Political Reviews
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Political Reviews Micronesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 michael lujan bevacqua, landisang l kotaro, monica c labriola, clement yow mulalap Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 peter clegg, lorenz gonschor, margaret mutu, christina newport, steven ratuva, forrest wade young The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 29, Number 1, 93–188 © 2017 by University of Hawai‘i Press 93 134 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) Development Report, 2014 Global Gover- Fenua Communication already owns nance and Policy Space for Development. the weekday newspaper Tahiti-Infos. New York: United Nations. Unsurprisingly this change in owner- ship transformed TPM, once feared by local oligarchs for its investigative reporting and scathing editorials, into French Polynesia a more docile publication. While du In the often-turbulent recent politi- Prel continues to write good editori- cal history of French Polynesia, the als occasionally and the magazine year under review was a relatively still contains investigative articles, the calm one. Against all odds, Edouard publication has clearly become more Fritch consolidated his power as the mainstream and now contains a lot country’s president, transforming his of trivia, missing some of the intellec- tenuous tenure in office into one based tual depth of the old monthly edition. on a comparatively solid majority, and Also, for outsiders, the both reliable uniting under his leadership all politi- and manageable chronicle of impor- cal forces that oppose both indepen- tant political and social events that dence and Fritch’s predecessor Gaston TPM provided is being missed. Flosse. Meanwhile, for the first time What remained the dominant in over a decade, the country hosted a topic in local politics for the first half French presidential visit, which made of the review period, however, was some hopeful impressions, but at the the ongoing power struggle between same time the French government con- President Edouard Fritch and his tinues to stubbornly refuse to engage predecessor, Gaston Flosse, until it with United Nations institutions to was essentially won by the former work with them toward the country’s in early 2016. In September 2014, decolonization. when Flosse was removed from office The review period started with because of a definitive conviction in a yet another unfortunate change in corruption case, his longtime confi- the local media landscape. In August dant and former son-in-law Fritch had 2015, at the end of the summer break routinely taken over the presidency (as one of its many anachronistic with the understanding that Flosse colonial absurdities, French Polyne- would continue to hold the reins of sia follows the French metropolitan power from behind the scenes. Fritch, calendar and is thus the only country however, developed his own taste for in the southern hemisphere to have its political power, and tensions between long “summer vacation” during the the two soon become apparent. In pleasant austral winter and not during May 2015, the majority party Taho- the very hot season at the beginning eraa Huiraatira split when Fritch of the year), the formerly monthly formed his own caucus in the local news magazine Tahiti Pacifique (TPM) assembly named Tapura Huiraatira, became a weekly, after having been and on Flosse’s order all members of sold by its founder and editor Alex the new formation were expelled from W du Prel to local Chinese business Tahoeraa. Fritch subsequently formed tycoon Albert Moux, whose company a minority coalition government with political reviews • polynesia 135 the small anti-independence opposi- namely, that assembly backbenchers tion party A Tia Porinetia (atp), while are tempted to cross the floor toward Flosse’s “rump-Tahoeraa” several whichever political formation is in times attempted to block the govern- power if some types of advantages ment by withholding support in criti- or minor government positions are cal budgetary votes. However, Flosse offered to them or their family mem- failed in efforts to enlist the support bers—Fritch was able to extend his of the pro-independence Union Pour majority throughout the remainder of La Démocratie (upld), which would the year. Starting off with 16 members have been necessary to create a new in June, over the following months majority and overthrow Fritch in a Tapura Huiraatira was able to woo 5 no-confidence vote. more Tahoeraa members into turn- Meanwhile, the process of formally ing their back on Flosse and joining splitting Tahoeraa into two mutu- them. Finally, in the first week of ally hostile organizations was far December, even one of upld’s mem- from over, as both factions attempted bers, Joëlle Frébault of the Marquesas to gain control over the party as a Islands, defected to the government whole. After an unsuccessful attempt side, which, including the 8 seats of by Flosse to oust Fritch from Taho- Tapura’s coalition partner atp, now eraa, in which he continued to hold added up to 29 seats—a bare but the vice presidency, in mid-August workable majority that no longer 2015, Fritch fought back and filed a necessitated any tradeoffs to gain complaint with the local courts ask- upld’s tacit support in passing laws ing them to declare Flosse removed or making budgetary appropriations. from the party’s leadership, arguing Consequently, on 9 December Tapura that as a convicted felon he cannot be and atp merged into a common cau- Tahoeraa’s chairman according to the cus named Rassemblement pour une party’s statutes (TI, 15 Aug 2015). Majorité Autonomiste (autonomiste The complaint dragged along in local political discourse meaning in through the notoriously slow and support of the current political system inefficient court system and hear- but opposed to independence; TI, ings were several times postponed 7 Dec 2015; DT, 9 Dec 2015). (TI, 12 Oct 2015), but it was soon As the next step, Fritch and atp rendered obsolete by more solid leader Teva Rohfritsch prepared the political maneuvers to consolidate merger of the parties themselves, Fritch’s power outside of Tahoeraa. implying that the president had By mid-November, Assembly Speaker definitively given up any attempts to Marcel Tuihani, second-in-command wrest control over Tahoeraa from within the Flosse loyalist “rump-Taho- Flosse. As Fritch’s group and atp eraa,” opined in an interview in Tahiti were essentially identical in terms of Pacifique that between Fritch and his their platforms—opposing both Flosse party, “reconciliation was no longer and independence—the merger was conceivable” (TPM, 13 Nov 2015). less an issue of harmonizing politi- Following one of the most basic cal ideas than of trading offices and “natural laws” of local politics— posts within the hierarchy of the new 136 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) party. Finally, on 20 February 2016, discourse appealing to nostalgia of the merger was formalized during a the “good old times” when Flosse founding convention in the Aorai Tini was president (occasionally laced with Hau congress hall in Pirae, Fritch’s Tahitian nationalist and anticolonial home municipality, where he is the rhetoric to woo voters who would mayor. Attended by at least 8,000 otherwise support upld), the octo- people, the convention confirmed the genarian but vital Flosse might well new party’s name as Tapura Huiraa- have yet another comeback in the next tira, its logo and color (red), as well as elections in 2018. its basic platform. The party claims to On the other hand, the more stand for more transparency and hon- consistently anticolonial, “sovereign- esty in politics and to support innova- tist” upld (the term independence tion and reform (TI, 20 Feb 2016). having been increasingly replaced by While the latter sounds good, it sovereignty in their discourse) is now seems rather doubtful whether the only the third-ranked political force, party seriously stands for these values, holding ten assembly seats. But despite as Fritch’s tactics of majority forma- having lost significant numbers of tion in the assembly are virtually votes in the last territorial election as indistinguishable from those of earlier well as several municipalities in the majorities under former presidents town council elections that followed, Flosse, Temaru, and Tong Sang. Fur- upld still has large numbers of core thermore, the leading team of Tapura supporters, among rural and working- Huiraatira consists almost exclusively class Tahitians as well as urban intel- of former Tahoeraa cadres—unsurpris- lectuals, along with an unbreakable, ingly so, since just like Tapura, atp broad popular majority in the city of and its predecessor parties are virtually Faaa, the country’s largest municipal- all earlier splits from Tahoeraa arising ity, where Temaru has been mayor from personal differences with Flosse. since 1983. The triumph of having A truly innovative political movement succeeded in mobilizing the majority that seriously aims at political reforms of UN member states to the country’s has been needed for many years but reinscription on the list of non-self- currently seems nowhere in sight. governing territories (nsgts) in 2013 But Fritch’s success in wresting was certainly no small achievement power from Flosse should not be and has helped to consolidate sup- misinterpreted as a definitive defeat of port among the party’s followers. Tahoeraa, as the “Old Lion” and his While many youths see upld as just as party are far from having sunk into dominated by a fossilized oligarchy of obscurity. With eighteen members, old-generation political leaders as the Tahoeraa still has the second largest pro-French parties, there are also some caucus in the assembly, and in Faaa rising stars within the sovereigntist on 28 November, Tahoeraa held its movement, including Moetai Broth- party convention, which was also well erson, a young intellectual gaining attended by thousands of delegates prominence as a confidant and pos- (DT, 30 Nov 2015).