... independent

Interview

To be or not to be ... independent

Kalinga Seneviratne talks to Jean Calude Briault on the future (These are edited excerpts) PIM: Under the Matignon Accord there has to be a referen dum held on independence by 1998, but even the Kanak leaders don’t seem to be that keen on a yes-no vote. There seems to be a mood towards a sort of South African-style solution to it. So, would your party be looking at a coalition government with the FLNKS to rule New Caledonia after getting indepedence from France?

JCB: It’s not exactly the question. The question is not to reach a coalition to lead the country. The question is what would be the situation of New Caledonia in the French republic. The coalition is existing now. For example, the province of the Loyalty is ruled by a coalition of FLNKS and one member of RPCR. It’s already under way. Now the question is what could be the very next future for New Caledonia, and what could be the future after maybe 20 years. The problem of ruling the coun try together is today not a problem. For example, since 10 years, practically all the decisions in the Congress have been taken together. It’s not a minority against the majority, etc. We try to vote the defence rules, budget or the taxes and so on through an agreement with the FLNKS. So the question is not to lead a coalition. We already rule the country together.

PIM: My understanding is that the FLNKS wants to break the colonial linkage with France. What you are arguing is that there is no need to break it?

JCB: I think New Caledonia is no longer a colony. Because the colonial links between a colony and a mother country are ruled by a sort of domination, which is not the case.

PIM: As a result of the Matignon Accord, the Kanaks who control the northern province have bought into mining ...

JCB; Please don’t say Kanaks, say independentistes, because one-third of the Kanaks are in the RPCR. It’s not a problem of Whites against Blacks here because, take my case a quarter of my blood is Melanesian, another quarter is French, a quarter is Vietnamese and a quarter Indonesian. I’m not an exception. So we talk about the independentistes and non-inde pendentistes. It’s not a racial thing.

PIM; Well, the FLNKS controls the northern province where most of the mining is done. But the impression I get talk ing to their mining company, SMSP, is that they are not getting the full cooperation of the French government in developing the resources?

JCB: I cannot reply on behalf of the French government or the minister, what I can reply is ...

PIM: Let me add to it. The reason they say is probably the RPCR is pressuring the French government...

JCB: We had an official debate in the congress about this proposal and officially we support totally the project for a new

nickle plant in the north. I think it’s one of the solutions for the rebalancing of the economy in New Caledonia. Now the big tool in the mining field for the independentistes in the north is SMSP. And SMSP was formerly owned by Lafluer and he decided to sell because he promised to Tjibaou to have his peo ple involved in a company dealing with international trading and so on. We support [this proposal] completely because we know the soluton for New Caledonia is to balance the place of each community of each province.

PIM; People here, especially the middle class, seem to fear independence - they say that New Caledonia will end up like Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea or some of the other Pacific Island countries which are facing economic problems. Do you think that this fear is real?

JCB: It’s not a relevant question at present. Two provinces out of three are already ruled by independentistes and Kanaks.

The responsibilities of the provinces are very big ... They are responsible for economic development, for culture, health, social welfare - in a word, everything ... So, they really rule the province. They have reached not independence but [a] sort of internal autonomy close to independence. There are many peo ple who are not independentistes [who] live in the north and Loyalty Islands and the relationship between all the people is better now than it was 10 years ago. There is a sort of feeling that all the people belong to the country. Formerly, people had trouble about this, but now they are sure in New Caledonia you have people who are black, white, mixed people, yellow. But all these people living in New Caldonia share the same future and they belong to Caledonia. So, the relationship is more peaceful, though sometimes we have in congress very animat ed debates. But it generally remains peaceful because we share the same future. The question is not if we have independence will it be a crisis for New Caledonia. The debate is more mature now: how to develop the economy. The problem for all the leaders ... is what to do to ensure each person one job and one home and, of course, the dignity of everybody. ■