Talkshop No More

The headlines agreed: this year's Pacific Forum summit was the one where "Australia Found the Pacific."

After all, Australian Prime Minister John Howard was demanding action on corruption, and an Australian Senate report coincidently came out advocating some kind of European style union among the Islands with the Australian dollar for all. And completing the impression was the summit's election of an Australian, veteran diplomat Greg Urwin, to the position of Forum secretary-general.

Headlines though do not tell the real story and the summit in Auckland, New Zealand, was not exactly an Australian Pacific rebirth. One of the best-attended Forums ever, it was, behind the scenes, a triumph of pragmatic politics and real concern for a region undoubtedly in trouble.

Forum leaders with media at the signing of document permitting Solomons intervention. Photo: Michael Field

Meeting in the shadow of the initially successful Australian-led Pacific Forum intervention in the Solomon Islands, leaders were given to a touch of self-congratulation and satisfaction that their Biketawa Declaration, the main product of the 2000 Forum in Kiribati, seemed to have some real grunt behind it. This led to the acceptance in this year's Forum communiqué of the "Forum Principles of Good Leadership."

The nine principles were respect for the law and system of government, respect for cultural values, customs and tradition and respect for freedom of religion. It calls for respect for people on whose behalf leaders exercise power, respect for members of the public, economy and efficiency, diligence, national peace and security and respect for office.

The first principle is the most detailed with leaders told to allow for the peaceful and lawful transfer of power. It requires upholding a just, fair and honest government with one point requiring "disclosure of fraud, corruption and misadministration of which the leader has become aware."

Leaders are also required to have "respect for cultural values, customs, traditions and indigenous rights and observation of traditional protocols in the exercise of power."

“I want to say an Australian candidate going into a contest like this labors uphill. The fact was that this was an exceptional Australian candidate and this was what made it possible for the (consensus) precedent to be broken.” —PM Helen Clark

In an odd oversight these principles made no mention of media freedom although Forum chair, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who termed it a "charter for leaders," said it could always be added later. "It does indicate an interest across the Forum in good governance which is much talked about and I think genuinely aspired to," she said. "It is particularly detailed and I hope we can live up to it."

While Forum declarations in the past have often looked a little toothless, the connection between Biketawa and the Solomons intervention now gives new strength to the regional body.

The Forum also accepted the creation of an "open skies" deal for Pacific aviation, although only six nations have initially agreed to sign up to it. Leaders also reviewed progress and the immense detail associated with their free trade agreements, PICTA and PACER.

Other issues detailed included the shipment of nuclear wastes across the Pacific, climate change, a Pacific whale sanctuary, fisheries and HIV/AIDS. What was impressive, but little noticed in the headlines, was the specific nature of the Forum's work plans in each area. The body is no longer a talkshop.

Urwin's appointment was the big drama for a media not usually given to taking much notice of the Pacific. In some camps it was written up as part of Howard's work as U.S. President George W. Bush's "deputy sheriff" role in cleaning up the region. But Australia has always been an engaged participant on the Pacific, and the media that felt Howard had just discovered the place, did not know their history.

The appointment of Urwin, 57, upset a mythical unwritten rule that says that non-Islanders should not run the region's main institution. No one can adequately explain why this rule exists. As it is, Urwin was the outstanding candidate, having served the Australian Foreign Ministry with distinction in Samoa, Vanuatu and Fiji, and easily the pre-eminent expert on the region's major problem spots. He lives in Apia and is married to a Samoan. He is a man whose heart is in the Pacific.

His rivals were mostly political hacks, put up by rival governments to give their time-servers a retirement position: the Pacific has had a long history of that, and no longer needs it.

Urwin does not see himself as a Canberra man, but rather "as the servant of the people who put me there, which is the members of the Forum. Pure and simple.

"For these purposes I will cease to be an Australian. I will be a servant of those people who have appointed me. And that is the entire membership of the Forum."

New Zealand's Clark says she would be most concerned if there was a media spin put on his appointment that he had won the job due to Howard's pressure. "I want to say an Australian candidate going into a contest like this labors uphill," Clark said. "The fact was that this was an exceptional Australian candidate and this was what made it possible for the (consensus) precedent to be broken."