Voters echo US caution

Palau

More change equals more of the same.

By Ed Rampell

COMPACT of Free Association advocate Governor Ngiratkel Etpison has emerged as the vic tor m tne Republic of Palau’s seven candidate presidential race . . . with a mere 39-vote win. With 2383 votes, Etpison edged past Governor Roman Tmetuchl’s tally of 2344 ballots to snatch victory from the reform ele ment in Palauan politics, with the re sult of the Republic’s general elections a mirror of election results in the US.

With Etpison’s victory, the pro-

Compact Ta Belau Party formerly led

by late President Lazarus Salii retains control of the presidency, just as the Republicans retained their domination of the White House with George Bush. However, like President-elect Bush, President-elect Etpison is facing a national Congress with both Houses

dominated by tne Opposition.

Furthermore, the Coalition for Open, Honest, and just Government succeeded in electing its candidate.

Senator Kuniwo Nakamura, to the Vice-Presidency (the President and Vice President do not run as an offi cial team). Senator Nakamura is the brother of Supreme Court Chief jus tice Mamoru Nakamura, who has ruled against the Compact in favour of Palau’s nuclear-free constitution in historic court cases, and Tosiwo Naka mura, who introduced the framed rules’ anti-nuclear provisions at the 1979 Constitutional Convention.

Hence, with a split ticket and a Coali tion-dominatea OEK (Senate and House of Delegates), Governor Etpi son faces a deeply divided Palau.

It is this divisiveness that has char acterised the Republic’s political life since ancient times, and which cost Governor Tmetuchl the 1988 election: the Airai State Governor came in second to late President Haruo Re meliik in the 1980 and 1984 presiden tial races. In the special election held after Remeliik’s assassination in june 1985, Tmeluchl’s son and nephew were framed for the murder, knock ing the Opposition leader out of con tention (the co-defendants were even

tually exonerated by the ROP Sup

reme Court in 1987). With the crea tion of the broad-based Coalition, 1988 finally seemed to be the year for

the long-term Compact critic.

The Coalition had been formed to protect Palauan civil libertires and hu man rights; Tmetuchl backed the call for a Special Prosecutor and auditor to look into political violence and cor

ruption, and endorsed the continuing investigation by the United States

Congress’s watchdog agency, the

General Accounting Office, into Palau’s myriad problems. The former political status negotiator is also sup ported a renegotiation of the ties be tween Palau and its superpower ‘pro tector’, and Governor Tmetuchl and his Coalition enjoyed wide popularity.

Many Palauan politicians as well as the grass-roots anti-nuclear movement led In Roman Bedor also supported both the Coalition’s cause ana its candi dates, but a Tmetuchl /Coalition vic tory was not to be largely thanks to the blunderings of three other candi dates linked to Palau’s loosely aligned Opposition. The trio of spoilers evcn tuallv finished fifth, sixth, and seventh in trie presidential sweepstakes, suc ceeding in defeating the Coalition’s

campaign.

High Chief Ibedul Yutaka Gibbons, apparently not content with holding Palau’s highest traditional rank, came in a distant fifth place with 729 votes: Ibedul was hampered with allegations by the GAO that he took a $200,000 bribe from the IPS ECO power project that has effectively bankrupted Palau, and former Speaker of the House Santos Olikong, the last to toss his hat into the ring, polled out 475 voles.

The first candidate to enter the race, Governor Moses Uludong, finished next to last with 588 votes.

Uludong has been blasted by oppo nents as a ‘sold-out socialist’, a former anti-nuclear and pro-independence activist who, sensing that me winds have changed, now endorses common wealth status which would territor ially bind Palau to America forever. In addition to a rape-related course case

brought against Uludong by an Amer

ican attorney, the media has charged hin with misappropriation of public funds and has even Questioned his sanity. Like his brother Cisco Uludong who publicly advertises himself as ‘a Marxist tunica moneymaker' Moses Uludong epitomises what has bede viled Palauan politics for decades by

virtually guaranteeing a ‘progressive’

candidate cannot become president.

The pro-Compact bloc was also split, however, between three candi dates all supporting the treaty that would phase out American administra tion of a United Nations Trusteeship with a new political status granting Palau limited nome rule and substan tial US funding, while Washington

assumed defence responsibilities. In terim President Thomas Remengesau finished third with 1761 votes, while Minister of State John O Ngiraked came in fourth with 764 votes: 4908 voters cast their ballots for Compact advocates while 4136 members of the electorate chose candidates who have been critical of the accord for years.

Nevertheless, the two-man Vice Presidential race illustrates the power of unity in Palauan politics. Un

opposed by any other Opposition con

tenders and backed by the Coalition, Senator Nakamura was elected in a landslide over Delegate Frank Kazuo Asanuma (one of the central figures in the GAO investigations).

In a nation where two elected presi dents have died violently, the pres idential race was oddly crowded: one would think the Palau presidency would be least popular job m the Paci fic. President-elect Etpison seems to have the dynamism and political

strength for the job, Ngiratkel Etpi

son, 63, was born during the Japanese occupation of Micronesia, ana tnough he speaks fluent Palauan and apancsc

he speaks no English. Etpison is,

however, one of Palau’s most success ful businessmen.

The President-elect is the Governor of Ngatpang State, which is located on the island of Babeldaob’s West Coast: he also holds Ngatpang’s highest

chiefly title, Rekemesit. Like his rival

Roman Tmetuchl, Etpison is a mem ber of the Seventh Day Adventist church and has also served as head of the Council of Governors, composed of the executive of Palau’s 16 stales.

Many regard Governor Etpison as a clean’ businessman and politician in

the corruption-racked Republic: he

has not, for example, been personally implicated in either the PEsCO scan dal or presidential assassinations. But questions have been raised by the President-elect’s assumption of the Salii mantle and his association with Ta Belau Party, which includes a pro- Compact faction allegedly linked not only to IPSECO but to the violence that has plagued Palau. Some obser vers fear that the supposed secret soci ety (known as ‘Panama’), which was responsible for crime and corruption in Palau, will also attempt to pull the strings of the new chief executive but tne Ta Belau Party’s rank and file and those who voted for it are honest citizens who support Free Association, as are a clear majority of Palauans. □