Letter From Suva: War Clouds On The Pacific Tuna Organizationsff

Rivalries amongst regional organizations, institutional overlap, confusion, wasteful duplication and snail pace project implementation. These have been reasons why islands leaders agreed to a review of the regional organizations.

Laisa Taga

Pacific Islands Forum leaders meet in Tonga next month and among issues they will discuss are plans to restructure regional organizations. From what Letter from Suva hears, battle lines are already being drawn. There are concerns about the motives of some of the moves being mooted. At least one regional body has already seen island nation members facing off against Australia and New Zealand over the issues involved.

A structure known as the Regional Institution Framework (RIF) is being worked on and refined by a team known as the RIF Taskforce. This is led by former Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) director-general Lourdes Pangelinan, of Guam, and includes Australia’s Bob Dun, whom Pangelinan succeeded.

Their report should be presented to the leaders in Nuku’alofa for approval.

Under RIF, 10 regional organizations will see themselves restructured into three tiers, or pillars.

Pillar 1 is the policy/political arm, which is already well established in its central co-ordination role as the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

Pillar Two will be the technical services. Here the decision-making powers of the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders will be required for the establishment of a single, major organization, an expanded Pacific Community.

This is to be formed by the amalgamation of five organizations: the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment (SPBEA), Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) and SPREP (Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program).

Pillar 3 is education and it has already been set in place. This is through the strong, operational and potential leadership role of the University of the South Pacific (USP).

Rivalries amongst regional organizations, institutional overlap, confusion, wasteful duplication and snail pace project implementation. These have been reasons why islands leaders agreed to a review of the regional organizations.

But judging by the responses from regional organizations and some islands governments, Pangelinan and her team could have a difficult task trying to push through the proposed restructure.

Even the Fiji Government, although it has not been very vocal, is not keen about the restructure. It prefers to maintain the status quo.

”Why change something when it’s working? Why not look at ways it could be further improved?”  a senior Fiji Government official said.

Criticisms have also been leveled at the composition of the Pangelinan team. One regional observer told Letter from Suva that “one of the strategic mistakes made is to involve mainly ex-SPC staff in the process. It doesn’t augur well to allay suspicions that this is just an SPC driven agenda to control other organizations.”

Some regional organizations too have expressed concerned at the proposed restructure. FFA in particular has been at the forefront of questioning the plans. There seems to be little support from the Honiara-based Forum Fisheries Agency’s members, in particular to the proposed amalgamation of FFA with SPC.

Under the proposed restructure, the political functions of FFA will come under the Forum Secretariat while the technical role comes under the expanded Pacific Community.

Islands sources said that at the Forum Fisheries Committee meeting in Wellington in June, most member countries spoke against the proposal. At that meeting, for the first time in 28 years, FFC was clearly polarised between the Pacific Islands Countries and Australia and New Zealand. This tension is seen as not bringing countries together, but threatening the solidarity of the region.

”Also during the last meeting of the RIF Taskforce, there was no unanimity in how to move forward especially on the fisheries architecture,” an informed source told Letter from Suva.

”The feeling is that FFA should be left as it is and it will be interesting how Greg (Urwin) and Lou (Pangelinan) who were here in Honiara recently will report to the leaders on an issue on which there seems to be very divided opinions because the RIF Taskforce has said that the report that goes to the Leaders must be one that reflects the diverse views expressed by members of the taskforce.”

The sources Letter to Suva has spoken with feel there has not been enough discussions on the issue. This is because there is more to the proposal than just bringing the technical fisheries functionalities together.

A senior government official from the Solomons told Letter from Suva: "Lou and Greg have said that having FFA as part of a larger organization would strengthen the region; it would make FFA more well known.

”My response is that FFA is already well known throughout the world and also that it is a very strong, robust and cohesive body even without it being amalgamated with SPC.”

”I understand that the Prime Minister of Samoa told them that if you are going to have a larger body, why have its headquarters in a territory? (SPC is based in the French territory of New Caledonia). They could not respond to that question.”

”The upshot of all this really can be characterized simply that we small islands countries cannot run and look after ourselves properly.”

”In fisheries, we cannot stop corruption, and countries like Kiribati, who after agreeing to conservation measures in the Commission go away and then license Ecuadorian boats, need to be controlled and because FFA cannot control them, they need to be brought under a larger body to control them.”

”People don’t trust the region, they don't trust Pacific islanders to look after the resources. It has become very clear to me in recent years and months that there is a perception out there that we cannot run our fisheries.”

”In fisheries, FFA member countries are being accused for the demise of yellowfin and bigeye tuna, yet who has been fishing these stocks? Yes it is the distant water fishing nations.”

”There is a sense of racism in this RIF process driven by the larger countries. It is almost condescending towards Pacific Islanders. When it comes to fisheries, it is the one thing that Pacific Islands have full control over, they guard it jealously.”

”It is that control that some people want to take away from the Pacific Islands, and give it to a larger organization that whips the heavy stick around when the Pacific Islands are not doing the right thing!”

”This is the implied objective of RIF in respect of fisheries, but the Pacific Islanders are not blind or stupid. As one former Governor of American Samoa said, 'we Pacific Islanders may be stupid but we are not dumb’.”

Pangelinan and her team have at least a month before the leaders meet in Tonga.

They would do well to heed comments like these before they present their plan to the leaders. The battle lines are taking shape and some Pacific Islanders are ready to fight.