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PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT Pacific Islands
Development Program/East-West Center The Contemporary Pacific
Political Reviews Melanesia in Review: Issues and Events, 2002 VANUATU By Anita Jowitt Some commentators continue to question Vanuatu's
stability and wait for a collapse of order as experienced by its Melanesian
neighbors. However, Vanuatu has shown a good deal of cohesiveness in a year
that witnessed a number of potentially destabilizing events, including a
national election, the jailing of a former prime minister for fraud, and
lengthy wrangling over the appointment of the new commissioner of police.
Although Vanuatu's economy has not been performing well, 2002 has largely
been a success for governance. The year began with the death of one of Vanuatu's elder
statesmen, George Kaltoi Kalsakau, on 31 December 2001. Kalsakau had been one
of the primary leaders in the lead-up to independence, and in 1978-1979 was
the country's first chief minister after the country became a self-governing
British-French colony. Vanuatu lost three other notable politicians in 2002:
the prominent women's leader, Grace Mera Molisa, who died on 4 January; the
second chief minister,FatherGerardLeymang, who died on 2 May; and Noel
Mariasua, a respected chief who had been chair of the National Council of
Chiefs, who died in October. Natural disaster also struck early in the year, when an
earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit Port Vila. Some roads,
buildings, and bridges were damaged, but overall the capital city escaped
lightly scathed, with no deaths. Repair of homes and buildings continued over
the year, giving a lift to the building industry. While repairs were costly,
in many respects the damage from this earthquake had less human impact than
the earthquake and subsequent landslides in Merelava, in the northern Torba
province, in late November. Housing, water supply, cash crops, and food crops
were all affected. As Merelava is an outer island, this natural disaster
received little media attention. Natural disasters aside, the first potentially
destabilizing event involved confusion over the date of dissolution of
Parliament. The government thought that dissolution was to occur on 16 March,
and in the final week was going to debate a supplementary appropriation bill
to cover police underpayments of 95 million vatu. After a careful reading of
the Constitution, the opposition figured that Parliament should actually
dissolve on 6 March. They took their challenge to the Supreme Court and won,
so Parliament was dissolved before the appropriation to pay the police could
be passed. While some police were prepared to wait until after the elections
for the underpayment issue to be resolved, others threatened strike action, and
there were fears of inadequate security during the elections. The issue was
defused at the end of March when Natapei's caretaker government, which had
been installed to manage the country between the dissolution of Parliament
and the election, paid the outstanding money to the police. Once this issue was resolved the political focus turned
to the elections, which were held on 2 May. The previous chair of the
Electoral Commission, Charles Bice, had recommended increasing the number of
seats by fifteen. However this proposal was rejected when the cost
implications were realized, and the number of seats remained at fifty-two.
More than 260 candidate applications were received by the Electoral
Commission. Most applications were processed without difficulty, and 257
candidates were accepted to stand for election. However, among the rejected
was Acting Minister of Infrastructure and Public Utilities Jacklyn Ruben
Titek, whose application was dismissed because he was not officially
registered on the electoral roll. Titek appealed the decision (Titek v The
Electoral Commission 2002). During the court hearing it was found that
Titek had never been properly registered when the electoral registration
system changed in 1999. When registration officers had called at Titek's
house in 2001 to check the registration, Titek had not been home. The
officers stated that they would come back the next day, but never did. Titek
believed his electoral card, issued in 1993, was still valid. The Supreme
Court overturned the Electoral Commission's decision and allowed Titek to be
registered as a candidate. This decision was based largely on the fact that
the electoral officers had promised to return to Titek's house and had failed
to keep this promise. (Titek retained his seat in the election.) The Electoral Commission also disqualified three
candidates a week prior to the election. Atis Kalo Manarato, Hollingson
Issachar, and Dickenson Hughug were all disqualified when it was discovered
that they each were serving suspended sentences. As a result, the Electoral
Commission apparently asked the police to screen all candidate names for
undisclosed convictions (TP,27 April 2002). The
incident also prompted the Elections Observer Group (EOG) to
recommend a strengthening of the eligibility criteria "to make
ineligible the candidature of habitual criminal offenders, people who have
been convicted of corrupt electoral practice, and people with significant
debts" (EOG2002, 23). However, this report did not recommend that the Electoral
Commission be required to liaise with police to screen candidate names for
criminal records. The campaign period was fairly quiet. Voter behavior
still seemed to be determined by loyalty to personalities rather than support
of particular policies, and few parties or candidates offered clear
statements of their political platforms. Various rallies were held, but the
clearest indications of campaigning in Port Vila were the thousands of
posters plastered around town (recognition of peoples' faces rather than
their policies seemed more important in the race to attract votes) and the
truckloads of campaigners driving around town dressed in party colors,
honking horns and chanting slogans. In a number of instances business owners
were allegedly threatened if they tried to remove posters stuck on their
property. Posters led to the most unpleasant incident of the
campaign period. An expatriate restaurant owner, Christophe Rodot, removed
from his menu board a poster for Port Vila independent candidate Willie
Kaloris. Kaloris's supporters had placed the notice there without permission.
Rodot left other posters of Kaloris on the walls. The next day a group of
Kaloris's supporters went to the restaurant and badly assaulted Rodot. They
also forced him to eat the poster that had been removed and to pay 20,000
vatu in "compensation." Kaloris was not present for the attack but
turned up afterwards. He threatened that when he was made a minister he would
deport Rodot. In the newspaper Kaloris was unrepentant for his behavior,
stating, "If I am in power he [Rodot] will be deported. No
question" (TP,13 April 2002). In
the same article he also advised that "if people have a problem with his
posters on their premises they should contact him to discuss concerns and not
pull down the posters as it causes problems." It was not until early May
that Kaloris and his nephew Moise, who led the assault, were arrested (TP,11 May 2002). In the meantime Kaloris had polled 362 votes
in the election, not enough to win him a seat, but still ranking him tenth of
31 candidates in the Port Vila constituency. Polling itself was also a low-key, straightforward
affair, except in Luganville, Santo, where an error on the ballot papers delayed
voting for a day. Voter turnout in the urban centers of Port Vila and
Luganville was low, at 51 percent and 45 percent respectively. Overall
turnout was 63 percent, slightly up from the 62 percent turnout in the 1998
elections. Besides the delayed voting in Luganville, other election
irregularities occurred. These were relatively well detailed as, for the
first time inVanuatu, an Elections Observer Group was set up. Errors in
counting resulted in two candidates, Maxwell Maltok and Vatambe Reme, being
declared elected in the unofficial results, only to lose their seats when the
official results were released. While the Electoral Commission maintained
that the discrepancies were due to human error, some observers believed that
the size of the discrepancies called the credibility of the Electoral
Commission into question (TP,25 May 2002). The
Election Observer Group also noted potential difficulties with the integrity
of the electoral roll. Using 1999 census data it estimated that there were
107,068 people over the age of eighteen in Vanuatu in 2002. However, the
electoral roll recorded 127,092 eligible voters (EOG2002,
39). Once this was discovered the Electoral Commission took steps to try to
combat the lack of integrity in the electoral roll. Prior to the election a
number of electoral cards were confiscated from individuals who were
registered to vote in two separate constituencies. In the Port Vila
constituency about sixty people were caught during the election, either for
having multiple registrations or for voting using another person's card (TP,9 May 2002). The Union of Moderate Parties (UMP) won
15 seats (up from 12 in the 1998 national election); the Vanua'aku Party (VP) 14
seats (down from 18); the National United Party (NUP) 8
seats (down from 11); the Vanuatu Republican Party (VRP) 3
seats (up from 1); and the Greens Confederation (GC) and
the Melanesian Progressive Party (MPP) won 2 seats each (GC was
not listed in the last election, and MPP won 6 seats). The Peoples
Progressive Party, Fren Melanesian Party, and Namangi Aute each claimed 1
seat. Five independent candidates were also elected (compared to 4 in 1998). There was some evidence of "dead wood" being
voted out. Stanley Reginold (NUP), whose drunken and violent behavior was the subject of
an ombudsman's report in 2000, lost his seat in the Banks/Torres to Nicholas
Brown, a new independent candidate. Paul Ren Tari (NUP) who
had been the Speaker of Parliament during the 2001 parliamentary maneuverings
to try to avoid a vote of no confidence, and Irene Bongnaim, the first deputy
Speaker at the time, also lost their seats. The reduction in VP seats may be explained in
part by tactical or campaign errors. Each of the eighteen constituencies in
Vanuatu has one to seven seats. This means that parties must be careful, when
standing multiple candidates in a single electorate, that these candidates do
not split the vote among themselves and lose out to single candidates from
less popular parties. This split in voting may explain why in 1998 the
Vanua'aku Party won three of the four seats in the Efate constituency (Donald
Kalpokas, Joe Carlo, and Foster Rakon), but in 2002 only won one seat (Donald
Kalpokas). There was considerable support for Kalpokas, as a number of voters
felt that he fell victim to "bad politics" when he resigned from
the post of prime minister in 1999 to avoid a vote of no confidence. Kalpokas
easily won his seat with 875 votes. Carlo and Rakon each polled over 500
votes, which was insufficient for either of them to win a seat. Of the other
parties to win seats in this constituency, the Union of Modern Parties and
the National United Party each stood one candidate only, both their
candidates being successful. Barak Sope won his seat for the Melanesian
Progressive Party. Although there was another MPP candidate, he was a
relative unknown so did not significantly split the vote. The problem of vote
splitting is something that may need to be considered in the event of a
review of the Vanuatu electoral system. Isabelle Donald (VP) of the Maewo constituency
was the only woman to successfully contest the election and to stand as
a representative of a major party. Of a handful of other female candidates,
mainly in the Port Vila constituency, none came close to gaining a seat. A VP/UMP coalition similar to the one in power prior to the
election formed the new government. Edward Natapei (VP)
retained the position of prime minister, with Serge Vohor (UMP) as
his deputy and minister for foreign affairs. The rest of the cabinet was Sela
Molisa (VP), minister for finance; Wille Posen (UMP),
minister for infrastructure and public utilities; Jacques Sese (UMP),
minister for education; Donald Kalpokas (VP), minister for health;
Nicholas Brown (VP, Ind), minister for Ni-Vanuatu business development;
Jacklyn Ruben Titek (VP), minister for lands, geology and mines; Stephen
Kalsakau (UMP), minister for agriculture, livestock, forestry and
fisheries; Joe Natuman (VP), minister for internal Affairs; Philip Boedoro (VP),
minister for the comprehensive reform programme; Jean-Alain Mahe (UMP),
minister for industry and commerce; Raphael Worwor (UMP),
minister for youth and sports. The Speaker was Henry Taga (UMP). There were some rumors that donors had threatened to
withdraw aid if Natapei was not made prime minister, even though the Union of
Modern Parties had more votes than the Vanua'aku Party. However, the
Vanua'aku Party retained the prime ministership because three independent
candidates pledged their support for the party. One of them, Nicholas Brown,
was made a member of cabinet. This government remained stable throughout
2002, despite the usual rumors of no-confidence motions circulating
occasionally. It continued to progress along the path of the Comprehensive
Reform Programme. With the elections out of the way, attention turned to
the trial of former Prime Minister Barak Sope on charges of forgery. Sope,
who was prime minister from December 1999 to April 2001, forged two
government guarantees near the end of his period in office. The first, for US$5
million, was for the benefit of Vanuatu Investment Corporation Ltd (VICL),
which had been set up with Sope's first political advisor, Bakoa Kaltonga,
and Australian businessman Eddy Galea serving as directors. This guarantee
was used as security for a loan of US$2.4 million, although the
source of this loan is not a matter of public record. The second guarantee,
for US$18 million, was made out to Dynamic Growth Management
Projects Pty Ltd, a company about which there is little public information. A
New Zealand Serious Fraud Office expert could not determine whether this
guarantee had been used as security. Sope's defense was that he had no
intention of personal gain from signing the letters of guarantee; rather, he
wanted to settle some of Vanuatu's debts, in particular a US$5
million debt to the Commonwealth Development Corporation in relation to the
Belmol cattle project—a project that remains somewhat shrouded in mystery.
The court rejected this defense because the issue was not whether Sope had
acted for personal gain. It had been established that Sope knew these
documents to be false but still signed them and sent them off, with the
intent that they should be acted on as genuine. This was all that was
required to establish that the offences had been committed. On 19 July Sope
was sentenced to imprisonment for three years (Public Prosecutor v Sope2002).
People from Sope's home island of Ifira immediately protested the decision to
jail the former prime minister. Some, including opposition leader Willie
Jimmy, criticized New Zealand's role in the prosecution (New Zealand supplied
fraud lawyers and special investigators), claiming that New Zealand and
Australia were interfering with local politics. These rumblings of
dissatisfaction grew along with rumors of riots if Sope was not pardoned, but
these rumors were soon overshadowed by events of early August, when a police
crisis arose out of the appointment of the new police commissioner. The
murmurings of discontent and calls for the ousting of Australian Federal
Police for interference in local politics continued during August, giving an
extra edge of instability to the unfolding events, but ultimately never came
to anything (PIR,28 Aug 2002; TP,6 Aug 2002). With most attention focused on the issue of
the appointment of the new police commissioner, when Sope was pardoned by the
president on 14 November because of ill health there was only a small outcry,
including a walkout from Parliament when the president tried to deliver his
official speech opening the budget session (ABC,25 Nov 2002). Sope
lost his seat in Parliament because of his conviction but intends to
challenge this in court in early 2003. The potential for a crisis over the appointment of the
new police commissioner had been apparent early in the year. Api Jack
Marikembo, who was commander of the Vanuatu Military Force (VMF),
had been appointed acting commissioner of police in June 2001 following the
retirement of Peter Bong. By the end of January, VMF
officer Major Aru Maralau was questioning whether the Police Service
Commission had, in fact, advised President Bani to appoint Marikembo, as
stated in the appointment letter. Maralau was apparently suspended because of
his investigation into this matter (TP,31 January 2002). It later turned out that the
appointment was indeed invalid. By the end of March, Api Jack Marikembo's
appointment as acting police commissioner was revoked, and Holi Simon, who
was deputy commissioner for operations, was instead made acting police
commissioner. The new chair of the Police Service Commission, Mr Michael
Taun, stated that this appointment was made because "according to the
police strategic review of 1997, the next senior person to the Police
Commissioner should be the Acting Commissioner, and that person is the Deputy
Commissioner (Operations)" (TP,4 April 2002). This caused disunity in the police and the
military, as some police supported Marikembo over Simon. Because the
president had not revoked Marikembo's appointment, the potential for a challenge
as to the legality of the revocation was opened up. However, with the
election drawing nearer, Marikembo and Simon put aside their differences to
work together to ensure security over this period. Advertisements for the post of police commissioner went
out amid assurances that the Police Service Commission would act properly and
not allow any interference in the process. On 19 July, Mael Apisai was
appointed the new commissioner of police. This soon led to an outcry as there
had initially been twelve candidates and Apisai's name had not been among
them. Four of these candidates had been short-listed and interviewed by a
selection panel made up of Jenny Ligo, Julianne Robvo, Bill Willie, and
Marcel Sam. Again Apisai's name had not come up. Holi Simon had been the
preferred candidate of the selection panel (TP,27 July 2002). On 4 August a group of police, led by Holi
Simon and Api Jack Marikembo (who had ably buried their differences, it would
seem), arrested Apisai and fourteen other people thought to be involved in
his appointment, including Attorney General Ham Bulu, several senior civil
servants, three members of the Police Service Commission, the private
secretary to the president, and a senior member of Natapei's staff. All were
charged with seditious conspiracy and released on bail. Holi Simon then applied to the Supreme Court to have the
appointment of Mael Apisai quashed. This was granted on 8 August, and the
Police Service Commission appointed Simon as acting commissioner (PIR,13
Aug 2002). Simon then turned to focus on ensuring security for the Melanesian
Arts Festival, being held in Vila from 18-28 August. On 19 August Magistrate Kawai Kawaiu quashed the charges
of seditious conspiracy against the fifteen, on the grounds that the
arresting officers did not have prior written consent of the public
prosecutor (PIR,21 Aug 2002). The next act of the drama unfolded when the
Magistrates' Court granted a warrant for the arrest of twenty-seven police
officers involved in the August arrests. On 26 August Arthur Coulton was made
the acting police commissioner and on 27 August approximately one hundred
armed paramilitary officers loyal to Apisai turned up at the police station
to arrest Simon and a number of other police officers on charges of mutiny
and inciting mutiny. The policerefused to come out and a large crowd of
ni-Vanuatu gathered around the armed officers, threatening to riot if the
officers created further violence. That the "person on the street"
wanted to head off trouble in the country could be seen as a positive sign.
This desire by bystanders to stop the armed bullying tactics was perhaps
reinforced by the fact that a large number of tourists were in town because
of the arrival of a cruise boat and the Melanesian Arts Festival (PIR,29
Aug 2002). The standoff was defused when the armed officers left, having
obtaining a promise that the twenty-seven officers would appear in court in
the afternoon. Only seven of these officers did actually present themselves
at court. All were charged and suspended from the police force. On 31 August a reconciliation ceremony was held between
the police and the Vanuatu Military Force. As part of this ceremony a number
of police suspensions and arrest warrants were withdrawn (TP,3 Sept 2002). Michael Taun was removed as chair of the
Police Service Commission and an interim commission was established. Although
the reconciliation ceremony took place, the case against the leading officers
in the police mutiny continued to court. Initially twenty-six officers were charged with mutiny
and incitement to mutiny but on 1 October, the first day of the
committal hearing, the public prosecutor dropped the charges against eighteen
junior officers who were not thought to be ringleaders in the events of
August. The eight remaining defendants were charged with mutiny, incitement
to mutiny, kidnapping, and false arrest. Midway through the trial, Jean Yves
Kali had the charges against him dismissed on the basis of lack of evidence,
leaving seven accused to present their defenses (ABC,19
Nov 2002). On 7 December the matter finally came to a conclusion, with four
of the defendants, Holi Simon, Api Jack Marikembo, Paul Willie Reuben, and
Eric Pakoa all being convicted and given two-year suspended sentences. The
other three —John Pakoa Tarimas, Lui Patu, and Roy Seule—were all found not
guilty on the grounds that they had been following the orders of a superior
and no evidence indicated that the officers knew the orders were unlawful.
Suspended sentences were given because all officers had long records of
service and good backgrounds prior to the incident (TP,7 Dec 2002). Two side incidents of note were triggered by the police
mutiny events. The first concerned Deputy Prime Minister Serge Vohor's
statements on the Australian television program, sbs Dateline, that
Australia, through its Australian Federal Police presence in Vanuatu, have
been spying on local politicians and tapping telephones (ABC,2
October 2002). Unsurprisingly, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs
denied this. The second incident surrounded the formation of a militia being
trained by the Vanuatu Military Force, apparently to help maintain order in
the event of violence over the police situation. The prime minister denied
that any militia had been formed, although later reports indicated that a
group had been trained (TP,8 October 2002). A
Radio Australia news story stated, "Government spokesman Mr Daniel
Bangtor has confirmed the group of young men from the island of Tanna, who
now live near Port Vila airport, were employed and given training to assist
the mobile force" (ABC,23 October 2002). This report also indicated that, although
the group was no longer employed, it was not disbanding, which gave rise to fears
that a new armed faction may arise. Other stories that attracted interest during the year
include the downturn in the kava industry. Many countries now will not accept
dried kava to be used for making tablets and other herbal remedies because it
appears that kava, when processed in this way, can damage users' livers.
Agricultural exports have not been very successful in 2002, arising from
difficulties with the Vanuatu Commodities Marketing Board. Football is the national sport, so ongoing confusion
about the Vanuatu Football Federation's football academy project has affected
many people. While details are still unclear, the Fédération Internationale
de Football Association (FIFA) made a large payment to the federation to support this
project. This payment went into the European Bank, which is a member of the
Bayer financial group and also involves Robert Bohn. Work on the academy has
not progressed and there are allegations that money has been misused, that
the contract to build the academy was corruptly awarded, and that the
Vanua'aku Party has used these funds (TP,5 Sept 2002). At least one person, Gilles Daniel, has
already appeared in court over this matter. Certain other "troublesome
names" have come up, including Guy Bernard (who was linked with the
militia training) and Robert Bohn. The matter is now set to be resolved in
court, and it is hoped some light will be shed on what actually occurred.
Robert Bohn again found himself in trouble late in the year when he and Tom
Bayer were arrested by the FBI in New Orleans on charges related to the operation of a
lottery scam. The United States has leveled allegations of money laundering
at both Bohn and Bayer in the past (TP,10 Dec 2002). This incident has placed a strain on
Vanuatu's tax-haven status, although OECD pressure over the past few
years makes this strain familiar. As Vanuatu moved into 2003, several issues remained to be
cleared up, including the status of Barak Sope as a parliamentarian, the
allegations of corruption surrounding the football academy project, and the
search for the truth regarding the actions of Robert Bohn, Tom Bayer, and the
European Bank. With a sluggish economy over the past few years Vanuatu is
also in need of economic growth, which should be a priority for 2003. Anita Jowitt is in the School of Law at the University of
the South Pacific in Port Vila, Vanuatu. References: ABC, Australian Broadcasting
Corporation Pacific Beat. <http://abc.net.au/ra/pacbeat/>
EOG, Elections Observer Group. Republic
of Vanuatu National Elections 2 May 2002: Report of the Elections Observer
Group.2002. Blackstone Publishing: Port Vila. PIR, Pacific Islands Report. <http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/> Public Prosecutor v Sope. Unreported, Supreme Court of
Vanuatu, Crim. C. #10 of 2002, 19 July 2002. Titek v The Electoral
Commission & Anor. Unreported, Supreme Court of Vanuatu, Civ. C. #67 of 2002, 8
April 2002. TP, The Trading Post. Port Vila. Three editions per
week. Copyright © 2003
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