ABC Radio National

While young Arabs might be demanding democratic rights, young Melanesians seem to be questioning the merits of democracy.

Mark Bannerman: Three months into the year, it's fair to say that in geopolitical germs, all eyes are focused on the Middle East and North Africa. Our own foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, has devoted a significant amount of time to the situation there, forcefully putting Australia's point of view.

So here's a question: Is his time being well spent? Should we be paying less attention to the countries around the Mediterranean and more to our Pacific neighbours? For many experts, the answer is a resounding yes. And the reason is simple: While young Arabs might be demanding democratic rights, young Melanesians seem to be questioning the merits of democracy in a big way.

Derek Brien is the director of the Pacific Institute of Public Policy in Vanuatu, and in a recent paper he warned that in countries like Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, democracy is under pressure. How serious is the crisis of confidence and where might this lead?

Well to try to answer those questions, Derek Brien is on the line from Vanuatu. Also in our Sydney studio we're joined by Jenny Hayward-Jones the director of the Myer Foundation Melanesia Program at the Lowy Institute. 

Mark Bannerman: Well Derek, if I can start with you—and don't hold back by any means—is it fair to say that democracy in these countries, as it's being applied, is essentially failing those countries?

Derek Brien: Yes, I think what we're seeing across the region, the Melanesian region—and this is not just the Pacific Institute saying this, notably in the last couple of days a prominent PNG elder statesman, Sir Rabbie Namaliu has come out saying that democracy and the parliamentary system in PNG is at a crossroads. And that's pretty much what we're saying. We're saying that the systems of democracy, not the principles of democracy, are increasingly under pressure in this region. What we're seeing is the failure of the systems which has led to the failure of leadership to be able to act in the national interest, and increasingly, particularly young people, are becoming more and more vocal and disillusioned with the antics of big man politics, which is perceived to be more and more in the interest of the individuals, and protecting political power, than in the national interest in addressing issues such as the delivery and growing of jobs and creating opportunities for a rapidly-growing, young, urbanised population across the region.

Mark Bannerman: Jenny Hayward-Jones, do you agree with that? Is that the feeling that you have?

Jenny Hayward-Jones: Well I'd take a slightly different tack, Mark. I think more responsibility needs to be shunted home to leaders themselves. Certainly the systems of government that are prevalent in Melanesia have been inherited from the British and from Australians, and Australia's spent a lot of time investing in governance in the region and improving that governance. But I don't think leaders should be allowed to get away with this. I mean yes, it's true, the systems may not be perfect, but you have to have some kind of political system, and all of them have democratic systems. It's the leaders who have failed to deliver to their people, it's the leaders who have failed to use the system wisely.

Mark Bannerman: Is it corruption that's going on here?

Jenny Hayward-Jones: Well I don't think anyone can deny that corruption is a huge problem, and certainly in Papua-New Guinea and in Solomon Islands; to a lesser degree in Vanuatu and to a lesser degree in Fiji, but it's a huge problem. And it's not just the Westminster system that has pushed this out, I mean big man politics is, as everyone knows, what most people know in the region, it came out of Melanesian culture. It didn't come out of the Westminster system. So I'm not blaming the culture, but I think leaders themselves and the communities that elect these leaders, need to take more responsibility for what they themselves are doing or failing to do.

Mark Bannerman: Right. Derek Brien, do you want to respond to that?

Derek Brien: I agree with Jenny that yes, there has to be responsibility on leaders and yes, there is definitely issues of corruption out there and poor leadership and poor management. I think taking the slightly different tack that we take is that looking at the systems in place that were inherited after independence, the checks and balances in that system simply aren't being applied to hold the leaders to account. Now you can't say that every single leader that's gone into parliament over the last 30, 40 years in those countries, has been inherently corrupt. The system itself has not been able to hold leadership to account because the population, the electorate, has no real connection with how that system operates . And in many cases, a lot of the MPs that come into parliament have no real appreciation as to how that system operates.

So what we need to look at, the overall system of big man politics, I think we need to recognise that that is inherent in the Melanesian way of doing things. The big man leadership isn't necessarily the problem, I mean big man leadership works at the community level through the role of the chiefs. It's how do you apply the systems that actually work and recognise that we are still in an era of big man leadership in this part of the world. But build that into a parliamentary system that with checks and balances then can apply because the electorate has got a grip on how those measures apply and can hold their leaders to account.

Mark Bannerman: OK, well let's take one country for example, Papua-New Guinea, which seems to be teetering on the brink. We've got a situation where the prime minister doesn't want to bring back parliament because he will face votes of no confidence. In turn, he wants to appoint a governor-general which he can't do legally, but he continues to try and do that. That just seems like a situation where the prime minister is not taking notice of what essentially are the checks and balances, he's ignoring people. How do you deal with that?

Derek Brien: Absolutely. And this is not just restricted to Papua-New Guinea. This chronic instability of parliament across Melanesia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, is rampant. I mean there was a change of leader of the opposition in Solomon Islands only yesterday, and the first act of the new opposition leader, the former prime minister, was to lodge a motion of no confidence. In Vanuatu we're in a particularly volatile situation or space since the end of last year when the government was toppled in a motion of no confidence.

It's because fundamentally it goes back to the make-up of parliament. I mean we don't have majority government in this part of the world, and we've never really had. Political parties generally aren't groupings of people coming together with substantial ideological positions. Political parties are grouped around the individual, and that's how, increasingly, people are voting for the individual and parties themselves are splintering because of competing interests of leaders. The checks and balances, one of the great checks and balances in the system is the vote of no confidence in the government of the day. That is being misused in the interests of leaders who simply want to topple a government to get into the big chair.

Mark Bannerman: All right. Now Jenny Hayward-Jones, I suppose at this point I have to ask you looking at Papua-New Guinea and, say, Vanuatu—is the notion of parliamentary democracy almost so totally at odds with the Melanesian way, if you like, that it just can't function?

Jenny Hayward-Jones: Well it's certainly at odds. There's a big clash between the Westminster-style system where there are checks and balances, and where the big men the chiefs, are held to account, and their decisions are not supposed to be law. They're supposed to be challenged which doesn't really exist—it does exist in some Melanesian cultures, I mean you have to remember too that there are multiple cultures within Melanesia, even within provinces in Papua-New Guinea, and within Vanuatu and within Solomon Islands; there's no one known Melanesian culture, but it's certainly true to say big man politics is probably at odds with Westminster, but I don't think they're completely incompatible. Again, I have to go back to it's really the quality of the leaders, the quality of the personnel, that's getting in to parliament, and they're obsessed with getting in to power, and as Derek said, getting into the big chair, getting the car and all the trappings that go with being a minister, so it's very important if you're a politician if you wanted to deliver to your people who elected you, you need to be in government. So the whole time you're in parliament, you're just trying to get into government through whatever means, and that's mostly motions of no confidence which creates this inherent instability in the system, means that much government just can't go on because governments are always looking over their shoulder, means the next motion of no confidence, and that's why Somare, who does want to hold on to the chair very much, is reluctant to face motions of no confidence.

Mark Bannerman: Now if I read it correctly from what both of you are saying, one of the common points is that these big men are first of all men, and they are much older. Is there a disconnect with the younger people? And again, from the statistics that you people have laid out, that there are so many young people coming through, they feel totally isolated, they're cut out of the process. Is that right? And what needs to be done? What will happen if something isn't done?

Derek Brien: That's right. Across these three countries you're looking at about half the population, or a little bit more than half the population, is under the age of 24, and this issue of succession planning in politics has been rife all the way back to independence. And in many ways has led to the splintering of political groupings, and the rise of independent and small one, two people parties across the system.

There is a disconnect. Young people are increasingly disillusioned with the systems and with their leaders, who have generally been around since independence over the last 30 and 40 years. Sir Michael Somare of course is regarded as the founding father of Papua-New Guinea, and all through Solomon Islands and Vanuatu as well, the leadership is entrenched with that old guard that were the founders of the nation. There are opportunities for new leaders to come through and I think over the next couple of elections cycles particularly, given the demographic, we are going to see a generational shift in political power, much greater generational shift, and that poses some great opportunities and this is pretty much why people are coming out now to talk about this issue and say 'It gives us the chance to actually have that dialogue in each nation about how do we tailor a functioning Melanesian democracy moving into the next generation?'

Mark Bannerman: I do want to bring Jenny in here, because there's another very important question: if we take all that on board that we will have that debate and there are those new people coming through, the reality is that the big men control things. Jenny, what I want to ask you is, does Australia have to have a different approach, say, to Fiji, who up until now they've said, 'OK, this is not a democracy, we're basically cutting you off.' Do we have to now discuss, negotiate, have diplomatic relations with them again?

Jenny Hayward-Jones: Well I think we do. I think we have to accept the reality that Fiji's not a democracy for the time being and probably for a long time to come. Prime Minister Bainimarama has said that he won't hold elections until 2014, if then, and even if then, he has already said that he'll exclude a number of parties. So it may not be the democracy that we're used to seeing in the Pacific in other parts of the Pacific, it may be a sub-standard democracy in Australian eyes. So I think if Australia wants to stay engaged with the region and have some influence in Fiji in the future, it needs to start offering some advice now, perhaps engaging more to try and craft that.

Mark Bannerman: If we don't do that, what are the dangers? Will there be other people who'll come into play? Other countries?

Jenny Hayward-Jones: Well we've already seen other countries, I mean China is very active in Fiji, not as active as they are in PNG for example, in terms of investment, but they're present, and China doesn't really mind what kind of government runs Fiji, in fact I think they'd still be there if there was a democratic government in Fiji. It doesn't really bother China. I don't think it will necessarily draw bad partners for Fiji, but my concern is that Australia will be pushed out as others come in who aren't so fussed about the quality of government.

Mark Bannerman: Derek, if I could come back to you finally. What do you think will happen if we don't come to terms with these serious problems that are affecting democracy, and in turn with the possibility of other countries entering the fray, what do you think the consequences will be if we don't address the problems?

Derek Brien: Well I mean following up from what Jenny said, the consequences for Australia, its increasingly obvious that Australia's policy and approach to the Pacific generally and Melanesia specifically, is out of touch with the reality of what's going on. And I would agree with what Jenny's just said, there are increasing numbers of players coming in to the region, we've got China, we've also got Indonesia, the Arab League are increasingly moving into this part of the world, and Russia. And these are states that don't necessarily uphold the same principles of democracy as say Australia would.

I think across the region, we're very concerned that given this youth bulge that we've got, given the fact that there are no employment opportunities or very few employment opportunities and next to zero migration opportunities for Melanesian young people, this has the potential to create even increasing pressure on leadership systems, parliamentary systems and democracy itself.

So what we're saying is there's no quick fix to this, to move politics away from big man patronage and build constituencies based on issues-based politics, is going to take probably another generation or so. But what we can do is tweak the system and look at having a national dialogue about how do we actually make a functioning Melanesian democracy? It won't look like an Australian Westminster system, it probably won't look like a US presidential system, and there's a big call, especially here in Vanuatu, to revert to a presidential system. We've seen that in operation up in the Micronesian states in the Pacific, and they have similar issues with quality of leadership and quality of government.

Mark Bannerman: Derek Brien is the director of the Pacific Institute of Public Policy, and Jenny Hayward-Jones is director of the Myer Foundation Melanesia Program at the Lowy Institute.

You can read more about the paper from the Pacific Institute here