The Contemporary Pacific
Volume 20, Number 1, Spring 2008, pp. 238-244

Political Reviews

Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2006 to 30, June 2007 

Rapa Nui

Lorenz Gonschor

The year under review marked the beginning of great political change on Rapa Nui . In a long process initiated by the Chilean president, a draft bill for an organic law providing a special political status for the island was elaborated, while the Chilean constitution was finally amended to create the administrative category of a special territory. On the local political landscape, there was a shift away from the local elite at the election for the local Development Commission, with two opposition and pro-independence candidates receiving the highest numbers of votes.

The period under review started with the loss of one of the most important political figures of the island's recent history. In mid-August 2006, veteran opposition and pro-independence leader Juan Chávez passed away at age eighty-two ( Rapa Nui resident Stephanie Pauly, pers comm, 13 March 2007). One of the cofounders of the Rapanui Council of Elders in the 1980s, Chávez had led various initiatives of resistance against the Chilean government, and since 2001 he had been the president of the pro-independence Rapanui Parliament. He was also renowned as one of the island's most culturally knowledgeable koro (elders). At the time of this writing, no successor has been named to head the Rapanui Parliament, but within the months following Chávez's death, the pro-independence forces consolidated themselves once more under its umbrella.

At the same time, the controversy about a planned casino on the island was resolved in September 2006, when the Chilean authorities once again refused to grant permission, thus stopping the project indefinitely. The reason for the refusal was the incompatibility of the juridical status of the island with Chilean gambling legislation. Also the nonexistence of income taxes on the island would have made it impossible for the Chilean fiscal authorities to track the earnings of the casino (Noticias de Rapa Nui, Sept 2006). The casino project, [End Page 238] a joint venture between the Chilean company Grupo Martinez-AM Holding and Rapanui entrepreneur Petero Riroroko, had stirred up passionate debates within the community. While it had the support of Mayor Petero Edmunds and Council of Elders President Alberto Hotus, former Governor Enrique Pakarati had strongly opposed the project, along with Rapanui organizations on the Chilean continent, and apparently most of the local population. The demise of the plan was therefore greeted with much joy and relief on the island, while it represented a severe setback for the political ambitions of Edmunds and Hotus.

Although there will be no gambling on the island, the tourism industry and the immigration of Chilean settlers continue to grow, leading to constant infrastructure problems such as traffic jams and electricity blackouts (RNJ, Oct 2007). In November 2006, Chile 's Public Works Ministry announced that it would spend US$2.4 million on improving the road network in order to facilitate access from the capital Hanga Roa to Ovahe and Anakena beaches, and to some of the more remote moai (statues) for which the island is famous. It was announced that once the road network has been completed, Rapa Nui would have a forty-six-kilometer-long circuit, intended to attract more tourists to the island (Santiago Times, 12 Nov 2006).

The main issue during the year, however, was the project for a special administrative statute for the island. Currently a municipality and a province within the continental Chilean region of Valparaíso, Rapa Nui is supposed to become a special territory outside of the normal Chilean administrative system, and will be placed directly under the national government in Santiago . The first step toward achieving this new political status will be to change the Chilean constitution in order to create the administrative category of a special territory. Second, an organic law must be passed to specify the administrative system in that territory. Debates regarding the new statute have been going on both locally and in Chile for years, and thus the parliamentary process has progressed very slowly. On 2 May 2006, the Chilean Senate unanimously adopted the constitutional reform (Senate of Chile Web site, reviewed 19 June 2006; SUBDERE, 10 May 2007; RNJ, Oct 2006), but in order for it to become law, the Chamber of Deputies still had to vote on it.

The organic law bill for a Special Statute, on the other hand, has so far not even been introduced in either house of Congress. An official Special Statute proposal published in August 2005 (Government of Chile 2005) stirred up much controversy, because only three local individuals—Mayor Edmunds, Elders Councilor Hotus, and then Governor Pakarati—were involved in its making. Rapanui opposition leaders had vigorously protested and demanded more popular input (Chávez and others 2005), while alternative proposals had been ignored by the Chilean authorities.

However, new Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, inaugurated in March 2006, proved to be more attentive to those concerns than the previous administration, and during a visit to the island in May 2006 she declared that she favored a new debate on the [End Page 239] project, with broad community participation (Government of Chile 2006; SUBDERE, 8 May 2006). While the 2005 proposal was declared obsolete, a working group gathered community input over a nine-month period and a new bill was drafted (Governor Carolina Hotu, pers comm, 17 July 2006). On 1 December 2006, the Undersecretariat for Regional Development within the Chilean Ministry of the Interior held a workshop on the statute project on the island (SUBDERE, 4 Dec 2006), and a Chilean government delegation led by Undersecretary Claudia Serrano traveled to the island for a two-day final seminar from 24 to 26 January 2007, organized by Governor Carolina Hotu. The results of the nine-month working group were publicly discussed at the seminar—with the participation of both the local authorities and the general public—and the conclusions were presented to the undersecretary for further elaboration with the president (SUBDERE, 24 and 26 Jan 2007). The process of drafting the bill has thus become much more transparent, with the local opposition now willing to participate (Rapanui Parliament member Inés Teave, pers comm, 12 July 2007).

The draft bill, currently still in the making, can be summarized as follows in its latest version as of July 2007 (Government of Chile 2007a): An introduction recognizes the Rapanui as an indigenous people with a special ethnic, social, and cultural identity (article 1). While the bill reinforces the sovereignty of Chile by citing the 1888 annexation document signed by the local chiefs, the title of the Rapanui population to all the land of the island is clearly recognized, and any title currently claimed by the Chilean state is classified as title held in trust on behalf of the Rapanui people (article 3).

The new administrative framework created by the bill would consist of a governor, a Rapanui Development Council, directors of the local government departments, the Council of Elders, and a Rapanui Development Corporation. The governor would be appointed by the Chilean president and must be ethnic Rapanui. As the Chilean State representative, he or she would direct all the responsibilities of the Chilean government on the island, and would be at the same level as an intendante (regional administrator) on the Chilean continent. The governor would also direct the local administration in collaboration with the Rapanui Development Council (articles 8–16). This council would be composed of the governor and six members elected for a four-year term by the native Rapanui community. The council would have the right to formulate development policies in all social, cultural, and economic fields, similar to a regional council in Chile , and have a say in the attribution of funds within the local administration. The governor would have the power to veto its decisions within ten days, but the veto could be overridden by a two-thirds majority of the council (articles 17–28, 30–33). The council would also have the authority to recommend to the Chilean president the removal of the governor (article 11g).

The local government apparatus would be structured into five departments (infrastructure, lands and resources, economic development, culture and education, planning and social affairs), each headed by a director [End Page 240] appointed by the governor after being approved by the Development Council. Each department would exercise the responsibilities of the respective national Chilean ministry or ministries on the island (articles 33–36). While the Rapanui governor's office and the Development Council would be within the budget of the Chilean Ministry of Interior (article 37), an investment fund would be established for local development projects (articles 38–42).

The Council of Elders, as a recognized traditional institution representing each native family, would have a prominent function in the new administrative system, as it would have consultative authority on all matters involving the Rapanui cultural heritage (article 29). It would also have an executive branch, called the Corporation for the Defense and Protection of the Rapanui Culture and Heritage (CDPRCH). This corporation would consist of five members designated by the Council of Elders. It would have all the responsibilities currently exercised by the local office of the National Corporation for Indigenous Development and some other Chilean government agencies concerned with cultural preservation (articles 43–44).

The most important task of the corporation, however, would be the handling of land matters. The draft bill recognizes all the lands without a private Rapanui titleholder to be traditionally owned by the Rapanui community (article 45). The title to all of those lands, currently claimed by the Chilean state, would be transferred to the CDPRCH, including all the rights and assets currently held by the Chilean National Development Corporation (CORFO), which includes the valuable soils of the Vaitea state farm in the island's interior, as well as the Hotel Hanga Roa, currently owned by a Chilean company (transitory articles 1, 2, 5). In addition, the CDPRCH would also have the oversight over the island's water reserves (article 47).

In conclusion, the bill would definitely reform the administrative system of Rapa Nui . It contains no reference to Valparaíso region; the island's administrative relationship would be exclusively with Santiago . Most, if not all, Chilean government offices on the island that are currently dependent on various Santiago- or Valparaíso-based agencies would become centralized under the local administration. There is also strong cultural reference in the bill. For the first time in a Chilean legal document, the name "Rapa Nui" would be used to refer to the island, though sometimes alongside the name " Easter Island ." It would also be the first official document to mention the Rapanui flag (article 12e), and the teaching of Rapanui language and culture would be made mandatory at all levels of the public education system (article 48). The bill also mentions the possibility of a future administrative division of the island conforming to the traditional clan districts (articles 12v, 15i, 28h).

On the other hand, however, the local chief executive would still not be elected locally but would continue to be appointed from Chile . The governor's serving as both representative of the Chilean state and head of the local government might lead to conflicts of interest. Concerning the Council of Elders: If that institution is given an administrative function with substantial [End Page 241] amounts of power, questions arise regarding how it will be composed and how it will function internally. The "Council of Elders" currently recognized by Chile consists of a faction led by Alberto Hotus, who claims council presidency for life, although the legitimacy of his claim is widely contested. If the council is to become an administrative agency, it ought to be reformed and democratized, but the draft bill does not address this issue. Also unclear is the future position and role of the currently existing municipality. Its functions are not clarified, but its mention several times in the draft bill seems to imply the continuity of its existence. If that situation is maintained in the final version, it would mean continuing the absurdity of having two parallel administrations (governor's office and municipality) for a community consisting of only one village with a few thousand inhabitants. In summary, one could say that in spite of several progressive elements, the draft bill would only restructure the Chilean administrative system rather than create a system of true internal autonomy comparable to that provided by the statutes of the French or US Pacific territories.

One other burning issue in the debate on the special statute—the ongoing immigration of Chilean settlers—was raised by many participants at the January seminar (SUBDERE, 26 Jan 2007), but no provision for regulating immigration is included in the draft bill. The draft only promises further discussion of that issue in parallel with the pursuit of the statute bill.

Meanwhile, on 5 June 2007, the Chilean Chamber of Deputies finally passed the constitutional reform by a vote of 100 to 1 (Informativo Provincial, June 2007, 1st issue; SUBDERE, 5 June 2007). The reform was signed into law by President Bachelet on 27 June (Government of Chile 2007b), thus creating Rapa Nui and the Juan Fernández Islands off the Chilean coast as Special Territories, to be governed according to organic laws for each territory. This cleared the way for the Special Statute bill to be debated and eventually passed in Congress.

While the slow process of administrative reform continues, elections for the members of one of the existing political institutions, the Easter Island Development Commission (CODEIPA) were held on 10 June 2007, with some surprising results. According to the 1993 Indigenous Law, the commission operates as a consultative institution on all matters concerning the economic, social, and cultural development of the indigenous Rapanui population, including land matters. The commission consists of five elected ethnic Rapanui, seven representatives of Chilean state institutions, as well as the governor, the mayor, and the president of the Council of Elders. At the 2007 elections, among 25 candidates, including all 5 incumbents, the highest numbers of votes were won by 2 non-incumbent pro-independence activists, Mario Tuki and Raúl Teao, who received 248 and 234 votes, respectively. Tuki and Teao have been known as outspoken land rights activists since the 1990s, and were coauthors of a 2003 report commissioned by the Chilean Historical Truth Commission, in which they denounced the Chilean takeover in 1888 and argued that the island is still an independent kingdom (Tuki [End Page 242] and others 2003). Also newly elected was Luz Zasso Paoa with 152 votes, who became the first female member of the commission. Among the incumbents, Jorge Emilio Pont and Marcelo Ika, who is also a municipal councilor, were reelected with 195 and 149 votes, respectively. Famed veteran community leader Alfonso Rapu, who led the 1964 popular uprising that ended arbitrary military rule over the island, and who was the island's first elected mayor in the 1960s, curiously missed being reelected, securing only 109 votes. The two other incumbents, Rafael Tuki and Luis Pate, also missed reelection, each receiving fewer than 100 votes (Informativo Provincial, June 2007, 1st issue; Resultados Elecciones CODEIPA 2007).

The election results seem to point, on the one hand, to a growing dissatisfaction on the part of the community with the local political elite (affiliated with the ruling Chilean center-left parties), which has been running local institutions for more than a decade, and on the other hand, to a rise of Rapanui nationalists. Most of the latter had also previously overcome their differences and reunited themselves under the Rapanui Parliament, whereas previously Tuki and Teao had led their own respective organizations. The leadership of Alberto Hotus in the Council of Elders is now more contested than ever, and Mario Tuki is likely to challenge him in an upcoming election (Alberto Hotus, radio interview, broadcast 18 July 2007; Mario Tuki, public speech in the Rapanui Parliament, 20 July 2007).

While great changes are being initiated in both political institutions and local politics, the island's quality of life is being improved as well. A new hospital, promised by President Bachelet during her visit in May 2006 (La Tercera, 6 May 2006), will finally be built. In June 2007, a model of the hospital was presented to the public by the governor and health officials from Chile (Informativo Provincial, June 2007, 2nd issue).

Finally, a rare occasion of international publicity for Rapa Nui arose in late June, when in a campaign to name the new seven wonders of the world through online voting, the moai of Rapa Nui made it to the final selection of the top fourteen. Not only did the local political leadership participate enthusiastically in campaigns for their island, but the competition also boosted Chilean pride in claiming possession of the island. The campaign was also used to raise awareness about the special statute and development projects on Rapa Nui (La Nación, Special Edition, 22 June 2007). In the end, however, the island did not make it to the top seven (New Seven Wonders Web site).

Rapa Nui may thus not be one of the seven wonders of the world, but it is certainly a wondrous place to be watched closely, in this crucial period of political change, which will hopefully be for the best of its people.

References

Chávez, Juan, and others. 2005. Letter of protest against the proposed special administrative statute to Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, 30 August. Copy in the author's possession.

Government of Chile . 2005. Propuesta Estatuto Especial de Administración para [End Page 243] la Isla de Pascua, Agosto 2005. (Proposal for a Special Statute of Administration for Easter Island ). Printed official document, no author or editor specified.

———. 2006. Press release, 7 May. http://www.chileangovernment.cl   

———. 2007a. Borrador-Proyecto de Ley (Draft Bill [for the administrative status of Easter Island ]). Computer-typed document given to the author by the Office of the Provincial Governor.

———. 2007b. Ley Num. 20.193. Reforma Constitucional que establice los territorios Especiales de Isla de Pascua y Archipielago Juan Fernández (Law No. 20.193. Constitutional Reform that establishes the Special Territories of Easter Island and Juan Fernández Archipelago). http://www.bcn.cl/leyes/pdf/original/263040.pdf   

Informativo Provincial. Monthly or twice-monthly government information newsletter (formerly called Te Rongo Rapa Nui). Hanga Roa.

La Nación. 2007. Daily. Santiago . Special Edition titled Rapa Nui herë a tato'u! ( Rapa Nui we are going to win!) 22 June.

La Tercera. Daily. Santiago . http://www.latercera.cl   

New Seven Wonders Web site. http://www.new7wonders.com [accessed 12 Aug 2007]

Noticias de Rapa Nui. Monthly Internet newsletter, 2001–2006. http://www.iorana.net/noticias.htm

Resultados Elecciones CODEIPA. 2007. Table of election results given to the author by the Office of the Provincial Governor.

RNJ, Rapa Nui Journal. Bi-annual academic and news journal. Los Osos, California. http://www.islandheritage.org/rnj.html   

Santiago Times. Daily. Santiago . http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes   

Senate of Chile Web site http://www.senado.cl   

SUBDERE, Subsecretariá de Desarrollo Regional y Administrativo (Under-secretariat for Regional Development and Administration): Various online news items. http://www.subdere.gov.cl 

Tuki, Mario, Tera'i Hucke, Raúl Teao, Antonio Tepano, and Makari Zenteno. 2003. Informe preparado por los señores Mario Tuki Hey, Tera'i Hucke Atán, Raúl Teao Hey, Antonio Tepano Hito y la señorita Makari Zenteno. In: Government of Chile : Informe de la Comisión Verdad Histórica y Nuevo Trato, 3:445–482. http://www.serindigena.org/territorios/recursos/biblioteca/monografias/historia/  [accessed 10 March 2007]

Lorenz Gonschor was born in Germany , where he studied anthropology, political science, and history. He is currently a graduate student of Pacific Islands studies at the University of Hawai'i at Mänoa. His main research interests are contemporary political movements in Hawai'i , French Polynesia, and Rapa Nui .