political reviews • melanesia 433 the fap–svt coalition, and this seemed References to be confirmed when in late Decem- FT, Fiji Times. Daily. Suva. ber Adi Kuini Speed announced her resignation as chair of the Fijian Asso- jpsc, Joint Parliamentary Select Commit- ciation Party. Her reasons were prima- tee. 1997. Report of the Joint Parliamen- rily linked to poor health. However, tary Select Committee on the Report of the there were also reports of discord in Fiji Constitution Review Committee. Par- liamentary Paper 17. Suva: Government the party over the ongoing coalition Printer. with the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei. Post, The Daily Post. Suva. After a decade of national pain and Reeves, Paul, Tomasi R Vakatora, and Brij recrimination, there was a certain V Lal. 1996. The Fiji Islands: Towards a irony in the way 1997 ended. A United Future. Report of the Fiji Constitu- spokesman for the Taukei Move- tion Review Commission. Parliamentary ment—the archnationalist Fijian Paper 34. Suva: Government Printer. movement that had strongly backed Reprinted 1997. the coups—called for 1998 to be “a Review. Monthly. Suva. year of reconciliation and the true crossroads where Fijians and Indians leave aside their racial differences.” He also advocated the renewal of land Irian Jaya leases to Indian tenant farmers (Post, The Human Development Index pub- 30 Dec 1997, 2). Meanwhile a poll lished in the Indonesian Central conducted by the Fiji Times found that Bureau of Statistics’ 1996 Social Eco- more Indians preferred Rabuka as nomic National Survey placed Irian prime minister to Reddy or any other Jaya near the bottom of the provincial candidate. Rabuka remained the over- table, above only East Timor and West all favorite among the different races, Nusa Tenggara. Government statistics followed by Kamikamica, Reddy, and are notoriously inscrutable—Irian Jaya Chaudhry. also appears as the province with the If 1998 is to build on the reconcilia- second highest non-oil income per tion that marked the past year, it will capita (due almost entirely to the pres- require even greater efforts by the ence of the Freeport mine)—but the country’s leaders. Reaching a political bureau’s rating does appear to capture agreement on the constitution was per- fairly precisely the persistent lack of haps the easy part. Now that is over, infrastructure in Irian Jaya. These the hard part—making that agreement shortcomings were starkly exposed work and making the economy during 1997, as the numbers of deaths work—is about to start. in Irian Jaya attributed to the drought sandra tarte of 1997–98 induced by the El Niño southern oscillation exceeded the total for all of Indonesia’s other provinces combined. The worst drought in more than a century combined cruelly with 434 the contemporary pacific • fall 1998 an international collapse of confidence but as further reports from more iso- in the Suharto regime and the Indone- lated and low-lying locations were sian rupiah, which finished 1997 as the received, some of the magnitude of the worst-performing currency in the impending disaster became apparent. world and placed many Irianese in a The announcement in mid-September perilous position as 1998 began. by the regent of Jayawijaya, J B Wenas, Several locations in Irian Jaya began of 138 apparently drought-related to experience unusually dry weather as deaths in his regency was the first offi- early as January 1997; by May the cial recognition of the devastating drought had begun in earnest, and by impact of the drought. August most of the province was expe- By the end of September, reports riencing at least some problems with from Merauke Regency, where 11 the supply of food and water. Early people had died, brought the provin- warnings of an exceptional El Niño cial total to 265 drought-related event issued in July by the Department deaths. The number of deaths climbed of Meteorology in Jakarta went above 500 in October and, by the end unheeded, and the failings of the coun- of 1997, as many as 673 people in five try’s heavily centralized bureaucracy regencies (Jayawijaya, Merauke, were swiftly exposed when the underfi- Nabire, Mimika Timur, and Puncak nanced and poorly equipped provincial Jaya) were reported to have died as a administration was confronted with direct result of the drought and ensu- the first reports of massive mortality in ing famine. Several factors complicate September. the interpretation of this figure: Unlike neighboring Papua New ground-checking of the earlier reports Guinea, where severe drought and from Jayawijaya suggested that the famine were widespread, the worst totals from some localities represented effects of the drought were experienced all known deaths, and included people in a relatively circumscribed area of dead for a number of years. Against Irian Jaya, consisting of the eastern this tendency to inflate totals in order half of the central range and its south- to convey a sense of urgency about the ern slopes, as far east as the border situation must be weighed the fact that with Papua New Guinea. At altitudes many deaths have almost certainly above 2,200 meters, such as the settled gone unreported. Detailed surveys Kwiyawagi and Agadugume areas of during November by a joint team the West Baliem River watershed, a from the International Committee for series of frosts devastated the garden the Red Cross and PT Freeport Indone- crops and destroyed most of the tree sia’s Malaria Control Unit in the crops, leaving thousands almost Mapnduma area of Jayawijaya instantly without food. Minor frosts Regency revealed 103 previously un- are a relatively common occurrence, reported deaths, including astonishing and the local administration for the mortality rates of approximately 20 Jayawijaya Regency at Wamena was percent for two communities and prepared to some extent for the news malaria infection rates of 90-to-100 of food shortages from Kwiyawagi; percent in other communities not usu- political reviews • melanesia 435 ally exposed to the disease. Similar and Nabire) newly constituted from results may later be documented in the former regency of Nabire. Of equally remote locations along the these, the most efficient was undoubt- southern fall of the central range. edly the Jayawijaya committee under Thus far, mortality attributed to the energetic leadership of Regent poor water supply, respiratory ill- Wenas. But much of the actual delivery nesses, and the spread of malaria to of aid rested with the Missionary Avia- higher altitudes appears to have tion Fellowship, which committed accounted for most of the deaths. Fail- most of its modest resources to the ing food supply certainly contributed tasks of both ferrying food and medi- to the weakened conditions of many cal aid, and coordinating their distri- communities, but it is feared that the bution. Fellowship pilots with previous worst effects of the famine that has experience in the region were recalled followed the drought may not be expe- from overseas, as were former mission- rienced until 1998. The delivery of aries to conduct surveys in areas with food and medical aid was hampered which they were already familiar. from August until November by the Although the military provided heavy smoke haze that obscured much Hercules aircraft to fly rice and other of the central range and its southern materials into the major highlands slopes. Vast areas of alpine scrub and center of Wamena, further distribu- lower montane forest in the Lorentz tion relied heavily on the light Cessna National Park were consumed by fire planes of the Missionary Aviation in August and September, and in indi- Fellowship, together with up to four vidual incidents elsewhere people were helicopters, two supplied by the army, caught and killed in house fires. Rain one by the fellowship, and one by PT finally fell in many parts of Irian Jaya Freeport Indonesia. during November and December, Toward the end of the year, interna- relieving water supply problems and tional appeals launched on behalf of allowing crops to be planted for the Irian Jaya by the International Com- first time in up to seven months. How- mittee of the Red Cross, the United ever, local climatic variations in the Nations Department of Humanitarian highlands have seen rainfall and water Affairs, and World Vision had raised supply problems persist into 1998 in substantial sums of money. A signifi- certain areas, and the lapse between cant proportion of the aid delivery planting and harvest of the first signifi- effort was assumed by World Vision cant crops will place many communi- Indonesia, whose staff have extensive ties at risk of starvation. experience in the province. Not until Relief efforts in Irian Jaya were December, however, after news had coordinated by a central government broken of the shocking mortality docu- body, Satkorlak, established at a pro- mented by the Red Cross, did Presi- vincial level in Jayapura and matched dent Suharto finally instruct Ginandjar by at least two regency-level Satlak Kartasasmita, the state minister for committees for Jayawijaya and for the planning, to coordinate a national three regencies (Puncak Jaya, Paniai, response to the famine in Irian Jaya. 436 the contemporary pacific • fall 1998 The funds for this relief have appar- Guinea. The Trans-Irian Highway (the ently been guaranteed by Jakarta, irre- Jayapura-Wamena section of which spective of further developments in the was formally opened by President national financial crisis. Suharto later in September) was tar- In addition to the other agencies, geted in April, when a party of survey- the International Committee for the ors was attacked and one of them Red Cross secured permission in killed. But the principal events involv- November to reenter and supply aid to ing the Organisasi Papua Merdeka the Mapnduma area, where it had during 1997 were the series of mass played a key role in 1996 in the (ulti- surrenders in the Merauke Regency mately unsuccessful) negotiations for during May, which were widely the release of hostages taken by the reported in the national media.