France's new-look diplomacy

The Region

David Rohie reports on changes in Paris's policies in the post-Flosse era.

GASTON Flosse era in the I South Pacific was a paradox.

H Faced with mounting allegations

of corruption and deepening resent ment at home in Papeete, the former French Secretary for Pacific Affairs was eventually forced to resign from

the French Polynesian presidency.

Then the government of his conserva tive ruling party, Tahoeraa Huiraatira, collapsed after rioting in October 1987

exposed growing unemployment and

social problems m Tahiti.

But things were different for Flosse in the wider South Pacific arena. For mer French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac’s reward for his lieutenant, through the creation ol a well-funded secretariat of Pacific Affairs, was a

gamble that had paid oil handsomely:

many Polynesian politicians were im pressed with the fact that a Pacific islander (Flosse is part-Tahitian) was now speaking on behalf of France; they lilced his charming style of di plomacy and the ‘gifts’ dished out by Ins office.

They seemed not to care that Can berra and Wellington thought Flosse arrogant and his methods question

able. They appeared unconcerned by

his alleged role in the controversial re patriation to Paris of Rainbow Warrior bombers Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur from Hao Atoll. Nor did those politicians seem concerned that one of Flosse’s key priorities was to blunt South Pacific support for the Kanak independence movement in New Cale donia and opposition to nuclear test ing in the Tuamotus.

Flosse managed to remain popular

with Polynesian governments despite

the suspicion with which other Melanesian states regarded his activi ties and his involvement in a con troversy in the Solomon Islands that led eventually to an embarrassing gov ernment crisis. Cook Islands, in par

ticular, piqued at perceived neglect by

New Zealand, was happy to encourage the French connection while Flosse was still, in effect, roving ambassador.

“Flosse is regarded very highly in the Cook Islands,” wrote Le Monde's Oceania correspondent Patrice de Beer after a recent visit,” ... a totally different perception from how he is seen in Papeete and France. He has established many positive links with

Polynesian leaders.’’

Now, however, there is a problem: while socialist Prime Minister Michel

Rocard is keen to foster better rela tions with Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific nations, the Secretariat of Pacific Affairs is defunct and Flosse is out of a job. Instead the South Pacific Council, set up under the previous socialist administration with one-time

revolutionary ideologue Regis Debray

at its head, has been dusted off and revived. Philippe Baude, French dele gate to the South Pacific Commission, has been named secretary of what will probably be a low-profile agency.

Rocard has written to Alexandre Leontieff, president of French Polynesia’s territorial government and Flosse’s former right-hand man, asking him to organise a study of the evolution of protection for fisheries resources in the South Pacific. The assignment, observers say, makes Leontieff France’s roving ambassador for economic, scientific and cultural exchanges in the region. The Tahiti Sun Press reports Leontieff will be ex pected to monitor fisheries decisons made in the region including French territories and the decisions of international organisations. He will be assisted by French diplomats and officials in the region and in Paris.

Rocard has also asked Leontieff to

organise co-operation between nation

al and • territorial research organisa tions in the South Pacific.

It is an irony that while the so-called Matignon peace accord appears to offer some hope for New Caledonia, politics in Tahiti are becoming in creasingly fragile with Leontieff strug gling to hold together his coalition government. Three of his cabinet ministers recently resigned to ensure he would have a majority in the

budget debate. Deputy President

(icorges Kelly, Social Affairs Minister Huguette Hong Kiou and Labour and

Fniployment Minister Napoleon Spitz

stepped down from the 10-strong cabinet so they could resume their places in the 41-seat Territorial Assembly before the debate began.

Leontieff is threatened by the recent formation of a centre group of six dis sident politicians led by businessman

Quito Braun-Ortega. Though Braun-

Ortega was once Flosse’s bitter foe, it is possible the group will join forces with the Flosse Opposition.

One week before the November 1988 referendum on French policy on

New Caledonia, a public opinion poll

produced some interesting statistics on

attitudes to modern French colonial ism. The IPSOS Institute asked a rep resentative sample of the French population “do you accept or reject the idea that the French overseas ter ritories and departments should be granted independence within the next decade?” The results, published in the news magazine Le Point , showed a

majority supporting independence for

all territories French Polynesia

Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique,

Mayotte, New Caledonia, Reunion, St Pierre and Miouelon, and Wallis and Futuna. Guadeloupe drew the largest vote for independence (48 per cent for, 35 per cent against), and the fi gures were similar For New Caledonia and French Polynesia. In the wake of this majority popular response Pacific based observers now ask why France does not give independence without delay to her last Pacific colonies.

In Tahiti, which to some extent shares similar colonial problems to New Caledonia, local political leaders were even more concerned than those in France over the ambiguity of the Matignon accord ballot, voters were not being asked to approve a direct question such as “are you for or

against independence for the

Kanaks?” Instead they were being asked to endorse Rocaro’s vague peace plan that would eventually lead to still another referendum on self determination in 1998 a ballot the 3osition Gaullist Rally for the Re lic has already pledged to scuttle if and when it returns to power.

But most of Tahiti’s nine major political parties and the influential Evangelical and Catholic churches eventually endorsed a Yes vote. They argued tnat Rocard had at least tem porarily introduced peace to New Caledonia following the bloodbath on Ouvea during the May presidential elections. At least 6000 Tahitians live in the territory, most supporting French rule because they fear being

repatriated after independence.

Pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru’s Tavini Huiraatira party was the only group to support the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS). Flosse’s Tahoeraa called for an abstention in the vote, claiming Rocard also had secret plans to make

Tahiti independent. But Polynesian

voters gave the Rocard plan a slightly higher endorsement (82 per cent) than voters in metropolitan France. □