STRICTLY 4 THE ISLANDS

LET’S TAKE IT BACK:WHAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED IN THE MOANA

As Te Herenga Waka opens its doors again, I assume most of your brains are focused on un-read readings and half finished assignments, which probably doesn’t leave much room for the dynamic political landscape of the Pacific. But do not fret, that’s what I’m here for. Let’s take it back and catch us up on some of the stuff that’s gone down since we last spoke.

For many, the biggest story has been the carnage brought on by various extreme weather events. Typhoon Sinlaku has hit Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), while cyclone Malia has taken the lives of 10 in Asiko Village of Bougainville. Cyclone Vaiunu brought major flooding to Fiji and harsh weather for parts of Aotearoa, as well. While many places who were prepared for the event were able to escape the worst, Bougainville and other hard-hit places are reeling from the disaster, as they have been many times before thanks to the growing instability of our climate.

The Iran War and the global energy crisis that has stemmed from it has stayed at the forefront of the minds of our region. For those somehow unaware, this war led to the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz (a phrase I think I’ve heard enough for my lifetime at this point), a key part of the global oil trade, leading to rising prices and depleting stock piles. This has hit Asia particularly hard, which has had a huge flow on effect to the Pacific. A meeting between Pacific leaders, titled ‘Port Villa II’, was set in motion in response, with the aim of coordinating around the challenges of the fuel crisis and rallying around a move away from fossil fuels. Vanuatu’s Minister for Climate Change Adaptation, Ralph Regenvanu, summed up the situation pretty well when he was quoted as saying that “the Pacific did not create the fossil fuel crisis, yet we are paying the highest price for it.” While countries like Tonga have stated they have enough fuel reserves for the foreseeable future, rising prices are still hitting hard. Prime Minister of Tonga Lord Fakafanua has initiated a move to electric buses and further public transport investment as solutions, but these will only help Tongans in the long term. The short-term impacts are going to be much harder to mitigate for the Kingdom, and places like Tuvalu are finding themselves unable to assure fuel supply past June. Much like the response to climate change, Pacific Island nations are being forced to deal with a crisis entirely imposed on them. Whether this pulls them away from the death-grip of the USA and Israel is another story.

The military build up in the American territories has also not ceased. Guam has been tied to American military power since its transfer from Japan to the United States during World War II. In the modern day, its proximity to Taiwan and the rest of the Pacific gives the USA all the more reason to keep that going. Ron Acfalle, an indigenous Chamorro man from Guam, was interviewed by ABC and spoke on the growing anti-military stance among the indigenous Chamorros. He raised concerns around the way in which land has been disrespected and misused by this military presence, and that their presence is fueled “not for the culture, not for anything other than for themselves.” A large number of Guam's population have served in the United States Military, but access to services available to veterans in the US is far more limited, and the cost of living in Guam is already disproportionately high. The tepid ceasefire that began on April 7 brought some measure of relief for places like Guam and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), with the CNMI’s military infrastructure under threat from the economic impacts of both the war and the fallout of COVID 19. 

The waves are still being felt in Aotearoa as well. Winston Peters was invited to the USA to meet with American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, where they discussed the crises facing the globe and the complex situation of the Pacific. Aside from making it doubly known that New Zealand always has critical minerals for Trump to scoop up if he ever feels like it, the two ran through the usual topics of discussion between these two states. The rising drug trade, security concerns around China, and the affirmation of the supposed importance of the US presence in the Pacific were all mentioned. According to Winston, the US indicated they could provide assistance to Pacific Island nations in their energy woes, but the meeting did not bring any deals or guarantees on that front. This meeting took place not long after Trump announced the impending death of the entire civilization of Iran (which has not happened as of writing this), but according to Winston, this war will be over sooner than we think. Let’s all collectively remember that.

Winston has been quite the busy bee, leaving the Beehive before his meeting with Rubio to hash out a solution to our ongoing disagreements with Prime Minister Mark Brown and the Cook Islands. In the face of fast-rising fuel prices within the Cook Islands, Brown and Peters have come together to sign a security pact. This signals an end to the dispute that arose after the Cook Islands signed  a controversial deal with China without consulting New Zealand. Their status as a state within the realm of New Zealand seems to now be more clearly defined, with Brown reaffirming New Zealand’s status as the defence partner of choice for the nation. Funding towards the Cook Islands will resume later this year, and while neither Brown nor Winston seemed to be jumping over the moon when speaking to the press, both seemed keen to nail the point home that the two states had worked their stuff out. As Winston put it, “We're cousins, and we sorted our cousins out.” Whether this is truly an effective counter to Chinese influence in the region remains to be seen, but in a global crisis such as this, many would argue it's for the best that cooler heads seemed to have prevailed.

Iran is not the only war affecting the people of the Pacific at this time. After the killing of a Papuan police officer in the town of Moanemani in West Papua, it is alleged that police fired indiscriminately into several villages in response. NGOs active in the region allege 5 civilians were killed in the attack, while Human Rights Watch has estimated it could be 6, some of which younger than 20 years of age. The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) released a statement on April 1 claiming that an ongoing battle has followed between the security forces and young Papuans, as the Papuans attempted to block further reinforcements from arriving in Moanemani by scattering logs and rocks across the roads used to enter the town. The Indonesian Government’s English language news outlet Antara claims these types of patrols are carried out in regions prone to violent attacks from what they call “criminal separatists,” and the Indonesian military has not reported any casualties aside from the murdered police officer. Human Rights Watch has described these patrols as “violent crackdowns” while tensions between the Indonesian occupiers and the indigenous Papuans only grow. Information around this conflict has always had trouble finding its way to the public, let alone in a way that centers the voices of Indigenous papuans, but events such as this show war is hot on our shores, too.

When I say something is always happening, I mean it. I have yet to mention the mountains of lawsuits (of varying degrees of legitimacy) being thrown around by different politicians in Sāmoa, a new challenge by the high chiefs of Fiji concerning the definition of the term “Fijian”, or the appointment of Paul Goldsmith to the role of Minister of Pacific Peoples. Unfortunately, I am not Mike Hoskins or Hasan Piker and I cannot cover everything, but I do want to finish with some developments on the French end of the ocean. 

Kanaky, known to most as New Caledonia, has been trapped in a back and forth over the island nation's autonomy under French rule, with the outbreak of riots in 2024 bringing the issue back to the forefront on the global stage. Disputes over French rule in Kanaky have existed since its initial colonisation and time as a penal colony for the French empire. A large part of the political deadlock between pro and anti independence groups is disagreements over what Kanaky’s independence would actually look like, as in whether it would be truly independent or remain a part of the French republic only with a greater level of autonomy. The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), a significant pro-independence group, had previously left negotiations with France due to a lack of faith in the process and a staunch commitment to full independence. On April 2, a constitutional reform bill for Kanaky was voted down in the French parliament, and Emmanuel Tjibaou, member of both the FLNKS and the French parliament, supported the rejection. He argued the reform amounted to “a perennial status within France... It's a logic of assimilation... It cannot be compared to a decolonisation in accordance with the UN resolutions and the international law.” This does put the pro-independence movement in uncertain territory. Talks between the different factions have restarted, with many in Kanaky and France losing their patience with the whole process. 

Kanaky’s long independence struggle mirrors that of the Papuans of West Papua in many ways, and in turn they mirror many other stories past and present here in the Pacific. Whether it's Nouméa or Moanemani, something is always going down in our sea of islands, and now you are all caught up on some of it.