ANU Dept. of Pacific Affairs (DPA) formerly State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program

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The Australian National University's Department of Pacific Affairs (DPA) (formerly known as the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) program) is the leading international centre for applied multidisciplinary research and analysis concerning contemporary state, society and governance in Melanesia and the broader Pacific. Situated within the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, DPA seeks to set the international standard for scholarship on the region. Through its research publications, DPA addresses topics of interest to a wide audience of academics, policymakers and others interested in governance, state and society in the Pacific. Discipline areas include, but are not limited to, political science, anthropology, geography, human geography, law, gender studies, development studies and international relations.

Since its inception, DPA has produced over 500 research publications across various publications series. These include the In Brief series, the Discussion Paper series, the Working Paper Series, the Policy Brief series and research reports. DPA publishes books and book manuscripts, often in collaboration with ANU Press. DPA jointly edits Policy Forum’s Pacific In Focus website. For enquiries about DPA’s publications, please contact dpa@anu.edu.au.

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Open Access
Unravelling the Black Wednesday Riots: Precarious Masculinity and Civil Unrest in Port Moresby
(Canberra, ACT: Dept. of Pacific Affairs, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University, 0003-07-24) Masta, Mercy
On 10 January 2024, residents of Port Moresby and other major centres in Papua New Guinea (PNG) witnessed civil disobedience, mostly carried out by men, expressed through looting, vandalism and arson targeting commercial property, in what is now referred to by locals as Black Wednesday. These events, starting with opportunists taking advantage of a police protest over a pay cut, sparked riots across the country. The government of PNG swiftly disseminated messages on social media refuting claims of a new tax levied on the police force, attributing the discrepancy in pay to a computer ‘glitch’. A 14-day state of emergency was declared, accompanied by the suspension of numerous senior government officials. The violence resulted in the loss of more than 20 lives, the displacement of hundreds of jobs, and adverse impacts on businesses and farmers. Although women participated in the riots, they were greatly outnumbered by men. This In Brief explores challenges to the manifestations of masculinity when urban men in particular encounter precarious situations such as those observed during the events of the Black Wednesday riots in Port Moresby.
Open Access
A Coup that failed? Recent Political Events in Vanuatu
(Canberra, ACT: Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, 1996) Ambrose, David
When Vanuatu conducted its fourth postindependence general election, in November last year, more was at stake perhaps than in any previous election. For the first twelve years of independence, the country's anglophone majority had held government through the same party, the Vanua'aku Party (VP), and its constituents had enjoyed the benefits that power and the scope for preferment that being in office brings. For many anglophone politicians and constituents alike, therefore, the four years spent in Opposition, 1991-1995, were a painful lesson in the consequences of electoral defeat. By contrast, the francophone minority, who had endured more than a decade of, in their view, disadvantage and discrimination under anglophone rule, finally won office in 1991 and had begun to redress those years of perceived injustice and inequality
Open Access
Models Of Governance And Development Administration
(Canberra, ACT: Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, 1996) Larmour, Peter
Writing on governance and development typically distinguishes two meanings (Lefi:wich 1993; Williams and Young 1994).The first, 'good government', is concerned with legitimacy, accountability and the limits of state power (Moore 1993). The second, originally invoked by the World Bank (1989: 60), is more concerned with the ability to govern effectively. Here I want to consider applications of a third meaning, which sees governance as the result of the interaction between different models of coordination, including markets and communities, as well as hierarchy, the state or 'the government' (Campbell, Hollingsworth and Lindberg 1991 ; Kooiman 1993; Larmour 1994).
Open Access
Research On Governance In Weak States In Melanesia
(Canberra, ACT: Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, 1996) Larmour, Peter
Concerns about government capacity in Papua New Guinea seem to be confirmed by a deterioration in law and order, and a reaction against the system of provincial government introduced at the time of independence. However, academic research shows that order is not simply a function of government capacity. There are multiple forms of order, including the order that emerges from market transactions, and the order achieved through shared norms (Williamson and Ouchi 1981; Campbell, Hollingsworth and Lindberg 1991; Kooiman and Van Vliet 1993; Young 1994).The government is not necessarily central to processes of achieving order, or 'governance'.
Open Access
Law, order and the state in Papua New Guinea
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1997) Dinnen, Sinclair
Law and order issues feature prominently in public debate in Papua New Guinea. Concerns centre around criminal violence and the limited effectiveness of state controls. High levels of interpersonal violence are apparent in the activities of criminal gangs (rascals), the tribal fighting occurring in parts of the Highlands, as well as in everyday gender relations throughout the country. The continuing escalation of disorder in many areas is indicative of the limitations of state authority in Papua New Guinea, most dramatically demonstrated in the bloody and unresolved secessionist conflict on Bougainville (May and Spriggs 1990; Spriggs and Denoon 1992). Burgeoning corruption among elements of the political and administrative elite provides another significant strand to current debate. Widespread concern with personal security manifests itself in the elaborate security precautions routinely adopted by individuals, households and businesses. National planners, on the other hand, have been preoccupied with the serious economic repercussions of law and order problems, notably their effects on investor confidence, as well as their impact on Papua New Guinea’s fledgling tourist industry. In 1993 the Asian Development Bank bluntly warned that Failure to secure an improvement in peace and order will have a major adverse impact on the performance of the economy over the next few years (The Saturday Independent, 9 September 1995:22). This paper outlines the principal law and order concerns and the policies thus engendered in Papua New Guinea since Independence in 1975. The first section looks at state responses, while the second examines specific areas of concern.
Open Access
Party politics and government in Solomon Islands
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1997) Alasia, Sam
The presence of political parties has often been viewed as an integral part of democracy, and in particular, the Westminster parliamentary system. Parties representing different opinions, policies and ideologies are perceived as necessary for the representation of different interest groups. Also, political parties provide voters the opportunity to select leaders from a number of alternatives. It was, therefore, assumed that in order for democracy to work successfully parties must exist. Consequently, the newly independent states of Africa, Asia and Oceania that emerged in the post-World War II period and subscribed to democracy all attempted to develop a political culture where parties become significant. This is despite the fact that in most of these countries, especially in Melanesia, most voters had not yet understood the concept of party politics. When Solomon Islands gained constitutional independence on 7 July, 1978 and adopted the Westminster system of government from Great Britain, it inherited along with it concepts such as party politics. Consequently, Solomon Islanders who took over leadership of the government were faced with the fact that, in parliament, for the purposes of forming a government they had to align themselves with groups called political parties. The idea that the main governing body is made up of a government and an opposition was relatively new to most Solomon Islanders. However, despite this, political parties have become important in Solomon Islands politics today. Parties (or the absence of strong cohesive parties) have had a profound impact on the process of governance. This paper discusses the emergence and development of political parties in contemporary Solomon Islands. It analyses how party politics influences the process of governance and the nature of politics. The discussions here are drawn largely from my experiences as a member of the Solomon Islands parliament for eight years.
Open Access
Chiefly power in Southern Vanuatu
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1997) Tepahae, Philip
This paper considers the role of the chief according to the Aneityum custom in Southern Vanuatu. The influence of the chief is traced historically, and its relevance and constitutional standing in modern times discussed.
Open Access
Corruption and governance in the South Pacific
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1997) Larmour, Peter
Suspicion of corruption has contributed to the crisis the PNG government currently faces over the use of mercenaries on Bougainville (Regan 1997), with the Governor General reported as referring to the ‘termites of corruption’ (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 24 March 1997). Meanwhile the World Bank has announced a ‘renewed approach’ to preventing corruption, including a revision of its own global lending policies (The Independent February 14 1997). Corruption is hard to pin down, in principle and in practice. Transparency International, the anti-corruption non-government organization (NGO), distinguishes between ‘grand’ corruption, or the use of public office for private gain, and ‘petty’ corruption, in which officials demand facilitation payments to carry out perfectly legal tasks, like clearing a container from a wharf, which they are supposed to perform in any case (Pope 1996). The examples used in this paper refer mainly to grand corruption, which is often linked to election campaigning. There certainly seems to be more talk and moralising about corruption in the region. Politicians are widely suspected of it. The word itself (in English) carries connotations of decline, decay and falling away from the high ideals of the past. It has religious overtones in the strongly Christian countries of the region. In this paper, I try to understand it in relationship to some other issues in South Pacific politics: tradition, identity, landownership, privatisation, aid, and sovereignty. These are issues in a wider study of governance in the South Pacific.
Open Access
Cultural traditions and identity politics: some implications for democratic governance in Asia and the Pacific
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1997) Lawson, Stephanie
This discussion is principally concerned with the political aspects of one of the most interesting of postcolonial phenomena in Asia and the Pacific. Put briefly, this is to do with the rediscovery or reinvigoration of autochthonous cultural traditions—or at least selected elements of such traditions—in the contemporary period. Movements promoting such traditions are often part of a broader project of postcolonial rebuilding that is promoting renewed pride in a heritage that may have been suppressed or virtually destroyed by colonial powers. The phenomenon is hardly unique to Asia and the Pacific—it has been just as evident in Africa and the Middle East. A similar phenomenon is recognisable also in the heartlands of some former colonial powers. Across Europe, cultural identities are being asserted—at a sub-state level in explicit political forms from Scotland to Catalonia, at a suprastate level across northern Scandinavia by the Sami people, or at the level of the state itself in the case of Germany where the collapse of the Wall has raised perceived problems arising from the reintegration of a suitable, coherent national identity. And it is certainly recognisable in the current nation-building projects of many newly independent countries following the breakdown of the Soviet Empire. All these movements vary enormously in the actual content of their programs and the symbolic resources they use, as well as in the means that they deploy in achieving their political goals. But they do share much in common with respect to their general concerns about cultural identity. The close association of such movements with ideas of liberation and regeneration also means that they are generally seen to represent a positive manifestation of identity politics, and a cause for celebration in a world where cultural difference seems to have become a good in itself. They are also seen as inherently ‘democratic’ in some sense—as if the revival of traditions and cultural identities is in itself a manifestation of democracy. There are exceptions, of course, and few would endorse the way in which chauvinistic aspects of identity politics have been manifest in Bosnia-Herzegovina in recent times. This is an obvious case where it has assumed a violent, and ultimately destructive, form. There are other forms as well which, although not violent, nonetheless have a less attractive side. My own work on issues arising from identity politics in the South Pacific, and more recently on the so-called ‘Asian values’ debate in Southeast Asia, has concentrated on certain negative aspects that have been evident in some political expressions of traditionalism in the region as well as the implications that this has for democratic governance.
Open Access
Bougainville reconstruction aid: what are the issues?
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1997) Apthorpe, Raymond
‘Today, mipela finisim war bilong Bougainville’, (‘Today, the war in Bougainville has ended’) said Sam Kauona, the Commander of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, at the ceasefire signed 30 April 1998. This followed the previous November’s truce. It had become clear by 1997 that a military solution was not possible, that the conflict ‘had many basic sources’, and that a desire for peace was widespread and growing especially in the areas most affected by the conflict (Interdepartmental Committee 1997). It was recognised also that the conflict began because of problems peculiar to Bougainville, and has extended and deepened to a large degree because of tensions within Bougainville. Any lasting solutions…must as much as possible come from Bougainvilleans. By a non-Bougainvillean, but also someone who has never even visited that Province or worked anywhere in Papua New Guinea for decades (and then only for a few months in Port Moresby at the Central Planning Office), this essay on aid issues is therefore highly speculative. It proceeds only by generalization and deduction from what appear to be comparable situations in other parts of the world. No two wars are the same. Obviously Biafra decades ago, then Mozambique, Somalia, Liberia and Rwanda more recently, Bosnia and Afghanistan still, Cambodia, and Rwanda again, are not Papua New Guinea ten or five years ago or now. But some commonalities can perhaps be found. At the time of writing (May 1998), the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea is assuring Bougainvilleans that they have his support for the task of peace and re-building in a spirit of self-reliance and autonomy. It appears that all Bougainville parties now wish for some types of aid, using mainly Bougainvillean inputs, to rehabilitate basic services so as to meet immediate health, education and local roads needs. To judge from reports of demands for more of the types of basic livelihood packs AusAID has provided thus far, this aid response seems to have been appropriate. What is not requested (nor, thus far, supplied) is aid for projects such as airport and seaport rebuilding. This is ruled out because of the strategic implications of such projects for what is feared might become a return to the ‘development’ of old in the province, before the crisis, now in its tenth year. And this, overall, is the position taken here. Contrary to the development-led approach to reconstruction proposed in an inter-agency UNDP document (Rogge 1995), this paper takes the position that ‘development’ ought not to be the watchword. Rather, as post-war aid needs for reconstruction are ascertained, it is a word in reconstruction aid discourse to watch. Humanitarian concerns, rules and conditionalities should be uppermost. Confronted with such situations, perhaps there are new challenges for ways of thinking about aid responses. This paper attempts to identify some.
Open Access
Traditional culture and modern politics
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1997) Vakatora, Tomaci
I have recently been revising my book, From the Mangrove Swamps, first published in 1988 by the Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific. I have retitled it Mai Na Veidogo, the Fijian translation of the original. Mai Na Veidogo was initially intended as an autobiography, but I found that I was telling the inside story of the political and social evolution of Fiji as one of those at the heart of the process. This fascinating story is woven through the account of my own emergence from a humble family in a small village in the Rewa Delta to become administrator of a wide range of government projects and head of various government ministries, before entering politics and being elected to Cabinet. I held several important portfolios and was also Speaker. The book contains an inside view of the military coup of 14 May 1987 and insights into the future of Fiji. The book consists of two parts and fifteen chapters. Part One and the first eleven chapters are a revised version of the original. Part Two and the last four chapters contain the additional chapters. There are new appendices which include some of my speeches in parliament which reflect on my policies as a Minister.
Open Access
Tradition and good governance
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1997) Helu, 'I Futa
Customs or cultural traditions may be defined as those forms of behaviour (activities, beliefs, values) which change so slowly that they give the impression of not changing at all, and are so because they are promoted throughout society. The complete set of such forms of behaviour for a given social group or whole society is the culture of that group or society. Traditions or customs are those ways of doing things which work in a particular geographic or social environment—they promote a society’s interests and facilitate the achievement of common goals. Some customs travel but many do not: cultural traditions may cease to work in their own society, or be rejected by former adherents if there have been radical changes in locality or conditions. More often than not, however, people continue to activate old customs even when these customs have long ceased to be fulfil a social function in homes or in a new setting. There are two types of cultural tradition. The first is those that promote the general welfare of the group or community as a whole such as sharing and cooperation. These ‘benign’ customs are nearly strategies for survival in resourcepoor environments, as in the words of a proverb: Me’a si’i, femolimoli’i; me’a lahi, takitaha kai’ (food in scarcity you must always share; in abundance, though, you need not care). As society expands in terms of membership, space and structure, things become more complex and a new category of traditional practices begins to emerge. These constitute our second class of customs and values and their function is to maintain or consolidate the power of the ruling élite. An example of this are political cultural traditions such as the kava ceremony which shows through the positioning of the participants how power is distributed (and should remain so) in a community, and how food and other resources should be shared or distributed. In the kava ceremony, while the beverage is being prepared, food in the form of cooked pork, sugar cane, or ripe bananas, is also distributed. But only the participating chiefs and their ceremonial attendants get a share, with the largest portion going to the highest-ranking chief, and so on. The commoners, who do all the work on such occasions, get very little or miss out altogether. Such rituals are object lessons or social theatre aimed at showing precisely where power lies. These two types of customs and values exist in all societies which have attained a certain level of complexity. The particular customs or traditions may vary from society to society due mainly to differences in environment and evolutionary history. Taken together, they are simply ways in which particular communities can smoothly function in particular environments. They start as required tasks and required constraints necessary for the survival of the community. However, as society becomes increasingly complex, conflicting demands clash more brutally in the social arena. The ‘winning’ demands become subsequently known as rights (rights are demands which can be made good). Cultural traditions may have the social force of law, though they are not technically legal. But law in the judicial or Benthamite sense is contingent on there being a recognised set of natural rights in the first place.
Open Access
Myths of community management: sustainability, the state and rural development in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1997) Schoeffel, Penelope
It has become fashionable of late to view ‘development’ as a discourse which problematises ‘the other’ from a western perspective (Escobar 1995, Crush 1995), But while much writing in this vein speaks of one development discourse, that of economism, there are indeed two contending but interrelated levels of discourse on development; that of economism and that of communitarianism. The former is associated with economic rationalism on which there is a large critical literature. The latter, communitarianism is far less rigorously criticised, no doubt due to what Dore (1994:18–21) terms a ‘liberal egalitarianism taboo’. Both discourses share a reality called ‘development’, but they problematise the culture and system of production of particular groups of people in different ways. From the economistic viewpoint, poverty is caused by economic stagnation, organizational inadequacy, underproduction and insufficiency of information. Economism is predicated on belief in the existence of universal human economic aspirations and pathways to modernity via technological change and economic growth. It assumes the efficacy of acts of intervention called projects, in which capital, technology and knowhow are administered in prescribed doses to encourage greater efficiency of production. It measures the results by increasing consumption. It continues to be the dominant paradigm in most aid and development agencies. The communitarian point of view sees poverty as the effects of structural forces of inequality, oppression, and marginalisation. It is predicated on belief in the redemptive potential of transformative social action. It assumes the efficacy of acts of intervention to stimulate ‘sustainable’ self-generated development based on self-help at the ‘grassroots’ community level in a participatory manner, with goals of empowering people to act for themselves to overcome the causes of their poverty. It firmly rejects as ethnocentric Durkheim’s and Weber’s classical theories of modernisation, and their notion that ‘development’ involves a transition from small to large scale forms of organisation, and from collectivism to individualism. In the wealthy democracies of the West, whose taxpayers and voluntary donors provide the funds for most development activities, the communitarian agenda has gained considerable influence on bilateral and multilateral aid policies. Most aid donors and development finance institutions have sought to broaden their legitimacy since the 1980s by borrowing from the communitarian agenda long established by development non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Open Access
Ethnic conflict, income inequity and growth in independent Fiji
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1997) Chand, Satish
Ethnic conflict in Fiji has been on the rise. The riots in Suva in September 1987 were racially motivated as were a number of criminal activities since then. The 1990 Fiji Constitution and the debate following the two coups of 1987 have brought the race issue to the forefront in a number of policy discussions in the country.1 The current debates over land tenure and the constitution are heavily flavoured with racial connotations. Despite the significance of race as an issue in Fiji, the local academia has paid little, if any, attention to race issues. One reason for this has been the political sensitivity of such discussions. Another is the fear of being labelled a ‘racist.’ Political correctness demands that one keep clear of discussions on race issues. This paper is sensitive to the above concerns but attempts to fill the vacuum of objective discussion on the race issue in Fiji. Politicians, the media, special interest groups, as well as the general public, have often discussed race issues—at times with immense heat and gross exaggeration. For example, race relations in Fiji have been compared to apartheid in South Africa. Although in relative terms Fiji is still a peaceful country, complacency is warned against, particularly in the current climate of deteriorating race relations. The view taken here is that the race issue has to be addressed objectively if social stability and economic prosperity are to be achieved in the near future.
Open Access
Good governance, administrative reform and socioeconomic realities: A South Pacific perspective
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1998) Ray, Binayak
This paper examines good governance and administrative reform issues in 12 South Pacific Island countries. The paper concludes that to be effective, reform measures must specifically relate to the country’s geography, history, society and economy, and should not blindly follow other countries. Pacific Island countries vary is size: the smallest, Nauru, and the largest, Papua New Guinea, have total land areas of 21 and 453,000 square kilometres respectively. Pacific Islands are different from the other major island groups: the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. Caribbean Islands are clustered together, and close to the United States market, Indian Ocean Islands are fast developing into the gateway to Africa for business in the East and South Asia. Pacific Islands do not have such advantages. They are scattered over a wider area, away from major markets and the size of their internal markets is small. The development of a new form of transport (containerisation) and advances in air transport technology have made the situation worse as the small volume of goods loaded and unloaded, and the small number of passengers did not justify the investment and reorganisation required to participate in these new forms of transport. Pacific Islands face severed destructive cyclones almost every year costing them a fortune in financial and resource terms. The ‘green-house’ effect is also threatening the physical existence of number of Pacific Island.
Open Access
Melanesian elites and modern politics in New Caledonia and Vanuatu
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1998) Wittersheim, Eric
Much research has been conducted into the processes of ‘invention of tradition’ and ‘construction of national identity’ in Melanesia often focusing on the opposition between tradition and modernity. Oppositions like local versus national, rural versus urban, traditional versus westernised or authenticity versus inauthenticity have been emphasised; sometimes with reason, sometimes not. Even if many researchers no longer take for granted such analytical frameworks, lots of areas remain unexplored. The experience of the leaders who emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in Melanesia is one such neglected area. The ‘tradition versus modernity’ discourse usually describes a huge gap between these leaders, seen as westernized and alienated from their culture, and the people, who are ‘simply living’ this culture. Following Hobsbawm in particular, many scholars have seen the discourses they developed as spurious traditions justifying political manipulations. This was quite different from my own experience. During a trip in the South Pacific in 1991, I met some of the leaders of the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste (FLNKS) in New Caledonia, and everything in their daily life and their discourses seemed to contradict this idea of an ontological difference between tradition and modernity. These individuals all had a prominent role within the FLNKS, some being elected politicians at a kind of ‘national’ level. All played an important role in the customary life (or the everyday life) of their own village, or tribu. They also maintained strong ties with the Church. Soon after I became involved in an editorial project with the anthropologist Alban Bensa aiming to gather and publish Jean-Marie Tjibaou’s works, interviews and speeches (Tjibaou 1996). This work confirmed my feeling that these Melanesian leaders proceeded along very specific lifepaths, in which colonisation, Christianity and a Melanesian experience of the social world were totally melded. Thus, a sociology of these new élites might help to understand contemporary Melanesia. I am studying the matter from the experience of Vanuatu and here I formulate some general propositions, drawing on my first fieldwork in Vanuatu and my experience of New Caledonia. There is an abundant literature on ‘invention of tradition’ in Melanesia. In it the different discourses developed by Melanesian leaders are often seen as the Machiavellian constructions of westernised élites. This surprised me, although I cannot tell if my surprise came mostly from my knowledge of the Kanak leaders or from the respect I had for their struggle. One thing is sure: I could see that neither their relation to their ‘tradition,’ their manner of taking up western models, nor their ties to Christian religions were ever analysed in a non-polemical, impartial way. It would be more productive to analyse how these three sources act as mediators, both social and ideological. The study of the new Melanesian élites cannot be limited to the assessment of their action as political leaders. It is necessary to devote particular attention to their biographies and, when possible, to the syncretistic thinking some of them display. In their thoughts and actions, these individuals were marked by the acceleration of history which saw them pass from their villages to the city, from their rural and tribal communities to institutions into which the European colonisers had gradually given them access. Their exposure to western institutions made them privileged witnesses to the profound changes that shook the Oceanian world for over half a century. Whatever their personal histories and origins, and whether or not they saw their countries achieve independence, throughout their careers they resorted to ideas, images, and strategies which were clearly comparable from one end of the Pacific to the other; to such an extent that today these leaders cannot be understood solely by looking at the specific people or culture to which they belonged.
Open Access
Traditional leaders and governance in Micronesia
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1998) Haglegam, John
Let me assert from the outset that contemporary politics and governance in Micronesia are influenced to a large extent by the traditional system which underlies the modern system. This traditional system has given a unique Micronesian flavour to contemporary politics and governance, albeit undemocratic in some cases. With careful nurturing through regular briefings and consultation by government leaders, the traditional chiefs can be relied upon to muster the necessary public support for policy implementation. The customary power of the traditional chiefs in Micronesia varied from culture to culture. For instance, on Kosrae the power was centralised in a very powerful ruler, while on Yap, the power of the chiefs was decentralised and subjected to elaborate checks and balances built into the customary political relationship. In Palau, the power was vested in the heads of two alliances of villages. These alliances were involved in constant fighting for domination. In Chuuk, the most powerful traditional leaders were the village chiefs. In the Marshall Islands, the most powerful leaders were the two paramount chiefs, one heading each of the two island chains—the Ratak and Ralik. Surprisingly, for low island chiefs, these two paramount chiefs had absolute power. In Pohnpei, the power of the traditional leaders was exercised by a paramount chief in each of the five kingdoms. However, the exercise of their customary power is checked by the head of a chiefly parallel line whose relationship to the paramount chief is like a father-son relationship, the paramount chief being the father. In the outer islands of Chuuk and Yap, each island had its paramount chief. In spite of the varied power of the traditional chiefs in Micronesia, almost all of them inherit their position through their mother. In Palau, the senior women in the chiefly clan select the paramount chief. Yap is the exception to this general rule. Both the age of the mother and her son were important determining factors for the leadership position in all Micronesian societies. Quite often a young man who had customary claim to a leadership position would be bypassed in favour of an older man. When this happened, usually the older man served in that position until death, then the rightful holder of the title could assert his right. The exercise of customary chiefly power was the domain of men. In a few cases, women would become chiefs, but the effective power would be exercised by men.
Open Access
State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project: review 1995-1998
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1998) Douglas, Bronwen; Regan, Anthony; Dinnen, Sinclair
The State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project is an outstanding example of collaboration between university and government sectors. The Project was conceived in December 1994 when Pacific Islands specialists in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) of the Australian National University (ANU) agreed that there was an urgent need to address issues of governance and state-society relationships in the Melanesian region. Accordingly, a detailed proposal was made by the School to the University’s Strategic Development Fund. In September 1995, in University-wide competition, this bid won a major commitment of $275,000 per annum from the University to provide for the appointment of three fellows to the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Project. In the meantime an approach had been made by the Director of the RSPAS, Professor Merle Riklefs, to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). DFAT agreed to finance the secondment of a senior officer, Mr David Ambrose, to the RSPAS for three years to liaise at a senior level with the Australian and foreign governments, with other universities and with the corporate sector in developing and coordinating research activities on the perceived crises of governance, state and society in Melanesia, and to seek outside funding for this work. Simultaneously, AusAID made the generous provision of $40,400 per annum for three years towards the administrative costs of the Project, a contribution matched by the University. The SSGM Project was formally inaugurated on 1 January 1996 in the RSPAS, building on the Research School’s longstanding status as the world’s leading centre for scholarly and practical research on the southwest Pacific. In May three full-time fellows were appointed to work on specific, but related aspects of the nexus between state and society in Melanesia: Dr Sinclair Dinnen began work on the Project in September 1996, and Dr Bronwen Douglas and Mr Anthony Regan in January 1997. The SSGM Project is administered by a Steering Committee drawn from all areas of the RSPAS and with Library representation, chaired by Professor Ron Duncan, Executive Director of the National Centre for Development Studies (NCDS). Mr David Ambrose served as convenor of the Project until his return to full-time duties in DFAT in December 1997. The major research activities of the Project had to await the arrival of the fellows, but a seminar program was under way from the middle of 1996, drawing on expertise available from within the ANU, from other Australian and overseas institutions, and from the region. Since that time the growing capacity of the Project to harness and focus the dispersed energies and expertise of Melanesian specialists within and outside the ANU has been a signal virtue.
Open Access
Making sense of good governance
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1998) Larmour, Peter
It is now nearly ten years since the World Bank introduced the word ‘governance’ into discussions about development. This paper asks what the term means, why it became part of the policy discourse, and what it assumes about the way organisational performance might be improved. It then reviews some recent research on governance in the South Pacific, and considers the tension between universal principles of good governance and particular national circumstances. Finally it introduces some comparative research that addresses several questions about achieving ‘good governance’. * How much does the design of institutions affect their performance? * What are the conditions under which policy ideas can be transferred? * What factors determine whether the ‘right’ policies are implemented?
Open Access
Traditional individuals? Gendered negotiations of identity, christianity and citizenship in Vanuatu
(Canberra, ACT: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program, The Australian National University, 1998) Douglas, Bronwen
This is a preliminary paper following recent fieldwork in Vanuatu. The rhetorical question in the title challenges two pervasive stereotypes: first, the presumed universal applicability of the hierarchical opposition society:individual and its corollary, the conception of ‘societies’ as encompassing collectivities of bounded, autonomous ‘individuals’; second, the hoary conventional opposition of ‘Oceanic’ (relational/communal) and ‘Western’ (bounded/individual) concepts of the person. The second stereotype categorically segregates so-called ‘primitive’ or ‘traditional’ societies from ‘modern’ or ‘Western[ised]’ ones on the basis that the former lack a concept of the self as an autonomous individual, regarded as an effect and a characteristic of ‘civilisation’ or modernity. Such unthinking identification of modernity with ‘Westernisation’ and individualism is ethnocentric, anachronistic and denies contemporaneity to present people, such as Melanesian villagers, whom it consigns to the archaic, backward status of non-modern/non-‘Western’. A far more thoughtful and sophisticated variant is anthropologist Marilyn Strathern’s abstract differentiation, along a ‘we/they axis’, of the (Western) unitary individual from the (Melanesian) ‘partible person’, conceived as a divisible composite of relations. Strathern destabilises the society:individual dichotomy itself, as an ethnocentric, hierarchised ‘Western’ construct inappropriate to ‘Melanesian sociality’. Any analysis of actual indigenous conceptions of the person requires the profound familiarity with vernacular idioms and patterns of thought which can only be derived from lengthy ethnographic fieldwork. As a comparative anthropological historian I lack such access. Moreover, I dispute the assumption that very local, present ethnographic insights can be projected indiscriminately on to the region-wide past, as is logically entailed in the premise that there is an enduring, Oceania-wide, pre-modern theory of cultural and personal identity, in opposition to that of ‘the West’. How one might know any such past regional theory of identity, other than deductively, is simply not addressed. My aims are more modest and my focus mundane. From a suggestive vignette of the early colonial past in Aneityum, southern Vanuatu, the paper shifts to scraps of narrative and testimony relating to my recent field trip in Vanuatu, with particular focus again on Aneityum. Vignette and fragments alike address a key issue in the politics of representing indigenous women: the need to dislodge the romantic secularism or feminist ethnocentrism which deride or deplore their strategic engagements in seemingly banal Christian settings—especially sewing circles—because such settings seem to advance hegemonic missionary, male and national agendas of conversion, domestication and modernisation.

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