Six months on, it's still in power



After nearly six months in power, Vanuatu's latest coalition government of at least eight temperamental factions showed no signs of the stresses that fatally eroded the unity of the previous government. Some of its members indignantly dismissed rumours of differences within the ranks.

In a 2005 review of its Pacific Islands members, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) picks out Vanuatu as being the “most conspicuous” politically unstable one.

In March, the cabinet cut a birthday cake to celebrate 100 days of power. Neither the prime minister, Ham Lini, nor his deputy, Sato Kilman, the foreign minister, was present since duty required them to be elsewhere.

Trade, commerce and industry minister, James Bule, told journalists the cabinet was well aware that public expectations were that it would soon go the way of a long line of previous coalitions; fall apart.

The formula for unity, he explained, was that its members had devised a system of communication and consultation with each other that fixed differences way before they exploded.

Given the rocky record of government since the early 1990s and the nature of some of the personalities involved, it is impossible to predict how long the honeymoon will last. For the time being Vanuatu appears to have at last landed a long-awaited period of stable government that could rule for longer than even its members anticipate.

After their experiences with Lini's difficult predecessor, Serge Vohor, who bucked against their pressure for clean government, Vanuatu's two key aid suppliers, Australia and New Zealand, have approvingly embraced the new prime minister and his team, as has the European Union (EU).

Long-term Australian and New Zealand aid programmes have been renewed and the EU has granted an aid increment as a reward for good performance in meeting good governance and project implementation criteria.

However, the Vanuatu chapter of Transparency International has asked indignant questions about the award of a sandalwood concession to a foreign logger by the agriculture minister, Barak Sope, a former prime minister who was jailed after being convicted on a charge of corruption while in office. The small areas of the highly prized timber are officially subject to small logging quotas that Sope appears to have ignored.

The finance minister, Moana Carcasses, leader of the Greens Party, has promised rigorous fiscal discipline and intensified revenue collection efforts.

More than a dozen new investment projects, 40 percent in the tourism sector, are being implemented with the prospect of creating more than 300 new jobs. This is an encouraging development for the country's sluggish economy.

Tourism is continuing to grow steadily, but not spectacularly. The future of the government-owned airline Air Vanuatu is becoming the subject of speculation. Contrary to sound management principles being applied in most other sectors of government, the airline has been returned to the bad old days of being used as a political football. It is reported to have incurred a bad loss in 2004 and is now encumbered by a wildly overweight board of more than 20 well-paid directors appointed to it as a reward for political loyalty.

The current unaccustomed calm is viewed with scepticism, but also with some relief, by local observers accustomed to the constant chopping, backstabbing and intrigue that is the normal state of Vanuatu's political affairs.

The present political focus is on an agenda for strengthening the role of the Malfatumauri National Council of Chiefs.

An April meeting of the council was the first ever to continue for more than a week. Representing all provinces, the council's function has been primarily concerned with the observation and preservation of indigenous custom. Vanuatu's western-style politicians are careful to pay full attention to custom since it exerts a powerful influence on national affairs in ways not easily understood or realised by expatriates. Legislation to raise the council's status is expected by the end of the year.

Not everything in the garden is lovely. The police force is facing a mass resignation by 30 and perhaps as many as 90 officers dissatisfied with their pay and conditions. The resignations would cut the force's size by almost one-fifth.

Demoralised officers told the local press that a 1990's pay award was never implemented and that discipline was deteriorating because of long delays by the public service commission in dealing with a number of matters affecting their welfare.

Australian and New Zealand government missions have been to Port Vila to discuss future aid relations with the prime minister and his cabinet ministers.

In April, after 18 months of discussion about what directions should be taken, the government reached an agreement with a visiting delegation led by the director-general of AusAID, Bruce Davis, on a new five-year aid programme to be implemented at a cost of A$30.9 million a year. Priority will go to bolstering agricultural production, and for the first time, tourism, and improving service delivery to rural communities.

The talks were heading for a breakdown last year when Australian officials complained of interference by the then government with the judiciary, prosecution service and various supposedly independent authorities.

The new programme is laced with Australia's own agenda for applying principles of good governance, reducing the risk of intrusion by trans-national crime into Vanuatu's affairs and promoting trade and investment.

The head of NZAID, Dr Pete Adams, led the New Zealand aid talks at which Vanuatu heard of New Zealand's desire to renew an expiring five-year agreement by another five years of an expanded programme focussed mainly on rural development.