The democracy bug bites
p. 21 · Read in the full issue
TWO decades the 60s and 70s will go down in the historical annals of the Pacific Islands as having special meaning. It was then that the first phase of Captivity ended and the Handover took place. The former colonial powers except the irremovable French, of course bowed out after bestowing the gift of self-determination on their former island colonies. Sounds of revelry were wafted from island to island as the peoples celebrated the ‘Great Liberation’.
Many of them didn’t mind the fact that the departing masters had stripped their islands bone-dry of resources before they left, as long as they believed they have become free. And little did they realise that was premeditated provision for a more sinister scenario servile dependancy on foreign aid.
It took only a few years of sovereignty for the differing responses to self-governmental to
surface. It has been said that Melanesian communities are more democratic while Polynesian societies are more totalitarian.
Thus the leaders of the new Melanesia are from the common people themselves, while Polynesia continues the tradition of recruiting their leaders predominantly from the chiefly classes.
The political exuberance which is becoming characteristic of most Pacific Island groups is due to a really big change in these ncieties. The bottom line of all this is a localised awareness of the need for public participation by the commoners combined with the tailwind effects of the global pro-democracy movement. As I said in an earlier instalment, only Islamic communities are still immune to liberal-democratic institutions because their resistance to same is built-in to their cultures. But the democracy bug has stung the South Pacific islands, though they may not call it by that name.
In the land where democracy was born, ancient Greece, popular tyrants presaged the coming of democracy. Hitler thought the reverse was the case. Anyway Vanuatu seems to be moving along the Hellenic line of development. And PNG strikingly exemplifies a country whose government is at a loss as to what to do to a whole population on the move for the sake of moving because something is ‘in the air’. To a lesser extent the Solomons are having the same experience though one might believe democracy there is a more refined brand of politics.
In the Polynesian contexts of Fiji and Tonga, we witness a characteristic reaction. Here the population is divided into two groups a very large one made up of the commoner classes and a small chiefly class. Sentiments, as well as challenges and responses, are aligned and made along these divisions.
In the case of Fiji a new heterogeneous, multiracial population confronts a traditionally dominant though small chiefly class whose interests always lie with keeping the masses down. Most members of the latter class belong to a Great Council of Chiefs, a body which comes in very useful in the political manouvres of the most powerful and ambitious members of this small group. They have thought it worth their
while to tolerate two military coups to firm up their hold on power. And with Sitiveni Rabuka out of the way as a Cabinet Minister really his demise the dominant chiefs are firmly in place again now that they have the real control of the military also. One wonders whether there will be a democratic general election in Fiji again. But easy stability in the Pacific seems to be out of the question and not only because the populations are small-sized.
The circumstances in Tonga are similar to Fiji but still with important differences. Some kind of opposition has been taking shape in parliament in recent years. This opposition is provided by some Representatives of the People led by ‘Akilisi Pohiva. The movement has been created in response to popular needs and it has decreed that its main tasks are to monitor what the establish ment is up to at any given moment and also to work for a more democratic government and
social relationship. Pohiva and Co. claim to have discovered positive evidence of widespread office abuse, stark corruption, misuse of public funds, and gross imcompetence. They have also taken Ministers of the crown and the Government to court on some of these allegations.
What is new in the Tongan situation is that the majority of the people and church leaders, conservatives as they have been heretofore, are very sympathetic to the new developments. The most vocal sector of the population, however, apart from the pro-democracy group, is that minority which is able, through the traditional system of privilege and status, to syphon off resources and labour from the producing sectors. But when it comes to a real show of hands e.g. in a general election the majority show in the clearest terms that they want their rights asserted and maximum engagement in public affairs.
And so the motions of a struggle are being gone through by the parties, which include even changes to the constitution. The last move of Government has been initiated by the Premier’s resignation from office for health reasons. It was the occasion for four promotions within Cabinet and the appointment of a new-comer to the civil service to a Cabinet post.
There have been talk by the pro-democracy group of moving for the Premier’s resignation though they had not put a motion to that effect in the House. Parts of the changes are welcome in some quarters, though they may have been a move to appease popular feelings and forestall the political effects of an official demand for the resignation in the iorm of a motion. At the same time a letter carrying a motion Pohiva to impeach the Minister of Police lies with Parliam it now but the date for deliberation still has to be fixed. The Premier’s resignation may spark off other resignations. We n er know.
As for Samoa, I said she is still down the road a bit. But she is a nation full of surprises and it is possible that she might speed up her pace in the future. There is really no need to panic; there is time enough to clear our eyes, as we stand at the cross-road of the ages. On the other hand, as the song says, que sara, sara whatever will be, will be. □