Politics
Autonomy Move For Polynesians Criticised
Critics say law change gives Flosse more power
Murmurs and protests interrupted debate repeatedly through the first reading in Paris of a law change that will see more autonomy passed down to French Polynesia. Most of that power, critics allege, will drop straight into the hands of the territory's president, Gaston Flosse.
"We refuse to be an accessory to this transformation of Polynesia into a république bananière," stormed Green party member Noël Mamère, to shouts from the pro-Chirac benches. Banana republic? Criticism‹and support‹for greater autonomy centred on Flosse's three decades long record as president of the region's biggest French territory.
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"Autonomy permitted the development of Polynesia," Deputy Michael Buillard told the National Assembly on January 14.
Existing measures of autonomy, Buillard said, were "built gradually with pragmatism. Polynesian people were in charge following the example of our president senator, who was careful, mindful that any failure could justify a return to the past or lay the foundation for independence arguments."
Under Flosse, French Polynesia enjoys economic expansion rates of five percent a year, said Buillard. "The (French) Polynesians have a standard of living comparable with those in Australia and New Zealand."
As well as president of the territory with friends in high Paris places, Flosse is something of a high-flyer himself, as a senator in the upper house of France's bi-cameral Parliament. It was here, last December, that the autonomy amendments passed their first hurdle.
In an editorial, the Mo'orea-based Tahiti Pacifique magazine described the sitting as a "phantom" senate, with just 16 out of 321 senators present. Influential daily Le Monde noted the two bills, one with 198 clauses, was passed just the day before the senate adjourned.
"Perhaps the presence of the senator-president from Polynesia encouraged our colleagues to read faster," said Deputy Emile Zuccarelli. He and other socialist deputies also took aim at the lack of referendum before the law was presented to the senate and national assembly. "This statutory reform should have been the subject of a popular consultation, as was the case in 2003 for Corsica and the Antilles. Of course, the result was not what the government wished. But it is democracy with its charms and risks."
Mamère was the most scathing, referring to French Polynesia as a "washing machine" for funds channelled by right-wing politicians through big mainland companies with branches and multi-million projects in French Polynesia.
Projects like a tunnel in central Pape'ete, a hospital as big as any in France's much, much larger cities, a huge mayoral office cum mansion for Flosse's home district of Pirae‹many French politicians hold multiple positions‹all raised eyebrows back in France.
Extra autonomy, Mamère claimed, would push French Polynesia further "into a kind of law-free zone, far from Paris and the curiosity of the French taxpayers." As well as greater powers, including immunity from some investigations for the president, autonomy amendments see changes to electoral rules.
Critics claim these changes will wipe out centrist parties, those seeking middle ground between Flosse's autonomy within France and full independence sought by Oscar Temaru's Tavini Huiraatira party.
Exact percentages are uncertain in a region that hears little news across the French-English divide. But under Article 106, candidates face a higher threshold for election, needing more of the vote than at present. Opposition deputies claim the amendments consolidate almost "monarchial" powers under Flosse.
"With these clauses, the government makes a royal gift of its majority and assigns a blow which could be fatal to the opposition," said Communist Deputy Pierre Goldberg. "The Polynesians are victims of a democratic confiscation." Conservative deputies attacked socialists for opposing a process they themselves started.
"Doesn't Polynesia have behind it 20 years of successful autonomy?" asks UMP deputy Eric Raoult. "Twenty years during which your (socialist) governments were more numerous than ours. "There is a feeling that the socialists try to forget what they made, as if they were annoyed by the success of French Polynesia, by the effectiveness of its president. "And by the fact that neither the socialist party nor the radical parties of the left succeeded in getting established there!"
According to the CIA fact book, Flosse's Tavini Hoeraatira party holds 28 out of 39 seats, with Temaru's pro-independence MPs holding 13. Eight other seats are held by centrist parties.
Opposition sources in French Polynesia claim the push for greater autonomy hides the fact that more than 10 new seats will be added, all of them in pro-Flosse areas. This will see some government seats with a couple of hundred voters ranking equally with opposition seats of several thousand. Le Monde reports that the latest autonomy review is the fourth in the last twenty years.
Government MPs in Paris have no doubts about the importance of French Polynesia and its role with France in the region. "France is present in Polynesia and in the Pacific," says Raoult. "The future of the world, as one says, will be played out in the Pacific."
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