Pacific Notes
Pacific Notes
January 2001 Pacific Magazine North Pacific Edition
Remengesau:
New Palau President
Tommy Remengesau, Jr. is Palau’s new president, having won despite a strong challenge by veteran Sen. Peter Sugiyama. Remengesau, vice president for the past eight years, received 52 percent of the vote. Palau voters, who in 1992 made Remengesau the country’s youngest vice president, have now elected the first woman to the number two executive position. Sen. Sandra Pierantozzi defeated her nephew, senator and business executive Alan Seid, to become Palau’s next vice president. The two winners ran independently of each other.
The election in this nation of 19,129 people brought heavy voter turnout as more than 10,000 Palauans cast votes. Outgoing two-term President Kuniwo Nakamura had backed Remengesau and Seid during the campaign leading up to the November 7 vote.
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American Samoa Delegate Reelected
American Samoa’s incumbent congressional delegate, Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin is heading back to Washington D.C. for an unprecedented seventh two-year term. Faleomavaega edged out Gus Hannemann by 1,995 votes to win the November 21 special run-off election that was required when none of the candidates gained the required 50-percent-plus-one-vote necessary to win in the regular election.
Faleomavaega, a Democrat, received 45.7 percent of the votes in the regular election to Hannemann’s 30 percent. Aumua Amata Coleman received 22 percent and Seigafolava Pene picked up two percent. The 2000 run-off election was a repeat of the contest between Faleomavaega and Hannemman in the 1996 election. Faleomavaega extended his winning margin to 1,995 votes compared to a closer 1,450 votes during the 1996 run-off election. Unofficial election results showed Faleomavaega receiving 5,500 votes or 61.1 percent of the 9,005 votes cast.
Tabai: No Democracy Without Independent Media
Kiribati’s new—and only—independent newspaper, New Star, was officially launched during Media Freedom Week 2000. “It all started out of the basic belief that you can’t have democracy without an independent, private media,” says former Kiribati President and co-owner of New Star, Ieremia Tabai. “Despite the good intentions of government, you need the independent paper.” New Star, a 16-page newspaper, publishes weekly on Friday in direct competition with the government-owned Te Uekera. The paper is predominantly in Gilbertese. Tabai says that the 84,000 people of this central Pacific atoll nation are more interested in reading news in their own language.
ADB: Attitudes Biggest Hurdle to Development
Overcoming aid-dependent attitudes prevalent in the Marshall Islands is the biggest challenge to the country’s goal of increased economic self-reliance, an Asian Development Bank-funded economic study said in October. The detailed report is to be a major focus of the discussions at the second National Economic and Social Summit scheduled to be held in March, 2001 in Majuro, according to Finance Minister Mike Konelios.
The report is also expected to play a key role in setting a framework for negotiations between the Marshall Islands and the U.S. on future funding levels through a Compact of Free Association. The Majuro Chamber of Commerce, commenting on the draft ADB report, said, however, while it presented useful information, it glossed over the “massive, endemic corruption in government” which is the greatest impediment to development in the Marshall Islands.
Cyberspace Kingdom Agrees to Ban
The “Kingdom of EnenKio” promised a U.S. District Court in Hawaii in late October that it will not try to sell $1 billion in bonds that it was offering on its Web site until the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stepped in and gained a restraining order against it. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged that Hawaii resident Robert Moore, the self-described “minister plenipotentiary” of the Kingdom, was violating commission regulations by fraudulently trying to sell government bonds through his Web site and by e-mail and Internet bulletin board postings.
According to the SEC complaint, Moore was attempting to sell $1 billion in “gold war bonds,” treasury bonds and development bonds, indicating to potential investors that the bonds are backed by “gold reserves, guarantees, real property or other assets.” But the SEC says those assets don’t exist.
Enenkio is the Marshallese name for Wake Atoll, a north Pacific ring of coral islands that is under U.S. jurisdiction. The claim is disputed by the Marshall Islands. The “Kingdom” also disputes both U.S. and Marshall Islands government rights to the atoll, which is home to a caretaker U.S. population and a substantially larger number of birds.
The U.S. State Department describes the “Kingdom of EnenKio” as “entirely fraudulent in intent and practice.” The Marshall Islands government has issued similar pronouncements, labeling the Kingdom a “scam” operation.
