Political Reviews
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Political Reviews michael lujan bevacqua, elizabeth (isa) ua ceallaigh bowman, zaldy dandan, monica c labriola, nic maclellan, tiara r na'puti, gonzaga puas peter clegg, lorenz gonschor, margaret mutu, salote talagi, forrest wade young 187 Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019 Reviews of American Sāmoa, Cook number of representatives of the ter- Islands, Hawai‘i, Norfolk Island, ritory in the Paris National Assembly Sāmoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and and Senate and to create term limits Wallis and Futuna are not included in for the president of French Polynesia this issue. and the mayors of municipalities. These proposals met with protests French Polynesia across the local political spectrum The period under review was one of (otr, 26 June, 7 July 2018). mixed messages. On one hand, French Even more controversial was Polynesia’s reconnection with the rest the clause recognizing the effects of of Oceania is accelerating, symbolized nuclear testing that was to be inserted by an important business proposal into the updated organic law of with shareholders from other Polyne- French Polynesia. After first recogniz- sian countries. On the other hand, the ing the territory’s “contributions to French state’s repressive colonial poli- nuclear deterrence and defense of the cies continue unabatedly: Just as an nation,” the clause then states that old act of arbitrary colonial injustice compensation by the French state for from the 1950s was finally revised, irradiation victims will be defined new acts were committed, with the by law and that the French state will French judiciary removing the pro- provide adjustments for structural and independence opposition leader from economic imbalances caused in conse- the political scene and prosecuting him quence of the tests (Légifrance 2019). and two of his subordinates for minor While the second statement sounds irregularities that are common among good in principle, the 2010 Morin local politicians. Meanwhile, tourism, Law intended to provide such com- the only significant economic motor of pensation is still inefficient at offering the country’s private sector, is taking meaningful relief to patients suffer- off again, but long-term perspectives ing from radiation-induced ailments, on how to overcome the dependency which is partly due to an amendment on French subsidies are still lacking, introduced by—ironically—one of as the legacy of thirty years of nuclear French Polynesia’s own two senators, testing continues to haunt the territory Lana Tetuanui (Tapura), and passed in all aspects. in November of 2018 (DT, 22 May As part of French President 2019). In consequence, nuclear test Emmanuel Macron’s plans to stream- victim associations 193 and Moruroa line France’s political system, in June e Tatou staged a mass demonstration 2018 a project to reform French with more than a thousand partici- Polynesia’s organic law was initiated. pants on 2 July 2019, the fifty-third Part of the project aimed to reduce the anniversary of the first nuclear bomb 232 political reviews • polynesia 233 explosion on Moruroa, to demand a 2019) and finally signed into law by real commitment from French authori- President Macron in July. Prior to ties to the compensation of testing becoming law, parts of the amendment victims (DT, 3 July 2019). had been declared unconstitutional The other major element in the by the French Constitutional Coun- organic law amendment was a modi- cil and had to be further modified fication of real property law so that (TI, 27 June 2018). Some of those inherited family lands could be more parts were rewritten and passed as a easily divided between heirs (Polynésie separate law (TI, 11 July 2019). The Première, 15 April 2019). Although only parliamentarian representing the many property owners will certainly territory in Paris not affiliated with benefit from this modification, it Tapura, Deputy Moetai Brotherson can also be seen as problematic, as it (Tavini), voted against or abstained will accelerate the sale of such lands each time. and thereby further contribute to the Meanwhile, the country’s economic dispossession of native families, which performance has been slowly improv- started more than a century ago when ing. Statistics published in March the French colonizer replaced the indicated that from January to traditional land tenure system with November 2018, 198,500 tourists one of private ownership according to came to the country, 7.9 percent more French civil law. than in 2017 (TI, 1 March 2019). This While supported by the ruling means that the visitor business, the Tapura Huiraatira party of French only major income-generating indus- Polynesia President Edouard Fritch, try besides French subsidies, appears the organic law amendment was to be growing once more after major rejected in its entirety by the opposi- setbacks during the past two decades. tion parties Tahoeraa Huiraatira and Riding on the wave of growing Tavini Huiraatira. The formerly pro- tourism, at the end of August 2018, French and now increasingly anticolo- the country government signed an nial Tahoeraa instead advocated for a agreement with the Māori-Samoan referendum in 2025 on a status of free consortium Kaitiaki Tagaloa to invest association with France (somewhat in a planned hotel complex in Outu- similar to the current relationship of maoro, a district of the municipality Cook Islands and Niue with Aotearoa/ of Punaauia on the northwest coast New Zealand), whereas the pro-inde- of Tahiti. The consortium consists of pendence Tavini suggested modifying Māori real estate companies Kaitiaki the French constitution to allow a Property and Iwi International, whose similar process to that created though principal capital comes from compen- the Nouméa Accord in New Caledo- sation payments made by the New nia (TI, 16 Nov 2018; rnz, 22 Nov Zealand government for past injustices 2018). and seizures of land in the nineteenth After a series of debates and minor century, and the Samoan hotel com- modifications, the amendment was pany Grey Group (known for its origi- eventually passed by the French nal hotel Aggie Grey’s in Apia), which legislators in late May (TI, 23 May already owns five other luxury hotels 234 the contemporary pacific • 32:1 (2020) in French Polynesia (TI, 17 Aug 2019; a fish farm or rather a supply base for rnz, 20 Aug 2019). Chinese fishing vessels or even a future The project in Outumaoro, vari- strategic base (Schmitt 2019). ously referred to as Mahana Beach Perhaps the most important events, or Tahitian Village, is envisioned as however, were a series of judicial a vast resort complex with hotels, decisions that shed light on French restaurants, department stores, and colonial injustices of the past while recreational facilities, modeled on creating new ones in the present. Waikīkī in Hawai‘i or Tumon in On 24 October, the French Court Guam, and has been in the planning of Revisions in Paris ruled that the stages for several years. However, 1959 conviction of Tahitian politi- there have so far not been enough cian Pouvanaa a Oopa (1895–1977) reliable investors to fund the mega- was unlawful and thus annulled it project, and the planned contract with as invalid (TI, 24 Oct 2018; TPM, Kaitiaki Tagaloa would still cover only 16 Nov 2018). Pouvanaa, who today about one-third of the overall project. is nearly universally considered to be Unlike potential US, Chinese, or Mid- the founder of the modern political dle Eastern investors, however, whose culture of French Polynesia, had in interest in the project was viewed with the 1940s and 1950s led the resis- suspicion by large parts of the popula- tance against the arbitrariness of the tion, Kaitiaki Tagaloa were welcomed colonial system and in 1949 founded as fellow Polynesian entrepreneurs. the first political party of the terri- At an earlier meeting to discuss the tory, Rassemblement Démocratique project, Tukoroirangi Morgan, ceo of des Populations Tahitiennes (rdpt), Iwi International and former president under whose banner he had been of the Māori Party, had stated that he elected deputy of the territory in the was very proud of the project, which French National Assembly. When to him symbolized that Polynesians Paris granted limited autonomy to all could come together and cooperate French territories in 1957, Pouvanaa economically as one family (TI, 13 became vice president (akin to chief April 2018). However, nearly one year minister) of the territorial government. later it was announced that Kaitiaki A year later, however, in violation of Tagaloa was pulling out of the project, his parliamentary immunity, he was as no other investor had been found to arrested on dubious charges, dismissed provide the rest of the capital needed from his posts, and sentenced to a (TI, 3 July 2019). long prison sentence for allegedly For the second economic megapro- inciting arson. Meanwhile, the ter- ject, an aquaculture farm on Hao atoll ritory lost its limited autonomy and run by Chinese-funded joint-venture was placed once again under direct company Tahiti Nui Ocean Foods, authoritarian colonial rule, and the construction has begun but is appar- rdpt party was banned. All of this, ently stalling. Investigative journalist of course, was to pave the way for the Dominique Schmitt of Tahiti-Pacifique nuclear weapons testing center on the Magazine hence wondered whether atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa, the project was really intended to be which began construction in 1962 and political reviews • polynesia 235 was operational from 1966 to 1996. Flosse was right, however, in Pouvanaa remained under house arrest doubting the French judicial system’s in France for ten years and was not commitment to justice. On 26 Octo- allowed to return to Tahiti until 1968; ber, merely two days after the historic he was prevented from being a found- verdict on Pouvanaa, opposition ing father of a nation that was denied leader Temaru lost his seat in the a normal path of decolonization due Assembly of French Polynesia due to nuclear neocolonialism.