Pacific leaders talk about the times of change as they remember their journeys to independence and self-government. The following is sourced from the broadcaster's website:
Every Tuvaluan worries what will happen as the ocean rises. None more so than Bikenibeu Paeniu, the country's Prime Minister from 1989 to 1993 and again from 1996 to 1999. A graduate in agricultural economics of the University of the South Pacfic, his name comes from the place where he was born in 1956 – Bikenibeu in Tarawa, capital of neighbouring Kiribati. His parents had moved there when Kiribati and Tuvalu were jointly ruled by Britain and known as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. This interview with Ian Johnstone was recorded in 2011.
Transcript:
Mr Paeniu: I’m full Tuvaluan, both my mum and dad from Tuvalu from Nukulaelae Island, the southern island in Tuvalu and the smallest island.
Ian Johnstone: Bikenibeu, looking back to school days, were you conscious of being different because you were Tuvaluan, from your i-Kiribati school friends?
BP: I never did that, in fact I never had that. In fact there were times in school that there were fighting between the two races, but it really did not spark, or plant a seed of fear or discriminatory feeling that you are being discriminated and all that. From my own knowledge the separation was instigated apparently through an underground movement by the Kiribati nationals because of a fear that the Tuvaluans were dominating and actually holding the top positions.
IJ: Here you are a schoolboy, and getting interested obviously in history and politics and so on, and the conditions under which you were being taught, at a very British school in the centre of a British colony, and I put alongside that the view of an outsider which is that the Brits had said in London, oh look these two groups of islands are side by side, let’s just throw them in together, and we can run them as one. You know, a kind of colonial arrogance? Was there any sense of that?
BP: It was their interpretation, their vision, but certainly it wasn’t the right one for us. Now looking back, of course I voted against separation, but I think our elders made the right decision to move on because there's nothing wrong with Kiribati people, nothing wrong with us, we just are two different races altogether, two different cultures.
I want to take you further back too because although we went together when the British said let's lump them together because they are side by side, at one time before then we were together with Tokelau. Tokelau was part of Kiribati and Tuvalu as a protectorate. We basically have the same language, same culture with Tokelau – we speak dialects - and our ties go back to blood ties as well. But the Tokelaus were annexed back to New Zealand by Britain, leaving us with Kiribati.
For some unknown reason, the British civil servants in those days, maybe because they saw the potential in the Tuvaluans to help them run, when the British Empire was flourishing at the time, the phosphates from Ocean Island and the Tuvaluans were perhaps people they could rely on, or they can ask them and depend on them to produce or whatever. They had their reasons then but I think what they did in lumping us together to later just continue as a nation of two different races, I think was not appropriate.
IJ: OK, there you are and you’re voting as a young Tuvaluan living in Kiribati in the referendum of 1974 whether you should separate, were there any other options? Your mention of Tokelau makes me wonder whether you mightn’t have thought about saying we could band with them, or we could ask Samoa to include us in their area, or we could even approach New Zealand and say "can we do a deal the same as Niue or Cook Islands had done"?
BP: There were options, unfortunately our leaders and the Brits weren’t really that cooperative in providing us options. Our leaders should have at least taken time not to rush things into independence, because we had options.
We could have actually gone back to the UN and requested for us to be incorporated like the Tokelaus. Because why Tokelau was given away, and why not Tuvalu, to New Zealand?
When we were together we were Polynesians and that was a point I tried to make in the Pasifika Festival just last Saturday. We are the only Polynesian country formerly under British rule that has no formal ties with New Zealand.
All the other Polynesian countries have formal ties by way of treaties; they are citizens of New Zealand, like Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau; Samoa has a treaty, Tonga I believe has a similar arrangement. But none for Tuvalu. We are the forgotten Polynesia.
I don’t regret of course that we’re not like Tokelau and all that, I think Tuvalu has done a lot of good in having been on its own. I mean we are a nation now, independent in 1978, this is now 2011, 33 years old. We still are a nation, at least I can be proud of the fact. But still the question is still there, why annex Tokelau to New Zealand, leaving Tuvalu with Kiribati when we are two different people altogether.
IJ: Just looking at it, you’re not only the forgotten Polynesian nation, but you’re the only nation becoming independent that had to invent itself. All the others were a colony and then they became independent or self-governing. You were only part of a colony, so you had to deal with separating yourselves from your brothers up north, and becoming independent, all in a hurry. It was a hell of a load.
BP: Looking back now, we were inventing our own nation. Obviously traditionally we were long there, our eight islands in those days were kingdoms of their own, linked with the same language, culture and all that, but just to form a nation of our own and to be given no assets and a mere budgetary provision.
All the colonial assets were left with Kiribati. We had only one ship. We had no share of the royalties from the British phosphate of Ocean Island so we started off with nothing. And of course I pay tribute to the fathers of my nation; the government who started off in trying…
Of course New Zealand and Australia helped us, and Britain. But the terms were very harsh. In fact in my time as Prime Minister, my political cronies were really pushing me to take Great Britain to court for treating us so badly. I even took several trips to London to discuss that but in the end I came to the conviction "Why cry over spilled milk?" Of course the British did good to us. In addition to giving us so harsh conditions with the hope that they’d discourage us from separating but without the British I don’t think people like us would have had the standard of education we do in our days. I refer to this point in reference particularly to our sister countries in the Northern Pacific for instance, the French territories, the American former territories, Tuvalu is far far better off in terms of education, that is one good thing Britain did.
IJ: When it came to your own education, you went to USP, did you?
BP: I was, and I must say – to go a little bit back – to '74 and the history of King George V and Elaine Bernacchi School, there had never been any students to win the Division 1 O Level Cambridge School Leaving Certificate. In our year, the class of ’74, five of us won the division one, for the first time in the history of the colony. But we couldn’t be given the medical scholarship because there were so many Tuvalu doctors at that time, so the scholarships were given to the Kiribati Division One students, so I ended up pursuing a different course altogether, first a diploma in fisheries at University of South Pacific, I didn’t like it, then shifted to agriculture, just to get a degree.
I managed to get my Bachelor's from USP. But my point again, coming to the university from King George V School it was very easy in our first year. The quality of education then at KGV was really, good excellent.
IJ: Do you know how many graduates Tuvalu had at the time of Independence?
BP: There were two, one was already working in University of the South Pacific in the Registrar's office, the other was Alesala Pia. At that time he was sick, but he's back to normal now, as smart as he used to be. Apparently I was the first graduate with a degree after independence, for Tuvalu. Also the first Tuvaluan citizen, other than one who was overseas with a British wife, living in the US. I was also the first one to have come back with a Masters after Independence.
IJ: Now we’re still looking back, from what you’ve said, you had an affectionate regard for the British, is that a fair comment?
BP: I think that is fair in a way, I think it’s all because of what I believe that the education system had done to me and to people of my age and beyond. I think we were very fortunate to have had British teachers yes.
IJ: Some leaders, not many, have said they were tired of the arrogant and patronising attitude of some British officials. Was that true of you?
BP: In those days yes, I think it was the bureaucrats. Because if you talk to the British of nowadays, which I have the opportunity to converse with a number over the past five or six years, their attitude is totally different. I think those civil servants in the days of our separation and independence, they were real bureaucrats I would say, they go by the books, very little flexibility, very narrowly people focused I would say. I think they just serve by the general Administrative Orders, regardless of anything else or whatever.
IJ: No great wisdom. Racism? Were they racist, some of them?
BP: I would say there could have been sparklings of racism amongst a number of them.
IJ: Can you recall that time when you were considering Independence, who wanted it? Was it people within Tuvalu, was it United Nations, was it other Pacific countries that you looked at, was Britain saying "Come on we’re fed up, we want to be out of here"?
BP: By the result of the referendum it was the people of Tuvalu. I think it was 99% that voted for separation. People back in Tuvalu, the Tuvaluans in the colony at that time, it was the people of Tuvalu to separate. The elders, they wanted it. I recall the reasons then were the fear of loss of our identity, and our culture, the younger generations were gradually being absorbed into the Kiribati culture. So it was mainly the fear of loss of our identity and culture. And economics and sustainability in terms of adequate finances and infrastructure were no concerns at all, it was just to get out and be on our own, to run our own affairs.
IJ: Very brave. You’d so little going for you economically and in terms of numbers. How did you go about talking about it, did you have another referendum about what sort of constitution you’d have, and so on?
BP: I think it wasn’t referendum in that way for the constitution, but of course there were earlier visits to the islands I know of, to explain the options, the UN team was still there and I think the UN team came twice, second time was dealing with the referendum, first time was for a period of two or three months. They were going around the nation explaining, to the Tuvalu people, the process, the outcome, the procedures and all that.
IJ: Did you consider becoming a republic?
BP: It came up. The decision was to remain a constitutional monarchy. It was not through a national convention or referendum, but through negotiations among the political leaders. I still believe firmly it wasn’t enough time allowed by our early leaders to really map out the destiny of Tuvalu. Two years after separation, and self-governing, then independence. No time for nation-building, for proper planning at all.
I would say Britain also did not help out in that, yes. They could have given us time. Of course they wanted rid of us as soon as possible. Because of course we know in those days Britain was letting go of her colonies, the empire was breaking down.
IJ: There was quite a lot of discussion about the flag, because later on when you came into politics and into power you changed that, tell us about that, choosing the flag at Independence.
BP: The flag was through a competition, and again the Parliament of Tuvalu chose it, under the leadership of our first Prime Minister who still is alive, the Right Honourable Sir Toaripi Lauti. That flag was the choice of the people of Tuvalu, from day one of independence.
So in 1996, when our fourth Prime Minister came in, the Right Honourable Sir Kamuta Latasi, of course he changed it because he’s a strong supporter of a republic and he basically did not want to see any sign of British in there, especially the Union Jack, to get the Union Jack out. So he had a new flag in, which lasted for about a year or so. When I came in I had to change it on the principle that flags don’t really, you just can’t keep changing things like that. Just to pay tribute to the founders and the father of our nation. It was the flag of their choice, so what matters if the Union Jack is there? Really the flag is the flag of Tuvalu so I opted to bring back the old flag, legislate it, so that any changes to the flag have to go through Parliament and all that, and it will not be a political choice of any particular leader. I saw it that way.
IJ: That’s probably a good cue for me to ask what your memories are of Independence Day.
BP: Well, I was at university in Suva and went back for the celebrations. The depiction of the Tuvalu culture was excellent and it was so nice to see the people of Tuvalu there and to see the culture of Tuvalu was alive and very strong and the Independence celebrations when we see all our traditional leaders. It was – how would I describe it – I could still see it vividly in my mind now, it was, I think the people enjoying the celebrations in October 1978.
IJ: Had you had gone back from Suva to Funafuti?
BP: Yes, I'd gone back.
IJ: What did you do, did you pull down the Union Jack and put up your own flag, how did it go?
BP: Of course, it went that way. The Union Jack is pulled down and the new flag comes up and flew until today and continues to fly.
IJ: Royalty present, British royalty?
BP: I remember it was Princess Margaret that came for the Independence, yes.
IJ: Church services and that?
BP: Yes, of course, in Tuvalu any national celebrations, there must always be a church service accompanied by the singing of hymns, and of course the dancing and feasting.
IJ: Tell me, did you dance?
BP: Of course!
IJ: And did you feast?
BP: Feasting! I was the choreographer of our dancing group from Nukulaelae.
IJ: Were there political parties at that time?
BP: No, just groupings, each Member of Parliament is independent. It was gentleman’s groupings and agreements and all that.
IJ: So when you became prime minister, you could appoint your Cabinet using or drawing on the skills of people individually and you knew you could trust, but you didn’t have to have any particular party commitment from them.
BP: Of course, informally you’ve got to have the numbers, it’s a numbers game. So you have to choose from within the numbers that supported you.
IJ: Do you think that the constitution was wrong, or that a better constitution than a Westminster style would have suited you?
BP: That's interesting because adopting the constitution, hardly, people of Tuvalu and even, I would say most of the leaders, hardly understand what the constitution is. Of course, they know, but to live and work by the constitution, it's really very limited knowledge.
So what I would say is, it’s a culture imposed on another culture, because the constitution of course is a Western ideal which I don’t reject because human rights is important and all that, but how can we ensure it marries well with our culture so that our people know and are able to work within the approved constitution?
In addition the constitution actually requires a process of dialogue, consultation, culminating in a national convention, to actually adopt the changes in a systematic manner, but not in a piecemeal approach, the way it has been so far.
IJ: Now, let’s go back and do a little check, would you please, about when you became independent, you look at your nation. What were its assets?
BP: Our eight islands, the ninth island of Niulakita to the south, just north of Rotuma, Fiji. Our ocean, of 1 million sq. km. where we know it's very rich in fish, there may even be manganese down there, so our assets were there. Our people, our clean white sand beaches, our crystal clear lagoons, of course our own traditional food crops. Copra was not then, while it was still important, its market value was declining already then. Money-wise, financial-wise it was just the taxes raised and the budgetary allocation from the British budget. I said earlier we had no share from the British, from the royalties of the British phosphates mined over Ocean Island. Had we a share there we could have had lots of money by now.
IJ: Now looking at them, they are huge wonderful assets, but very difficult to make money out of them, especially when you’re brand new. How come your country hasn’t gone broke?
BP: Thanks to our former leaders, of course, it was the proper management, careful spending of the funds. Then the British budgetary provision went off in 1987 and in that year under the government of Prime Minister The Right Hon. Sir Dr Puapua Tomasi and then his minister of finance, the late Henry Fati Naisali formed the trust fund, the Tuvalu National Trust Fund.
Contributions came from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and of course Tuvalu. I think we started off with a capital of about $27m and that was the institution, managed by fund managers overseas, providing, when market conditions worked out well, distributions annually that supplement our national budget. That is one of the main institutions that has been sustaining Tuvalu all these years.
IJ: You also showed, this sounds trivial, but you showed considerable kind of initiative with things like the sale of ‘.tv’.
BP: That was a baby I initiated, indeed. Tuvalu had been pursuing the abnormal to bring about benefits, and one is the dot-tv, our internet top level domain.
That year when internet was becoming a reality and there was big potential there, I happened to be Prime Minister. I started pursuing then, because TV obviously was an international language. We believed it was a blessing from God for us to have the dot-tv because we could have been TU but Turkey took that so we ended up having the TV, and it is still now making money.
The first years I instigated that, the forecast was that Tuvalu was to earn annually $50 million, which could have been the case but unfortunately, through different governments and different people helping us, we weren't able to reap the real benefits of that. At one time from the dot-tv we reaped up to US$40m – money coming out there from heaven. Just from this dot-tv.
IJ: Brilliant idea. Is one of your strengths that your people have to work out of Tuvalu and make the country wealthy?
BP: Yes I would say so. I would also caution that my people are relatively immobile, they do not come out in mass numbers to emigrate, and it’s a personal choice for Tuvaluans that leave Tuvalu to come overseas. But we’ve tried over the years to build a knowledge-based economy in a way that we are among the highest per-capita qualified and well-educated people in terms of population.
IJ: Now then the great challenge, of course, across the Pacific, and you I guess are in some ways the front runners of this, the consequences of climate change and global warming and so on. So, what has to happen for your nation to survive?
BP: We don’t have a formal policy that I’m aware of in terms of mitigation - it’s so far a personal choice for people to leave. Though our people are well cognizant of the fate that they are facing from climate change, we need the support of countries like New Zealand, Australia, in allowing our people to come in. I think we should be really treated as environmental climate change refugees because we are.
Tuvalu now is host for king tides first of all, started about two or three years ago, where people come to Tuvalu and they see mass acreage of our land area and houses coming under seawater at times of king tides, so it is happening. Of course, we need to actually sit down because at the same time I don’t think it is really good to spur the wide scare amongst our people, but it’s a free choice.
At the same time I think we need the co-operation of all to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions and control the emissions so that levels of CO2 can be reduced and so forth.
IJ: Have you as it were, philosophically in human terms, come to terms with the fact that probably in your grandchildren’s lifetime, maybe even earlier they will not have a nation to live in?
BP: Yes, I’m now coming to accept that. When I championed climate change from day one I wanted the debate started way back in 1990, culminating in the climate change convention framework in 1992 in Rio, where I was also the one signing for Tuvalu. I believe that God will never let Tuvaluans leave their homeland. The Bible says only one flood, Noah’s flood, but given the rate of what is happening right now, we see the tsunamis, we see all these earthquakes, we see industrialized countries not even really coming genuinely to commit, so with China and India. I think sooner or later, according to the IPCC, International Panel on Climate Change, Tuvalu will eventually be submerged underwater.
IJ: Can you mark Tuvalu, out of 10, for its performance as an independent nation, how well do you think your people and governments have done?
BP: I think I’ll put it at about 7 out of 10 for now, but had it been the same coming right through for most years till now, referring specially to the years from independence, first and second Prime Ministers, then I came in.
Things started going off balance from 1994 onwards, which is sad, because of all these political turmoils, in terms of votes of no confidence and all that. Otherwise, because of the Trust Fund and the board and how things are being managed and all that I will put 7 out of 10.
IJ: Well done, that’s more than a pass mark! The last one says - looking back, and it’s not a career that’s over by any means, but the political leadership side of it in terms of government control and direction may be over, but may not! Any regrets? You mentioned you’d have liked to have been a doctor. Do you regret you ended up doing something else?
BP: No, I think I was probably destined, when I was in KGV I was the deputy head boy, then when I went to the University of the South Pacific and finished off my two years Bachelor of Agriculture at the University's School of Agriculture situated in Apia, Western Samoa, I served as president of the students’ association, so I tend to have been kind of coached until I came then into politics in 1988. So I don’t have regrets.
Now, of course I am an economist, and a lot of people will say that is dangerous because it breaks nations and all that, but I will say I am a people-centred economist, a welfare economist. I try all the time to put people first.
The problem of course in Tuvalu lots of people believe that anybody can do the Prime Ministership. Unfortunately of course that is not the case, we need a leader that goes in there to serve the people, articulative, able to perform and produce and of course foremost, to sacrifice and serve the people.
[source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/collections/u/new-flags-flying/nff-tuvalu ; 13/10/16 GW]