Paul Oates & Keith Jackson
A four-day Pacific Leaders’ Forum begins in Cairns today, with a miscreant Fiji missing from the 14 nations following the trashing of Parliamentary rule in that country.
The agenda for the meeting highlights climate change, closer economic relations and Fiji's suspension from the group.
But there’s a big sleeper issue the Forum probably won’t get around to discussing: its own declared vision to “seek a Pacific region that is respected for the quality of its governance, the sustainable management of its resources, the full observance of democratic values and for its defence and promotion of human rights.”
If the Forum was to look at how best it could respond to each of the key issues nominated, it might have chosen to start with a fundamental matter that is plaguing an increasing number of Pacific nations right now: the Object of Government.
Lord Beveridge, the great turn of the 20th century British politician and political thinker, wrote: “The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers... but the happiness of the common man.”
Using Beveridge’s statement as a benchmark, how do Forum members measure up? After all, one of the best known political clarion calls ever sought that governments be "of the people, by the people and for the people.”
Let’s look at PNG, since it is the focus of this website’s concern. Has the current government succeeded in providing happiness for the common man or has it provided glory for some rulers?
Recent events seem to indicate there may be a certain leaning in one direction. In fact, one could say that the list gets steeper as each day passes. Forestry, climate credit trading, the Moti Affair, Taiwan millions, overseas property, rural decay, communal riots, not to mention the dismissal of Parliamentary rule.
If Fiji has been excluded from the Forum because it suspended Parliamentary democracy, shouldn’t recent events in PNG’s Parliament be considered in the same light?
Clearly the Forum should be dealing with the issue of PNG’s Parliament being virtually dismissed by the Somare government. Otherwise the law of double standard, or ‘what Australia wants Australia gets’, would seem to be in application.
Australia’s pursued a hard line on Fiji, to the particular discomfort of the Melanesian nations. Australia's line on PNG has been ... well, it has expressed no line. Not the merest breath of comment.
If the PNG Parliament been allowed a proper no-confidence vote last week and not adjourned in an unconstitutional manner, it is possible that Mr Rudd would have been talking with Sir Mekere Morauta instead Sir Michael Somare in Cairns today.
But Fiji is relatively small and relatively insignificant to Australia's national interest. PNG is the two ton elephant on our doorstep.
Realpolitik is the theory of politics that emphasises power ahead of morals or principles. It's leading practitioner was Otto von Bismarck.
The agenda for the meeting highlights climate change, closer economic relations and Fiji's suspension from the group.
But there’s a big sleeper issue the Forum probably won’t get around to discussing: its own declared vision to “seek a Pacific region that is respected for the quality of its governance, the sustainable management of its resources, the full observance of democratic values and for its defence and promotion of human rights.”
If the Forum was to look at how best it could respond to each of the key issues nominated, it might have chosen to start with a fundamental matter that is plaguing an increasing number of Pacific nations right now: the Object of Government.
Lord Beveridge, the great turn of the 20th century British politician and political thinker, wrote: “The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers... but the happiness of the common man.”
Using Beveridge’s statement as a benchmark, how do Forum members measure up? After all, one of the best known political clarion calls ever sought that governments be "of the people, by the people and for the people.”
Let’s look at PNG, since it is the focus of this website’s concern. Has the current government succeeded in providing happiness for the common man or has it provided glory for some rulers?
Recent events seem to indicate there may be a certain leaning in one direction. In fact, one could say that the list gets steeper as each day passes. Forestry, climate credit trading, the Moti Affair, Taiwan millions, overseas property, rural decay, communal riots, not to mention the dismissal of Parliamentary rule.
If Fiji has been excluded from the Forum because it suspended Parliamentary democracy, shouldn’t recent events in PNG’s Parliament be considered in the same light?
Clearly the Forum should be dealing with the issue of PNG’s Parliament being virtually dismissed by the Somare government. Otherwise the law of double standard, or ‘what Australia wants Australia gets’, would seem to be in application.
Australia’s pursued a hard line on Fiji, to the particular discomfort of the Melanesian nations. Australia's line on PNG has been ... well, it has expressed no line. Not the merest breath of comment.
If the PNG Parliament been allowed a proper no-confidence vote last week and not adjourned in an unconstitutional manner, it is possible that Mr Rudd would have been talking with Sir Mekere Morauta instead Sir Michael Somare in Cairns today.
But Fiji is relatively small and relatively insignificant to Australia's national interest. PNG is the two ton elephant on our doorstep.
Realpolitik is the theory of politics that emphasises power ahead of morals or principles. It's leading practitioner was Otto von Bismarck.
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