The Pacific Battle For The ACP Title

So the Pacific has finally spoken. It's nominating Papua New Guinea's Sir John Kaputin to be the Pacific candidate for ACP (African, Caribbean Pacific) Group Secretary-General. This important Brussels-based position becomes vacant next year. He beat Samoan Dr Pa'o Luteru‹now the ACP deputy secretary-general at the secretariat in Brussels‹9-4 in a secret ballot. It came at a meeting of ACP Pacific trade ministers in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, early last month. Following that meeting Pacific ACP trade ministers were to return to their countries and tell their leaders of Sir John's nomination. Luteru was nominated by Samoa and Sir John by Papua New Guinea.

So how did Sir John get the nod? Because neither candidate wanted to withdraw, it was decided to put it to the vote, despite some moves to defer the decision. Tuvalu's Bikenibeu Paeniu spoke out strongly on the need to a make a decision rather than deferring it. He said he was mandated by his PM to return home with a name. "What does it tell our PMs if we can't make a decision? he was reported to have asked. "We have to make a decision now, otherwise our PMs will view us as incapable."

Paeniu was supported by Vanuatu's representative Willie Jimmy. He flew in to Port Moresby for the vote then flew out immediately after a decision was made.

Samoa's Trade Minister, Hans Joachim Keil, accepted the decision like a gentleman. He told the meeting that Samoa will go along with whatever decision made. He was apparently one of the first people to congratulate Sir John when he won the vote.

The name of the 64-year-old former PNG government minister will now be put forward to the next round of the battle. This is the ACP Council of Ministers meeting scheduled at Gaborone, Botswana, May 3-5.
The Pacific is hoping the Gaborone meeting will endorse Sir John's nomination. This will then have to go through another round and that is the ACP Summit of Heads of State and Governments at Maputo, Mozambique on June 21-24 for the final endorsement.

It's the Pacific's turn at the ACP helm and if Sir John's nomination finally gets the nod, he will take over from Jean-Robert Goulogana, of Gabon, for a term of five years. And by the time of the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Apia, Samoa, Sir John could by then be ACP secretary-general designate.

The 79-member ACP has become a growing international force, emerging as one of the key groups representing developing countries. It has a major aid, trade, and development partnership with the European Union.

The ACP secretary-general heads its large secretariat in the Belgian capital, where the EU also has its main offices. His job is an important one with an attractive remuneration package. According to sources in Brussels it carries a monthly salary of 6300 Euros, equivalent to F$13,000 tax free. Several allowances are paid, including education, health, superannuation, with free housing and transport. Apart from the money, this is an important position for the Pacific ACP region. This is because during the tenure of office of the new secretary-general phase two of the EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) negotiations with the European Union (EU) will be completed. And given the many constraints that our Pacific economies face, having someone from the region in that position gives the Pacific the advantage to influence high level policy processes and decisions in Brussels that directly impact the lives of people in our region. As Sir John said: "The ACP secretary-general plays an important role in supporting ACP member countries, in one of the most wide ranging and effective arrangements for development co-operation in the world."
So what's the vibe in Brussels regarding the region's nomination? Letter from Suva spoke to Fiji's Surendra Sharma, a former Director of the ACP-EU Centre for the Development of Enterprises, who is based in Brussels. Sharma now represents a number of Pacific ACP countries in Brussels. He said: In fact just this afternoon we, the Pacific ambassadors here in Brussels, met for a briefing following the ACP Committee of Ambassadors Bureau meeting which took place this morning.

The question of rotation of, and allocation of the senior posts of the ACP, was raised by the Solomon Islands following our Pacific Regional meeting last Friday when we mandated our Bureau member to raise this issue in the hope of obtaining confirmation from the other regions that at least the S-G post belongs to the Pacific and that this post is neither subject to allocation or negotiation. (The Solomon Islands represents the Pacific at the Bureau meeting.)

Apart from the Caribbean region representative who tacitly confirmed the decision of the ACP Council of Ministers in Santo Domingo during the 2nd Summit of ACP Heads of State that the post was to be taken by the Pacific region, there was a strange silence from the four African regions.

This is indeed unusual and is indicative of some possible problems for the Pacific!

But in my view, as the Council decision in favour of the Pacific is so clear, there should really be no question of consultation regarding the S-G post.

At this point, for reasons of strategy, Sir John Kaputin's name has not been officially announced in Brussels but of course, unofficially, everyone knows and are maintaining a polite silence. But there is no secret of the fact that the current incumbent is posturing to somehow have his mandate extended. So are the other incumbents of the other two main posts that is directors of the CDE and CTA.

"How firmly the Pacific asserts its right to the post (as per the earlier Council decision) at the ACP Council of Ministers Meeting in Gabarone, Botswana in May and at the ACP Summit in Maputo, Mozambique in June will be crucial to eliminate the possible threats of yet another Œbulldozing' of the Pacific by the Africans with regard to this post as had happened in Santo Domingo in 1999," Mr Sharma said.

If the Pacific foregoes this opportunity to have a secretary-general in place, the next time around will be twenty five years later! I am sure none of us in the region would like that to happen. So the only way to go now is to rally behind our candidate 100 percent and let's make sure we've got the "cat in the bag". And, of course, no surprises come the Botswana meeting. Let's learn from what happened at last year's Pacific Islands Forum summit, that we shouldn't allow our own islands' rivalries to dominate because it could cost us one of the most important positions for Pacific ACP countries.