Pacific ahead in

the free world

By David North

There is more political freedom in the insular Pacific than anywhere else in the world, except in Western Europe, according to a recent Think Tank report.

Most Pacific island jurisdictions were rated in the highest category of “free” in the annual survey conducted by New York’s Freedom House. Governments were given ratings ranging from 1 (the most free) down to 7, (the least free) in this system.

But Tonga, PNG and Fiji were excep tions; all were judged to be “partly free” in the survey.

Tonga’s score was 4, PNG’s 3.0, and Fiji drew a 3.5. The worst scores in the general area went to two of PNG’s neigh bors, Indonesian-ruled Irian Jaya and East Timor, both at 7. 1 The Freedom House system, which uses scholars and journalists to keep track of the general level of freedom around the

world, provides in the larger jurisdictions

two sets of scores, one for political rights, and the other for civil liberties. It uses the same one-to-seven set of measures.

Tonga, with its royalty and a legislature dominated by a hereditary aristocracy, got a score of 5 for political rights, and 3 for civil liberties, for an average of 4.

Fiji’s 3.5 rating was based on a 4 for political rights and a 3 for civil liberties; (prior to the coup Fiji’s ratings were more favourable).

PNG’s 3.0 resulted from a relatively high 2.0 for political rights, and a much lower 4.0 for civil liberties.

The ratings for the rest of the island nations and territories, all classified as “free” by Freedom House, were as fol lows: Interestingly, Guam and the nearby Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana

Islands (CNMI), both US flag territories, got different ratings.

While CNMI clearly has more political independence from the Mainland than Guam does (a factor that does not seem to weigh heavily in the Freedom House cal culations) CNMI got a lower rating on civil liberties as opposed to Guam’s per fect score. This presumably relates to the way Saipan employers treat their alien workers in the garment factories and ser vice industries there. The abuse of these workers has been thoroughly covered in the New York Press.

Although Freedom House did not award numerical scores to what it termed

“micro territories” it judged the following to be “free:” Niue, Norfolk Island, Pitcairn (and all of its 73 inhabitants) and Tokelau.

Niue and Tokelau are associated with New Zealand; Norfolk is governed by Australia, and Pitcairn is the last of the once numer ous British colonies in the Pacific.

Speaking of Great Britain, all the

English-speaking nations touching the

Pacific —Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US scored a perfect 1.0; but Britain itself drew a 1.5, based on a 2.0 score on civil liberties. The latter rating presumably related to the United Kingdom’s continuing tensions with the Irish nationalists in Ulster. ■