Vanuatu

Letters

Vanuatu issues

Sir, YOUR explicit news coverage of various issues on Vanuatu in your October issue reveals to the world the ruining economic situation manoeuvred by the present Union of Moderate Party-led govern ment. The coverage highlights vital issues which rather leads to topical matters, especially the economic hand ling, fogging mysteries and media restric tion.

It is not surprising though that Willie Jimmy (Minister of Finance) is intending to raise two billion dollars of foreign loan because he is being obsessed with taking the country’s economy into a gloomy direction. In addition, the Prime Minis ter, Maxime Carlot Korman, having realised how hot the issue was, took every opportunity to travel the world over (an average of one trip per month since becoming prime minister 22 months ago) to Asia, United States and Europe begging for aid packages in a non diplomatic manner. The reality is that the Union of Moderate Party’s (UMP) illusive and immature economic policy, together with their dream promises in the 1991 national election campaign, is bouncing back on them embarrassingly.

Their mismanagement of the country’s economy also counts a great deal. As a result, the inflation continues to increase at a disappointing rate, the Gross Domestic Product continues to drop and the economy is barely growing. How ever, the phenomena of servicing that billion dollars worth of debt (if the loan gets through) is to a large extent unrealistic and in the long term scenario will undoubtedly leads to uncompromis

ing consequences.

The logging issue is a more pathetic one. More and more people in Vanuatu are becoming aware of the vulnerability to their natural resources and the importance of sustaining them. Thus,

they expect the government to enforce a practical policy toward this particular area as they have already learnt from previous mistakes of environmental de structions occuring both in Vanuatu and overseas by various logging operations.

Instead, the three mentioned prominent ministers (Willie Jimmy, Ohnen Tahi and Paul Telukluk) contradict by trav elling all the way to Malaysia merely to negotiate deals with a private logging company which already has a bad reputation in other neighbouring countries in terms of causing major

environmental damage during fogging

operations.

It is even more unusual to note that apart from one single minister who should be travelling for such a deal, there were three of them who went to negotiate the deal apparently demonstrating once more how Mr Money is blinding them by using them to deprive 99.9 per cent of Vanuatu’s population.

Finally, not only that the UMP-led government restricted sensitive news from opposition parties from being aired on radio Vanuatu, they have also misused the country’s official newspaper, the Vanuatu Weekly, since the party came into power. Their stereotype of misusing official resources appear in the Vanuatu Weekly under the heading Mr Wanuwei, where they did not address any authentic information to the general public. However, the articles are confus ing and full of bizarre bits and pieces of childish ideas. This downgrades the image of the newspaper and affects the whole official media system in the country.

The euphoria among the citizens of Vanuatu is constantly eroding every day while anxiety and frustration are taking place instead. In fact, the population is witnessing the worst situation in its country since becoming independent 13 years ago.

Warrr Lala

Point Cross, South Pentecost Vanuatu

Tuvalu

election

Sir, I FEEL that I have been let down by an old friend, for which I hold you entirely

responsible.

Regrettably, the only items about the island countries of the Pacific which receive media coverage in the United Kingdom are those like major hurricanes or a military coup. So in order to keep abreast with what is happening in your part of the world I have subscribed to PIM for the past 25 years ever since I had the good fortune to work in the then Gilbert & Ellice Islands colony. Whilst I fully accept that the magazine’s role has had to change over the years as you outlined in your editorial in the last August issue I do feel that you are in danger of devoting too much space to the larger nations at the expense of the smaller ones.

To judge from the coverage or rather the lack of coverage given to the subject in PIM during the past four issues, one could be forgiven for including that you, sir, were unaware that there was a general election in Tuvalu at the beginning of September. Surely in view of the amount of political coverage you are now including, a general election warranted a paragraph or two in the August or September edition but not a word.

Then, at the end of September, there was the extraordinary situation when the 12 newly-elected MPs failed to agree on who should be the new prime minister each of the two candidates, the outgoing prime minister, Bikenibeu Paeniu, and his predecessor, Dr. Tomasi Puapua, apparently receiving six votes each in three ballots, with the result that it was decided to hold a new general election at the end of November. Surely an event like that deserved some mention in PIM?

I appreciate that that extraordinary affair occurred too late to be covered in your October edition but as a journalist myself I expected it to be one of the main stories in the November edition. But again, not a word.

Certainly since the demise of the informative Tuvalu Echoes it has become extremely difficult for people outside the region to have any idea of developments taking place in that country. I had assumed, though, that any major story would still receive a mention in PIM, as it has done in the past. Having just renewed my subscription for a further year I hope that you will be able to

reassure me and other readers that the smaller island groups are not to be forgotten in the “new-look” PIM.

Gur Slatter

Cornwall

United Kingdom

EDITOR’S NOTE: it was not the intention of PIM to ignore the Tuvalu election. It was a genuine oversight that occured basically because of lack of information com ing out of Tuvalu. I wish to assure you and all our readers that the smaller island groups are an im portant part of the Pacific and will not be forgotten.

What’s in

a name

Sir, IN the October issue of PIM you carried a news item, ‘Deals under scrutiny’, by Craig Skehan. The news item mentioned that the funds of a loan to Vanuatu would be delivered by Hannes Lenz Gesmbh and Co. based in the Philip

pines.

It should be pointed out that the term Gesmbh in all probability comes froom “Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung” (German for “Company with limited liability”). This is usually abbreviated in German as GmbH. So, there is some likelihood this Philippine based company represents German and/or European interests.

Robert Silberstorf

Apartado Aereo 065629 Medellin, Antioquia Colombia

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