according

Government according to Crocombe

By David Robie

PACIFIC Islands governments should look at overhauling their political and administra tive systems and adapt them according to their own needs, believes one of the re

gion’s leading academics. The people of

the Pacific needn’t be overwhelmed by the wholesale adoption of foreign mod els. “There is an urgent need for an effective, flexible linkage between the government and the young and creative sectors of the population,” says Ron Cro combe. “Alas, not much of the scope for creative adaption has been grasped as yet.”

Crocombe, honoured as the University of the South Pacific’s first professor emeritus on his retirement to the Cook Islands, argues in his revised book The South PaciTic: An Introduction for a move away from the rapid post-colonial growth of relatively inefficient bureauc racies.

Independent Pacific nations are “con strained by a lack of confidence a hangover from colonial patterns by the new dependency on foreign govern ments and foreign experts” who come mainly from nations which were pre viously the colonial powers. As one cynic notes, the metropolitan colonial offices are as powerful as ever but are now named Ministries of Foreign Affairs!

While noting the relatively low propor tion of the population last year who were civil servants in the Solomon Islands (1.5 per cent) and Vanuatu (1.7 per cent), and even Kiribati (3.1 per cent) which just tops the “developing country” aver age of 3 per cent, he points the finger at several other countries. The Cook Is lands, for example, has a higher propor tion than the official figure of 11 per cent and Niue is even higher.

“Other problems include nepotism and political favouritism,” says Crocombe.

“The small total populations are made effectively much smaller by the concen tration of higher education, power and

privilege and/or professional back

ground.” He stresses that the great majority of people in positions of power - and of the young elite at the Pacific universities are sons and daughters of a small minority in the previous genera tion who were either ministers of reli

gion, civil servants, people of hereditary

privilege, or involved in business.

Crocombe cites examples of corrup tion and cases where national resources

have been usurped for the personal be nefit of those in power. He is critical of the financial impropriety involving “a disturbing number of leaders in politics and the bureaucracy, but police action at that level is rare”. Papua New Guinea’s former Foreign Minister Ted Diro was shown by a commission of inquiry last year to have accepted large sums of money from General Benny Murdani, then commander of the Indonesian armed forces, and to have negotiated a treaty of friendship between his country and Indonesia which was more favour able to Jakarta than Port Moresby.

The commission passed on evidence of $9 million being diverted for personal gain to the police, but no charges were filed.

In Vanuatu last year, independent au ditors targeted Barak Sope, leader of the ill-fated constitutional coup against the leadership of Prime Minister Father Wal ter Lini. Sope was responsible for the Vila Urban Land Corporation (VUL CAN). The auditors found VULCAN collapsed because of misuse of funds, mostly for operation costs and salaries.

Sope also negotiated the purchase of

large quantities of arms and ammunition from abroad. The arms and ammunition were never bought.

In the Cook Islands and Tonga there have been scandals about civil servants drawing travel and other allowances far higher than their salaries and the actual costs. “There are several countries in the Pacific where this is now a problem of massive proportions relative to the size of the national economy,” Crocombe says. He singles out Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Western Samoa as being hit by this problem more than other countries.

This fifth edition of a book, regarded at many universities and institutions as a sort of “bible” of the region, has been published by the University of the South Pacific in association with the University of Canterbury. The author carried out his extensive revision while he was at Canterbury’s Centre for Pacific Studies.

Although an extra 33 pages have been

MR unseated

PAPUA New Guinea’s former Defence Minister, James Pokasul, lost his seat in Parliament following a successful election petition. The court has nullified his elec tion in 1987 for the Manua Open consti tuency, citing bribery and undue influ ence as the reasons.

In his ruling, Justice Hinschiliffe said Pokasui gave out war pension cheques during the election campaign to win votes.

added, Crocombe deals with the Fiji coups in less than three pages and the Vanuatu crisis in half a page.

About Fiji, he says: “Most people familiar with Fiji realised that the indige nous Fijian people would not tolerate a government dominated by the interests of the Indian community and that harmonious survival depended on a Fi jian majority in power.” Commentators have blamed the coup on a class strug gle, the chiefs, South African mercenar ies, the CIA and various other factors, “but in my view the key issue was ethnic ity, a factor which Marxist interpreta tions in particular have great difficulty in

understanding”.

With the population delicately ba lanced between Indians and Fijians, Cro combe foresees a difficult task ahead. He points out that at a similar population balance between the immigrant English and indigenous Maori people in New Zealand the race wars began. “This is precluded in Fiji by the Fijian monopoly over coercive forces,” he says. “The welding of these two very different cul tures, plus European, Chinese and other minorities into a unified nation, will be a major task for another generation at least.”

The only benefit for Fiji’s neighbours

from the coup is that its dominance in Pacific regional affairs has been curbed.

Crocombe also sees ethnicity as a signi ficant factor in Vanuatu’s problems, with most people of the capital island of Efate

supporting Barak Sope and the opposi

tion. Land rights is also a factor. “Per sonal ambition for power and material resources,” he says, “is more clearly evi dent here than in most Pacific political contests.”

In Tonga, Crocombe warns that the climate of world opinion is “no longer sympathetic” to such a kingdom with its

heriditary elite and expanding

bureaucracy. “But the aristocracy and its associated non-aristocratic elite,” he adds, “is unlikely to reshape society voluntarily, either far enough or fast enough to meet the mounting desire for

change.” □

Melanesian union

THE president of Vanuatu’s National Democratic Party, John Naupa, has suc cessfully sought a merger with the Melanesian Progressive Party. Melane sian Progressive Party is led by former Immigration Minister Barak Sope.

Naupa and Sope were both members of a rival government set up by former President George Sokomanu last De cember.