Pacific Notes
Pacific Notes
Papua New Guinea
Election in Chaos
The seventh general election in Papua New Guinea, which was completed last month, may be one of the worst in this Melanesian country’s short political history. PNG went to the polls in June, but, even before that, in some parts of the country, especially in the Highlands region, election-related violence was already starting. In the Southern Highlands province people were intimidated and harassed by supporters of rival factions. Some candidates were assaulted and even kidnapped.
When polling started on June 15, 2002, the whole election process became chaotic. In some polling stations, election officials refused to conduct polling because of nonpayment of their allowances. Election officials assigned to conduct polling in remote villages could not start because funds were not available to charter helicopters to transport polling teams.
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Many people were unable to vote, because their names were not on the so-called Common Roll. There were also reports of people voting twice and allegations of people using “ghost names” to vote.
Funds were not sufficient to cover the operations of the election. The electoral commissioner, Reuben Kaiulo, requested additional money, but none was granted. Instead, the government diverted about K$1 million (US$735,000) from the Electoral Commission into police operations. Polling officials in some parts of the country walked off their jobs in protest over nonpayment of allowances. This forced counting to stop and delayed the declaration of winners.
The Highlands region reported 12 election-related deaths and two provinces in the region—Southern Highlands and Enga—had most of their ballot boxes destroyed by gun-wielding thugs, who overpowered the police guarding the ballot boxes. Calls for a fresh election in these provinces were refused by Kaiulo.
—Winis Map
Campaign Slogans Proliferate
The talk shows are at high pitch. The rumor mill is grinding away. Ah, the signs of a gubernatorial election year in Guam. Here is a snapshot of who’s who in the bid for Guam’s highest office:
For the Republicans, Speaker Antonio Unpingco and Sen. Eddie Calvo comprise one ticket, which calls on voters to “Believe in Guam.” Unpingco is currently the longest tenured senator, with more than 20 years as a legislator, and Calvo, who has three terms under his belt, also brings to the table a political legacy. His father is former Gov. Paul M. Calvo. Opposing them in the Republican primary are Sen. Felix Camacho and running mate Sen. Kaleo Moylan. The candidates are the sons of another gubernatorial ticket, former Gov. Carlos G. Camacho and former Lt. Gov. Kurt Moylan. The Camacho-Moylan ticket—the 2002 version—is asking the people of Guam to realize “There’s Hope.”
On the Democratic side of the aisle are Congressman Robert Underwood and running mate Sen. Tom Ada. Underwood was a longtime educator and University of Guam professor. Ada, once a general manager of the Guam Power Authority, failed in a bid for the governor’s seat four years ago, but has always been among the leaders in votes for senator over the years. The team rallies around the theme of “Dinuebu: Rebuilding Guam.”
Opposing Underwood-Ada is the ticket of first lady Geri Gutierrez and Benny Paulino, adjutant general of the Guam National Guard. The first lady brings to the table her charitable endeavors as well as the political machinery of her husband, Gov. Carl Gutierrez. (The governor is unable to run for a third consecutive term because of Guam law.) Paulino was a career soldier in the U.S. Army prior to becoming the top officer of the Guam National Guard. The Gutierrez-Paulino ticket is running on the slogan, “Building Hope and Trust.”
—Paul Borja
Australia’s “Pacific Solution”
Nauru, the smallest independent nation in the Pacific, and once the wealthiest because of its phosphate reserves, has lately fallen on hard times. The phosphate is almost exhausted, and the wealth once earned from it has evaporated as a result of dodgy investments. Further, the country’s decision to reinvent itself as a tax haven—instead of generating profits—has brought condemnation from international finance commissions and accusations of money laundering. Now Nauru, which once defiantly resisted aid, has become dependent on assistance from its one-time administrator, Australia.
In late 2001, Australia asked Nauru as a “brother country in the Pacific Island Forum” to accept several hundred asylum seekers, pending their requests for refugee status in Australia. The majority were from Afghanistan. The trade-off? An additional A$10 million in aid. Under the arrangement, Nauru would accommodate up to 1,200 asylum seekers on the island at any one time, with all associated costs being met by Australia. Given the current state of Nauru’s finances, President Rene Harris lost little time consenting. A memorandum of understanding was signed in December.
Like many of his predecessors, Harris can always find reasons to visit Australia. In June, however, he arrived in a somewhat belligerent mood. Australia’s “Pacific Solution,” he said, had become a “Pacific nightmare.” Precisely what this meant was not clearly spelled out. (Much of Nauru is nightmarish enough at the best of times.) In Australia, he said that the promised A$30 million in aid had not been forthcoming and that his electoral prospects at home were not looking good.
How was the nightmare assuaged? Like a dream, apparently. Over what he described as an “amiable lunch,” Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer carefully reviewed the terms of the MOU with Harris, and offered to send two economic advisers to Nauru to show how the aid might be best directed. The Nauruan leader returned home feeling “reassured.”
And the asylum seekers? At press time most of them were still on Nauru.
—Norman Douglas
Sex Abuse Charges Announced
We’ve been hearing rumors about this story by email for some months now, but the New Zealand Herald and the Associated Press finally released stories in July about the three-year-long investigation by police from Great Britain and New Zealand into allegations of a 1999 rape on remote Pitcairn. The island was settled 200 years ago, when Fletcher Christian and other Bounty mutineers hid out there with their Tahitian wives.
The original rape investigation turned up even more allegations. Authorities in Wellington have not announced how many Pitcairn men will be charged, but New Zealand media say there may be up to 20 men charged with abusing minor girls as young as 12. The whole process remains a legal puzzle.
According our correspondent Steve Pendleton, “Pitcairn is legally a British colony. There is some local self-government, but most major decisions are made by the Pitcairn Governor’s office in New Zealand.” This means a trial might be conducted by a Great Britain court on New Zealand soil—against men who now live as far apart as Auckland, Peru and Pitcairn.
—Scott Whitney, AP, CNN, NZH
