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PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT Pacific Islands
Development Program/East-West Center The Contemporary Pacific Political Reviews Melanesia in Review: Issues and Events, 2002 VANUATU By Anita Jowitt Some commentators continue to question Vanuatu's stability
and wait for a collapse of order as experienced by its Melanesian neighbors.
However, Vanuatu has shown a good deal of cohesiveness in a year that witnessed
a number of potentially destabilizing events, including a national election, the
jailing of a former prime minister for fraud, and lengthy wrangling over the
appointment of the new commissioner of police. Although Vanuatu's economy has
not been performing well, 2002 has largely been a success for governance. The year began with the death of one of Vanuatu's elder
statesmen, George Kaltoi Kalsakau, on 31 December 2001. Kalsakau had been one of
the primary leaders in the lead-up to independence, and in 1978-1979 was the
country's first chief minister after the country became a self-governing
British-French colony. Vanuatu lost three other notable politicians in 2002: the
prominent women's leader, Grace Mera Molisa, who died on 4 January; the second
chief minister,FatherGerardLeymang, who died on 2 May; and Noel Mariasua, a
respected chief who had been chair of the National Council of Chiefs, who died
in October. Natural disaster also struck early in the year, when an
earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit Port Vila. Some roads,
buildings, and bridges were damaged, but overall the capital city escaped
lightly scathed, with no deaths. Repair of homes and buildings continued over
the year, giving a lift to the building industry. While repairs were costly, in
many respects the damage from this earthquake had less human impact than the
earthquake and subsequent landslides in Merelava, in the northern Torba
province, in late November. Housing, water supply, cash crops, and food crops
were all affected. As Merelava is an outer island, this natural disaster
received little media attention. [End Page 463] Natural disasters aside, the first potentially
destabilizing event involved confusion over the date of dissolution of
Parliament. The government thought that dissolution was to occur on 16 March,
and in the final week was going to debate a supplementary appropriation bill to
cover police underpayments of 95 million vatu. After a careful reading of the
Constitution, the opposition figured that Parliament should actually dissolve on
6 March. They took their challenge to the Supreme Court and won, so Parliament
was dissolved before the appropriation to pay the police could be passed. While
some police were prepared to wait until after the elections for the underpayment
issue to be resolved, others threatened strike action, and there were fears of
inadequate security during the elections. The issue was defused at the end of
March when Natapei's caretaker government, which had been installed to manage
the country between the dissolution of Parliament and the election, paid the
outstanding money to the police. Once this issue was resolved the political focus turned to
the elections, which were held on 2 May. The previous chair of the Electoral
Commission, Charles Bice, had recommended increasing the number of seats by
fifteen. However this proposal was rejected when the cost implications were
realized, and the number of seats remained at fifty-two. More than 260 candidate
applications were received by the Electoral Commission. Most applications were
processed without difficulty, and 257 candidates were accepted to stand for
election. However, among the rejected was Acting Minister of Infrastructure and
Public Utilities Jacklyn Ruben Titek, whose application was dismissed because he
was not officially registered on the electoral roll. Titek appealed the decision
(Titek v The Electoral Commission 2002). During the court hearing it was
found that Titek had never been properly registered when the electoral
registration system changed in 1999. When registration officers had called at
Titek's house in 2001 to check the registration, Titek had not been home. The
officers stated that they would come back the next day, but never did. Titek
believed his electoral card, issued in 1993, was still valid. The Supreme Court
overturned the Electoral Commission's decision and allowed Titek to be
registered as a candidate. This decision was based largely on the fact that the
electoral officers had promised to return to Titek's house and had failed to
keep this promise. (Titek retained his seat in the election.) The Electoral Commission also disqualified three candidates
a week prior to the election. Atis Kalo Manarato, Hollingson Issachar, and
Dickenson Hughug were all disqualified when it was discovered that they each
were serving suspended sentences. As a result, the Electoral Commission
apparently asked the police to screen all candidate names for undisclosed
convictions (TP,27 April 2002). The
incident also prompted the Elections Observer Group (EOG) to recommend a strengthening of the eligibility criteria
"to make ineligible the candidature of habitual criminal offenders, people
who have been convicted of corrupt electoral practice, and people with
significant debts" (EOG2002, 23). [End
Page 464] However, this report did not recommend that the Electoral
Commission be required to liaise with police to screen candidate names for
criminal records. The campaign period was fairly quiet. Voter behavior still
seemed to be determined by loyalty to personalities rather than support of
particular policies, and few parties or candidates offered clear statements of
their political platforms. Various rallies were held, but the clearest
indications of campaigning in Port Vila were the thousands of posters plastered
around town (recognition of peoples' faces rather than their policies seemed
more important in the race to attract votes) and the truckloads of campaigners
driving around town dressed in party colors, honking horns and chanting slogans.
In a number of instances business owners were allegedly threatened if they tried
to remove posters stuck on their property. Posters led to the most unpleasant incident of the campaign
period. An expatriate restaurant owner, Christophe Rodot, removed from his menu
board a poster for Port Vila independent candidate Willie Kaloris. Kaloris's
supporters had placed the notice there without permission. Rodot left other
posters of Kaloris on the walls. The next day a group of Kaloris's supporters
went to the restaurant and badly assaulted Rodot. They also forced him to eat
the poster that had been removed and to pay 20,000 vatu in
"compensation." Kaloris was not present for the attack but turned up
afterwards. He threatened that when he was made a minister he would deport Rodot.
In the newspaper Kaloris was unrepentant for his behavior, stating, "If I
am in power he [Rodot] will be deported. No question" (TP,13
April 2002). In the same article he also advised that "if people have a
problem with his posters on their premises they should contact him to discuss
concerns and not pull down the posters as it causes problems." It was not
until early May that Kaloris and his nephew Moise, who led the assault, were
arrested (TP,11 May 2002). In the
meantime Kaloris had polled 362 votes in the election, not enough to win him a
seat, but still ranking him tenth of 31 candidates in the Port Vila
constituency. Polling itself was also a low-key, straightforward affair,
except in Luganville, Santo, where an error on the ballot papers delayed voting
for a day. Voter turnout in the urban centers of Port Vila and Luganville was
low, at 51 percent and 45 percent respectively. Overall turnout was 63 percent,
slightly up from the 62 percent turnout in the 1998 elections. Besides the delayed voting in Luganville, other election
irregularities occurred. These were relatively well detailed as, for the first
time inVanuatu, an Elections Observer Group was set up. Errors in counting
resulted in two candidates, Maxwell Maltok and Vatambe Reme, being declared
elected in the unofficial results, only to lose their seats when the official
results were released. While the Electoral Commission maintained that the
discrepancies were due to human error, some observers believed that the size of
the discrepancies called the credibility of the Electoral Commission into
question (TP,25 May 2002). The
Election Observer Group also noted potential difficulties with the integrity [End
Page 465] of the electoral roll. Using 1999 census data it estimated that
there were 107,068 people over the age of eighteen in Vanuatu in 2002. However,
the electoral roll recorded 127,092 eligible voters (EOG2002,
39). Once this was discovered the Electoral Commission took steps to try to
combat the lack of integrity in the electoral roll. Prior to the election a
number of electoral cards were confiscated from individuals who were registered
to vote in two separate constituencies. In the Port Vila constituency about
sixty people were caught during the election, either for having multiple
registrations or for voting using another person's card (TP,9
May 2002). The Union of Moderate Parties (UMP)
won 15 seats (up from 12 in the 1998 national election); the Vanua'aku Party (VP)
14 seats (down from 18); the National United Party (NUP)
8 seats (down from 11); the Vanuatu Republican Party (VRP)
3 seats (up from 1); and the Greens Confederation (GC)
and the Melanesian Progressive Party (MPP)
won 2 seats each (GC was not listed in the
last election, and MPP won 6 seats). The
Peoples Progressive Party, Fren Melanesian Party, and Namangi Aute each claimed
1 seat. Five independent candidates were also elected (compared to 4 in 1998). There was some evidence of "dead wood" being
voted out. Stanley Reginold (NUP), whose
drunken and violent behavior was the subject of an ombudsman's report in 2000,
lost his seat in the Banks/Torres to Nicholas Brown, a new independent
candidate. Paul Ren Tari (NUP) who had been
the Speaker of Parliament during the 2001 parliamentary maneuverings to try to
avoid a vote of no confidence, and Irene Bongnaim, the first deputy Speaker at
the time, also lost their seats. The reduction in VP
seats may be explained in part by tactical or campaign errors. Each of the
eighteen constituencies in Vanuatu has one to seven seats. This means that
parties must be careful, when standing multiple candidates in a single
electorate, that these candidates do not split the vote among themselves and
lose out to single candidates from less popular parties. This split in voting
may explain why in 1998 the Vanua'aku Party won three of the four seats in the
Efate constituency (Donald Kalpokas, Joe Carlo, and Foster Rakon), but in 2002
only won one seat (Donald Kalpokas). There was considerable support for Kalpokas,
as a number of voters felt that he fell victim to "bad politics" when
he resigned from the post of prime minister in 1999 to avoid a vote of no
confidence. Kalpokas easily won his seat with 875 votes. Carlo and Rakon each
polled over 500 votes, which was insufficient for either of them to win a seat.
Of the other parties to win seats in this constituency, the Union of Modern
Parties and the National United Party each stood one candidate only, both their
candidates being successful. Barak Sope won his seat for the Melanesian
Progressive Party. Although there was another MPP
candidate, he was a relative unknown so did not significantly split the vote.
The problem of vote splitting is something that may need to be considered in the
event of a review of the Vanuatu electoral system. Isabelle Donald (VP)
of the Maewo constituency was the only woman to [End Page 466]
successfully contest the election and to stand as a representative of a major
party. Of a handful of other female candidates, mainly in the Port Vila
constituency, none came close to gaining a seat. A VP/UMP coalition
similar to the one in power prior to the election formed the new government.
Edward Natapei (VP) retained the position
of prime minister, with Serge Vohor (UMP)
as his deputy and minister for foreign affairs. The rest of the cabinet was Sela
Molisa (VP), minister for finance; Wille
Posen (UMP), minister for infrastructure
and public utilities; Jacques Sese (UMP),
minister for education; Donald Kalpokas (VP),
minister for health; Nicholas Brown (VP,
Ind), minister for Ni-Vanuatu business development; Jacklyn Ruben Titek (VP),
minister for lands, geology and mines; Stephen Kalsakau (UMP),
minister for agriculture, livestock, forestry and fisheries; Joe Natuman (VP),
minister for internal Affairs; Philip Boedoro (VP),
minister for the comprehensive reform programme; Jean-Alain Mahe (UMP),
minister for industry and commerce; Raphael Worwor (UMP), minister for youth and sports. The Speaker was Henry Taga (UMP).
There were some rumors that donors had threatened to
withdraw aid if Natapei was not made prime minister, even though the Union of
Modern Parties had more votes than the Vanua'aku Party. However, the Vanua'aku
Party retained the prime ministership because three independent candidates
pledged their support for the party. One of them, Nicholas Brown, was made a
member of cabinet. This government remained stable throughout 2002, despite the
usual rumors of no-confidence motions circulating occasionally. It continued to
progress along the path of the Comprehensive Reform Programme. With the elections out of the way, attention turned to the
trial of former Prime Minister Barak Sope on charges of forgery. Sope, who was
prime minister from December 1999 to April 2001, forged two government
guarantees near the end of his period in office. The first, for US$5
million, was for the benefit of Vanuatu Investment Corporation Ltd (VICL),
which had been set up with Sope's first political advisor, Bakoa Kaltonga, and
Australian businessman Eddy Galea serving as directors. This guarantee was used
as security for a loan of US$2.4 million,
although the source of this loan is not a matter of public record. The second
guarantee, for US$18 million, was made out
to Dynamic Growth Management Projects Pty Ltd, a company about which there is
little public information. A New Zealand Serious Fraud Office expert could not
determine whether this guarantee had been used as security. Sope's defense was
that he had no intention of personal gain from signing the letters of guarantee;
rather, he wanted to settle some of Vanuatu's debts, in particular a US$5
million debt to the Commonwealth Development Corporation in relation to the
Belmol cattle project—a project that remains somewhat shrouded in mystery. The
court rejected this defense because the issue was not whether Sope had acted for
personal gain. It had been established that Sope knew these documents to be
false but still signed them and sent them off, with the intent that they [End
Page 467] should be acted on as genuine. This was all that was required to
establish that the offences had been committed. On 19 July Sope was sentenced to
imprisonment for three years (Public Prosecutor v Sope2002). People from
Sope's home island of Ifira immediately protested the decision to jail the
former prime minister. Some, including opposition leader Willie Jimmy,
criticized New Zealand's role in the prosecution (New Zealand supplied fraud
lawyers and special investigators), claiming that New Zealand and Australia were
interfering with local politics. These rumblings of dissatisfaction grew along
with rumors of riots if Sope was not pardoned, but these rumors were soon
overshadowed by events of early August, when a police crisis arose out of the
appointment of the new police commissioner. The murmurings of discontent and
calls for the ousting of Australian Federal Police for interference in local
politics continued during August, giving an extra edge of instability to the
unfolding events, but ultimately never came to anything (PIR,28
Aug 2002; TP,6 Aug 2002). With most
attention focused on the issue of the appointment of the new police
commissioner, when Sope was pardoned by the president on 14 November because of
ill health there was only a small outcry, including a walkout from Parliament
when the president tried to deliver his official speech opening the budget
session (ABC,25 Nov 2002). Sope lost his
seat in Parliament because of his conviction but intends to challenge this in
court in early 2003. The potential for a crisis over the appointment of the new
police commissioner had been apparent early in the year. Api Jack Marikembo, who
was commander of the Vanuatu Military Force (VMF),
had been appointed acting commissioner of police in June 2001 following the
retirement of Peter Bong. By the end of January, VMF
officer Major Aru Maralau was questioning whether the Police Service Commission
had, in fact, advised President Bani to appoint Marikembo, as stated in the
appointment letter. Maralau was apparently suspended because of his
investigation into this matter (TP,31
January 2002). It later turned out that the appointment was indeed invalid. By
the end of March, Api Jack Marikembo's appointment as acting police commissioner
was revoked, and Holi Simon, who was deputy commissioner for operations, was
instead made acting police commissioner. The new chair of the Police Service
Commission, Mr Michael Taun, stated that this appointment was made because
"according to the police strategic review of 1997, the next senior person
to the Police Commissioner should be the Acting Commissioner, and that person is
the Deputy Commissioner (Operations)" (TP,4
April 2002). This caused disunity in the police and the military, as some police
supported Marikembo over Simon. Because the president had not revoked
Marikembo's appointment, the potential for a challenge as to the legality of the
revocation was opened up. However, with the election drawing nearer, Marikembo
and Simon put aside their differences to work together to ensure security over
this period. Advertisements for the post of police commissioner went out
amid assurances that the Police Service Commission would act properly and not
allow any interference in the process. [End Page 468] On 19 July, Mael
Apisai was appointed the new commissioner of police. This soon led to an outcry
as there had initially been twelve candidates and Apisai's name had not been
among them. Four of these candidates had been short-listed and interviewed by a
selection panel made up of Jenny Ligo, Julianne Robvo, Bill Willie, and Marcel
Sam. Again Apisai's name had not come up. Holi Simon had been the preferred
candidate of the selection panel (TP,27
July 2002). On 4 August a group of police, led by Holi Simon and Api Jack
Marikembo (who had ably buried their differences, it would seem), arrested
Apisai and fourteen other people thought to be involved in his appointment,
including Attorney General Ham Bulu, several senior civil servants, three
members of the Police Service Commission, the private secretary to the
president, and a senior member of Natapei's staff. All were charged with
seditious conspiracy and released on bail. Holi Simon then applied to the Supreme Court to have the
appointment of Mael Apisai quashed. This was granted on 8 August, and the Police
Service Commission appointed Simon as acting commissioner (PIR,13
Aug 2002). Simon then turned to focus on ensuring security for the Melanesian
Arts Festival, being held in Vila from 18-28 August. On 19 August Magistrate Kawai Kawaiu quashed the charges of
seditious conspiracy against the fifteen, on the grounds that the arresting
officers did not have prior written consent of the public prosecutor (PIR,21
Aug 2002). The next act of the drama unfolded when the Magistrates' Court
granted a warrant for the arrest of twenty-seven police officers involved in the
August arrests. On 26 August Arthur Coulton was made the acting police
commissioner and on 27 August approximately one hundred armed paramilitary
officers loyal to Apisai turned up at the police station to arrest Simon and a
number of other police officers on charges of mutiny and inciting mutiny. The
policerefused to come out and a large crowd of ni-Vanuatu gathered around the
armed officers, threatening to riot if the officers created further violence.
That the "person on the street" wanted to head off trouble in the
country could be seen as a positive sign. This desire by bystanders to stop the
armed bullying tactics was perhaps reinforced by the fact that a large number of
tourists were in town because of the arrival of a cruise boat and the Melanesian
Arts Festival (PIR,29 Aug 2002). The
standoff was defused when the armed officers left, having obtaining a promise
that the twenty-seven officers would appear in court in the afternoon. Only
seven of these officers did actually present themselves at court. All were
charged and suspended from the police force. On 31 August a reconciliation ceremony was held between the
police and the Vanuatu Military Force. As part of this ceremony a number of
police suspensions and arrest warrants were withdrawn (TP,3
Sept 2002). Michael Taun was removed as chair of the Police Service Commission
and an interim commission was established. Although the reconciliation ceremony
took place, the case against the leading officers in the police mutiny continued
to court. Initially twenty-six officers were charged with mutiny and
incitement [End Page 469] to mutiny but on 1 October, the first day of
the committal hearing, the public prosecutor dropped the charges against
eighteen junior officers who were not thought to be ringleaders in the events of
August. The eight remaining defendants were charged with mutiny, incitement to
mutiny, kidnapping, and false arrest. Midway through the trial, Jean Yves Kali
had the charges against him dismissed on the basis of lack of evidence, leaving
seven accused to present their defenses (ABC,19
Nov 2002). On 7 December the matter finally came to a conclusion, with four of
the defendants, Holi Simon, Api Jack Marikembo, Paul Willie Reuben, and Eric
Pakoa all being convicted and given two-year suspended sentences. The other
three —John Pakoa Tarimas, Lui Patu, and Roy Seule—were all found not guilty
on the grounds that they had been following the orders of a superior and no
evidence indicated that the officers knew the orders were unlawful. Suspended
sentences were given because all officers had long records of service and good
backgrounds prior to the incident (TP,7
Dec 2002). Two side incidents of note were triggered by the police
mutiny events. The first concerned Deputy Prime Minister Serge Vohor's
statements on the Australian television program, sbs Dateline, that
Australia, through its Australian Federal Police presence in Vanuatu, have been
spying on local politicians and tapping telephones (ABC,2 October 2002). Unsurprisingly, the Australian Department of
Foreign Affairs denied this. The second incident surrounded the formation of a
militia being trained by the Vanuatu Military Force, apparently to help maintain
order in the event of violence over the police situation. The prime minister
denied that any militia had been formed, although later reports indicated that a
group had been trained (TP,8 October
2002). A Radio Australia news story stated, "Government spokesman Mr Daniel
Bangtor has confirmed the group of young men from the island of Tanna, who now
live near Port Vila airport, were employed and given training to assist the
mobile force" (ABC,23 October 2002).
This report also indicated that, although the group was no longer employed, it
was not disbanding, which gave rise to fears that a new armed faction may arise.
Other stories that attracted interest during the year
include the downturn in the kava industry. Many countries now will not accept
dried kava to be used for making tablets and other herbal remedies because it
appears that kava, when processed in this way, can damage users' livers.
Agricultural exports have not been very successful in 2002, arising from
difficulties with the Vanuatu Commodities Marketing Board. Football is the national sport, so ongoing confusion about
the Vanuatu Football Federation's football academy project has affected many
people. While details are still unclear, the Fédération Internationale de
Football Association (FIFA) made a large
payment to the federation to support this project. This payment went into the
European Bank, which is a member of the Bayer financial group and also involves
Robert Bohn. Work on the academy has not progressed and there are allegations
that money has been misused, that the contract to build the [End Page 470]
academy was corruptly awarded, and that the Vanua'aku Party has used these funds
(TP,5 Sept 2002). At least one
person, Gilles Daniel, has already appeared in court over this matter. Certain
other "troublesome names" have come up, including Guy Bernard (who was
linked with the militia training) and Robert Bohn. The matter is now set to be
resolved in court, and it is hoped some light will be shed on what actually
occurred. Robert Bohn again found himself in trouble late in the year when he
and Tom Bayer were arrested by the FBI in
New Orleans on charges related to the operation of a lottery scam. The United
States has leveled allegations of money laundering at both Bohn and Bayer in the
past (TP,10 Dec 2002). This incident
has placed a strain on Vanuatu's tax-haven status, although OECD
pressure over the past few years makes this strain familiar. As Vanuatu moved into 2003, several issues remained to be
cleared up, including the status of Barak Sope as a parliamentarian, the
allegations of corruption surrounding the football academy project, and the
search for the truth regarding the actions of Robert Bohn, Tom Bayer, and the
European Bank. With a sluggish economy over the past few years Vanuatu is also
in need of economic growth, which should be a priority for 2003. Anita Jowitt is in the School of Law at the University
of the South Pacific in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
References:
ABC,
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Pacific Beat. <http://abc.net.au/ra/pacbeat/>
EOG,
Elections Observer Group. Republic of Vanuatu National Elections 2 May 2002:
Report of the Elections Observer Group.2002. Blackstone Publishing: Port
Vila. PIR,
Pacific Islands Report. <http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/>
Public
Prosecutor v Sope.
Unreported, Supreme Court of Vanuatu, Crim. C. #10 of 2002, 19 July 2002. Titek v The
Electoral Commission & Anor. Unreported, Supreme Court of Vanuatu, Civ. C. #67 of 2002, 8 April
2002. TP,
The Trading Post. Port Vila.
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