Pim Opinion

“Simplicate” and add more direction

As the importance of the Pacific region has grown in world affairs the skills of the international conference-makers have come to the fore. Lucrative careers have been built on the talkfest industry and the Pacific Islands are becoming involved in it as surely as all the rest.

But might it not be worth thinking of limiting the number of conferences or, more precisely, being more selective about the collection of organisations which are springing up in response to this burgeoning interest in Pacific affairs?

The South Pacific Forum remains the major means of achieving direct communication between the leaders of the island nations. It has changed, unfortunately by some lights, but probably inevitably, and become much more formal and hag-ridden by bureaucrats. There is less of the relaxed round-table exchange and more of formally prepared and presented papers which have the effect of reducing flexibility and slowing productive discussion. This is an expression of yet another codicil to Parkinson’s Law: that the concentration of bureaucrats, and, therefore, both the formality and the paperwork, increases in proportion to the rise of a country’s significance, multiplied by the number of conferences its politicians attend. It is inevitable, but that does not mean to say it is undilutedly good.

T.O.M.Sopwith, designer of the Sopwith Camel, a famous First World War fighter, is credited with stating the first rule of aircraft design as ’’simplicate and add more lightness. ” Bureaucrats tend to complicate and add more weight, and sometimes their creations either fail to fly or, having been thrust into the air by raw horsepower, succeed in shooting down the politicians who were meant to fly them.

One of the great virtues of the Forum in its early days was its simplicity and its lightness. Something of that atmosphere returned at the meeting in Funafuti, and credit for that notable achievement is rightly given to Tuvalu. One may hope that the Cook Islands will do as well, yet the omens are not good, not through a lack of intent, or even because of the works of the creators of

never-ending paper, but because the issues in the Pacific can now be of world-wide importance. Also, there is now emerging a series of forums seeking to involve the Pacific Islands.

In July there was the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur, which PNG’s foreign minister, Mr John Giheno, used to warn Australia, and some others, that he was not altogether happy about some matters (see report this issue). ASEAN is very interested in extending its influence eastwards into the Pacific, and beyond the immediate, and very delicate, matter of the Irian Jaya border, and is quite vigorously wooing the island countries into its embrace.

The Forum takes place in the first week of August but, in the second week, also in Rarotonga, there is to be held the Pacific Islands Conference, organised by the Pacific Islands Development Program, based at the East-West Center in Hawaii. Some see this conference as a rival to the Forum.

Yet the P.I.C. has the potential to be a valuable vehicle for communication among Pacific leaders, for it extends far beyond the older Forum and brings in all Pacific island countries and non-self governing territories, as well as Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Japan, Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom and France.

There is even a report that Fiji’s prime minister, Ratu Mara, who was a founder member of the P.I.C. at its first conference last year, suggested that mainland China be invited to send a delegation and become a permanent member.

Washington reports say that, partly because of this rapid growth, the P.I.C. and the P.I.D.P. now must decide their future direction.

Ratu Mara has said publicly that the new organisations do not duplicate or rival the Forum, S.P.E.C. or S.P.C. But that depends upon what P.I.C. decides is to be its role and its areas of interest.

And if they all continue, just think how many bureaucrats they will come to feed, how many politicians they will divert, and how many trees will be chopped down to feed their photostat machines.

More seriously, will there now develop a wasteful race to gain the attention of the islands?