The head of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Dame Meg Taylor has thrown down the gauntlet to Pacific island leaders saying they need to take a deeper regional approach to solving problems and helping the region reach its potential.
Transcript
The head of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Dame Meg Taylor has thrown down the gauntlet to Pacific island leaders saying they need to take a deeper regional approach to solving problems and helping the region reach its potential.
The Secretary General of the key regional grouping told a seminar at New Zealand's Victoria University the unprecedented interest in the Pacific and a complex array of regional bodies makes this all the more important.
The Forum leaders meet again in September and even though Fiji has been welcomed back this year its Prime Minister is refusing to return to the table because he doesn't agree with New Zealand and Australia's membership.
Dame Meg told Sally Round changes are already afoot at the Forum like opening it up more to civil society and the private sector.
DAME MEG TAYLOR: In consultation witht the government of Papua New Guinea that will host it, we've asked if civil society could meet with the troika, that is the three countries, the past, current and future heads of the Pacific Islands Forum to meet with civil society to have an exchange of views. It will be somewhat orchestrated but it'll be in consultation with civil society and on the issues they want to discuss with the leaders.
SALLY ROUND: This is a first for the Forum?
MT: This will be the first. Well civil society has a say now through the process of submitting initiatives to the special sub committee that has been set up at the request of the leaders and they will then take these issues to the leaders. That's participation of civil society, private sector, citizens, organisations. It's open to everyone in the Pacific. It's quite revolutionary and challenging. What we have to do is make sure that once the selection is made of the issues that will go to the leaders - four or five key priorities, key regional priorities, then there is serious deliberations by the leaders so that when they make those choices then there is a regional commitment.to it.
SR: On the issue of Fiji, Prime Minister Bainimarama of Fiji has said he won't be attending the Forum this year. Has he actually gone through the formal procedure yet of letting the Forum know?
MT: I don't believe there's been any correspondence saying that he won't be attending. The prime minister's made a statement that at public service level, ministerial level, there'll be interactions with the Forum and that's taking place now but the issue for him is whether he will attend the Leaders' Forum and if he's had discussion with other leaders I'm not aware of it.
SR: Tuilaepa (Sailele Mailielegaoi) of Samoa has also said that the question of the headquartering of the Forum in Suva also needs to be addressed at this upcoming meeting. Do you have any response to that?
MT: I have to be flexible and if the leaders want to discuss it they will discuss it. Right now all indications are is that Fiji takes its responsibility as host government seriously but if the leaders want to discuss a relocation of the Forum Secretariat they can do that, and if we're told to move then we would have to move. I'm not as powerful as people might think. I just do as I'm told.
SR: Does it raise any difficulties for you technically speaking, being based in Fiji, when the leader of the country does not want to engage?
MT: From the minute of my, or from the early weeks of my arrival in Suva, I called on the Foreign Minister. The Foreign Minister's always kept the door open to me. I think the work of the Forum has been enhanced by the fact that of late the engagement of the government of Fiji, the engagement of ministers and the fact that we were able to have the Supervisor of Elections in (Bougainville) led by Fiji was a big step forward.
SR: Now you talked about a "deeper regionalism". You've set out a challenge to the leaders of the countries at the Pacific Islands Forum to grasp this. Can you articulate the importance of them grasping this?
MT: In my conversations with leaders I think that there is a real desire to tackle and to come to grips with what are the key and large regional issues that we have to work together on. When I use the word "deepening" it's not just about the leaders understanding and deliberations around these issues, it's about the citizens of the Pacific understanding what regionalism means for them and that survival as a group and as a whole is going to mean that we, as citizens of all our countries, pull together. I think that we are in uncertain times in terms of the geopolitics of the region but I also think that we've got issues particularly on climate change and oceans which are going to have profound environmental impacts and issues for us as a region.
SR: On that issue of climate change, I have to bring this back to the Prime Minister of Fiji who has recently said that Pacific leaders' views diverge from the larger players in the region, New Zealand and Australia, on climate change and that is a reason why they shouldn't be part of a regional approach, and that is why, for instance, he has set up the Pacific Islands Development Forum.
MT: There are differences of opinion but Australia has said that they will meet their carbon caps by the time we get to Paris later this year for COP. New Zealand is going to raise climate change at the Security Council which leaders in the Pacific welcome. I'd hope that by the time we get to Paris that there will be a greater alignment but you know families can have differences. It doesn't mean that you just break up over it.
SR: How do you see a "deeper regionalism" working in terms of aid particularly, I'm thinking here of China and its role. Shouldn't it be part of this deeper regionalism?
MT: There's been in the past discussion about Japan wanting membership of the Pacific Islands Forum. I don't believe there's been a discussion around China as yet. I think there's always opportunities for a broader discussion. Look, if the leaders of the Pacific want to have broader discussions with the whole of the Pacific Rim then that opportunity would have to be explored but right now my view is that we've got issues within our own region that really need to be attended to.
SR: You'd like to see a greater fluidity around the region, opening up of borders. You want to see that discussed this year?
MT: I'm sure that it'll come up if people raise the labour mobility issue but it's not just about work. It's about opportunities in education and it goes both ways. There's opportunities both in business, across the Pacific but also mobility of our citizens to be able to go in without the long process of documentation that some of us have to go through. When I say "deeper understanding of regionalism", it's about really getting our heads around what are those regional threads and a deep political commitment to it but not just from the politicians or the leaders of the countries but from the citizens, so that we hold our leadership accountable too and hold the Secretariat accountable in terms of our own performance.
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.