Pacific Magazine: Revolt Looking in Nauru (original) (raw)

Pacific Magazine > Magazine > November 1, 2001

Politics

President Rene Harris under the spotlight

President Rene Harris, of Nauru, lay in a Melbourne Hospital bed in October after an emergency flight from Nauru in an Australian airforce plane.

Harris needed emergency treatment for diabetes, a disease brought on by poor diet and inadequate exercise, that afflicts a great proportion of Nauru¹s 7000 indigenous people.

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Melbourne was an escape for three weeks from Nauru's awesome national difficulties caused by debt, the loss of an estimated A$2100 million in investments and years of inept government. It was an escape also from a tricky situation Nauru landed itself in by agreeing in September to take A$20 million from Australia for letting the Australians dump unwanted Afghan, Iraqi and Palestinian refugees on it shores, while Canberra decides which ones should be allowed into Australia.

Before his departure, Harris was reported to have sobbed in the 20-member parliament during an acrimonious debate about Nauru's mounting money woes in which MPs traded insults and accusations.

Leading the campaign: Members of Naoero Amo Party, Nauru's new political party. Front (from left): Marlene Moses, Sprent Dabwido. Back: David Adeang, Roland Kun, Kieren Keke.

He reported that to keep the government's day-to-day administration running, including getting some overdue pay to public servants, he'd got the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, to agree to an emergency A$1 million payment from a A$107 million compensation fund meant to assist the rehabilitation of land ruined by phosphate mining.

Harris left Nauru under attack from other quarters. A veteran political rival, Kinza Clodumur, a former president and prime minister, in a Radio Australia interview, spoke of an imminent no-confidence motion against the president.

Musing on Harris' record, The Visionary, a juicy newsletter produced by Naoero Amo (Nauru First), a new political party formed by young businessmen, professionals and public servants intent on reparing the corrupt and murky affairs of the small country of 7000 citizens, asked about a A$231,000 account run up with the Nauru Phosphate Commission, when he was chairman.

The newsletter said money had been drawn for clothes, lingerie, jewellery, a down-payment on a house in Melbourne, and a Concorde supersonic airliner ride between London and New York for himself and his wife.

The Visionary noted there was the matter of a A$1,529 million debt owed to the Bank of Nauru, something that would take 25 years to repay if Harris held on to his A$60,000 presidential salary.

But harassed Harris is hitting back at nagging Naoero Amo. On September 17, two of its founders, David Adeang, a legal counsel, and Kieren Keke, one of only two Nauruan physicians, received an official letter that on the "highest authority" they would be disciplined.

Adeang was suspended and Keke sacked for allegedly making "adverse remarks" about a cabinet minister to the media. They have asked a lawyer to represent them in challenging the action against them.

In response to inquiries from Pacific Magazine, Naoero Amo explained: "With our long-term goals for rebuilding Nauru, we intend to be different, by having first agreed on party principles that define common goals and aspirations generally defined, and which determine the economic, social and political platform of the party.

"We are confident that our shared values and beliefs serve as our bond to sustain the party's longevity in service to the people of Nauru. We have clear intentions to contest the next elections as members of Naoero Amo party.

"We also plan to have a member of the party stand in each of the eight constituencies that make up the Nauru electorate."

The party's founder members are Marlene Moses - currently Secretary for Health; Roland Kun - currently general manager, Nauru Fisheries Corporation; David Adeang - currently presidential counsel; Sean Oppenheimer - general manager, Capelle & Partner, the largest private business on the island; Kieren Keke - currently senior medical officer at the Nauru Hospital; and Sprent Dabwido - currently general manager, Nauru Insurance Corporation.

The party first met early this year under "what the old people of Nauru called the worst living conditions experienced by the people of Nauru since the Second World War; that is, darkness created by blackouts resulting from shortages of diesel, petrol, water and cash. It was a meeting of like-minded Nauruans naturally congregated by a shared concern for Nauru and how the present circumstances did not bode well for Nauru's future."

Party members meet several times a week to discuss Nauru's affairs. "We spend a lot of time trying to increase the Nauruans" awareness of these issues by printing The Visionary. This also provides people with an opportunity to express their views publicly. Though our intention has not been to attack the government, it is unfortunate and perhaps, a reflection of the government's sense of vulnerability and inadequacy that we are seeing by the Cabinet as the opposition.

"We are presently under attack by some of the Cabinet Ministers in a defamation suit before the Supreme Court of Nauru; and we would be less than honest to say that we have not received, directly or indirectly, threats to our jobs with the government.

"We accept this risk in our service to Nauru and in the greater interest of Nauru. We feel we are informing the people about what they rightfully should know to help keep the government honest and accountable. We are receiving increasing support from all corners."

Another founder, Sean Oppenheimer, whose family owns the largest private business on the island of which he is general manager, had to step back from active involvement with the party due to "direct and indirect pressure" being put on the business. This includes a threat that business would be made difficult by stopping the handling of shipped cargo, and causing problems with employees' visas, etc.

"We have also been paid personal visits, none of them friendly, from ministers' families to berate us for materials published in _The Visionary_about Cabinet Ministers. We have also been repeatedly mentioned in unfriendly terms in Parliament by the government and especially the President.

"We have listened to the President attack us personally on a number of occasion. He even told Parliament to disregard The Visionary as we were all "just a bunch of half-castes".

"Our intention from the start was never to be in opposition to a particular government or group of MPs. But we have found that the current government is continuously misleading the people and making promises that they do not and cannot keep. We sit and watch them spending scarce resources and arranging loans from the insolvent Bank of Nauru.

"But the plight of the people remains the same. We have found that we cannot ignore this and hence a lot of our focus has been directed against the government.

"Some people do not like this and would prefer us just to stick to informing the public of the facts without making any comment.

"Yet others say to us we are being too soft and that we should Œcome out stronger". We have decided to make our views known in an editorial fashion because The Visionary is a political party newsletter intended upon advancing the party and its platform of principles. At the same time we have been very wary of making personal attacks, because this is a small community and we hold in high regard the mutual respect for the privacy of individuals."