Javanese city of Surabaya. Mr Matane said the Indonesians had assured PNG in writing that no harm would come to the people who were returned to Irian Jaya. PNG diplomats based in Jakarta would be able to witness the return of the Irianese, and would be able to check on them in their villages later on. A limited number of the Irianese will not be obliged to return to Irian Jaya, but will be allowed to seek political asylum in Third World countries.

Political Ploys In Fiji Airport Strike

More than 2000 overseas passengers were stranded in Fiji late in June by a strike of civil aviation workers, members of the powerful Fiji Public Service Association which is headed by the politically ambitious Mahendra Chaudry. The strike went on for four days, closing all the country’s airports including the big international gateway at Nadi, and the smaller Suva airport of Nausori. The affair was very much a confrontation between Chaudry’s union and the government, and ended only after Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara issued a stiff ultimatum, threatening to jail ringleaders and take other punitive action against the public servants. Ostensibly the strike was over the sacking of an airport fireman who had been declared medically unfit. But, in fact, it seems to have much deeper roots, touching not only the PSA’s grip on national affairs (about 60 per cent of the Fiji work force is on the government payroll), but also the rivalry between Chaudry and the secretary-general of the Fiji Trade Union Council, James Raman, who holds a position to which, it is said, Mr Chaudry aspires. The strike was declared illegal, but this was challenged by the union which attempted to take the issue into the Supreme Court thus by-passing the available arbitration machinery.

Chaudry s interest in wider arenas seemed to be indicated by a statement that he wanted “the whole Civil Aviation Authority cleaned up, and an inquiry into the perks allowed to manage ment. He said he wanted workers’ representatives on the CAAF board. Another of Mr Chaudry s associates in the union leadership business in Fiji, Dansuklal Moraji, won a very bitter battle with Qantas three years ago and now sits as general manager of Airport terminal Services, a union-run co-operative which took over operation of Nadi Aiiport from Qantas. ATS also runs all other airport services in Fiji. Mr Chaudry’s demand for worker representation on the CAAF has led to speculation that he is seeking to emulate Mr Moraji. However, faced with the full majesty of Katu Mara, and the prospect of losing what support he had throughout the country, Mr Chaudry agreed to send his members back to work and to take part in arbitration proceedings in Suva Meantime, Fiji is estimated to have lost about $2 million in tourist revenue because of the four-day stoppage.

Malaysia-Png Accord Signed

Malaysia and Papua New Guinea signed a technical co-operation agreement in Fort Moresby on August 7. The agreement was sig ned by the respective prime ministers, Dr Mahathir for Malaysia and Mr Somare for PNG. Dr Mahathir was in Port Moresby to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting. A Malaysian Government spokesman said that under the agreement, Malaysia would provide training to Papua New Guineans in tropical agriculture and medicine, local government and land telecommunications. Radio Australia’s Kuala Lumpur

correspondent reports that under Dr Mahathir’s leadership, Malaysia has set up its own technical development program. It seeks to share Malaysia’s development knowledge with less developed countries, particularly those in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Png, Solomons, In Border Talks

Government officials from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands met in Kieta on Bougainville in early August. Bougainville is the main island in Papua New Guinea’s North Solomons Province and neighbors the Shortland Islands, which are part of the Solomons Western Islands province. At present most trade and movement across the border is unregulated. In April this year, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Michael Somare made an official visit to Solomon Islands, and the common border was one of the main topics he discussed with Solomon Islands PM Solomon Mamaloni. Both leaders agreed talks on border arrangements should be held quickly. PNG Foreign Minister Rabbie Namaliu said the August talks covered technical matters only, but further talks would follow. There are family ties between many of the Bougainvilleans and the Shortland islanders, and in their daily lives the border has no reality. In the past, some Shortlanders, when discussing borders, have expressed preference for PNG nationality.

T.V. Door Still Open, Says Stack

National broadcast television will be established in Papua New Guinea in about two years, and possibly within one year, using the Aussat satellite system. AJready several production companies, mostly Australian, have lodged proposals with the PNG govern ment for this introduction of commercially-financed public television, but no decision has yet been made in Port Moresby.

Indeed, according to PNG minister for industrial development, Karl Stack, the door is still open for other television hopefuls to advance their investment proposals. In forecasting introduction of television in less than 24 months Mr Stack appears to be at odds with the government committee set up to study the problem. While they are expected to tell Cabinet that a 30-month period could be contemplated, they are understood to favor something more like five years. By any standards it will be an expensive undertaking.

Running the stations will cost about SA2B million annually while hiring a transponder on the satellite will involve rental fees of SA3 million a year. However, as in Fiji and other islands of the Pacific, television sets are now commonplace in PNG, attached to video recorders and served by sophisticated networks of cassette libraries.

PLEBISCITE ON VOTING RIGHTS IN W. SAMOA Western Samoans will be asked next year to decide by plebiscite whether or not to extend the right to vote to non-matais, and whether only matais should be allowed as MPs. The pledge was made in July by both Prime Minister Tofilau Eti and Opposition Leader Tupuloa Efi. Parliament was debating a motion by Matatumua Maimoaga, the only woman in the House. In support of her motion that only matais should be candidates in elections, and that the vote be given to all persons 25 years or older who do not vote now, and who have been approved by the chiefs and orators of their constituency, Matatumua said that the sole purpose of the motion was the protection of Samoan customs. She said that at present hundreds of matais were being created just to give them the vote. Some were not even made matais at the villages they belong to, or with the proper ceremonies of Saofai. This development was directly against Samoan customs, and would inevitably end in the death of the cherished customs and traditions, she said. Her motion was lost on the voices. Western Samoans go to the polls in February, 1985, and the plebiscite will be held later in the year.

A New “Panama” Canal?

The Panama Canal is choking, with 15,000 vessels passing through it annually, and the number increasing every year, writes the French-language monthly, 30 Jours. The magazine reports that an idea has been conceived to cut a new canal across Mexico’s Tehuantepec Isthmus, at an estimated cost of SUS4SO million. The Panama Canal was opened in August 1914. Its construction was begun in 1880, cost the lives of 5000 workers, bankrupted the original company, and was only completed following a US-backed uprising against the government of Colombia, and the creation of the Republic of Panama in 1903.

Tahiti: Boris Leontteff Resigns

French Polynesia’s Government Council member Boris Leontieff resigned in July following differences with his party leader, and council Vice-president, Gaston Flosse. Mr Leontieff, who had responsibility for public works and territorial development, wanted the territorial government to stand guarantor for a loan to the highly successful Marama Nui company, which has been a trail-blazer in the development of hydro-electricity in Tahiti. Mr Flosse favored a more cautious approach. There were also differences between the two over tne phosphate development E reject on the island of Mataiva. In his letter of resignation, Mr eontieff, who had been the youngest member of tne council, accused Mr Flosse of lacking ‘Vision” for the economic development of the territory.

South Pacific Joins The W.Cjj>.

The South Pacific will be officially represented for the first time when the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) holds its fourth plenary meeting in Panama late in September. WCIP membership is limited to indigenous peoples who are not sovereign in their own countries. The eight delegations making up the South Pacific “regional” of the WCIP will come from East Timor, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, West Papua, Hawaii, Micronesia, New Zealand, and Australia. The body was formed at a mid-year meeting in Canberra hosted by Australia’s National Aboriginal Council. It is the fourth regional to adhere to the WCIP.

The other three are from North, Central, and South America. The establishment of the South Pacific regional has the active support of the Australian Government, including Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Clyde Holding, and the secretary of the Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Charles Perkins. The active entry of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs into the Pacific region through its sponsorship of the National Aboriginal Council will provide another and probably more sensitive dimension to Australia’s relations with indigenous peoples of the Pacific. —Bony Shineberg in Canberra.

Conference On Png Development

A major two-day conference will be held in Canberra this month to examine how Papua New Guinea’s emergence from its colonial past has affected internal development and foreign relations, particularly with Australia. The keynote address will be given by PNG’s minister for foreign affairs and trade, Mr Rabbie Namaliu.

Tony Bais, minister for justice, will also speak on law and order, one of the most vexed of public questions in PNG. Most speakers will come from PNG and will include politicians, academics and businessmen. Other speakers will include Professor Helen Hughes, who was a member of the Jackson Committee which reviewed Australian aid, Don Vernon, chairman of Bougainville Copper, and Paul Isherwood, chairman of the Australia-PNG Business Co operation Committee. Main themes to be addressed will be: development issues, education and culture, women in PNG, foreign policy and defence issues, economic relations, and Australian development assistance. The conference is organised by the Centre for Continuing Education at the Australian National University, assisted by the Australian Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific, and will run at University House, A.N U on September 13 and 14.

Png Into Asean Call By Indonesian

A senior Indonesian policy adviser has proposed that Papua New Guinea be admitted to full membership of the Association of South-east Asian nations (ASEAN), Jusuf Wanandi, executive director of Indonesia’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, made the call during the third Australia-Indonesia seminar in Brisbane in July. He suggested that ASEAN membership could help alleviate Papaua New Guinea’s sense of insecurity and prevent further trouble along its border with Irian Jaya Commenting on the trans-migration of Javanese settlers to Irian Java Mr Wanandi said it was a sensitive political and anthropologi cal task and not simply a matter of economic policy. He said that until recently, Indonesia had lacked the resources and time to concentrate on the development of the eastern end of its archipelago.

RATU MARA WINS LIBEL SUIT ON APPEAL Fiji’s Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara has succeeded in a libel suit against the country’s leading newspaper, The Fiji Times.

He at first lost in the Supreme Court, but then won in the Court of Appeal. A retrial has been ordered in the Supreme Court to assess damages. The suit arose from publication by the Times of a letter to the editor criticising Senator Inoke Tabua who had called for the deportation of certain Indian leaders. It was sad, said the correspondent, that the prime minister had not rebuked the senator, for he was Ratu Mara’s nominee in the Senate. In fact the senator is a nominee of the Great Council of Chiefs, of which Ratu Mara is a member, and the Times next day corrected the assertion.

However, Ratu Mara sued, judging the matter to be of considerable political importance to him. Judge Rooney, in the Supreme Court, found there was no libel. Mr Justice o‘Kegan, in the Appeal Court, decided that words in the letter inferred that the prime minister would be pleased by the senator’s words to the extent that he would renew the senator’s nomination. That inference was defamatory, said the court.

Air Polynesie Issues Ultimatum

French Polynesia’s inter-island carrier Air Polynesie will go out of business at the end of this year unless it gets a clear statement of support by September 30 from the territorial government on its plans to purchase new aircraft. September 30 is the date of expiry of the company’s option to buy four ATR42 aircraft. The 46-seater Franco-Italian plane is seen by the company as the key to its future profitable operation. It is seeking to raise CFPS billion (about $5O million) for the purchase. The French airline UTA is the largest single shareholder in Air Polynesie. A statement by the local company’s board of directors said that if the territoral government was unwilling to guarantee the loan, or preferred another partner in operating inter-island services, the company would have no alternative but to wind up its affairs by December 31, 1984.

President Deroburts “First" In Noumea

President Hammer Deßoburt of Nauru became the first foreign head of state ever received at Noumea’s Town Hall when he visited it on July 25. President Deßoburt, who was on a four-day official visit to New Caledonia, also met High Commissioner Jacques Roynette, and leaders of the main political groupings in the territory. In discussion with Vice-President of the Government Council Jean-Marie Tjibaou, President Deßoburt made it clear that because of difficulties encountered in collaboration between Air Nauru and Air Caledonie International, the Nauruan airline planned either to cease making seats on its flights available to Aircalin, or to charge more for them.

VILA S “ROBIN HOOD“ GETS 27 MONTHS Described by Vanuatu’s Acting Chief Justice Michael Oakley as “a modern Robin Hood”, the former acting manager of Port-Vila’s Besa Club, Joel Hango, was sentenced to 27 months jail in late July for theft of a total of 2,646,000 Vatu (about $A26,460) from the club. The money was taken from the club’s poker machines.

Mr Hango, from Pentecost, stole the money over a period of three months, until his dismissal in December, 1983. The court hearing revealed that while he kept some of the money for himself, he gave the rest away to relatives and friends.

Truk: Sailors' Remains Recovered

Japan has recovered the remains of 379 sailors from five of the Imperial Navy ships sunk in the Truk Lagoon by American aircraft in 1944. The bodies were cremated in Truk on July 30 and the ashes returned to Japan on August 1. Japan only recently received permission to recover the bodies.

Meet The Kirivalu Australia Association

The Kirivalu-Australia Association has been formally established in Melbourne. The association, which draws together Gilbertese and Tuvaluans resident in Australia, and Australians with an interest in Kiribati and/or Tuvalu, has a membership of “approximately, 40 families and six singles, most of whom are from Melbourne” according to a report oy Teweiariki Tebano in the Tarawa paper Te Uekero. The report quotes the 1984 KAA president, Don Kennedy, as saying that formation of the new body would not change ‘‘the casual nature of the association’s social gatherings.”

He said: “The moves place us in a more favorable position should legal or financial difficulties arise.” He added that “in case of internal turmoil, members can fall back on the by-laws of the association to smooth things out.”