Remittances, assault and

Developments

Remittances, assault and deportation -a NZ debate

By Barbara Dreaver

IT is not often that Kiribati even rates a mention in the New Zealand media, but one Kiribati man branded a wife beater has been the centre of contro versial headlines, television and debate here.

Ben Kwong Makeran, 31, came to New Zealand five years ago. During that time he was made a permanent resident but his future here is now is in doubt because of his continued assault upon his now ex wife.

He appeared in court four times for assault before he was finally sentenced to prison and deportation upon his release.

But the Deportation Review Tribunal, an independent three person committee, has allowed Makeran to stay in New Zealand because of $lOO a month he sends to his family in Kiribati who count on getting it.

Debate raged after he reportedly told the Deportation Review Tribunal that it was his cultural right to hit his wife.

Makeran is reserved, a characteristic typical of Kiribati men and he hates the spotlight he has been placed under.

“It’s not really fair (of the attention his case has received),” says Makeran.

As well as facing deportation again, he has also been virtually ostracised from much of the New Zealand Kiribati com munity most of whom live in Auckland.

They are embarrassed his actions have brought negative attention to their commu nity of around 2000.

“He should not have been allowed to stay,” says Kiribati consul Ray Mann, “He should have been on the first plane out”.

But Makeran is not without his sup porters.

Well known businessman and manag ing director of Ullrich Aluminum Gilbert Ullrich says it is obvious Makeran is being

used as a political scapegoat in election year.

“It’s political posturing, immigration is

always a big issue”.

Ullrich, a former Kiribati consul who was responsible for setting up the Kiribati work scheme in New Zealand, says if Makeran is to be deported for beating his wife then every other immigrant who has committed the same crime should be as well.

If Minister of Immigration Tuariki Delamere gets his way, that’s exactly what will happen.

And it’s not only Makeran who will get his marching orders. Delamere, who describes the Deportation Review Tribunal’s decision to allow Makeran to stay here as “mindless”, wants to see its three members dismissed and replaced.

Furious at the two lawyers and one JP who make up the tribunal, Delamere says he can’t say much at the moment but “with a bit of luck” a new committee will be put in place soon.

“As a betting man I would put more than five cents on it,” he says.

Delamere has a problem on his hands in that Makeran’s case has set a precedent that will be used in future cases.

“I am confident that it is only a matter of time before some lawyer turns up in my office and says I have a client in jail for rape or murder but he sends a couple of dollars home. The precedent has been set”.

It is a precedent that Ben Makeran knows or cares little about. He says, after being here for five years, that he sees New Zealand as “home”. “I can support my fam ily from here, there’s better money and a better life”.

The standard of living in Kiribati is one of the lowest in the Pacific. With a popula tion of over 82,000, many have flocked to the main island of Tarawa and overcrowd

ing is a huge problem.

The lucky ones take home a pay packet

of As4o a week. Makeran’s weekly $25 contribution to his family may be paltry here but is a fortune in the islands.

Remittances from sailors are the main source of foreign exchange - the 2-3000 Kiribati men on ships send As 6-$8 million per annum back home.

Like Makeran, they know their fami lies count on receiving it. But the low standard of living is not a reflection of the islands’ management of its finances.

New Zealanders may not have heard of Kiribati but in the 1960 s it was phos phate from Kiribati that kept the price of daily products down here in New Zealand.

Canterbury University’s head of Pacific Studies Dr Uentabo Neemia McKenzie who is from Kiribati says NZ did very well out of the phosphate mined from Banaba Island.

The New Zealand, Australian and UK governments were shareholders in the company that mined the phosphate used for fertiliser.

The “shareholders” sold it to them selves at less than half of the world price the idea being that the low price would be passed on to the New Zealand consumer.

When Kiribati gained its independence in 1979 it was in the enviable position of having $6O million in reserve funds albeit half of what it should have been from phosphate sales.

Today that figure is around $5OO mil lion due to wise investments in Europe. It sits there gathering interest and dust with only the odd million withdrawn to make up a budget shortfall.

The Kiribati people are a proud self sufficient culture with an almost commu nist attitude towards individuals owning too much.

“It’s a dysfunctional society if you ask me,” says Ullrich who, during his time as consul, had several head to head battles with former President leremia Tabai.

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According to Ullrich, Tabai was reluc tant to send anyone overseas to any one country and he felt anyone who did should return home after their work experience.

Ullrich felt they should be given the opportunity to make something of them selves here if they were able.

There are private concerns that Makeran’s case may affect the current work scheme, which every year allows 20 I-Kiribati to come and work here for three years.

The New Zealand government pays for a liaison officer to ensure the work scheme runs well and to secure jobs for the partic-'

ipants.

In the 80s, the Kiribati population in New Zealand was mainly made up of women who had married New Zealand men. Now, that number is boosted by scholarship students and many on the work scheme who have been granted per manent residence.

While Makeran did not enter the coun try ort the scheme the worry of Kiribati liv ing here is that the distinction wont be made.

They are also quite rightly concerned that their voice wont be heard. Tuariki Delamere is in the unique position of being both the Minister of Immigration and the Minister of Pacific Islands Affairs taking on this portfolio from Don McKinnon.

Widely respected amongst Pacific groups, McKinnon often called upon his board of advisors, representatives of the different Pacific communities. The repre sentative for the Solomon Islands Tekeran Van Ashe also unofficially represented Kiribati. But since taking over the Pacific Affairs portfolio, Delamere has had no such board in place. “Ah no, we are just going through approving a new board now,” says Delamere. The hold-up, he says, has been getting appropriate cabinet

papers approved.

Then there is the matter of violence being excused on grounds of culture.

The Deportation Review Tribunal stat ed that Makeran regarded it as his right to assault his wife when she “got smart” to him. “Yes, I made a crime but it was an argument between me and my wife, it was not a crime against the public, it was a pri

vate thing,” Makeran says.

Dr McKenzie says using culture as an excuse is misleading. He says culture is continually evolving and while “there was a time way back” when Kiribati men had that right, it is less acceptable now.

“It is a contradiction - it is also (Kiribati) culture that only cowards beat up women”.

A Literature Review done last year by Lanuola Asiasiga and Alison Gray, found that while a certain level of violence was considered acceptable and normal in many Pacific cultures, there was a point at which that level of violence became unacceptable.

“The cultural heritage of Pacific soci eties goes some way to explaining why there is a lot of domestic violence in some societies and none in others”.

During the Public Health Commission community consultations with Pacific peo ple in 1994, participants spoke of the high level of domestic violence in the Pacific communities living in New Zealand and attributed it to social isolation of families, the stress of high unemployment, poor housing and low incomes.

Census figures show that 36 per cent of convicted criminal cases involving Pacific men in 1996 related to violent offences.

Pacific men convicted of a violent offence were over-represented compared with their proportion living in the adult New Zealand population. But whatever the figures, vio lence amongst the New Zealand Kiribati community is rare. It is also rare for Kiribati people living here to be in trouble with the law. It is this reason which makes Kiribati people a popular choice for some employ ers.

Ullrich has taken around 30 Kiribati employees to work in his business over the years because he says they are hard work ers. Despite what has happened, Ullrich says he has faith in Makeran who has done previous weekend work for him.

He added that if Makeran ever needed another job, he’d find one for him. “I would leave him with my children and family”.

Makeran says he hopes he will be allowed to stay in New Zealand. He feels that he has already paid for his crime. While not totally unsympathetic towards him, the.

Kiribati community are keen that they not pay for it too. ■