Politics
Flosse Seeks Control Over Immigration
Back for his fifth term, he wants best of both worlds.
To nobody¹s great surprise Gaston Flosse has comfortably embarked on his fifth term of office as president of French Polynesia.
Flosse, who turned an agile 70 in June, had no trouble in leading his pro-autonomy party, Tahoeraa Huiraatira, to a win in the May elections for the enlarged number of seats from 41 to 49 in the territory¹s assembly.
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His win over his main rival, the pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira party, led by Oscar Temaru, was by about the same margin as previously. The result showed that around 70 percent of French Polynesia¹s 230,000 inhabitants continue to prefer to retain a colonial relationship with France dating from the 1840s. Without it, they would not be able to continue enjoying the artificially high standards of living they have become used to since the 1960s.
This is when France began pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the territory in support of more than 30 years of nuclear weapon tests at Mururoa Atoll.
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By autonomy, Flosse means squeezing as much self-government from Paris as he can short of full independence that could cause the termination of massive aid. He has gone a long way in this, bringing French Polynesia to a condition of about 75 percent local control, except for such matters as defence, currency, justice, internal security and foreign affairs.
His next step, in line with this strategy, is to persuade Paris to allow him to control immigration under a law that has changed French Polynesia¹s relationship with France from one of "overseas territory" to "overseas country". The change allows for the creation of Maohi (French Polynesian) citizenship.
Temaru, who has battled for full independence for two decades, said during the election that sovereignty didn¹t mean the complete termination of relations with France.
He called for a referendum on independence and complained that the large number of resident European nationals were allowed to vote in local elections. Since they were people not inclined to risk their place by supporting independence, they added to the impossibility of giving local people full freedom in deciding their own political future.
Since nuclear tests ended in 1996 French Polynesia has engaged in a heavily French-funded project to become more economically self-reliant. Tourism, pearl farming and fishing are the primary legs of the local economy. The target is to push exports, including earnings from tourism, up to half the value of imports.
Tourism and pearls are already worth more than US$500 million a year between them.
In election speeches, Flosse said the target for fishing in the territory¹s five million square kilometres economic zone was to raise the annual tuna catch from 2500 tonnes caught by about 30 boats to a fleet of 150 boats catching 30,000 tonnes.
A worry for tourism is the impending ending of flights to French Polynesia from France by an ailing French airline, AOM, which in the past has landed tourists at the rate of 35,000 a year.
Flosse promised that if need be the territory¹s own international airline, Air Tahiti Nui, which has accumulated losses of more than US$30 million since opening services to Japan and Los Angeles in 1998, will begin operating to Paris. He wants the French Government-owned Air France to add more Tahiti services.
In June Flosse was in Paris for a meeting with his good friend, President Jacques Chirac, and for discussions with the minister for overseas territories, Christian Paul, about the management of a fund for the restructuring of French Polynesia¹s economy.
Years of massive military, mainly weapon testing, spending by France coupled with the equally heavy subsidisation of local government left local businesses with little inclination or scope for the development of viable local industries.
France is committed to spending about US$138 million a year for 10 years on economic diversification and improvements to infrastructure, including roads and airports.
The May election gave 29 seats to Tahoeraa Huiraatira, 17 to Temaru¹s Tavini Hiraatira, and seven to the pro-autonomy party Fetia Api. Lucette Taero, 44, formerly employment minister, was elected by the asssembly as its first woman president. Flosse¹s cabinet of 17 ministers includes 10 from the former government, and six women, two more than previously. Flosse said the higher number of women was a concession to French metropolitan law that required gender balance in politics.
