PACIFIC STUDIES a journal devoted to the study of the Pacific-- its islands and adjacent countries NOVEMBER 1988 Anthropology Archaeology Art History Ethnomusicology Folklore Geography History Sociolinguistics Political Science Sociology Published by THE INSTITUTE FOR POLYNESIAN STUDIES (Brigham Young University-Hawaii) Funded by the Polynesian Cultural Center EDITORIAL BOARD Fergus Clunie Fiji Museum Paul Alan Cox Brigham Young University Roger Green University of Auckland Renée Heyum University of Hawaii Francis X. Hezel, S. J. Micronesian Seminar Rubellite Johnson University of Hawaii Adrienne Kaeppler Smithsonian Institution Robert Kiste University of Hawaii Robert Langdon Australian National University Ioane LeMamea Pacific Islanders’ Educational Research Center, N.Z. Stephen Levine Victoria University Katharine Luomala University of Hawaii Barrie Macdonald Massey University Cluny Macpherson University of Auckland Leonard Mason University of Hawaii Malama Meleisea Canterbury University Norman Meller University of Hawaii Richard M. Moyle University of Auckland Colin Newbury Oxford University Douglas Oliver University of Hawaii Margaret Orbell Canterbury University Nancy Pollock Victoria University Karl Rensch Australian National University Bradd Shore Emory University Yosihiko Sinoto Bishop Museum William Tagupa Honolulu, Hawaii Francisco Orrego Vicuña Universidad de Chile Tuaopepe Felix Wendt University of the South Pacific Edward Wolfers University of Wollongong Articles and reviews in Pacific Studies are abstracted or indexed in Sociologi- cal Abstracts, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, America: His- toy and Life, Historical Abstracts, Abstracts in Anthropology, Anthropologi- cal Literature, PAIS Bulletin, International Political Science Abstracts, International Bibliography of Periodical Literature, and International Bibli- ography of Book Reviews. PACIFIC STUDIES Editor DALE B. ROBERTSON Associate Editor Associate Editor GLORIA L. CRONIN R. LANIER BRITSCH Book Review Editor Technical Editor MAX E. STANTON SHARLENE ROHTER Editorial Policy Pacific Studies is published three times each year by The Institute for Polynesian Studies, Brigham Young University-Hawaii, Laie, Hawaii 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is U.S. $20.00. Accounts payable to The Institute for Polynesian Studies should be sent to the editor. Articles submitted to the editor should be the original typewritten copy, double spaced. Authors may write to the editor for a style sheet. Books for review should also be sent to the editor. The Institute for Polynesian Studies is an organization funded by Brigham Young University-Hawaii, The Islands Foundation, and the Polynesian Cultural Center. The Institute assists the University in meet- ing its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and publication. The Institute cooperates with other scholarly and research institutions in achieving their objectives. It publishes monographs, produces films, underwrites research, and spon- sors conferences on the Pacific islands. Further information on the activities of the Institute may be obtained by writing to its director, Jerry K. Loveland, at the above address. ©1988 Brigham Young University-Hawaii. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. ISSN 0275-3596 Volume 12 November 1988 Number 1 SPECIAL ISSUE: POLITICAL CHANGE IN THE PACIFIC CONTENTS Articles Introduction STEPHEN LEVINE, Guest Editor . 1 Constitutional Dynamic, Political Risk: Self-Determination in New Caledonia, 1986-1987 ALAN CLARK . 5 Elections, Compact, and Assassination in the Republic of Palau DONALD R. SHUSTER . 23 Guam’s Quest for Political Identity ROBERT F. ROGERS . 49 Before the Storm: An Analysis of the Fiji General Election of 1987 BRIJ V. LAL . 71 The 1987 Westminster Constitutional Crisis in Fiji WILLIAM E. H. TAGUPA. 97 Reviews Peter Hayes, Lyuba Zarsky, and Walden Bello, American Lake: Nuclear Peril in the Pacific (CHAR MILLER) . 153 Stewart Firth, Nuclear Playground (F. ALLAN HANSON) . 159 Bruce Knapman, Fiji’s Economic History, 1874-1939: Studies of Capitalist Colonial Development (JOHN OVERTON) . 161 Michael Taylor, ed., Fiji: Future Imperfect? (ROBERT NORTON) . 163 Claudia Knapman, White Women in Fiji, 1835-1930: The Ruin of Empire? (NOELINE V. HALL) . 168 Laura Marie Torres Souder-Jaffery, Daughters of the Island: Contemporary Chamorro Women Organizers on Guam (EVE C. PINSKER) . 171 Stephen Levine and Raj Vasil, Maori Political Perspectives: He Whakaaro Máori Mó Ngá Ti Kanga Káwanatanga (MICHÈLE D. DOMINY) . 175 Angela Ballara, Proud to Be White? A Survey of Pakeha Prejudice in New Zealand (BARBARA HARRISON) . 180 Ian Cameron, Lost Paradise: The Exploration of the Pacific (O. H. K. SPATE) ................................... 183 Gary L. Fitzpatrick with Riley M. Moffat, Palapala‘aina: The Early Mapping of Hawai‘i (NORMAN J. W. THROWER) . 186 John Bach, The Australia Station: A History of the Royal Navy in the South West Pacific, 1821-1913 (JOSEPH C. MEREDITH) . 188 Jean-Paul Latouche, Mythistoire Tungaru: Cosmologies et généalogies aux îles Gilbert (H. G. A. HUGHES). 193 Note: De Peyster’s Rebecca Logbook. 198 Contributors . 200 PACIFIC STUDIES SPECIAL ISSUE: POLITICAL CHANGE IN THE PACIFIC Vol. 12, No. 1 November 1988 INTRODUCTION Stephen Levine, Guest Editor Victoria University of Wellington Not so very long ago it was a commonplace for commentators to describe the contemporary Pacific as a wholly stable, indeed tranquil region, one far removed from the conflicts and collisions so characteris- tic of other parts of the globe. Despite the scholarly trappings that often surrounded such a view, this perspective expressed a vision as romantic in its own way as many earlier perceptions had proved to be. Repeat- edly, it seems, an impulse appears to arise, among intellectuals and trav- elers alike, overcoming critical thought, an impulse determined to assign various social, cultural, economic, and political blessings corre- sponding to those gifts of scenery and climate that are the region’s natu- ral and indisputable inheritance. Now in the late 1980s, however, there is much less talk about a “Pacific way.” From the viewpoint of the international relations special- ist, for instance, ample evidence exists of the region’s growing salience to significant powers on its periphery and beyond. As for regional groupings, those based on affinities of ethnicity and interest are increas- ingly assuming roles incompatible with the inclinations of more formal, all-encompassing associations. The nation-states themselves, too, have begun to develop larger, more complex patterns of interaction, with each other, within and towards various international political institu- tions, and, perhaps most importantly, with larger and more powerful actors in the international arena. This increasingly variegated international political activity makes it 1 2 Pacific Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1--November 1988 more difficult, of course, for observers to offer useful generalizations about the political behavior of the region as a whole. Equally, examina- tion of the domestic or internal politics of Pacific island entities con- firms that in that sphere, too, earlier perceptions about the continuity of harmonious political arrangments were somewhat premature. From every angle, in fact, it is evident that an era in Pacific political history has drawn to a close. Naturally these sorts of developments offer challenges to those-- never many--with a professional scholarly interest in Pacific political affairs. By its very nature, the subject matter of this special issue of Pacific Studies--political change in the Pacific--precludes presentation of any final words on its topic. What this issue does provide, however, are several studies from experienced academics with lengthy back- grounds of involvement with their particular field of interest. Each of them, moreover, retains a commitment to original, independent in- quiry, as well as a vivid sense of the limited power of earlier work fully to describe, explain, and interpret ongoing Pacific political processes. The ways in which political change may come about are many, of course, particularly when the meaning of “politics” is taken in its larg- est sense. Within a more restricted or conventional approach, however, the repertoire of options is not especially vast. It encompasses elections, with emphasis on the peaceful transfer of formal power, but takes in other means as well, such as assassination and coups. Within this neces- sarily brief issue all of these approaches to political change make their appearance. Clark and Shuster separately analyze developments that together seem particularly grim. In each essay, bright hopes fade, and great promise goes unfulfilled, as assassination and other forms of politi- cal violence make a mockery of more soothing rhetoric about the demo- cratic prospect. Tagupa and Lal, in turn, approach what has become a succession of coups in Fiji. Here, the rules of political engagement have altered dramatically, and perhaps irrevocably, in the very nation whose political leadership earlier sought so self-consciously to promote a dis- tinctively “Pacific way” embodying consensual problem-solving styles of governance. Each of the four authors explores events whose common feature is a shared predisposition to travel down extra-constitutional paths towards a deeply felt political end. In every case, at