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SPORTING WARS in the Cooks; BREACHING Forum rules; NO BAR to babies...
Watching Oz election: This month’s election in the Land Down Under is being keenly observed by a growing number of people in a particular island in the vast ocean of the Pacific. The whisper is that a change in government will see the immediate removal of policies that had seen this growing number of people being denied travel visas. Apparently, the long-term links between a particular political party in Australia and a certain political group in the island is fuelling this whisper. They apparently share the same name. A few in this growing number of people are looking at this possibility with much expectation given that the pieces of paper that used to give them special privileges to the Land of the Kangaroos and Flying Boomerangs may be returned almost a year after they were unceremoniously taken away from them.
The royal addition: Recall the royal storm that was the whisper of THE town not so long ago? Here’s an update. The royal friend is actually not of the poodle species but a terrier. According to Dr Doolittle, there are many types of terriers, so the whisper is that this latest addition to the royal family is a pit bull terrier. It has to be a pit bull because when the HM officiated at the commissioning of an island resort not so long ago, guess the name offered for the bar? Pit Bar of course!
Breaching Forum rules: Not even the so-called international civil servants at a hill Suva-ites call Naisonini have the guts to tell Tonga—the recent host of the annual hobnob of islands leaders—what they did wrong. Even if they did, the communication will be so heavily shrouded in diplomatic speak that officials in Nuku’alofa may actually think they are being commended. So WHISPERS will do the unthankful task. Number One: the retreat is for heads of delegations of Forum member countries only. The last WHISPERS checked, there were 16 members. Sorry chair, your friends even if they speak Spanish, stay out of the retreat. They don’t get a mention in the communiqué either, definitely not. Second, each head of delegation is entitled to bring one, note only ONE (taha) official to the retreat room. You insisted on ua (two) and that’s a blatant breach of the rules. And thirdly, you may be an ‘emergency’ kingdom with a prime minister not elected directly by the electorate, but never hinder the work of a free and independent media.
What Tonga did right: Credit where credit’s due—one particular aspect of the Tonga hobnob of leaders that sort of worked was accreditation. At least that’s how most felt. With the exception unfortunately WHISPERS gathered from the delegation of one of the largest Forum members. Apparently, a particular regional leader brought along a particular adviser well liked by him but not by the rest of the delegation. Cutting a long story short, everybody got accredited except the adviser who is well liked by his leader. The last we heard was that the adviser and the leader who brought him made their exit from the Forum well before the rest of the delegation did.
Still on the Forum: The amount of venom and spite in a letter Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare signed and sent to the new Forum chair had led many to whisper that a good practising SDA like him could not have penned the letter. Surely! The level of nasty adjectives in the four-page correspondence makes the document a must read for those training to be a witch or foes of the fictional witchhunter Harry Potter. From “categorically condemn” to “totally misleading and grossly insulting,” the letter has paragraphs and paragraphs of poison and toxin, unbecoming it has been whispered of the tone expected of a leader writing to another fellow leader in the islands. Was the letter really written by Sogavare? The letter also included an explanation on why he was not attending the Forum meeting, saying it was a cabinet decision. Word is that the decision was not a cabinet decision but a decision of only a handful of people, apparently his "very close advisers". Sogavare however, sent his foreign minister to the Forum and word from the kingdom was that the Solomons delegation kept away from most of the official part of the forum. They only attended the opening ceremony, not to offend the hosts, and the Post-Forum Dialogue. But they did not miss the receptions organised.
Un-Friendly Isles: Reporters covering the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga found officialdom gives an unfriendly time to news media in the kingdom known as the Friendly Islands. Those who suffered Tongan heavy-handed security won’t be surprised to hear Tonga rates only 119th on the just-released world press freedom index. This is compiled by Paris-based Reporters sans frontieres. Fiji—whose military coup leader Frank Bainimarama got a warm Tongan welcome—rates a little better, 107th on the list. Topping the list with the most free news media are Iceland and Norway at equal first. Down at the bottom are North Korea and Eritrea.
Bougainville drum: As the government of PNG’s newest autonomous region prepares to return to reclaim Arawa as its administration centre long after it was abandoned in the decade-long civil war that gripped Bougainville, the island’s president seems busy warding off some unpleasant accusations. There’s the use or misuse of a K$20 million grant that everybody is whispering about. Apparently an enterprising member of the autonomous region’s parliament obtained some grisly papers from the local bank. There’s also the whisper of nepotism, of how a top national restoration authority is being headed by a sibling of the man at the top. Local university students particularly are praying the developments wouldn’t stop the planned move to Arawa at the end of the year. Because when they do, they can then reclaim their UPNG library back, which is currently housing the region’s parliament!
Taiwan class: Much fuss in Tonga over the Solomon Islands boycott of the Pacific Islands Forum over the review of RAMSI, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands. But it wasn’t the only thing the Solomon Islanders were making a fuss over. They also led protests over the way Taiwan is being treated in the post-Forum dialogue meetings with partners. Solomon Islands is one of six Forum members who have diplomatic relations with Taiwan instead of the communist government over in mainland China. Solomons Foreign Minister Patteson Oti complained the six—Solomon Islands, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu—are treated like second-class citizens. This is because—to appease China—their post-Forum dialogue meetings with Taiwan are shunted further and further out of sight. In Tonga, things were worse than ever. The struggling kingdom is, of course, cosying up to China these days, seeking all the help it can get.
MSG saga: So what is the story behind the much-touted MSG, the grouping of islands that claim attachment to Melanesia? Their glass-walled headquarters is undergoing final touches at Port Vila, but the group still has yet to announce its new boss. That job, it has been whispered for some time, would either go to a Papua New Guinean or Fijian. An elaborate HQ commissioning scheduled for last September was deferred indefinitely. At the recent Tonga meeting, MSG leaders went into the retreat hopelessly divided over the agenda. One of them even decided to give Tonga a miss. A Polynesian leader decided to table a paper questioning the very existence of the group. WHISPERS doesn’t blame Beijing—who had poured millions into the new HQ and even paying the HQ's director-general when an appointee is found—if it begins to wonder whether it has made a prudent investment.
No bar to babies: Sometimes prisons aren’t what you think, it seems. Woman in Rarotonga’s Arorangi Prison serving a life sentence for murder has given birth to a third baby conceived while she’s in jail. Cook Islands News reports dad is again another prisoner.
Missing Moti: Notable absentee from the Fiji Day celebrations in the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara, was the country’s most famous Fiji-born resident. Attorney-General Julian Moti QC did not attend despite the hopes of some of his fellow Fiji-born Honiara residents that he would join them. Moti had taken out Australian citizenship. But the Australians took away his passport amidst their continuing (unsuccessful) efforts to get him back to Australia to face those famous and much disputed charges.
Centre of the Pacific? If you check the Internet you’d be forgiven for thinking Auckland University of Technology has suddenly become the centre of the Pacific Islands media universe. Pacific Media Centre, South Pacific Islands Communication Forum, Pacific Journalism Review, Pacific Media Watch and Pacific Islands Media Association all seem to be linked to the Kiwi institution. Only thing not linked there seems to be the real Pacific Islands news media. They actually have their own journalism schools and professional associations.
Discriminating Cooks: Vaine Wichman would appear to be an ideal applicant for a senior planner job within the Cook Islands Government. But it seems the highly qualified development economist has been passed over and there’s now controversy in the Cooks. Word is that a form of discrimination runs rife in Rarotonga. Not gender discrimination but political discrimination. Wichman, according to reports from Raro, missed out only because she’s not aligned with the ruling Democratic Party.
Tokelau talk: From a cousin column of Whispers, so to speak, called Between the Lines and published in the Samoa Observer newspaper: While the US is fighting for freedom (cough, cough) at Iraq, they have again been shown to have denied the freedom to a person’s right to their property. To be exact, they stole Olohega Island from the people of Tokelau. Why were they able to do this? Because New Zealand helped them. And both these countries are bigger and stronger and use their power to take away what is not theirs. The Tokelauan word for that is unclear. The English word for it is theft.
Sporting wars: Cooks' hosting of the 2009 Mini Games continues to cause controversy in Rarotonga. Plans to build a complex for the games have become entangled in the ongoing leadership tussles within the Democratic Party Government. Prime Minister Jim Marurai is reported to want to use Chinese funding to build the indoor sports centre. Deputy Prime Minister and Demo president Sir Terepai Maoate is, surprise, surprise, opposed.
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