PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

By Len Garae

PORT VILA (Vanuatu Daily Post, Sept. 29, 2008) - There is the spectacular, breath taking sight of green Lelepa Island that can easily fool a new arrival’s eyes into believing it must have had a live volcano on it once. Imagine what it is going to look like from a newly completed MCA funded highway on the mainland in the near future.

[PIR editor’s note: Lelepa Island is off the western coast of Efate, the main island in Vanuatu.]

Visitors can stop their vehicles at the top of the mountain and click away with their digital cameras because it is simply awesome and pure to marvel at.

At the bottom of the mountain, at Lelepa Landing, travellers wanting to use a boat to travel to the island, which is about two kilometres off shore, have to hit an empty gas bottle to call a water taxi over easy.

Lelepa Island stands alone as a highly culturally and politically rich island. Eretoka or Hat Island on the left has been registered a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the famous Chief Roimata Domain.

Then there is the giant cave of Lelepa with the mysterious imprints of giant fingers, which are just too high for today’s people of Lelepa to reach while standing on the floor of the cave.

Not only that but the country’s first two Founders of the Independence Struggle from British and French Colonial Rule are from Lelepa and are still alive and well. They are both serving the country still.

Peter Taurakoto is the present Ombudsman while Donald Kalpokas is the resident Ambassador to the United Nations in New York.

They have both served the country in their country’s political life and have since moved on.

Neither of them has come out to say, "I am he who initiated our country’s Independence Struggle", but they and the country know their place in the history of the country. This is one of the reasons why they are still continuing to contribute towards shaping the destiny of the country locally and internationally, twenty-eight years after Independence. While come of their colleagues have passed on, these two are the survivors, the heroes.

Let MCA tarseal the highway round Efate so that people from North Efate can live in their homes and travel to work in the Capital. Or better still, they can go to work in the town of Port Havannah. They deserve to be treated.

Port Havannah is growing fast out of the natural environment to boast sub divisions that build modern dwellings and commercial activities to allow the villagers to shop at home without travelling to Port Vila. This is the dawn of a new beginning for North Efatese. If South Efate leaders are serious about allowing Shefa Provincial Headquarters to be relocated to Paunangisu among the rural people then it is going to be a major boost for both economic and political development in North Efate.

After all, South Efatese already have the National Capital along with all its advantages. What North Efatese need to work on now is to put their heads together to reach a consensus for who to represent them in the 2012 general elections. The candidate or two must win if they are going to have a direct voice in parliament.

It was Kalpokas who lost his seat in 2004. Surely the people of North Efate would not want to repeat their present tragedy by giving all their votes to the successful candidates of South Efate.

After all North Efate remains the shining star that paved the way for the country’s political freedom from colonialism twenty-eight years ago. May the star shine even brighter in 2012.

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