Asked whether he will support Kaliopate Tavola, a popular choice for many Forum member countries, Bainimarama said Tavola will need the endorsement of the Fiji Government.

Laisa Taga
The hunt is now on for the next Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum after Australian Greg Urwin resigned due to health reasons.

While Samoa has put forward a name, Melanesia says it is their turn at the helm of the Forum Secretariat in Suva. The battle could be intense.

Samoa is nominating Tuiloma Neroni Slade. And this time Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi will do the right thing by strongly lobbying the Pacific Islands leaders to support Samoa’s nominee. The last time Samoa nominated a candidate, Tuilaepa was criticised for not doing enough. This time, he will not make the same mistake.

Tuiloma comes with high credentials. He is a former Attorney-General of Samoa, and served as Samoa’s ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He is a former chair of the Alliance of Small Islands States and also a former judge in the International Criminal Court based in The Hague in The Netherlands.

But despite Tuiloma’s impressive credentials, Melanesia believes it’s their turn.

Speaking to Islands Business in Port Vila, Vanuatu, Fiji’s Interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said Melanesian Spearhead Group (Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomons and Vanuatu) leaders decided to compile a list of possible candidates. They will circulate it amongst members, and then arrive at a consensus choice.

When the matter was raised at the Melanesian Spearhead Group Leaders’ Retreat at Port Vila’s Iririki Island Resort, Fiji had no name to submit.

Asked whether he will support Kaliopate Tavola, a popular choice for many Forum member countries, Bainimarama said Tavola will need the endorsement of the Fiji Government.

However, he said he’s been told that the experienced diplomat and regional troubleshooter has made it known he is not interested. But if he does change his mind, he will need to tell the Fiji Government of his interest if he wants to be nominated.

Officials from Vanuatu, Solomons and Papua New Guinea that Islands Business spoke to said if Fiji endorsed Tavola, they would unanimously support him. They feel no one else in the Pacific is better suited for the job then Tavola.

Bainimarama said Melanesian leaders felt it’s Melanesia’s turn to nominate a secretary-general because former Australian diplomat Urwin was Samoa’s, thus Polynesia’s person.

Urwin is married to a Samoan. Following his retirement from the Australian foreign service in 2001, he settled in Apia, where he earlier worked.

He ran a consultancy business from Apia before returning to Suva to take up the post of Forum secretary-general.

Urwin, as a diplomat, was influential in shaping Australia's relations with the Pacific’s 14 independent islands nations. Years of experience in the region brought him a reputation of being a genuine sympathiser for the Pacific Islands. This was a major reason why Australia nominated him for the Forum secretary-general position, when Papua New Guinean Noel Levi’s term expired.

When this edition went to press, Letter from Suva was still to hear whether the Micronesian members of the Forum are nominating a candidate.

Since the beginning of the Forum, executive heads have been: Tongan Mahe Tupouniua; Papua New Guinean, Gabriel Gris; Tupouniua again; former deputy prime minister of Tuvalu, Henry Naisali; former president of Kiribati, Ieremia Tabai; Papua New Guinean Levi; and Urwin.

When Levi's term was about to expire in 2002, Forum Leaders accepted a revised appointment procedure. This involved the job being advertised with applications forwarded to the Forum chair. This time around, member countries have been asked to submit a nomination, which will go before the leaders when they meet in Niue in August.

At the Forum Secretariat now, the two deputy secretary-general are from the Solomons and Tuvalu. Fiji has never held the top job.

But if Fiji aspires to this, it will have to learn from last month’s debacle over the appointment of the head of the Melanesian Spearhead Group secretariat.

Because of petty politics, Fiji's candidate wasn’t considered for the job. That’s because he didn’t have Bainimarama's endorsement. Papua New Guinea got the job, and Fiji, the country, not the regime, lost out.

It’s not the first time petty Fiji politics have come into play over such regional positions. Remember the late, much respected Savenaca Siwatibau? He became the Vice Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific only when Vanuatu, not Fiji, his home country, nominated him.

So let’s hope that politics aside, the region will appoint the best person. Whoever it is will need to have the skills and experience to take the Pacific Islands Forum forward in these interesting times.