Sea Changes

Part of the process of arriving at Pacific's "Power 10" and "25 To Watch" lineups is to reflect more broadly on the nature of leadership in the Pacific Islands-particularly shifts and changes over the previous 12 months and emerging trends.

In recent and coming months we will see the challenge to leadership exerted at the most fundamental of levels, through elections in Samoa, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Guam.

In Samoa, the Human Rights Protection Party of Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Maleilegaoi has been returned to power for the 24th year and counting. Tuilaepa told Radio New Zealand that the priority for his next term in office will be the wellbeing of his people. "We have very little natural resources, so the yeoman asset is so important to us. We will concentrate on improving the education of our people as well as (their) health."

Meanwhile, elections in the Solomons were peaceful, and while they were ultimately unsuccessful in winning office, the Solomon Islands saw one of the year's shifts with the emergence of 26 female candidates.

One of them, independent Josephine Teakeni said, "instead of sitting there and just complaining, I feel I have reached the stage in life, with experience, that I can speak at another level on their behalf, (especially) for the zero percentage which are women, whose voices are not heard in Parliament."

The "Women in Politics" movement in the Pacific has been around for a few years with mixed success, but even new Secretariat of the Pacific Community boss Dr. Jimmie Rodgers has bought into the debate, saying recently, "although imperfect, the system of quotas has been successful and necessary in many countries, even if only used as a transitional step to more institutionalized methods of ensuring the equal participation of women in decision-making."

Perhaps the biggest shift in leadership in recent months has come about in Tonga, where Feleti Sevele, a prime minister from outside the royal family and nobility, has been appointed. Royal palace deputy secretary, Sateki 'Ahio, described the appointment as "a new epoch for the people of Tonga." It certainly has the potential to mark a sea change in Tongan political development.

As we observe elsewhere in this issue, it is clear that links to the Asia region are becoming more important to our leaders- regardless of whether they are drawn from government, business or broader society. In some ways this reflects the theories of Pacific historian Ron Crocombe, who writes that while the future of the Pacific Islands will be shaped by the intelligence, energy and the integrity (or lack of it) of the region's leaders, politicians will also become Asianised, with more "authoritarianism and probably greater use of force."

It's too early to make a judgment, although the role of traditional responsibilities or as Kanaky author and New Caledonian Vice President Dewe Gorode puts it, "sharing as custom prescribes," will surely, in part at least, mitigate against that.

The fact is that there has never been a greater need for real leadership in our region. Leadership that has a vision of a future that is better than the past. Leadership that has the ability to articulate that vision in ways that bring together our increasingly disparate communities. And leadership with the experience and courage to bring that vision to reality. Will that leadership be "Pacific" in style, or will it indeed be shaped by the same forces of globalization that are refocusing our economies?

The fact is few of us are born to leadership and know the privileges or the burdens of that birthright. However, we all have a chance to lead in our own sphere-in our families, businesses and communities and so influence what we believe leadership "Pacific Island-style" can and should be.