Page 17 - IB JAN 2019

Cover Story - IB’s 2019 Outlook

Federated States of Micronesia: in June and after using his last term attacking and weakening
Voters go to the polls in this northern Pacific republic in March any form of opposition, Baron Waqa and his supporters will most
and President Peter Christian will be hoping for a fresh mandate likely secure another term.
for his administration. Under their electoral system, voters will His government and especially his minister for justice David
vote in their members of Congress, from which two members will Adeang, many say is the real power broker in the Waqa admin-
then be elected President and Vice President respectively, before istration came under stinging criticism in a high profile Supreme
another round of election is held to replace the two executives. Court case involving some members of the opposition that lost
President Christian, 72, holds the rare distinction of being one their seats in parliament in 2015. Adeang’s conduct in the case
of the first 14 pioneering members of the FSM Congress. He got “was a shameful affront to the rule of law in Nauru,” Judge Geoff
elected in 1979. A political observer in Pohnpei, state capital of Muescke had ruled.
FSM said Christian has a strong chance of returning to office. Whether the ramifications of the case will have some impact
Running against him for the presidency is Congressman David in the June polls, no one knows. What is known however is that
W. Panuelo, who is a representative of Pohnpei state. He worked it did not seem to have troubled Nauruan voters during the last
as a senior official of the FSM Department of Foreign Affairs and elections in 2016 where members of Waqa’s cabinet got re-elected
holds a bachelor of political science degree from Eastern Oregon without much trouble.
University in the US.
Solomon Islands
Marshall Islands The country’s 360,000 voters will know the date of general
The Pacific’s first woman leader of government Hilda Heine is elections next month when it will be announced by their Governor
going into her country’s general elections in November smart- General. Caretaker Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela is aiming for
ing from a narrow win from a confidence motion against her a new and this time longer term as head of government, having
government. assumed the office of leadership late in 2017.
Although confident that she would have the support of 60 per During his one year stint, the former governor of the Central
cent of members of the legislature, the final result was evenly Bank of Solomon Islands worked hard to reign in public spend-
split at 16-each, and the motion was deemed a failure because ing. He started in the office of the prime minister, making sure
legislative rules dictate that any such motions needed the support government vehicles were accounted for, telephone use strictly
of the bare minimum of 17 votes. controlled and the appointment of political assistants to cabinet
Heine was a compromising candidate for the presidency when ministers reduced. Even as late as last December, reports of huge
she took office in January of 2016. Parliament had actually voted spending on foods and drinks during cabinet and government
in Casten Nemra as country president only for the young legisla- caucus weekly meetings hit the local newspaper headlines.
tor to fall again in a confidence motion several days later. Nemra If past elections are to go by, then almost half of the sitting MPs
was the sponsor of the failed confidence motion in early January. will lose their seats, and that bulk of the new parliamentarians
The vote no doubt will energise Heine in the November polls. would be independent candidates, not affiliated to any registered
Some of her opponents can be mislead by her timid and soft political parties. This however has not deterred aspiring politi-
demeanour. But her strong leadership on the global stage in the cians like Peter Kenilorea Junior and Adam Bartlett from going
fight for climate justice, and also in the independence of territories into this year’s elections under the banner of the revived Solomon
like West Papua and against nuclear waste has been inspirational, Islands United Party.
especially to women in the islands.
Tuvalu
Papua New Guinea: Enele Sopoaga is a true climate change warrior. He has been a
2019 is a watershed year for the county when the national pioneering advocate for small island states like Tuvalu that are
government will make good on its promise to hold a referendum at the mercy of dangerous climate change, ever since he was
for the island of Bougainville, currently an autonomous region of appointed ambassador of Tuvalu to the United Nations in 2001.
PNG. In June, the people of Bougainville will have a referendum For this he is well known for.
where they will be given only two options: do they prefer greater Not known to many outside his sandy atoll nation however is
autonomy, or independence from PNG. the long fight he has been waging in the country’s high court. In
The vote will take place under the oversight of an independent the first half of 2018, he and six of his political colleagues won an
group of eminent people from around the world under the chair- application to be paid AU$65,000 in compensation for a case that
manship of former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. The deal was determined in 2013 when the group were in the opposition.
to hold a referendum was part of the agreement the people of He also successfully applied before Chief Justice Charles
Bouganville and the PNG Government agreed to in a deal brokered Sweeney to reverse an earlier ruling of the high court which had
by New Zealand in 2001 after ten years of war on Bougainville acquitted a former political opponent and former Prime Minister,
between them and the PNG Defence Force. the late Apisai Ielemia of corruption charges.
How the Bougainvilleans will vote will feature largely in the Sopoaga also won another landmark case before CJ Sweeney
mind of Prime Minister O’Neill and his government in Port over a libel case he and his group had lost against another politi-
Moresby. It is any political leader’s nightmare as no one would cal rival in which Sweeney’s predecessor, Sir Gordon Ward ruled
want to see his or her country splinters into smaller states or that the prime minister and his group should pay AU$50,000 in
regions. Will June trigger open a Pandora box of other regions compensation to the former politician’s widow.
and provinces wanting greater autonomy from Waigani? Only He was elected unopposed from his island constituency of
time will tell, and it is something O’Neill no doubt will pray that Nukufetau in the last elections of 2015 and Sopoaga is expected
it never happens. to make a strong comeback for the prime ministership in this
year’s polls.
Nauru
This loyal supporter of Taiwan is holding its general elections r editor@islandsbusiness.com

Islands Business, January 2019 17