'Doer' Mayor

Politics

'Doer' Mayor puls party politics aside

By Florence Syme-Buchanan

Life was hard on the tiny southern island of Atiu in the Cook group 20 years ago and things haven’t changed much since then.

Except there are fewer people there and many of those that haven’t joined the mass exodus from the Cooks are despondent.

Their island, like nearly all the other outer islands, has suffered from neglect by successive governments who have concentrated on developing main island Rarotonga.

However, a former New Zealand scientist, Roger Malcolm, is the island’s new mayor and he’s set him self the task of hauling his adopted home island Atiu and its people out of the gloom.

Malcolm, originally from Napier, New Zealand is the first pakeha elected mayor in the Cook Islands.

He won the Atiu island mayoral seat by an over whelming majority in April’s elections. That result was testimony that the islanders have had enough of party politics dictated by politicians in Rarotonga.

It was the first time that the island people put aside political affiliations when they voted for Malcolm - a man generally regarded by the population of around 900 as a “doer”, and not interested in party politics.

"I think the Atiu people voted for me because they’ve known me for 20 years and in that time I have been involved in many projects, the last and most major one being the pumping of water to villages on top of the island,” says Malcolm.

The El Nino has meant little rain in the southern Cook Islands and Atiu has suffered water shortages for over a year, although there are vast underground reserves. This has badly affected exports of the island’s major crop - wet land taro.

Malcolm's first priority is to install a pump system that will serve the entire island with running water 24 hours a day. Water from taps is presently only avail able 4 hours a day. Electricity is on for 19. He believes this was "the pivotal issue of the election”.

Roger Malcolm said he felt like a pioneer when he arrived in Atiu, with his Cook Island wife Kura, on the first air flight to the 26.9 square kilo metre island.

With a sawmill he brought with him, Malcolm began building Atiu Motel, the island’s only tourist accommodation. There is still little tourism to the island renowned for its numerous caves, the resting place of ancient human skeletons.

Weekends are quiet in Atiu. The motel’s Pavillion Bar used to be the Friday night hot spot with a live band and locals wearing flowers partying till midnight. The onset of the Cooks

economic crisis meant fewer locals dressed up and went out, forcing Malcolm to lay off the band early last year. The Cook Islands economic recession and a plummeting population have hit the island hard. Atiu has lost 15 per cent of its population in the last year.

“Atiu is losing almost all its young people.

Certainly the most dynamic are leaving. Australia is the Mecca,” says Malcolm. “I want to slow this flow or at least give them memories that make them want to return.” At present school-leavers remain for Christmas and then with the new year the outward flow starts with Ta’aka’aka - a three month period during the hurricane season when all social and sport ing activity stops.

“In the past the Catholics and the Seventh Day Adventists have taken up the slack and held sports days, dances and picnics, but in the last two years even they have been too despondent because of tran sition to do much,” says Malcolm.

Between 1995 and early 1997, the government reduced its bloated public service - 2000 people lost their jobs. Hardest hit was the outer islands where jobs were usually government ones and dual income families are rare.

"Atiu’s future looks very difficult - an age bal anced population of about 1300 is viable,” says Roger Malcolm. Roger Malcolm has a major task ahead of him. He rattles around the islands dusty roads in a rusty truck picking up tourists, giving guided tours and attending to the long list of problems affecting Atiu.

The island’s roads have worsened, the govern ment-run television station closed, civic buildings became run down, medical equipment and drugs are in short supply - the island is in a state of neglect due to the country's money problems. "Our children and our future are leaving - there is despair amongst the people,” says Malcolm.

However, if this New Zealander's track record for getting things done indicates what's ahead, Atiu can expect a tum-around for the better over the next three years. ■