Little new in New World Order

THE so-called New World Order ushered in by the Gulf War has little to offer the Pacific. In fact, there is barely any difference from the Old Order.

The liberaton of Kuwait hasn’t brought any fresh responses over East Timor, which was invaded by Indon esian colonial forces 15 years ago in a far more brutal manner than the Iraqi invasion. Bougainville is no closer to a long-term solution. The political stale mate which has hounded Palau since it adopted the world’s first nuclear-free constitution in 1979 still remains.

In Resisting the Serpent , a Palauan now living in the United States proves remarkably symbolic of Western, par ticularly American, military and econ

omic hegemony. Depicting the “Escape

from the Sea Serpent of Oikuul”, the cover illustration is fitting for both books as they narrate a tragic David and Goliath story “of disinheritance, a journey toward freedom, and a people’s struggle with a ‘serpent’.”

Although Aldridge and Myers record a traditional people’s commitment to preserve their islands against the “ser pent” the Pentagon and its plans for a strategic military base they stress that it is far more than that. They believe it is a metaphor for the global struggle for survival against militarism, of which the Pacific islands have borne the brunt.

Aldridge and Myers criticise their countrymen for allowing the world’s largest debtor nation to continue accept ing and subsidising such huge levels of

military spending. Militarism, they say,

has “colonised our minds”. And already they have had the predictable defensive response to their book from the US establishment.

In a nutshell, the events in Palau are bizarre: over 10 years the people have voted 10 times on the issue of whether or

Resisting the Serpent: Palau’s Struggle for Setf-Determination, Bob Aldridge and Ched Myers (Fortkamp Publishing Co, Baltimore, 1990); Overreaching in Paradise: US Policy in Palau Since 1#45, Sue Babbitt Roff (Dnali Press, 1991.) Reviewed by David Robie not they should ban nuclear substances from their islands. Under pressure from Washington, they twice voted to reaffirm their nuclear-free constitution. The US then proposed a Compact of Free Association which was incompatible with the constitution because it would allow nuclear substances into Palauan terri tory. Seven times since 1983 variations of the compact have been submitted to referendum as required in the consitution and seven times the Palauan people have refused to override their nuclear free clauses.

The UN Trusteeship Agreement gov erning Micronesia was terminated last December for the Federated States of Micronesia, Northern Marianas and Marshall Islands, leaving just Palau.

It is unlikely any comparison of Palau under the Japanese mandate before the Second World War and the US admin istration under the trusteeship would show that Washington has fulfilled its obligations. Why, for example, did the US after the war destroy many of the Japanese improvements to the islands and allow the rest to deteriorate? Accord ing to Resisting the Serpent, after 43 years of trusteeship, “there are currently only 16 miles of paved roads”.

Both books are dedicated to the memory of Bedor Bins, the elderly father of anti-nuclear activists Roman Bedor and Bernie Keldermans, who was mur dered on September 7, 1987. Bedor was gunned down at the Belau Pacific Centre where Roman has his law office. It is believed he was mistaken for Roman who was at the time helping 20 women elders who had filed a lawsuit challenging a

constitutional amendment neutralising the nuclear-free clauses.

All three authors have impeccable credentials in decolonisation issues.

Australian-born Sue Rabbit Rolf worked with the Fretilin delegation from East Timor to the United Nations. She has been a freelance journalist specialising in decolonisation issues and has petitioned the Trusteeship Council and Decolonisation Committee on Micro nesia.

Aldridge, a critical authority on US military strategic policy and author of three books on the theme, first visited Palau during the First World War.

Myers is a Quaker activist and a freelance investigative journalist on Pa cific issues. He served on the Nuclear- Free and Independent (NFIP) move ment steering committee between 1980 and 1983.

Overreaching in Paradise is perhaps the more scholarly of the two books, and has an advantage in having an index. But Resisting the Serpent is probably more evocative.

As Rabbit Roff points out, the process of self-determination in Palau has been marred by three violent deaths during the 1980 s. Besides Bedor Bins, the first president, Haruo Remeliik, was assassin ated in 1985, and the second president, Lazarus Salii, committed suicide in 1988.

Tragic events for any community, but for the 15,000 Palauans they are a reminder of the pressures that have ravaged their island for more than a decade.

“It is to be hoped that in the 1990 s there emerges a solution by consensus, a process that would be in the best traditions of both Palau and the US. The courage of those 2000 voters (who have defiantly stood by the nuclear-free clauses) and their leaders and the fact that there are still no nuclear substances in Palau is a beacon to all of us who want to work our way out of the global nuclear mindset.” □