Leader Of The Year

Your Say

HERE IS your chance to tell us who you believe is the Pacific’s Leader Of The Year. Just write to us at Pacific Islands Monthly , GPO Box 4245, Syd ney 2001, and tell us in 50 words whom you consider to be the region’s most influential man or woman, the per son who has most changed for better or worse the way we live in 1988.

We will name the Leader Of The Year and publish the best letters in the special December collectors’ edition of Pacific Islands Monthly.

With 1988 shaping as the Pacific’s most momentous year, there are many who could lay claim to being the Leader Of The Year. Insurrection in New Caledonia, political instability in Papua New Guinea and the heart and back-breaking task of restoring Fiji to prosperity could throw forward the most influential person in the Pacific in 1988. Then there is the unprecedented influence of the superpowers; one of their statesmen or women could well be the Leader Of The Year.

In the running must be such powerbrokers as the giants of Fiji Brigadier-General Rabuka, Governor-General Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau and Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. The protagonists who have made this Papua New Guinea’s most tumultuous year Prime Minister Paias Wingti and the Chief, Michael Somare must also be considered. And who could deny the impact of Ted Diro on the affairs of the country? Jean-Marie Tji baou and Bernard Pons, implacable foes, continue to make history in what has been a dramatic and tragic year in New Caledonia and what of French Captain Philippe Le

gorjus or Kanak fighter Alphonse Dianoud, who met his death in a cave on Ouvea.

Other prominent figures who will have their support ers are New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange, who has championed a non-nuclear Pacific, NZ’s Foreign Minister Russell Marshall and Islands Affairs Minister Prebble. Australia’s PM Bob Hawke, Foreign Minister Bill Hayden, Defence Minister Kim Beazley and Opposition spokesman John Spender have all made Pacific headlines this year. And so have Palau’s President Salii and the women and men who oppose his proposed Compact with the US; King Tupou of Western Samoa, whose subjects will joyously celebrate his 70th birthday this year; Presi dent Tabai of Kiribati; those who fight for compensation in Nauru; Father Lini and Barak Sope in Vanuatu.

Those who are not of the region but whose shadow, cast from afar, has coloured events here are Reagan and Gor bachev, Suharto and the troubling Gaddafi, Francois Mitterand and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11.

And, always, given the increasing uncertainty and vol atility of Pacific events, who is to say that a host of new names will not come to the fore before the year is out?

Nor can we disregard the role played by the compara tively unsung: the business people, the artists and writers, doctors and social workers, builders and sports people.

Many have provided memorable moments in 1988.

So who would you pick? Here is your chance to have your say and have your letter printed in a very special is sue of Pacific Islands Monthly. Write to us now and help us choose the Pacific’s Leader Of The Year. □