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The Bold and Beautiful Micronesia
The North Pacific, which is basically Micronesia, tells the South Pacific, which is the rest of the Pacific Island Nations including Australia and New Zealand to go kick sand..... Unless they honor a gentleman's agreement to select the next Secretary-General from Micronesia for the Pacific Islands Forum. I like the spirit!! At least that's how I felt after reading this article from the Fiji times:
Micronesian countries challenge PIF to appoint their joint candidate or face mass withdrawal from PIF
All this while a pandemic is happening, and compact re-negotiations are underway for 3 of 5 countries in Micronesia. We are getting bold! I like this sort of leadership, the solidarity, the clarity in purpose, and the stand being taken. It's what leaders do. They make a stand, they define their purpose and then... they execute! All this, from the Micronesian President's Summit, held in Palau this year. FSM President Panuelo, who joined virtually, had this to say:
“I don’t want this to lead to fragmentation of our PIF, but it might do that. The Micronesian subregion is as much a part of the Pacific as Polynesia or Melanesia, and if they are unable to adhere to the Pacific Way of respect for others, including respect for our Gentlemen’s Agreement, then the consequence is that we simply don’t engage with them or allow ourselves to be pushed around by people with ulterior motives in the PIF Secretariat.
“If this agreement is not honored, I see no benefit to remaining in the PIF, said President Panuelo at the end of the one day Micronesian Leaders’ Summit.
The execution part is still pending, but that will depend on whether the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) honors that gentleman's agreement.
Background
So, what is this Pacific Islands Forum? and why this gentleman's agreement?
The Pacific Islands Forum is according to their website, the region's premier political and economic policy organization. It was founded in 1971 and has 18 members: Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
Their website goes on further:
The Forum’s Pacific Vision is for a region of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion and prosperity, so that all Pacific people can lead free, healthy, and productive lives.
The Pacific Islands Forum works to achieve this by fostering cooperation between governments, collaboration with international agencies, and by representing the interests of its members.
As a Micronesian, I honestly NEVER heard of the Pacific Islands Forum until 2015 when it was announced that they would be holding their annual Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting the following year in the capital of the FSM, home sweet home Pohnpei.
A quick look at FSM on their website, reveals that they need to update our country leadership. Elsewhere the site shows the FSM to be a part of the Smaller Island States group, which again, I have never heard of this organization. FSM is part of a group, and then a sub-group? I am unsure sure how we in the FSM are benefitting from this membership.
The last time a Micronesian was Secretary-General was in the '90s and that individual was from Kiribati. So, there have been NO... I repeat NO representation at the highest position from the FSM, RMI, Nauru, or Palau since they have joined and attended the annual forum meetings in almost every country of the Pacific region. This is why a Gentleman's agreement is needed, for "fostering cooperation between governments, collaboration with international agencies, and by representing the interests of its members." Not some, or the majority, but its members.
Moving Forward
“Because talking with most of the leaders around the region, yes they acknowledge that there is a basis for pushing that (the Gentlemen’s Agreement),” he told RNZI. “But given the times that we are now in, you know with the challenges of Covid-19 and also the meltdown of the economies in the region, the feeling is that we need to have the right person to drive the region.”
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