LAND STILL A BIG ISSUE



It was over land that independence was won 30 years ago in Vanuatu. But 30 years on, land is still a big and controversial issue as Bob Makin, who has lived there since 1973, writes.


Land was the issue for which independence was the imperative. The first blow was struck a decade earlier when the government (the British and French Residencies) was forced to legislate retrospectively to make subdividing land illegal.
Such were the incursions into local affairs by American developers when returning GIs from the Vietnam War were looking for places in the sun, that purchase of vast tracts of bush land to cut up into “desirable residence” building blocks had to be outlawed, albeit after the first damage was done.
And subsequently, during the last decade of the condominium, blows were most certainly struck—and lives lost—in the cause.
The first Prime Minister, Walter Lini, led the country to independence whilst a rebellion raged in the northern islands.
Without the PNG Kumul Force intervention, in support of the ruling Vanua’aku Pati, Vanuatu’s independence might never have been fully accomplished.
The first Lands Minister, Sethy Regenvanu said: “Land to a ni-Vanuatu is what a mother is to a baby. It is with land that he defines his identity and it is with land that he maintains his spiritual strength.
“Ni-Vanuatu do allow others the use of their land, but they always retain the right of ownership.” And thus, effectively, also spoke the national constitution.
And thus, and rather more stridently, spoke—or yelled to be heard in the throng—those attending a National Lands Summit in 2006.
Vexed at witnessing the erosion of their land holdings by sub-dividers, the so-called developers and greedy governments, their first resolution made it clear that ownership must be determined by custom alone and only by indigenous ni-Vanuatu. And to stop governments realising on a cut in any dealing, ministerial powers to approve a lease in any alleged dispute must be stopped forthwith.
However, the Lands Ministry seems to have become a consolation prize for the second partner in the always necessary coalition, perks a part of the reward.
A public forum on the politics and the instruments of the republic was recently quite definite that the institutions are in shape. It’s only the people who run them who get it wrong.
A veteran politician reminded all present that “it’s all very well to blame the tools when really the fault is the workman.”
Vanuatu keeps on putting many of the same workmen back on the job, Ombudsman reports notwithstanding.
As USP’s Howard Van Trease points out, it is also worth noting that Vanuatu has a problem of declining representation in its elections.
From six parties in 1983 to 29 in 2008 and additionally 89 independent candidates (but only 14 in 1983), the percentage of the votes received by successful candidates have halved, from 1983 to 2008—from 76% (1983) to 38% (2008).
“This is all because of a lack of compelling policies to  motivate the voter and draw the best candidates. Land could be made to be such a mesmerising issue in 2012 when Vanuatu holds its elections.
It is true that dealings in land have been somewhat equivocal in the absence of a definitive post-independence land law.
What stood at independence was transitional, to ensure a fair deal for all in 1980.
In 2010, it is still there, albeit with laws concerning mining, compulsory acquisition and strata title, and other things, but essentially the same land law.
It is seen as a far cry from preserving land for the custom owner and his descendants for all times, when leases could be issued for 70 years, pushing the custom owner’s children, and probably grandchildren too, out of any visible succession.
Thirty years after independence in a public forum on land, Secretary General of the Council of Chiefs, Selwyn Garu, said: “Having our land returned to us in 1980 gave us our freedom. The constitution requires us to look after our land. But now, more land is in the hands of foreigners than before independence. This raises serious questions concerning our independence.”
Indeed, it does. Vanuatu is a regional economic success story. It is the darling of aid donors. It has the top GNP in the region at Wikipedia’s 3.8% (better than Australia’s and America’s percentages on the same table, although the numbers vary with source).
However, it is a country with no sugar or copper or undersea gas, not even a holding yard for refugee Asian boat people.
Vanuatu still smoke-dries much of its copra, as for most of the last century and all of the previous one. Vanuatu does nothing to add value to local produce and has produced nothing new in 30 years.
Vanuatu’s economic pre-eminence is gained through the allegedly happy conjunction of much of the land being subsistence, there being no taxation on income, and there being a good many poor people—poor in material wealth.
Should the need arise for a first or new car, the temptation to sell off part of the yam patch is colossal, especially if it has slopes and a view of the water.
The lure of car ownership is huge, now that a-round-the-island bitumenised road nears completion on the capital’s island, Efate, thanks to the Americans’ Millennium Challenge Fund .
Vanuatu was the only winner of this largesse in the Pacific, and it also bought a long stretch of tarred road at the second town, Luganville on Santo. And the yam patches are many and varied.
A lot are only metres away from stretches of sea and a good many more have views of the ocean, lagoon or the two at once, ideal for retirees from Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart —warmer, for sure, no further from Sydney than FNQ, and a whole lot more exciting.
And then there’s the tourism potential. Where land is cheap, and here it surely is, you can have enough of it to build a few bungalows in addition to your retirement residence, and offer holiday accommodation.
You can run a resort in paradise which will revert to a retiree residence when work gets too much or government raises the basic wage for domestic staff to over $250 a month.
Who knows? You might even become a realtor. Anyone can. The profession is not strictly, nor even lightly regulated. Ministers will help you out. Indeed, one had his own real estate agency, keeping the business in the family.
And then there was the picky overseas visitor who kept a land agent in tow on her arrival at weekends, going around all the best properties. And lo and behold, on Monday she had become an estate agent herself, able to offer the choicest of locations.
But tourism is booming. Just as was predicted. Australian people still want overseas travel, regardless of the world economic crisis.
Vanuatu is almost as close as it gets to Australia whilst still overseas. And there’s even a low cost airline coming here.
The capital is still a Pacific Islands dream harbour, with a fish factory not yet allowed to operate.
No matter what, the roads are choked for many hours a day, and pedestrians’ lungs suffer in the diesel fumes.
The roadways have nowhere else they can go, hemmed in as Port Vila is between two lagoons, a couple of fault lines and several vantage points a hundred metres high.
There is still somewhere else to go—Luganville, with its newly tarred roads.
So what else? Education? With a francophone minister and the French willingness to pour lots of money into the system, there was something of a flurry concerning the future of English. Not much news is heard, except that the plan is being shunted around for “Awareness”.
Health? Along with Education, the public’s complain concerns the lack of new installations. The old Condominium buildings are patched up, aid donors give new machines, painting is going on in places—“for Independence”. But the country remains largely healthy.
Cases of HIV-AIDS are extremely small.Agriculture, which should be what Vanuatu does best, but nothing new is being produced and little by way of value is added to what is produced, and copra, is still often treated in a primitive way.
The system of using many professional field officers in the islands to bring new ideas and techniques to the subsistence gardeners and encourage better use of land, broke down a long time ago and has never been properly overhauled. This is long overdue.
“Maturity” is what we are told we are celebrating with this 30th anniversary. It would be nice we could prove it.
Could land be the solution? Maybe even agriculture? Mouthing the old platitudes will no longer suffice. 
Van Trease said: “The exceptional performance in the 2008 election of independent candidate Ralph Regenvanu, who campaigned on the need to reform the ‘old’ politics in favour of one that is more responsive to the needs of the people, indicates that ni-Vanuatu are prepared to give their support in large numbers when they are inspired by a dynamic individual with good ideas.”
Regenvanu showed a Maturity in the 2008 election. His constituency was the youth of the capital.
He knew them and they knew him, and his voters showed a Maturity in encouraging others of their peer group to vote for him.
He had—and still keeps—the concerns of this group in mind, spending his allocation on what they want—opportunity, and a bit more to believe in. They get it. He sees to it.
All-in-all, maybe we’re on the cusp of Maturity for which we can only thank God in whom “mifala i stanap”.
God bless Vanuatu and a happy independence anniversary to the leaders and people of many nations here for independence or the Pacific Islands Forum meeting.