[>ol)mesia in Review: Issues and Events, I July I998 to 30 June I999 Reviews of American Samoa, the 1998. This expanded the cabinet Cook Islands, Hawai'i, and Tuvalu from IS to 17 members, including 4 are not included in this issue. women. More important, the reshuf­ fle prompted the resignation from the FRENCH POLYNESIA governing coalition of Emile Vernau­ The year under review holds echoes don, leader of the Ai'a Api party. Ver­ of years past in terms of yet another naudon was enraged by Flosse's coop­ split in the governing coalition tion of his hitherto closest Ai'a Api between Gaston Plosse's Tahoeraa colleagues, Jean Christophe Bouissou and Emile Vernaudon's Ai'a Api. As a and Lucie Lucas, with the inducement result Vernaudon was bent on revenge of ministerial posts. and joined forces with the pro-inde­ This strategy of luring the leading pendence opposition. The outcome of lights from junior alliance parties and the senatorial elections also brought ensuring their loyalty was precisely a sense of dejii-vu as Plosse added the how Plosse rid himself of Jean Juven­ final jewel to his collection of political tin and effectively brought about the offices. Concurrent with the election demise of the Here Ai'a party in the campaign was the trial of antinuclear mid-I990S (TP, July 1998,7-9). activists who participated in the air­ Vernaudon suspected that a similar port riots three years ago. No'nviolent fate was planned for Ai'a Api. The demonstrators were let off with a rupture was yet another in a long warning, whereas those guilty of vio­ history of short-lived marriages of lence and two trade union leaders, the convenience and subsequent divorces supposed instigators of the riots, were between Vernaudon and Plosse. The subject to prison sentences. Defense latest alliance had enabled Vernaudon lawyers failed to persuade the judge to win a seat in the French national of a government conspiracy against assembly in May 1997. By alienating the activists. The issue that most pre­ Vernaudon, who is not only a deputy occupied the government during these but also mayor of Mahina and a terri­ twelve months was the campaign to torial assemblyman, Plosse set himself reform the statute of autonomy via up for harsh criticism of his leader­ a constitutional amendment. The ship in both Tahiti and Paris. process and content of the reform Vernaudon claimed that Plosse was, however, quite different from wanted to eliminate the Ai'a Api that of the Noumea Accord in New party due to Vernaudon's persistent Caledonia. disagreement with decisions taken by After the territorial by-elections, the government. Notably, in 1998 President Gaston Plosse consolidated Vernaudon was opposed to the blow­ his power and rewarded his followers out of costs for building a presidential in a ministerial reshuffle in mid-June "palais, " which was estimated to 221 222 THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC' SPR;ING 2000 reach over 3 billion FCFP, the 200 mitted a draft electoral refol;m law to million FCFP for the inaugural presi­ the French national assembly. dential bodyguard service, IOO mil­ Following his departure from the lion FCFP to pay for the additional government, Vernaudon worked with ministers, and I.2 billion FCFP to pur­ the Tavini party in the opposition, and chase a mere 5 acres as the site for a they ran a joint campaign in the sen­ waste facility. He noted Plosse's prac­ ate elections, even though he does not tice of subsidizing municipal councils share Tavini's desire for independence that demonstrate loyalty to the Taho­ from France. The united front was to eraa party. This practice includes the prove unsuccessful, however, through transfer of territorial land to Plosse's no fault on their candidate's part. The own council of Pirae for the construc­ opposition would have been hard put tion of an ostentatious new town hall to field a better candidate than Jean­ to be built at the cost of 800 million Marius Raapoto (formerly head of the FCFP (TP, Sep I998, 26-29). defunct Tireo party) in terms of intel­ Another salvo was launched by ligence, integrity, and commitment to Vernaudon against Plosse and his the welfare of the people. government in October, this time at The result of the election on 27 the national assembly. Much of the September for French Polynesia's sole speech consisted of vitriolic attacks representative to the French Senate on Plosse's leadership, especially alle­ was no surprise, given that it was gations with regard to his political never a question of whether Plosse empire building, his failure to declare would win but rather by how much. the extent and origins of his immense Plosse's Tahoeraa party and its allies wealth, his dicta,tori~l style, and his control 37 of the teqitory's 44 munic­ obsession with incessant reform of the ipal councils, which in turn nominate territory's statutes. Reiterating an old the majority of representatives to the opposition refrain, Vernaudon argued electoral college determining the that the government only enjoys its senate position. Of the 50I electors, majority rule thanks to a skewed elec­ 385 (or 80 percent) voted for Flosse; toral system that favors the outer 89 (I8.4 percent) for Raapoto of the islands, these mostly being conserva­ Tavini-Ai'a Api coalition; 8 for Yves tive strongholds of Plosse's Tahoeraa Conroy, an independent; none for party. The result is a situation where Alain Ferte of the National Front; the largely urban Society Islands, with and I9 cast informal votes (DT, 28 75 percent of the population, elect Sep I998, 26"':28). only half the territorial representa­ The landslide victory for Plosse tives. This marked the beginning of earned him a national rec.ord in- terms Vernaudon's campaign to reform the of votes for senate candidates. How­ territorial electoral system giving ever, his accumulation of offices has greater representation to the urban given cause for concern. A former areas (Vernaudon's speech of 23 Octo­ president, Francis Sanford, believed ber, reprinted in full in TP, Nov I998, he could only do justice to the 20). Later, on II March I999, he sub- demands of one high office and POLITICAL REVIEWS· POLYNESIA 223 resigned from the senate to devote gram. (Those charged with arson and himself to the presidency. By contrast, looting in Papeete on the same day Flosse deems himself more than able were tried separately.) The defendants to carry out the duties of his concur­ in this case were mainly members of rent public offices as president, sena­ the Tavini party or the radical A Tia tor, and mayor, though he stresses I Mua trade union federation. The that his obligations as president take defense alleged a conspiracy on the priority and he may review his posi­ part of the territorial and state gov­ tion as mayor by the next municipal ernments in targeting these opposition elections (DT, 28 Sep, 26-28). It is groups. It was argued that the terri­ noteworthy that one of Flosse's first tory seized the opportunity to dis­ acts in the French Senate was to credit the independence movement defend the holding of multiple offices and ban the most troublesome trade by politicians during a debate on a union, while the state was left to con­ socialist party draft law designed clude its nuclear test series in peace. to prohibit such practices. In keeping with past traditions relat­ Flosse's ascendancy to the senate ing to charges against independence signals the departure of Senator and antinuclear activists, defense Daniel Millaud, the last representative lawyers presented their case as a of the founding generation or the trial of French nuclear colonialism Tahitian autonomist movement, which (TP, Oct 1998, 7-1°; DT, several included leaders such as Pouvanaa a editions, 19-26 Sep 1998). Oopa, John Teariki, and Francis San­ The defense argued that police ford. These men were all lobbying for actions had contributed to provoking expansive forms of autonomy long the violence at the airport. Defendants before Flosse saw the light in 1980. who gave testimony acknowledged As early as 1969, Millaud gave sub­ that a "collective insanity" ensued stance to the autonomist vision as after a gendarme threw a tear gas coauthor of a report detailing the grenade at the protesters, including a nature of such a status. During his group of women engaged in a sit-in. years of service to the territory as It also emerged that a police grenade senator, Millaud has scrutinized the was responsible for starting the fire impact of the nuclear test program, that destroyed part of the airport, so campaigned against French incursions die defendants were not charged with on territorial autonomy, and, more arson. recently, sought a fair deal for French An impressive range of witnesses Polynesia in its dealings with the were called for the defense, including European Union. Jacques Ihorai and Monseigneur Cop­ Also in late September, the long­ penrath, the respective heads of the awaited trial took place of the people Evangelical and Catholic churches in charged with rioting at the interna­ Papeete; Cotra Uregei, a prominent tional airport on 6 September 1995 Kanak trade unionist and indepen­ (see earlier review), the day after dence activist; Cyril Legayic a Tahi­ France resumed its nuclear test pro- tian trade union leader; Gabriel 224 THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC· SPRING 2000 Tetiarahi, a leader of Tahitian non­ party (DT, 26 Sep 1998; TP, Nov government organizations; and a let­ 1998,7). ter of supp~rt was presented from The overriding political priority Dominique Voynet, the Green French for President Flosse in the year under environment minister.