Fall of an elder statesman

By David Robie

POLITICS, said Vanuatu’s Father Walter Hadye Lini during the struggle for independence, “is the way in which judgements are affected; that is, it tears down what is old and unjust and creates new structures through which right judgements are channelled.”

Ironically and sadly, the essence of this philosophy has led to his downfall.

But recent circumstances (leading to his September 6 replacement as prime minister by former co-founder of the Vanua’aku Party, Donald Kalpokas) do not negate a decade of inspired leader ship and achievement for the South Pacific’s youngest nation.

The region’s longest-serving democratically elected leader, he struggled courageously for his country’s independence in the 1970 s an example respected by Kanak, East Timorese and West Papuan activists striving for their own countries’ liberation from colonial rule. And he presided over a period of economic and administrative stability and nation-building that laid a solid framework for the future.

He provided much of the founding

inspiration for the Nuclear-Free and

Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement,

H , is S° vm ' mem Provided the only offic ial endorsement of any Pacific admmis ‘radon at , an I NF[ P conference in Vila in l98 ?’ a ™ championed a strong nuclear-free Pacific treaty and remained ?gP? sed “ compromises forced on the

1985 Treaty by Australian

officials. He believed eradication of colonialism would eradicate nuclearism.

He also displayed remarkable courage dealin S with the stroke he suffered in ,987 ’ though his critics claimed health

Problems damaged his leadership.

t) .Ain a mi Born m 1942 at Agatoa, North Pentecost, Lin, came from a line of chiefs His name means o set loose “set free” or to heal . In his autobiography, Beyond Pandemonium, Lin, revealed he first wanted to be a lawyer but the priest hood won. He studied at St Peters Technological College at Siota, in the Solomon Islands, then at St Johns

Theological College in Auckland,

While studying in New Zealand, Lini launched and edited a newspaper, Want ok , which articulated Pacific na tionalist sentiments and the emerging “Melanesian socialism”. It contributed to many political changes in the Pacific

nations in the following two decades.

After leaving New Zealand, Lini teamed up with two teachers, Kalpokas and Peter Taurakoto, in 1971 to form the New Hebridean Cultural Association the forerunner of the Vanua’aku Party.

Lini was later released from the church to lead the VP and formed a “people’s provisional government” in November 1977. Two years later, in United Nations-supervised elections, the VP gained a landslide victory campaigning on a platform of immediate indepen dence. With more than 90 per cent voter turnout, it captured 62 per cent of the total vote, two-thirds of the 39-seat Assembly, and won majorities on every island. But that was the peak.

Since then, the mainstream churches have been losing followers to fundamen talist groups and the growing educated elite is no longer bound by independence ideology. The problems of a small Third World country remain not the least being corruption alleged to involve some ministers and senior officials.

It would have been better if Lini had stepped aside gracefully before allowing his outstanding political and social legacy to be tarnished by bitter feuds.

Whether he can regain power, as leader of his new National United Party, remains to be seen. As it is, the old Vanua’aku Party rallying cry of “Seli Hoo” (Let’s pull together) has become a sad mockery. □