View from Honolulu
Sovereignty for Sale
Around the Pacific, Some Governments Are Failing, While Others Have Found Value in Statehood Itself
The Pacific is a political scientist’s dream laboratory—a vast expanse of ocean in which there are scores of fascinating experiments in the methods and forms of government. The Pacific is like a giant petri dish growing exotic cultures of governance that have mutated into intriguing forms.
The region has a monarchy, some Westminster-style democratic states, some territories and a commonwealth. There are strange mutations like the old Vanuatu condominium and several “freely associated” states. Pitcairn is still a colony of Great Britain. Some places have self government without sovereignty, like American Samoa. Others have sovereignty without a functioning government, like the Solomons. Some of these experiments are failing, others are doing well and still others simple muddle through.
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For years, outside development experts have warned that small Pacific states may be too resource poor to be viable. But what many of these analysts overlooked was that the fact that sovereignty itself can be a resource. If managed wisely—sometimes a big if—the fact of statehood can provide what might be thought of as items for sale.
For instance, a sovereign nation can sell stamps, or it can sell long distance area codes and Internet domain names. A country can register ships and charter banks. It can sell logging or fishing or mining concessions and, as in the case of the Kingdom of Tonga, it can even sell citizenship with passports to prove it.
These resources of sovereignty have been taken advantage of by slick con men—a breed as old as culture contact in the Pacific. A recent example is the Tongan Court Jester story we run in this issue on page 10. But con men are not the only Pacific predators. When small states are weak or corrupt, multi-national logging, mining, banking or gambling operations often move in for the kill, making quick, cunning deals with compromised politicians. First world Pacific Rim countries are sometimes in the market for waste dumping, military or migration issue concessions. Nauru, a failed state that is effectively bankrupt, easily became part of Australia’s “Pacific Solution” to its pre-September 11 Afgan refugee problem. The Marshall Islands, as Giff Johnson points out in his page 6 column, was blithely used by the U.S. for nuclear and—we now find out—chemical and biological weapons testing.
Even our maritime shipping story on page 18 points out how the island governments have benefitted from Big Power machinations by getting new patrol and field/freight vessels from countries like Australia and the People’s Republic of China—both of which have Pacific agendas.
In this issue of Pacific Magazine we are running two important stories on this experiments-in-sovereignty theme. Gerard Finin’s cover story on Tuvalu’s successes in governance and financial management is the good-news story. It contrasts sharply with Tarcisius Kabutaulaka’s stark and depressing analysis of the collapse of government and social order in the Solomon Islands.
Is democracy the solution to all these problems? Maybe not, as Robert Keith-Reid points out in his page 7 column about the paliamentary system and how it works, or doesn’t work, with the cultures of Melanesia.
The Pacific is a fascinating political laboratory with lots of experiments going on all at once. We hope we are helping you keep your eye on the petri dish.
Scott Whitney can be reached at: scottw@pacificbasin.net
