Kiribati will rejoin the Pacific Islands Forum after Forum Chair, Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s state visit to Tarawa this month.
That visit started with a handshake between Rabuka and Kiribati President, Taneti Maamau, and ended with an embrace.
A week after the Fiji delegation returned to Suva, an official letter confirming Kiribati’s return arrived.
Kiribati withdrew from the Forum last year, stating in a letter to PIF: “the collective inability, and to some degree, reluctance as a region” to address the concerns of its Micronesian members over the Secretary General’s appointment and other matters.
Rabuka’s predecessor as Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama convened a meeting that saw Nauru, Marshall Islands, Palau and Federated States of Micronesia sign the Suva Agreement, which includes a number of actions to address their concerns. But Kiribati was not represented at that negotiation, and Bainimarama was unable to bring them back into the fold before Fiji’s election.
Fiji is due to hand over the PIF Chair to Cook Islands in March, and there was a strong desire for Kiribati to be present and the Forum back to full strength when that occurs.
At the state dinner during Prime Minister Rabuka’s visit, President Maamau described his meeting with the Prime Minister as very successful, thanking him for “taking a bold but humble step to restore the Pacific way of trust, respect and understanding within the region.”
“I see you”
A critical moment of the visit was the participation of the entire Fijian delegation in the traditional ceremony of the “boka”.
Before their presentation of the tabua (whale’s tooth) and yaqona, Kiribati’s President was told that the boka is the Fijian ritual practice to acknowledge the deep sense of grief, usually reserved for the passing away of a loved one.
“The boka, therefore, is especially observed and practiced by close relatives to acknowledge deep and sincere regret for not being present in the ritual ceremony and period of mourning during a funeral rite of passage,” a Fijian official stated.
It is also an “affirmation of one’s commitment to kinship and solidarity.”
In Lauan, “boka” translates to “I see you.”
“In this ceremony Fiji is saying: ‘Kiribati, I see you, and we therefore recommit our obligation to you as an integral part of the Fijian family and our Pacific community’.”
The significance of this ceremony, and the fact that Kiribati was Rabuka’s first overseas visit since his election, were acknowledged, with President Maamau saying this made the visit ‘all the more special.’
Kinsman and family
The history of Banaba and its people, and how they connect Kiribati and Fiji, was also spoken of frequently during the visit. From 1945, British authorities relocated some 700 Banabans to Rabi island in Fiji’s Cakaudrove province. Great Britain had mined phosphate on Banaba, stripping most of its surface in the process.
At the state dinner, Rabuka described how he was personally “deeply moved to be here, the ancestral home of our Banaban people on Rabi Island displaced and moved, probably against their will, to be on Rabi Island in Cakaudrove, which is my home province. They have played a major part in the affairs of Cakaudrove Province.
“Many of the original inhabitants of Banaba never saw their homeland again but I believe they are with us in spirit tonight, I believe all smiling because we continue with the rich tradition of the Pacific and our family connections. They have become my kinsfolk; they have become my family. You therefore are my kinsman and also my family,” he continued.
Embracing the future and the West Papua question
As Prime Minister Rabuka left the state dinner, he and President Maamau exchanged a warm hug.
Rabuka had earlier told guests, “This is our unique opportunity to make peace and progress as a Forum family. But we must be diligent about it, we cannot work in isolation, we must work together in unity.
“As we presented the tabua this afternoon, there were words of apologies in the presentation, we apologised for how Fiji had acted in the time of the crisis in our association – in our family.
“When you accepted it, you accepted our apology. We thank you and we look forward to seeing you in Fiji in the near future.”
While Fiji will soon step down as Forum Chair, it’s clear Rabuka wants to work with his counterparts to address some of the underlying issues around regional organisations and their mandates. For example, he has flagged the need for a discussion about the Pacific Islands Development Forum. The PIDF, which is headquartered in Suva, was established in 2012 and championed by the previous Fiji government after the 2006 coup, as a regional organisation working without the strictures of Australian and New Zealand involvement [as those nations had imposed a series of economic sanctions on Fiji as a result of that coup].
While the absence of those larger nations may have provided some political advantages, it also meant that PIDP has never been sufficiently funded to have much of an impact. In addition, in some sectors there is confusion over the demarcation of the work it has done on renewables and green/blue economies, and that of other, better funded agencies such as the PIF and Pacific Community.
When Islands Business asked Rabuka if he saw a future for the organisation, he said, “If PIDF is comfortable that the needs are adequately met under the Pacific Islands Forum, then they should be comfortable with that, rather than dissipating our assets and resources by having too many parallel organisations going at the same time. We can spread out, have one regional organisation but regional offices, all working under one umbrella, I believe that would be better, we can’t really afford having too many organisations, we need one organisation to consolidate our views.”
Rabuka has signaled he wants a reorientation of Fiji’s foreign policy and relations back to traditional partners.
“We need to reorientate and reestablish relationships we had in the past and try and restore the mutual respect we had, rather than some changes on the whims of the politicians. The civil service, the country culturally and constitutionally in the past, has been comfortable with the rest of the world , particularly the region; we’re trying to find our balanced position.”
For example, he supports re-establishment of a Fijian embassy in Papua New Guinea, saying it could work together with the mission in Jakarta on issues such as West Papua.
“I think we can contribute a lot to that without overstepping the line,” Rabuka says . “We must respect the sovereignty of Indonesia and its internationally recognised territories, territorial boundaries, but we must also try and get Indonesia to understand our cultural ties. There are more Melanesians in Indonesia than we have in Melanesia. Yes, and I think the relationship between Indonesia and Fiji is so warm that we can influence their treatment of their West Papua communities and the rest of the Melanesian communities of Indonesia.”
