Asia-Pacific Network: 1 July 2000
POLITICS: PACIFIC'S 'COUP VIRUS' FORCES FRESH LOOK AT POLITICAL SYSTEMS
Small nations in the Pacific are looking to their constitutions - and examining their flaws - as critics seek answers to the so-called "coup virus" in Melanesian countries and look for long-term solutions.
By DAVID ROBIE in Suva
MELANESIA'S four major countries in the south-west Pacific - Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu - have been weathering major political upheavals which throw into question their political systems.
For some Pacific political leaders, democracy is seen as a "foreign flower" that hasn't transplanted too well.
Some political analysts argue that democratic constitutions are ill-suited to cope with the problems of national unity and the co-existence of different communities.
Others say this is not the issue. Rather, they say, democratic constitutions need slight adjustments to give greater protection of "indigenous", or collective rights.
In all cases, the political crises have been defined by outsiders as ethnic conflict. But they are all far more complex.
"The idea that coups d'etat could spread like a virus in the Pacific should be taken seriously," says Samoa Observer editor Savea Sano Malifa. "From Fiji to the Solomons, political uprising is now feared to be spilling over into Papua New Guinea and possibly Vanuatu."
Preoccupied with resolving an elusive peace after a decade of a secessionist war on the copper-rich north-eastern island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea has preferred to keep a low-key approach to troubles in other Melanesian countries.
But one former Prime Minister, Sir Julius Chan, warns against such a casual attitude.
"We seem to have applied the Melanesian approach," he says. "You sit back, chew betel nut and look into the sky and wait and see what happens.
"It's not pragmatic in terms of current regional development. We should reactivate regional organisations and Papua New Guinea should take the front seat - not the back seat - because whether we like it or not, we're the biggest Pacific Island country."
Ironically, Chan was forced out of office over his role in the aborted Sandline mercenary affair in 1997, when South African-led "dogs of war" - some had fought in Sierra Leone - were recruited for an operation against rebels on Bougainville.
When he was Prime Minister in 1980, Chan had responded to a call from the late Vanuatu leader Father Walter Lini to quell a rebellion on the island of Espiritu Santo at independence.
Ever since then he has been an advocate for a regional peacekeeping force with Papua New Guinea playing a pivotal role.
As the Solomon Islands careered towards the brink of a civil war and indigenous Fijians haggled over power with multiracial government hostages as pawns in their brinkmanship, Chan said: "Whatever happens we can't keep out of it. We can't be Pontius Pilate, we can't wash our hands clean."
Chan also questions the future role of the South Pacific Forum and the Melanesian Spearhead Group over their failure to broker any peace deals in both countries.
The regional organisations have a far more vital role to play than "dancing girls" and good times, he complains.
Papua New Guinea's leading newspaper, the Post-Courier, said in an editorial: "They [regional bodies] have a moral obligation to the people of the region and more so to the people of Fiji and the Solomon Islands to take an active part in finding lasting solutions to the conflicts.
"After all, without doing our best in such times, what good is all the 'Pacific Way' talk?"
Vanuatu, which has itself had several political upheavals in the past decade, believes it can avoid the crises that are crippling Fiji and the Solomon Islands - providing services are delivered effectively and equitably to the people.
Prime Minister Barak Sope says: "When services are distributed well to the rural areas and people are occupied then we don't have to worry."
According to constitutional analyst Professor Yash Ghai, of the University of Hongkong and who had a hand in drafting the abrogated multiracial 1997 Fiji constitution, the region should be wary about the wrong conclusions being drawn about the "indigenous" nature of the conflicts.
"The troubles have been triggered off by different factors in each of the states: in Papua New Guinea by the ravages of the Panguna mine, in Fiji by the orchestration of indigenous indignation against a government led by an Indo-Fijian, and in the Solomon Islands by economic competition between resident and migrant communities," says Ghai.
He sees the root of the conflicts in the pace of economic and technological changes which have seriously disrupted traditional values and structures, destabilised societies, and reduced their economic and political self-sufficiency.
Integration in the world economy has been neither easy nor advantageous, and globalisation has added to Pacific Islanders' economic woes.
The effectiveness, or even willingness, of governments to deal with these problems and provide welfare has steadily declined.
Political scientist Dr Sanjay Ramesh says people "whipping up the chimera of Indian dominance" in Fiji are doing so to fan the fears of cultural insecurity, which is endemic among grassroots indigenous Fijians.
A Catholic priest, Father David Arms, who is a constitutional authority for the Fiji Citizens' Constitutional Forum, believes that the constitution was a progressive one which safeguarded indigenous rights.
He argues for continued strong Commonwealth pressure and trade bans and sanctions to persuade the interim military government to restore the constitution and the elected Parliament.
"Better a timely amputation than a protracted painful death from gangrene," he says.
In the case of the Solomon Islands, the people of Guadalcanal are attempting to push immigrant Malaitans off their island, a campaign that has been so successful than an estimated 20,000 people - almost a quarter of the Malaitan population - have been forced to flee.
This was spearheaded by the Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army and the Isatabu Freedom Movement and is opposed by various Malaitan groups.
Both sides have carved out a small-scale but effective campaign of terror and intimidation which has killed more than 60 people and stirred riots in the capital of Honiara.
The Malaitans are the most successful of Solomon Islands tribes and this stirs resentment. The ousted Prime Minister, Bartholomew Ulufa'alu, the target of the coup, is a Malaitan, as are the rebels who call themselves the Malaitan Eagle Force.
Only in a few Pacific countries have constitutions recognised traditional authorities and given them power. For example, in Tonga - as a Polynesian kingdom, the king is recognised as head of government.
In Fiji, the Great Council of Chiefs is recognised in the most recent constitution. However, the council meets in secret in modern times instead of openly as in the past and its traditional aura and respect have eroded in the wake of the 1987 coups - and particularly since coup leader George Speight seized Parliament.