Islands Business - Whispers

JOSTLING FOR Forum's top job; TONGA'S PR exercise; NEWS WARS in the region

Jostling for Forum’s top job…New Zealand’s foreign minister, Winston Peters’ name was being thrown around last month as a likely contender for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General’s job, a position currently being held by Australian Greg Urwin. But Peters is reported to be not interested in the job. Urwin’s term, however, according to the Forum Leaders meeting’s communique in Auckland in 2003 states: “Leaders agreed to appoint Greg Urwin as the SG of PIFS for a three-year term commencing in January 2004.” If that is so, then Urwin’s term expires in January 2007.

Already there are talks of finding a replacement for Urwin. Several Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) countries are already talking of not supporting an extension to Urwin’s term when it is raised at the leaders summit in October. At the recent MSG meeting in Honiara, the Forum job was discussed as a side issue. MSG countries, Whispers was told, were unanimous in their decision to have a Pacific islander to head the premier regional organisation. But there may be a problem—there was no nomination forthcoming from the MSG countries to take over from Urwin, who according to sources, has already started lobbying regional governments for an extension to his current term. If there are no nominations come the October summit, Urwin could find himself getting another three years at the helm of the Forum.

MSG countries were also concerned about the influence of Australia and New Zealand in the region and they felt there was a need to ensure key positions in regional organisations were fairly distributed particularly referring to the University of the South Pacific, the Forum Secretariat and SOPAC, which are being headed by Australians and Kiwis.

Tonga’s PR exercise... Some kingdom watchers while sad at the untimely and sudden passing of the leading political reforming royal couple were not at all impressed at the sight of seeing a “foreigner” co-ordinating the government’s public relations effort during the funeral.
These watchers complained that taxpayers of the kingdom were already burdened with having to pay for a bloated civil service and certainly didn’t see the need for a PR consultant for the royal funeral. Others wondered about the effectiveness of such an exercise since they were still waiting to read or even sight reports or statements released at the consultant’s behest!

FEA’s fuel surcharge? Fiji’s power utility, Fiji Electricity Authority, is beginning to feel the pinch of increasing fuel costs. Early this month, Whispers was told, it went to government with a proposal seeking its approval to implement a fuel surcharge on its 135,000 customers. What next can FEA customers expect?

Heavenly Tahiti... You don’t really know what you may get in that slice of France in the Pacific, French Polynesia (Tahiti). When invited to address a summit of Pacific youth, its charismatic president wooed the young audience by talking about the need for French Polynesia to gain independence.

The youngsters found the speech so stirring that the delegation from another French slice decided not to hoist their territory’s official flag! Meanwhile,Fiji’s head of delegation also got a ‘special’ treatment when he spent his first night sleeping in a dormitory where the young delegates were being billetted, next to the guardhouse! Red-faced protocol officers realised the blunder the next morning and suffice to say, the discomfort earned the Fijian VIP a free cruise to the heavenly Bora Bora islands with none other than the French Polynesian president himself as his tour guide!

Does size matter? Talking about the French, it is interesting to note how the French treated the islands leaders when they were in Paris for the Oceania/France summit.

One observant member of the regional paparazzi noted that islands prime ministers including the Pacific Islands Forum chair, PNG’s Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, Samoa’s Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Solomons’ Manasseh Sogavare, Vanuatu’s Ham Lini; and foreign ministers Kaliopate Tavola, Alexander Downer and Winston Peters were all bundled into a bus to meet President Jacques Chirac at the Presidential Palace, while leaders of the small islands states of Kiribati, Niue, Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshalls, Palau and New Caledonia travelled to the Presidential Palace in chauffered driven cars.

The paparazzi member was curious to know what the explanation was, when according to her, all of them are heads of their various governments and therefore should be accorded the same treatment.

WNC gains momentum... Preparations for the World Netball Championships (WNC) is gaining momentum in Fiji. The host’s national team held world number 5 South Africa to a one-all-draw in their recent three-match series. WNC organisers also scored another steal when it lured one of the islands’ former residents to return to spearhead the preparations. She seemed to be working wonders it has been whispered, even breathtakingly putting out advertisements in the local dailies for a WNC media officer when the officer was already at work!

Still on sports...That aside, it must be said that WNC has a great supporter in the form of their new assistant minister for sports although the man has been leaving too many of his audience wide-eyed with his long tales of corporate manoeuvrings, even espionage like threats and counter-threats.

Even his barber now knows about the ‘millions’ allegedly siphoned off in a major sporting event. Others have been told that the junior minister had his food poisoned—not once but twice—and that he had threatened to resign during his first day in parliament after he learnt that his ‘chief’ was not re-appointed to a parliamentary job. Friends were informed that the minister only agreed to stay on when he was assured by his party ‘boss’ that his ‘chief’ was destined for another cushy government job at taxpayers’ expense.

Tarakinikini irreplaceable? One of the key United Nations’ officials quietly organising evacuations in Lebanon couldn’t enter New Zealand because he’s on a blacklist and if he ever showed up again in Fiji, he would be jailed. Organising the evacuation of United Nations’ soldiers and their families is Fijian Lieutenant Colonel Filipo Tarakinikini—last in the headlines during George Speight’s 2000 coup.

The intolerably handsome highlander was the martial law spokesperson while Speight held MPs hostage for 56 days. Then he lost his job amidst suspicions he was aligned with the coup. Then Foreign Minister Phil Goff publicly said Tarakinikini was trying to overthrow the military commander, the irritable Voreqe Bainimarama. He left Fiji to join the UN and the Fiji military declared him a deserter. He’s never been back home since—but the regional whisper is that the UN doesn’t want to let him go because he so good, he’s irreplaceable.

Flattening Coco Bar: They called it Tere’s Bar, Rob’s Paradise and more recently, it’s been so popular as Coco Bar. The well-known watering hole in Rarotonga has downed its shutters and will soon be demolished to make way for a car park. Popular with tourists, Coco Bar was obviously not so popular with the local landowners—they didn’t like the noise it generated and so are believed to have given a ready thumbs-up to the wrecking ball to do its flattening job.

Chinese pie in the sky? A Chinese company has jumped in the fray to offer a solution to the Pacific Islands’ challenging connectivity and bandwidth problems. Making the rounds of high-tech communications forums around the region, it is keen to hawk its satellite-based solution for the islands. All looks very well except finding the money to foot the bill, which is expected to be a whopping US$200 million!

NEWS ABOUT NEWS

Never let it be said that Whispers doesn’t take you where some other news media fear to go. Yes, readers, news about what’s happening amongst those who headline the news about others:

RAMSI rules? Much controversy in Honiara over the failure of the Australian-run RAMSI security forces to prevent the mob burning Chinatown. But it doesn’t seem to be such a burning issue for the main local news media, some are saying.
Could this be, it is being asked, because RAMSI is funding Australian media consultants to work at both the country’s main broadcaster, SIBC, and newspaper, Solomon Star?

News Wars: Where’s the fiercest Pacific Islands newspaper competition of them all? No, not Fiji, despite two smaller dailies snapping away at the long-dominant Australian-run Fiji Times. No, not PNG either, despite the Australian-controlled Post Courier battling the Malaysian-controlled The National.

No, not American Samoa, despite the Apia-based Samoa Observer’s latest daily, the American Samoa Tribune, moving in on the territory of the Pago Pago-based Samoa News. Try the Cook Islands. There the daily Cook Islands News and the two weekly newspapers of the Pitt Media Group are locked in an old-fashioned media war. Of the very personal kind, it seems.
Pitt Media Group newspapers are taking aim at the Kiwi editor of the Cook Islands News.

What upset the Pitt crew? The Kiwi editor, it seems, complained loudly about major news from Prime Minister Jim Marurai’s office turning up first in the Pitt newspapers. Locals don’t have to read between the lines to know the suggestion. This is because Pitt holds a senior position in the PM’s office.

Pitt’s papers responded strongly. They highlighted that they published the news first through their own efforts. This, they said, because they moved quicker than what they now describe, amongst other things, as the rapidly balding Kiwi editor at the News.

Fiji Rules: Watch for some pointed questions to be asked at next year’s Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) conference in Honiara. This is over staff positions in the regional body and its news agency offshoot Pacnews. Questions are being asked about when these positions will be advertised outside of Fiji. Regionalising these positions was a commitment PNG delegates got in 2003 when PINA and the Pacific Islands Broadcasting Association (PIBA) agreed to merge as PINA. It seems a few media types in PNG have been waiting patiently to apply for the positions including that of PINA chief executive. After three years, they’re getting impatient.