The Pacific Debate 2012

Speakers

• Senator Peter Christian (Federated States of Micronesia)
• Congressman Eni Faleomavaega (American Samoa)
• Major General (ret’d) Jerry Singirok (Papua New Guinea)
• Kaliopate Tavola (Fiji)

Moderated by Anna Naupa (Vanuatu).

The event will be recorded for international television broadcast.

About the Panellists

Senator Peter M. Christian (Federated States of Micronesia) is the at-large representative of the State of Pohnpei to the Seventeenth Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia. He currently chairs the Standing Committee on Transportation and Communications.

Christian was elected to the First FSM Congress in 1979 and has since been with Congress. Today he is the most senior member of Congress. He was Speaker of the 13th and 14th Congress. In 2007, he lost his 2-year seat but returned in 2009 as Pohnpei State’s four-year representative to the FSM Congress and currently maintains the same.

In addition to government, Christian has championed many national issues most notable was his role as the Chief Negotiator for the Amended Compact of Free Association with the United States of America. He also chaired the FSM Task Force that replaced operations of the Exxon Mobile Corporation in FSM with the FSM Petroleum Corporation.

A Pohnpei native, Senator Christian was born on October 16, 1947. He attended the prestigious Xavier High School and was an East-West Center Scholarship recipient for the University of Hawaii. He is married to former Maurina Weilbacher and they have two children and several grandchildren.

Congressman Eni Faleomavaega (American Samoa) has been representing the territory of American Samoa in the United States Congress since 1989.  Re-elected in November, 2010 to a twelfth term by the people of American Samoa, Faleomavaega is the longest serving and only Samoan in the U.S. Congress.

Faleomavaega is a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on Natural Resources. He is the first Asian Pacific American ever to Chair the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific and now serves as Ranking Member. Under the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Faleomavaega is the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. Faleomavaega is also a member of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere which has oversight and jurisdiction over countries including Central and South America and Canada.

Faleomavaega was Lieutenant Governor for American Samoa from 1985 to 1988. Prior to this, he was Deputy Attorney General for American Samoa from 1981 to 1984. Faleomavaega served in the U.S. Army and is a Vietnam Veteran (1967-1968). He served in the Army Reserve where he was a Captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He was also a proud member of the 100 Battalion 442 Infantry Reserve Unit, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Congressman Faleomavaega holds a Master of Law degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Houston Law School. He also holds a BA degree in Political Science and History from Brigham Young University at Provo, Utah and an AA degree from Brigham Young University at Laie, Hawaii.

Faleomavaega is the author of Navigating the Future: A Samoan Perspective in U.S.-Pacific Relations.  In his book, he “outlines ways in which relations between the United States and the Pacific can be improved to mutual advantage and calls for deeper understanding of the exceedingly diverse cultures and socio-political systems of this vast region,” says Professor Ron Crocombe of The Institute of Pacific Studies.

Congressman Faleomavaega was born in Vailoatai, American Samoa. He is married to Hinanui Bambridge Cave of Tahiti and they have five children and five grandchildren.

Major General (ret’d) Jerry Singirok (PNG) is 56 years old and was a career military officer in the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, mainly in the infantry, training and intelligence services. He graduated at the Joint Services College in Papua New Guinea in 1976 and spent mostly of his earlier years serving in both First and Second Battalion Royal Pacific Islands Regiments. In 1991 he attended the Australian Command and Staff College where he graduated in Military Science  and later Management Studies at the Australian Institute of Management.

After completing military studies, he was seconded to the Australian Defence Force at the Land Warfare Centre in Canungra Queensland in 1992-1993 where he instructed Military Strategy, Tactics and Maneuver Warfare.

In 1994 he took over Bougainville Operations as Operations Officer. In 1994 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and commanded First Royal Pacific Islands Regiment. He was seriously wounded in 1994 when retrieving the body of one of his Company Commanders. In 1995 he was promoted to Colonel and appointed Chief of Defence Intelligence. The same year he was promoted as Brigadier General and appointed Commander Papua New Guinea Defence Force during the height of Bougainville crisis.

He was exchange officer with United States Army, Australian Defence Force and with the British Gurkhas in Hong Kong and has travelled extensively in his military tenure. He was a Visiting Fellow in 2004 at the Australian National University and in 2005 appointed as Chairman of Guns Control Committee in Papua New Guinea.

He was awarded two Queens Award for services to the PNG Defence Force; Member of British Empire (MBE) and Distinguished Military Service Medal (DMS).  Other awards include, Vanuatu Independence and Campaign Medals and was made life member of the Royal Australian Infantry Corps.

Currently he runs his own Consultancy Company and sits on two major Investment Boards in Papua New Guinea. He is married with six children and is contesting the 2012 PNG National Elections.

Kaliopate Tavola worked for 11 years as a civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Forests, rising to the rank of Chief Economist. He joined Fiji Sugar Marketing Co Ltd, and represented that company for 4 years in London and continued to do company work in Brussels for 3 years.

During that period, he was also a diplomat, firstly as a Commercial Counsellor in London and as Head of Mission in Brussels. He worked for 10 years altogether in Brussels, representing Fiji to the EU, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, Greece and Italy. He was also Fiji’s Representative to FAO, GATT/WTO, UNESCO, OPCW, WCO, IFAD, MFO and PCA.

He returned to Fiji after 14 years and re-joined FSM Co Ltd as its Deputy Chief Executive, before he went into politics as Minister for Foreign Affairs & External Trade from 2000 to late 2006. Currently, he operates as a consultant.

About the Moderator

Anna Naupa is a ni-Vanuatu development practitioner specialising in land policy, gender equality and democratic governance. She has worked with community groups, NGOs and government to support increased dialogue and participation in national development processes. In her current role working with AusAID in Vanuatu, Anna manages the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) which aims to support better governance in the region. Anna holds a Masters in Geography from the University of Hawai’i, Manoa and has regularly published in her areas of work, with the most recent publication with the Pacific Institute of Public Policy analysing the rise of social media in Vanuatu.