Are we seeing the Australianisation of the Pacific Islands Forum?

Laisa Taga - Editor-in-Chief


First, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had his way with our leaders at the Cairns Forum.
There was little or no opposition at all from our leaders when they met for their annual summit. Those who attended the meeting, said, privately, everything seemed to have gone Australia’s way.
Now, Chief Rudd wants more, thanks to the Samoan Secretary-General Tuiloma Neroni Slade.
Rudd plans to plant his own people in key positions within the Forum Secretariat, allowing Australia to have access to vital information and also to influence decisions made by the Forum.
The latest, and one that will definitely be a big surprise or even shock to most within the Forum Secretariat is the creation of a new position of Chief of Staff.
LETTER FROM SUVA was told the Chief of Staff will oversee all the operations of the ForumSec.
This is going to be a very powerful position and a strategic one too as one Forum observer explained to LETTER FROM SUVA.
“This person will vet everything the SG will see—what comes to his table and what goes out from his table.
“He will also have access to all the vital and top secret information the ForumSec might have in relation to trade negotiations for instance and so forth, which could find itself turning up at the Australia’s Pacific desk in Canberra—pre-empting our every move.”
LETTER FROM SUVA has been told that in the past senior ForumSec trade officials were forced to keep close to their chest their trade negotiation strategies.
This included even not disclosing it to senior officials within ForumSec, fearing it could find its way to the opposition camps.
As for the Chief of Staff position, Letter from Suva’s observer said: “We’re not so sure how the position came about. But it appears the decision to create the new position came about after the Cairns meeting.
“Apparently, this has been discussed amongst the senior executives at the senior management meeting of the ForumSec. But no official announcement, however, has been made. It is still a secret at the moment. Even staff at the ForumSec have no idea.”
LETTER FROM SUVA has also been told that the Australian to take up the position—which will be funded by the Australian Government for a term of two years—has already been identified.
The person is not new to the Secretary-General. He’s Ed Vrkic, currently Head of the Pacific Plan Division within ForumSec.
Vrkic’s term expires this year. He is expected to go on leave shortly to Australia, during this time local Australian authorities will work on getting him the right work visas to allow him to work in Fiji.
Colleagues have described him as a ‘jack-of- all-trades’. Apart from heading the Pacific Plan unit, he is also in-charge of the Pacific Petroleum Project. Already he has been in the firing line from a number of big oil players in the region, who have been critical of the way he’s been handling the project.
During his term as head of the Pacific Plan, a draft report titled “The Pacific Plan: The First Three Years, compiled by Kiribati’s Makurita Baaro, a former Forum Secretariat senior adviser, was prematurely leaked.
The leak forced the ForumSec on a witchhunt to find out who leaked the report. Up until now, no one has been identified, but ForumSec sources believe the leak was from within.
Vrkic’s appointment is sure to raise a lot of questions—Why was not the job advertised? Why do we need an Australian to be in such a position of power? Do we not trust our own Pacific islanders?
Tuiloma has two highly competent Pacific Islanders deputies, aren’t they qualified enough to be advising him? So in the hierarchy of things at the ForumSec, who will be more senior—the Australian or the two deputies?
Will the two deputies be just rubberstamping what the Australian will be feeding Tuiloma? There are fears that with such an appointment Australia’s agenda could become or dictate the Forum’s agenda.
If everything goes according to Australia’s plan, Vrkic will not be the only Australian holding positions of influence within the ForumSec.
Joining the Forum soon is Dr Chakriya Bowman. She will be the new Director for Economic Governance, replacing Dr Roman Grynberg whose contract was not renewed.
Bowman is Trade Advisor to AusAID’s Pacific Group. She has responsibility for trade policy issues ranging from the World Trade Organisation and “aid for trade” through to Pacific economic integration, trade agreements and bilateral trade issues.
Previously, Bowman worked on trade policy for AusAID’s Asia regional programme, where she managed trade and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) programmes.
Immediately prior to joining AusAID, she worked in the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University on projects including the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and the Advancing East Asian Integration series of policy maker meetings.
She is the author of “The Naked Investor: Uncovering the Secrets of the Australian Financial Markets” and speaks regularly on the topic of trade and development. At some stage in her distant past, she was a computer systems engineer and worked for CSC and Boeing.
Also joining the Forum, soon will be Lorraine Kershaw, who will be the legal adviser. Kershaw also comes out of AusAID. In 2001, she had worked in Vanuatu as an Australian Youth Ambassador for 12 months working with Vanuatu’s State Law Office in Port Vila. 
Kershaw is understood to have travelled to Fiji recently. But she has yet to take up her new appointment as her visa is still being processed by the Fiji Government.
Should Pacific Islanders be concerned? LETTER FROM SUVA was told we should be worried, very worried, that our independence is being undermined in key trade and policy areas.
The Aussies are coming. Whose interests do you think they will really be serving?