Protocol, Alcohol and Standing Tall

The former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador to the UN, and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Resident Representative to South Korea and Pakistan used the lecture to dismantle the perception of diplomacy as a never ending cycle of cocktail parties.

Fiji joined the UN on October 13, 1970 and is now one of 12 Pacific Island Forum members to that organization. Vunibobo says at that time (the late 1960s), "there was electricity in the air" and that globally "pressure was being brought to bear on the colonial powers to shed their colonies."

Bernado Vunibobo

In Vunibobo's view, the region is still feeling the effects of that process. "We have yet in the Pacific to face some of the transactions (over West Papua) that were done between the Netherlands and the United Nations. I refer to West Papua, which will be a major issue in the coming years, whether we like it or not, and it will test our relations with Indonesia particularly. We cannot continue to sweep the issue away that the West Papuans were not even asked what sort of future they want."

In his years as a diplomat and politician, Vunibobo has seen aid flows wax and wane, and says this is a warning for Pacific Island nations.

"When we receive any aid from donors, the aid is not because they like the color of our eyes but because it is in their interest to help us.

"Have you noticed how things have dwindled to a drop here (in Fiji) since the U.S. pulled from its interests in the Pacific? Israel closed the embassy once it got the votes it wanted.

"This is a reality we all must take into account in the Pacific. Aid is something in my view that will not go on in perpetuity, and the more important element in this is our responsibility to use the aid that we receive effectively and for the purpose for which it has been given. Sometimes we forget that the donor countries also have to deal with their parliaments."

Vunibobo suggests it is not only small island states that are subject to this sort of conditionality-even UN agencies are not immune.

"The UNDP now is a mere shadow of its previous self and I fear is now involved in areas that is best left to others. But then UNDP, more than the specialized agencies, is funded by voluntary contributions and it is a creature of the donors who decide the tune it should play."

Fiji hosts a number of UN and affiliated agencies: the World Health Organization, International Labor Organization, and UNICEF. There are moves to relocate the Oceania Customs Organization to Suva from Noumea if money can be found to fund the move. Vunibobo is mildly frustrated by the regional tensions this concentration of agencies has sometimes caused.

"There is a deep-seated resentment in the region about what is perceived by our neighbors as Fiji hogging all the headquarters of international and regional organizations.

"So an attempt is being made to share locations of head offices irrespective of costs. We see this with UNESCO, SPREP, (the) Fisheries Agency in the Solomons and Tuna (Commission, which is based in Pohnpei, FSM). No thought seems to be given by those who have made this decision on the cost effectiveness of these decisions and there continues to be a growing concern about the phenomenon of donor fatigue. People are tired of providing aid when they see the people responsible being irresponsible in the way in which aid is often used, and for me this is a classic case."

Vunibobo says while he "wondered what on earth I am doing here" on first arriving in New York in 1976, he found a small delegation can achieve a lot with the right networks and alliances. He points to Fiji's record as peacekeepers in Lebanon, Sinai, Kosovo, Liberia, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq as evidence of this.

"The late Ratu Mara (former Fiji Prime Minister) was always a great believer that it would be good for our country to participate in peacekeeping, but equally important it was a way of reciprocating the enormous help we receive from other countries and peacekeeping remains a genuine sacrifice for us both in the lives of the soldiers that we send, and the money that we spend."

He describes the Commonwealth, at least during his time, as "one of the most toothless groups I came across…they hardly do anything of significance. With all the talk about the Commonwealth, I don't think they even appeared on anything we discussed at the UN." Eleven Pacific Island nations belong to the Commonwealth, all of them former British colonies.

In contrast, Vunibobo sees the current low-level relations with Latin America as a lost opportunity.

"This is an emerging group that will have a profound influence internationally. We play with Argentina in rugby but how much effort do we do to get to know the Argentineans, the Peruvians, the Mexicans? The more we can expand, the less we become focused on two to four countries."

Says Vunibobo: "We have got to get out of the syndrome that the world begins and ends with the English-speaking countries. We have never tapped Scandinavia. How much do we deal with the UN agencies based in Europe, UNESCO, FAO, the ones in Geneva? These are the people who decide the allocation of resources. You know them and they will help you find avenues or ways of tapping the pool."