Melanesian Spearhead Group Research Articles

Regionalism and Changing Regional Order in the Pacific Islands

AbstractInstitutional developments in Pacific Islands regionalism have been dramatic in recent years. These include the changing role of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, a grouping of eight ‘tuna‐rich’ Pacific Island states that is transforming the dynamics of regional fisheries; the emergence of a more activist Melanesian Spearhead Group, which comprises the four largest economies of the Pacific Islands and is leading the process of regional economic integration; and the establishment of the Pacific Islands Development Forum, which promises a more inclusive ‘regionalism through partnerships’ approach in addressing climate change and sustainable development issues. This new dynamism is driven by the discontent of a growing number of island states with the established regional order, defined by prevailing institutions, power and ideas, and by a desire to assert greater control over their own futures. Against the backdrop of an increasingly dynamic geopolitical and geo‐economic landscape, Pacific Island states are using alternative regional frameworks to develop new approaches to the challenges facing them.

The Region in Review: International Issues and Events, 2013

The Region in Review:International Issues and Events, 2013 Nic Maclellan (bio) Throughout the year, there was significant debate about Pacific regionalism and the future of agencies that make up the Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacific (crop). A major review of the Pacific Plan outlined new priorities for the region, while summits highlighted the growing influence of Melanesian nations and the links between climate change, disasters, and development. Pacific governments began preparing regional policies on climate, oceans, fisheries, and sustainable development to be carried onto the global stage in coming months as the United Nations (UN) declared 2014 as the International Year for Small Island States. There was ongoing debate about Fiji’s role in regional structures, at a time of increasing South-South cooperation and new aid donors challenging old paradigms in the region. With eight Pacific nations scheduled to hold national elections during 2014, the September 2013 poll in Australia—the region’s largest aid, trade, and military power—began a realignment of regional relationships with the election of a conservative government under Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (pifs) and other crop member agencies are under pressure from all directions: donor demands, burgeoning subregional organizations, civil society critiques, and concern from some member governments that resources are not flowing to the national level. The role and mandate of crop agencies was analyzed during a review of the 2005 Pacific Plan for Strengthening Regional Integration and Cooperation. Throughout 2013, former Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta led a review team that visited all Forum member countries, together with associate members New Caledonia and French Polynesia. Morauta’s team presented an interim report in July, briefed Forum leaders on their findings at the annual summit in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) in September, and then released their final report at year’s end. Following the 2012 Winder review of the Forum Secretariat (which was critical of the priorities and capacities of the regional organization), Morauta’s team began looking at Pacific Plan priorities. The review soon broadened to a much wider debate about the future of regionalism, highlighting uncertainty about the role and mandate of the Forum Secretariat and other regional institutions. Addressing Forum leaders in Majuro, Morauta stated: “There is a compelling argument for greater regional cooperation and integration across the Pacific. … However, progress in regionalism has in our opinion slowed down, and by too much.” Describing a region “at the crossroads,” Morauta was sharply critical of the 2005 Pacific Plan: “It is very difficult to see how the Pacific Plan or the processes surrounding it are—now—driving regional integration with the scope, pace and scale [End Page 460] intended in its original framing. Confidence in the Pacific Plan and some of the institutions around it has fallen to the point where some observers question their survival” (Morauta 2013, 3–4). In the final report (Pacific Plan Review 2013), the review team presented a range of options for coming years: • the establishment of a highlevel council of past and present Forum chairs to restructure the Forum Secretariat; • devolving more power to ministerial meetings and subregional organizations, to avoid overloading the agenda of the annual Forum leaders meeting; • debate on the criteria for Forum membership, given the growing involvement of the US and French territories, and whether “self-determination” should still be a defining factor for full Forum membership; • further work to articulate the concept of sustainable development; • better coordination and management of donor support for regionalism. Forum leaders agreed to send the review findings to the Forum Officials Committee, while Papua New Guinea will host a special leaders’ retreat in April 2014 to discuss a new framework for regional integration. The review also highlighted the role of subregional organizations, in a year the Melanesian Spearhead Group (msg) celebrated its twentyfifth anniversary. The msg Secretariat in Port Vila organized celebrations in every Melanesian capital and a major summit in New Caledonia in June. The summit debated new initiatives on Melanesian trade, West Papua, regional peacekeeping, and labor mobility between the largest Island nations. The outgoing chair, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama of Fiji, said the msg was “taking bold...

New Caledonia

New Caledonia David Chappell (bio) With two years left before a possible referendum on independence, as stipulated in the Noumea Accord of 1998, local leaders struggled to position themselves for an “exit” from that transitional agreement. The provincial elections of 2014 may decide whether a referendum will be held or perhaps another accord will be negotiated. Fluctuations in metropolitan politics have had a significant impact on New Caledonia, notably in 1958 (when nationalist Charles de Gaulle regained power) and 1981 (when Socialist Fran-çois Mitterrand became president). French presidential elections in May 2012 saw the fall of Gaullist President Nicholas Sarkozy after only one term and the return to power of the Socialists for the first time since 1995, this time under François Hollande. Locally, the year-old alliance between the loyalist Rassemblement-ump (or rump, tied to Sarkozy’s Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) and the pro-sovereignty Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (flnks) suffered a setback in the June elections to the French parliament. Former territorial President Philippe Gomès’s loyalist Calédonie Ensemble (ce, Caledonia Together) won both New Caledonian deputy seats in Paris. In regional relations, the ce objected to a visit to New Caledonia by Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama of Fiji, the head of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, arguing that he has been a military dictator since his 2006 coup. Labor unions remained active, as the cost of living remained high while world nickel prices plummeted due to a slowdown in middle-class Asian demand for stainless steel. But French development aid continued to flow amid local concerns over lingering social and ethnic inequalities. Sarkozy had proclaimed to French voters that he would strongly defend the “eternal France” of Molière, Napoleon, and Charles de Gaulle, but Hollande reminded listeners that Louis XVI lost his head to the guillotine during the French Revolution and it was the left’s turn to govern the country. Hollande opposed austerity budget cuts during the European Union’s financial crisis and instead wanted to raise taxes on the rich (bbc, 20 April, 28 Sept 2012). Sarkozy had inherited the commitment of his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, to the Noumea Accord, so transfers of self-governing powers to New Caledonia continued, most recently in civil and commercial law and civil security. But Sarkozy had also voiced his personal preference that the country should remain in the French republic, whereas Hollande remained neutral and supported an open public debate among all New Caledonians to decide their future status. Hollande and Sarkozy both wanted to promote more competition [End Page 382] among importers who kept the cost of living so high in New Caledonia, but neither wanted to end the “indexation” that paid French civil servants and retirees almost twice what they would earn in France (nc, 21 April 2012). In the second-round runoff, Sarkozy won 63 percent of the ballots in New Caledonia and 53 percent in French Polynesia, but Hollande won the French presidency; he also won clear majorities in the two Kanak-ruled provinces of New Caledonia and in Wallis and Futuna (pir, 7 May 2012; nc, 23 April 2012). Hollande appointed Victorin Lurel of Guadeloupe as overseas minister, replacing a Gaullist predecessor, also from Guadeloupe. The flnks praised Lurel as a fellow “islander,” while loyalists said he knew nothing about the Pacific (nc, 18 May 2012). In the June elections, the rump lost its long monopoly over local representation in Paris when Gomès and Sonia Lagarde of the ce won in the second-round runoff. At first, it had looked as if the flnks might win the deputy seat for the interior of the main island, Grande Terre, because its two main parties, the Union Calédonienne (uc) and Palika (Parti de Libération Kanak), ran on the same list for once. After receiving a plurality in the first round of voting, Jean-Pierre Djaiwé of Palika was interviewed by the local newspaper before the second round, as was Gomès, who came in second in the interior in the first round, having been mayor of La Foa for twenty years. Djaiwé was pleased that the reunited flnks had clearly beaten the Rassemblement...

Fiji

Fiji Jon Fraenkel (bio) Fiji’s three coups have each occurred in two stanzas: first an illegal over-throw of the elected government, and then a later abrogation of the constitution. Unlike its predecessors, the 5 December 2006 coup took twenty-eight months to reach the second denouement. On 10 April 2009, the constitution was ditched, the judiciary sacked, and the scheduled date for elections was pushed back to 2014. The military was digging itself in for the long haul, in defiance of domestic and international protest. Domestic criticism was to be silenced by stiff media censorship, public emergency regulations, travel bans, corruption charges, clandestine firebombs, as well as cancellation of pensions. The inevitable storm of international protest after 10 April was less easily silenced. In response, military commander and interim Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Frank Bainimarama claimed to be a victim of Australian and New Zealand “bullying” and appealed for solidarity from the Melanesian Spearhead Group states. Over 2009, as Bainimarama’s enemies faltered, he visibly grew in domestic self-confidence. On the international stage, he projected an image of a wronged and misunderstood champion of modernism in Fiji. In January 2009, Bainimarama refused to attend a meeting of Pacific Islands Forum (pif) leaders in Port Moresby, insisting that severe flooding in Fiji required him to stay home to assist clean-up operations. The pif meeting, attended instead by Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, settled on yet another ultimatum to Fiji’s interim government, insisting that a credible timetable for elections be drawn up by 1 May. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said “a line in the sand” had been drawn (Post Courier 2009). Bainimarama responded that he had no intention of complying with the ultimatum and said that the inevitable suspension should have been immediate (FijiLive, 29 Jan 2009). His nonattendance at the pif summit generated some controversy within the ranks of the interim administration. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ratu Isoa Gavidi and Fiji’s High Commissioner to PNG Ratu Isoa Tikoca were both sacked after urging Bainimarama to make an appearance in Port Moresby. Gavidi said later that Bainimarama’s familiarity with top-down military authority made it difficult for him to accept advice (Fiji Times, 3 March 2009). Over the course of 2009, other regime insiders urging a more conciliatory stance—including Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office Parmesh Chand, as well as Robin Nair and former Citizen’s Constitutional Forum activist Jone Dakuvula—also found themselves demoted, sacked, or marginalized. During late 2008, hopes for some resolution to the coup-related impasse had focused on the scheduled President’s Political Dialogue Forum, which the United Nations and the [End Page 416] Commonwealth had been invited to chair. But preliminary dialogue sessions with political parties—assisted by interlocutors Hawai‘i-based Tongan academic Sitiveni Halapua and Robin Nair, a Fiji Indian who formerly worked in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade—gave little cause for optimism. Through early 2009, meetings were regularly canceled or delayed, and Bainimarama made clear that he wanted to exclude Laisenia Qarase’s Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (sdl) party and any others who refused to sign up to his government’s People’s Charter (for details, see Fraenkel 2009). Qarase’s sdl, together with the National Federation Party (nfp), and former Opposition leader Mick Beddoes, as well as trade unions and civil society organizations, met under the auspices of the Democracy Movement in January, but this too was soon silenced. In March, there were attacks on the homes and vehicles of prominent government critics, including Democracy Movement President Attar Singh, Fiji Times editor Netani Rika, and Colonel Sakiusa Raivoce, a former army officer who is also head of Global Risks Fiji, a recruitment organization for security personnel bound for Iraq. Qarase traveled to Australia in February, where he claimed his life was at risk in Fiji, but he nevertheless returned to face trial on corruption charges in March. The deposed prime minister spent much of 2009 away from Suva on his home island. In January, he was installed as the new chief of his Mavana village on Vanuabalavu. Reports of that event were carried...