Pacific Voices

By Ben Bohane

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s announcement of a harsh new asylum seeker policy is a gamble that he thinks will pay off for his Labor party desperate to neutralize this potent issue ahead of a looming election.

The decision to send all boat people for processing and resettlement in PNG is a huge bluff – Rudd is calculating that asylum seekers will no longer want to come to Australia now, if they know that there is no hope for resettlement and instead they will wind up permanently in PNG. It may stop the boats temporarily but is it likely to work long term?

Many observers see in this policy a political quick-fix that is not a long term solution, but it is difficult to meaningfully analyse the situation since there is still very little detail available. Rudd must know that there will be substantial protests and legal action. Courts in Australia and PNG will likely be asked to rule on whether this policy is even constitutional. The previous “Malaysian Solution” was thrown out by the Australian High Court, as was a previous attempt by Australia to deploy police to PNG some years ago by the PNG High Court.

The reality of this policy long term provokes many questions – where will these new “citizens” be resettled in a country where all land is customarily owned?  What jobs can they get? Will this cause resentment from locals angry that refugees get better treatment than themselves? Many ordinary Papuan New Guineans will become NIMBYS on this  – Not In My Backyard. (more…)

PNG police with an Australian donated police vehicle to patrol the highlands highway in PNG. Australia has historic links with the Pacific islands individually but seems not to be engaging them on a sub-regional level via fora like the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Photo: Ben Bohane/wakaphotos.com

By Ben Bohane

FIRST it was the Pacific Century, then the Asia Pacific Century, then the Asian Century with a recent nod towards the Chinese Century. Now we are hearing of the Indo-Pacific Century. Hollywood to Bollywood, as one US military officer put it recently.

A great sweep of ocean from India to the eastern shores of California is the strategic big picture, we are told.

But while Australian policymakers debate every chess move by China, India and the US a more urgent Indo-Pacific shift, this time Indonesia versus the Pacific, is happening in two areas not even named in the Australian defence white paper 2013: West Papua and Melanesia. (more…)

Attendees at the Pacific Island Round Table in Dili, Timor Leste, March 2013

By Makereta Komai, PACNEWS Editor

Fiji’s full return to all levels of Pacific ACP (African, Caribbean & Pacific) meetings on November 21 last year was ‘historical’ in many sense of the word. Historical because the decision was resolved in a truly ‘Pacific Way’ as described by Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna. “The Pacific came together as a family and dealt with an important issue in a way that a family should – a Pacific Way.’

Also historic in the sense that Pacific ACP leaders created their own ‘space’ to discuss an unresolved long outstanding issue – Fiji’s full participation – without the presence of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) executives in the room. PIFS executives were in Port Moresby to assist the chair of PACP facilitate discussions. The Forum Secretariat plays a key role in the relations between Pacific ACP countries and the European Union. Apart from facilitating the meeting of PACP leaders, the Secretariat’s Secretary General is also the Regional Authorising Officer (RAO) for the European Development Fund (EDF), the development funding assistance that forms the basis of the PACP/EU relationship.

Papua New Guinea’s offer to fund and host an interim secretariat for PACP leaders – away from the Suva-based Forum Secretariat – was a significant milestone of the Port Moresby meeting. As one trade expert in the region explained to me, ‘In PACP relations with the EU, the real power lies in who controls EU development assistance to the region. Right now, that power is in the hands of PIFS Secretary General.’ After Port Moresby, Pacific ACP leaders need to determine where to locate the RAO for the Pacific region.

While that is an issue best left to PACP leaders, the first step to shift PACP responsibilities away from the Forum Secretariat is a ‘bold step,’ said the regional trade expert who is familiar with the PACP relations with the EU.

That bold step is part of the new reformed regional thinking that has emerged in the past five years or so – for Pacific Islanders and their leaders to determine what’s in their best interest without the influence or control of donors and development partners.

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Pacific Voices features opinion and analysis from commentators throughout the Pacific. PiPP encourages a wide-ranging and spirited exchange of views and welcomes submissions from all those interested in policy development. The views expressed here -and in every Pacific Voices piece- are entirely those of the author.

By: Patrick Kaiku

Earlier this year, Vanuatu hosted the 25th Anniversary of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). The formal establishment of the MSG was made in 1988 through the signing of the Agreed Principles of Co-operation among Independent States of Melanesia in Port Vila, Vanuatu. The founding members of the MSG included Vanuatu, PNG, Solomon Islands and Kanaky. Fiji joined the MSG in the mid-1990s. As MSG increases its influence in the region, is it relevant to the lives of the people who inhabit countries in the Melanesian sub-region of the Pacific?

This was the question raised by Peter Forau, the Director General of the Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretariat at the Vanuatu Silver Jubilee celebrations. If anything, the MSG should not repeat the mistakes of the ambitious Pacific Plan – a blue-print for regional integration in the Pacific Island countries. The Pacific Plan was a failure from the beginning because of the rhetoric paid to strengthening Pacific cultures and languages and the out-of-touch orientations of the visions of the leaders. In the Pacific Plan, ordinary Pacific Islanders were excluded and continue to be excluded in giving meaning to the Plan.

Presently citizens of member states of the MSG have very limited appreciation of the significance of the MSG – its functions, the idea behind its creation, the values that it promotes, the benefits of its existence, and so forth. Melanesians live in the enclosed confines of their national boundaries with limited interactions amongst each other. There is less in-depth educational and experiential exchanges at the level of the citizenry.

A brief reading of the structure of the MSG and one will immediately realize that the bureaucratic and political structure of the MSG is very much elitist. There is negligible connections and involvement of the ordinary citizens in the decisions of the MSG. As long as decision making, and Melanesian initiatives remain detached from the vast majority of citizens of the MSG member states, the MSG will continue to remain irrelevant to citizens in these Melanesian countries. (more…)

This powerful statement by Timor Leste’s Finance Minister, Emilia Pires, was delivered in Monrovia, Liberia on February 11^th where 27 members of a High Level Panel met to advise on the global development framework beyond 2015—the target date for Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While this was not specifically about the Pacific, she touched upon issues that were just as pertinent. She believes peace building and state building should be a headline goal.

I would like to thank the Liberian Government and the Liberian people for hosting this event, and in particular H.E. Madame President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

I would also like to thank the High Level Panel Secretariat for their support in our collective efforts to discuss and deliberate the many challenges and opportunities we face in establishing a post 2015 architecture.

Let me begin by adding my support to what Ministers Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Gunilla Carlsson have just outlined in their presentations. Improving the governance of natural resource management, establishing strong, transparent and accountable institutions, and strengthening the rule of law have been the central pillars of our peace building and state building efforts in Timor-Leste.
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David Leeming specialises in Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D), both nationally and regionally and has been based in Solomon Islands since 1995. His background and experience allow him to shed some light on how much disaster preparedness has improved in the Solomon Islands since the last major earthquake and tsunami there in 2007.

He writes:

I’d like to pass on my words of sympathy and condolence to the people affected in Temotu, especially the families of those who tragically died and were injured, and the many displaced.

I think that all the evidence shows how remarkably the country’s disaster preparedness have improved since 2007. Congratulations are due to all concerned.

It is certainly true that the warning systems, organisation and response procedures and capacities have greatly improved. The technology available has also come on in leaps and bounds, and is available to anyone. For instance, I now have at my fingertips real time localised earthquake info from an app on my Android phone. The real-time data that is available now compared to the 2007 M8.1 quake/tsunami in Western Province is obviously much more reliable – witness the precise measurement of 91cm wave height recorded at Lata Wharf, that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) had access to almost immediately.

Looking back to 2007, these tools were less available. (more…)

Gender quotas deserve a rethink

By: Frida Bani-Sam

Representation of women in Pacific parliaments is the lowest in the world. Many argue that women playing a leadership role in politics is against tradition, both Christian and kastom. But all Christian customs speak of equality, and if the role of government is to protect the weakest, then surely women have a role to play. So the question is how, not if, women should play a role. Quotas are one way to achieve this.

Women’s rise to power elsewhere in the world hasn’t undermined Christian principles. And arguments concerning women’s role in kastom often ignore important traditions, including matrilineal inheritance. Avenues exist for women to gain certain rights in society, and women have a right to participate in decision making in the community. Admittedly, the practice has recently changed – with land rulings now widely perceived to be male-only domain. But what has changed before can change again.
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The internet is putting down tenuous roots in the Pacific – but do we really understand how to foster its growth?

By: Dan McGarry

Over the last year or so, we’ve seen a string of articles and papers about the small but sudden growth of the internet throughout the Pacific region. Ranging in tone between cautious optimism and untempered –and often uncritical– enthusiasm, few capture the essence of the struggle that Pacific island states face even keeping pace with the rate of change in the world of telecommunications and the internet.

When I first arrived in Vanuatu the better part of a decade ago, the entire country was sharing only slightly more bandwidth than I’d had at my personal disposal back in Canada. To add insult to injury, the cost was roughly ten times greater even for the paltry amounts on sale. Getting access to what would be considered even a nominal connection in the developed world involved expenditures equivalent to thousands of dollars a month.

Now, following years of consistent and determined effort, Vanuatu has widely available commercial internet in its urban areas. But prices remain high. As this piece is being written, the cost of a 2 megabit connection (the lowest tier of what is considered broadband in many developed nations) starts at about AUD800 per month, and rises quickly once usage fees are factored in.

In spite of this, internet service providers have found inventive ways to get people started, offering small (cynics might say paltry) connection speeds and bandwidth limits. Comparisons aside, such packages are at least sufficient to move the uptake indicator from effectively zero to… something slightly more than zero. (more…)

Beijing University of Science and Technology graduation

By Trevor Banga

In this piece I draw upon my experience of living and studying in China for 5 years between 2006 and 2011. I also draw on wide reading of both English and Chinese language reports and websites. My experience and research underpin the views outlined in what follows.

China’s impact on economic development in the Pacific

From my experience as a student in China for five years I have a particular perspective on China and its relationships in the Pacific and the world. First, I agree with some Pacific island countries seeking closer collaboration, discussing enhanced cooperation and establishing diplomatic ties with China.

I think China’s engagement with the Pacific offers some positive prospects for the region.
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Australian and New Zealand peace keepers talk with villagers in the aftermath of the Bougainville uprising. Photo credit: Ben Bohane – wakaphotos.com

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the most diverse nation in the Pacific island region, and possibly the world. In PNG alone, there are more than 800 different language groups. Cultural practices and traditions vary from place to place. Further, the human diversity is compounded by its topography. The open seas, rivers, mountains, valleys, marshlands and so forth are natural barriers to communities interacting. The lack of affinity to a nation is understandable given the isolation and insulated existence of communities since time immemorial.

Most communities within PNG only came into sustained contact with each other after  World War II. The nation remains a vague entity. The nation as a form of political entity has little significance to populations who have relied for thousands of years on the immediate security provided by the clan and tribal unit. Bonds in clans and tribes are created, and reinforced through familial and genealogical connections, institutionalised rituals and communal endeavors and sustained levels of exchanges and linguistic similarities.

The lack of any sense of nationalism affects the development of PNG as a modern nation. (more…)