Political Reviews The Region in Review: International Issues and Events, 2017 nic maclellan Melanesia in Review: Issues and Events, 2017 volker boege, mathias chauchat, alumita durutalo, joseph daniel foukona, budi hernawan, michael leach, james stiefvater The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 30, Number 2, 461–547 © 2018 by University of Hawai‘i Press 461 political reviews • melanesia 501 Fiji Native and Tribal Congress. 2018. New Caledonia Blog, http://fijinativetribalcongress300 .bravesites.com [accessed 29 March 2018] The year 2017 was said to be the last useful year to promote a calm Fiji One News. Fiji tv, Suva. and consensual completion of the IB, Islands Business. Monthly magazine, Nouméa Agreement before the 2018 Suva. referendum on independence. It has Jowitt, Anita. 2009. The Qarase v Baini- indeed seemed to be a transitional marama Appeal Case. Journal of South year. The previous year of 2016, Pacific Law 13 (1): 24. http://www.paclii which was a preelection year in .org/journals/fJSPL/vol13no1/pdf/jowitt2 metropolitan France, revealed some .pdf [accessed 11 Jan 2018] key events related to the collapse of Lal, Padma, Hazel Lim-Applegate, and the nickel price, which put the three Mahendra Reddy. 2001. The Land Tenure nickel plants in New Caledonia—the Dilemma in Fiji: Can Fijian Landowners Le Nickel Society (sln) in Nouméa, and Indo-Fijian Tenants Have Their Cake Vale in the South, and the Northern and Eat It Too? Pacific Economic Bulletin Province plant of Glencore—and the 16 (2): 106–119. upstream mining activity at risk. The Munro Ley’s Law. 2014. Land Sales nickel industry accounts for a quarter (Amendment) Act 2014. http://www of private-sector employment in the .munroleyslaw.com/land-sales-amendment country and 90 percent of its exports -act-2014/ [accessed 11 Jan 2018] (Delamarche 2016c). The country Nair, Robyn. 2017. Permanent No More: is footing the bill for the increase in The Slippery Surface of Fiji’s Civil Service. building costs and low local competi- Islands Business Sept: 29–32. tiveness. During his trip to New Cale- donia, French Prime Minister Manuel Nasiko, Repeka. 2017. Civil Servants Threatened by omrs. Fiji Times Online, Valls announced a €200 million loan 27 Sept. http://www.fijitimes.com/story for the Société Territoriale Calédoni- .aspx?id=417852 [accessed 5 Feb 2018] enne de Participations Industrielles (stcpi, the holding company run by Prasad, Biman. 2016. Is Our Democracy Really Working? Fiji Times Online, the three provinces of New Caledo- 30 Jan. http://www.fijitimes.com/story nia, which holds a 34 percent minor- .aspx?id=339680 [accessed 26 Jan 2018] ity share of the sln) (Delamarche 2016a). (€1 million = us$1.2 million.) Radio New Zealand. Bauxite 2015 In November, Prime Minister Valls Mining Practices in Fiji Criticised. 14 Dec. https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/ announced strong financial support pacific-news/292092/bauxite-mining for the Vale Plant, as he had done in -practices-in-fiji-criticised [accessed 1 Feb April 2016 for the sln. To prevent 2018] its possible closure, Valls pledged a €200 million loan and an additional ———. 2018. Calls for ILO to Step in after financial guarantee for 220 million Unionist Questioned by Police. 27 Jan. € https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/ (Delamarche 2016b). The situation pacific-news/349021/calls-for-ilo-to-step of the Northern plant was still to -in-after-fiji-unionist-questioned-by-police be resolved. In November 2016, the [accessed 28 Jan 2018] French government announced that 502 the contemporary pacific • 30:2 (2018) Glencore would not have to reimburse The Government of New Caledonia a €200 million tax exemption, the has been trying to curb health-care same amount the other two plants had costs as it has strived to balance its received. In total, €600 million was welfare budget. Health-care expen- lent to the three plants, the repayment diture, which has doubled in the last of which is assessed as unlikely. Offer- ten years, has risen at a faster rate ing job subsidies is a classic strategy in than the growth of the gross domestic French politics. The aid was most wel- product. The economic system has come because it allowed the country to exhausted all of its funds, while at the pursue its dream of wealth and avoid same time New Caledonia has built any reform of the French Overseas new health-care infrastructure and way of life. It had the huge advantage facilities—a brand-new hospital in the of enabling the French government South, a private polyclinic in Nouméa, to be the savior of New Caledonia. and a new Northern hospital—which The primary disadvantage was that are oversized for the population of this meant that important economic the island. Without any major deci- decisions could be postponed. sions being made by the government, The year 2017 was strongly influ- Valentine Eurisouké, the member of enced by 2016. The country’s financial the government in charge of health situation has remained on standby, care, has begun to push this issue waiting for the recovery in commodity with a view to achieving a success- prices and impending political dead- ful outcome by saving on costs and lines. There was also a strong mes- seeking new revenue streams. Working sage from the French government to under pressure, the government has the local one to make a “Keynesian” increased alcohol and tobacco taxes. budget deficit in order to stimulate the Finally, in December 2017, the economy. Nonetheless, 2017 has been Congress of New Caledonia accepted a year of economic slowdown and the names of the members of the new budgetary restraint, obscured by the Competition Authority, which will increasing public debt of the country. enforce antitrust law. The members of Local tax exemptions for the building the authority were mostly people from industry have fostered the illusion of overseas and France, with, as usual, economic boom, which has been paid very high salaries. Aurélie Zoude-Le for with massive budget deficits and Berre, currently director in the French increasing inequalities (Gorohouna National Assembly and appointed to 2017). The government’s economic the Legislation Committee, will be the strategy since 2008 has been a mix chairperson. The rapporteur will be of “Keynesian” voluntary public Virginie Cramesnil de Laleu, mag- spending and trickle-down econom- istrate in Paris. The other members ics (Chauchat 2017). A “wait and are Jean-Michel Stoltz, magistrate in see” attitude seems to have prevailed. Nouméa; Matthieu Buchberger, senior Nevertheless, 2017 has not been a lecturer at the University of New Cale- wasted year, as the New Caledonian donia; and Robert Philip Simpson, a government has not foregone all British citizen, who has set up similar change. authorities in Africa. political reviews • melanesia 503 Replacing customs duties with a about insecurity has quickly turned “General Consumption Tax” (tgc), into talking about Kanak delinquency based on added value like a Goods against all of the “others.” In the pre- and Services Tax (gst), has been a vailing political climate, this issue is major change. The reform started also used as a reminder of the French with a dry run beginning 1 April 2017 government’s responsibility for law (Réné 2017) and should enter into and order in this multicultural country. force in July 2018. Thus, the country The incidents were politicized to such has still been trying to remove cus- an extent that on 2 February 2017 the toms duties (which have given New Political Bureau of the flnks (Socialist Caledonian industries a competitive Kanak National Liberation Front) had advantage over imports) and to create to call for calm, restraint, and mod- a more neutral tax. Nevertheless, the eration. Huge public demonstrations transition phase might be accompa- followed the death of a young nurse nied by protection of local industry. in front of the St Louis enclave while This is why the government has pro- she was commuting home. In June, the posed a new tax, the “Cyclical Import public prosecutor made a statement Tax for the Protection of Local Manu- explaining that the death was caused facturing” (payable on taxable imports by young people frightening the nurse, competing with local producers), causing her to fall while they were and has also proposed a reduced tgc trying to steal her motorbike. On rate for local manufacturing. These 16 January 2017, French Minister of two actions would strongly limit the Justice Jean-Jacques Urvoas issued an inevitable exposure to regional trade, administrative circular outlining the a debate that is ongoing in Congress French government’s new priorities today. Maybe the system could be for law and order. This penal policy simplified by applying only one tax was strongly influenced by the strife rate instead of five. Nobody yet knows in St Louis. The minister emphasized if the tax will come into force in July tougher law enforcement for damage 2018 (Caprais 2018). to persons and property, cannabis At the end of 2016, a center of and drug dealing, the use of alcohol, unrest and insecurity—marked by domestic violence, and violence on the gunfire against police and inhabitants road, but he did not say a word about and recurrent roadblocks—emerged in fighting white-collar crime (Urvoas St Louis, a Kanak enclave located in 2017). Greater Nouméa, in the town of Mont Meanwhile, preparations are going Dore (Wéry 2017). Nicknamed the on for the referendum on indepen- “white city,” Nouméa built its history dence. The questions on which con- as a city of discrimination and exclu- sultation should be sought are already sion against the Kanak people, who written in the Nouméa Agreement: were pushed to the margins of society “Do you agree with New Caledonia (Dussy 2015, 147, 368).