Page 29 - IB Dec 2020

Opinion

REIMAGINING PACIFIC REGIONALISM

By Ambassador Kaliopate Tavola rim to the east, add particular significance to the conjunction.
New Zealand’s recent elections have seen the emergence of
A rare conjunction of events is emerging. The events are Hon Nanaia Mahuta as its first woman Foreign Affairs Minister.
both directional and prescriptive. The conjunction’s rarity is Maori herself, she will be able to view and regard her coun-
evocative. The conjunction provides an opportunity for Pacific try’s ‘Pacific Reset’ programme in the region compassionately
regionalism (or the Pacific Islands Forum, PIF) to reinvent and with accustomed astuteness. The region anticipates from
itself in order to capture the lost grounds it has frittered away her due respect for PICs’ agency on all regional and global is-
since its genesis. sues and proper exercise of political economy and geopolitical
The calendrical end-of-the-year is synergised by institution- influences that unite rather than those which divide.
al, exceptional and wider regional and global events whose Moreover, the exciting and new US Presidential team, in Joe
essences can additionally incentivise the creative embodiment Biden and Kamala Harris will add compelling prospects and a
of the reinvention so needed. more consultative approach to the conduct of the Indo-Pacific
December 2020 brings to an end the services of the incum- geostrategy. But more so, the team offers a welcome support
bent PIFS Secretary General (SG), Dame Meg Taylor. Her re- for the US return to the Paris Declaration on climate change.
placement will take office in January 2021. The incoming SG’s This, with a bit of luck, may compel Australia to properly
terms of reference will be set out in the provisions of the 2050 honour and respect the climate change provisions under the
Strategy, currently being compiled. The institutional processes Boe Declaration.
of PIF will ensure fulfillment of that specific objective. The conjunction is special and specific in the life of Pacific
Candidates for the SG’s job and their respective proponents regionalism. The opportunity it connotes should not be
are active at their respective lobbying and public relations wasted. PIF has to take huge strides, reinvent itself through
drives to get the nod at the final tape. Tongan candidate, Ms the provisions of the 2050 Strategy. This is an opportunity,
Amelia Siamomua has woven her own talanoa into her pro- inter alia, to make good where it had failed in the past.
motional public relations. I have put this down to an excep- On regional cooperation, the 2012 ‘What Can We Learn
tional event, in the context of this article. Her rallying call of Symposium’ concluded that the whole process was both
‘Lalaga’ or weaving to resetting the Blue Pacific is built upon cost ineffective and cost inefficient. The new normal, post-
what she calls as the 4Cs – coordination, cooperation, commit- COVID-19, with greater use of information technology for
ment and care. on-line meetings, for example, is a good start in terms of cost
Other exceptional events are contributing to the conjunc- effectiveness. Moreover, PICs particularly have got to better
tion. rationalise their attendance at these meetings. Prioritisa-
I explored Dr Transform Aqorau’s ‘Imagining a new post- tion on the basis of anticipated benefits and minimisation of
COVID-19 international economic order’ in the November 2020 opportunity costs has to feature prominently in their decision-
issue of this magazine. I situated that scenario in the context making.
of Pacific regionalism and cautioned a degree of hindsight to Efforts at regional integration in the past – of member
learning from what had happened in the past. That, however, country themselves and of their various regional organizations
is not to decry in anyway the relevance of post-COVID-19 have been undermined through, inter alia, costly duplica-
events in this conjunction. tion. The 2005 Regional Institutional Framework report had
Being a regional champion himself, Dr Aqorau has just relevant recommendations to resolve this concern. However,
released his latest book: ‘Fishing For Success’ – Lessons in some recommendations were irrationally politicised. The full
Pacific Regionalism. His philosophy of ‘applying limits to cre- impact of those expedient recommendations was thus under-
ate scarcity and then be innovative about the opportunities mined. PIF needs to do better next time around.
for economic development’, is a rallying cry for all sectors of When it comes to regional economic integration, the
operation in Pacific regionalism going forward. regional experience is nothing to be proud of. The idea of an
Non-governmental organisations, like the Pacific Theologi- economic union for the PICs was conceived way back in 1971,
cal College’s Institute for Mission and Research, is also getting 49 years ago. The Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement
into the act. Its ‘Reweaving the Ecological Mat (REM) works (PICTA), an essential building block for such a union, only
towards establishing an ecological framework for develop- came into force in 2001, and today – 19 years later, only 50%
ment. of its signatories are implementing the agreement.
An exceptional event but very much guided by the PIF In 2018, the First Quadrennial Pacific Sustainable Develop-
Secretariat at the institutional level is work on climate change ment Report (FQPSDR) listed seven challenges for the region,
and sea level rise, directed at ensuring that members’ mari- one of which was: “Economically, whilst we see trends of
time zones are set in perpetuity once delineated. This work is sustained growth, it is often inequitable.” But that is only
critical for the sustainable future of the Pacific Island Coun- part of the story. PICs have remained as one of the highest aid
tries (PICs), especially the Smaller Island States (SIS). recipients in the world on a per capita basis. PIF has to turn
Two events – first within PIF and the second, at the Pacific this around.

Islands Business, December 2020 29