1
Asiapax Media Penang
9,341 words
13 pages
ELITE COMMUNICATION
BETWEEN
THE PACIFIC ISLANDS AND ASIA
A New Paradigm Evolving
Ron Crocombe
P.O. Box 309, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS
Phone (682) 28-100, Fax (682) 28-100
E-mail: [email protected]
Keynote address
to the
South Pacific Media Forum
15th AMIC Annual Conference
Penang, Malaysia.
17-20 July 2006.
This paper is about two related topics. The first is about the evolution of print and broadcast media in
the 14 independent nations of the Pacific Islands. The essence of that story is that they were set up,
owned and operated in the 1800s and 1900s, by small-scale European individuals and organizations
based in the Islands in the colonial era. Then following independence from the 1960s to the 1990s, a
growing number of independent Pacific Islands governments, and individual indigenous Pacific
Islanders, began to own and operate various media. The most recent trend, however, is for the role of
Pacific Islands governments and individuals to be constrained and in some cases marginalized, due to
much greater large-scale international control and production of the growing range of media that reach
Pacific Islands audiences. Whereas this was almost 100% from Western media sources, now an
increasing proportion is from Asian sources.
The second topic is about what drives the Asia-Pacific media, because media is secondary.
The primary drivers include trade, investment, aid, diplomacy, strategic issues, sources of education,
information, religion and external cultural influences, including languages. This paper does not look
at those in detail, but at two aspects of elite communication between Asia and the Pacific Islands that
both reflect and create the primary drivers, and are in turn reflected in the media. These two are:
1. Communication between political power-brokers between the Pacific Islands and Asia, and
2. A new network – the 750 or so new Asia-Pacific regional organizations that bring elite Pacific
Islanders from all walks of life into contact with counterparts in Asia. Two of that 750 are among the
sponsors of this conference – AMIC, which now covers the Pacific Islands as well as Asia, and
UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific regional programme and its Pacific Islands branch in Samoa, and we should
acknowledge also the tremendous contribution made to Asia-Pacific media training by the Frederic
Ebert Foundation and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
The paper ends with some brief thoughts on possible future trends in the evolution of
networks of communication in the Asia-Pacific region.
Newspapers: Emergence of Asian owners and reporters
The first newspapers and other print material were produced by religious missions from the early
1800s, mainly in indigenous languages. Religious materials are no longer the mainstream, except in
2
some isolated areas, but extensive papers, tracts, bulletins and other material continue to pour out,
especially by the US-derived fundamentalist evangelical churches.
In the late 1800s some European settlers began papers in English (and French in French
colonies) for foreigners.
From the 1970s the biggest papers were owned by big conglomerates in USA or France, and
in West Papua often involving members of the Indonesian military and political elite. The content in
each case is oriented to the countries, interests and perspectives of the owners. [1]
For a time most papers in the smaller Pacific Islands countries were owned by colonial
governments and then by the independent governments that succeeded them. A few government
papers continue in the smallest nations but most were privatized in the 1980s and 1990s and they and
others new ones are run mainly by persons indigenous to the nation concerned. Now most small
South Pacific papers have indigenous owners who are expert in their respective nations but draw their
external news from one or other of the Western news sources, and an increasing proportion of it comes
from international sources, mainly Western (especially free sources such as Radio Australia or Radio
New Zealand International in the South Pacific and US sources in the North Pacific). But indigenous
ownership is highest among the large numbers of newsletters and other publications for clubs,
churches, community and special interest groups.
Asia was marginal to all categories of media until recently except in Micronesia when Japan
was the colonial power there (1914-1945).
Some papers designed for ethnic Asian audiences also belong to Western conglomerates. The
oldest by far is the Murdoch Group’s Shanti Dut, a Hindi-language paper for the Indian community in
Fiji. The newest may be the Filipino language Bayanihan,. published in Guam by the US chain,
Gannett. Several Fiji Indian entrepreneurs have also set up papers in Hindi or other Indian languages
but few still survive because most of the Fiji Indian community now use English-language media. [2]
A few of the many Chinese language papers in Australia and New Zealand reach Chinese
colleagues in the Islands. However, few Chinese communities were big enough to support their own
paper. A Chinese paper in Tahiti went out of business as most Chinese people there now speak French,
Tahitian and English. The Chinese population in Fiji was too small to justify a paper until the numbers
rose in the late 1980s enough to enable Sally Aw Sian, a major Hong Kong publisher, to set one up in
the 1980s with the Fiji Sun. Both ceased publication after the economic collapse following the 1987
coup. Then with a big influx of immigrants from China in the 1990s and this century, the Daily
Chinese Mail began in Chinese in Suva in 2004. Another Chinese paper began in 2006. Both are
Chinese owned and in Chinese language, but in Vanuatu, the Vanuatu Daily Post is owned by an ethnic
Chinese and a European Australian, and publishes for a national audience.
Papers in indigenous languages are relatively few, partly because each language has so few
speakers. The Pacific Islands region has the greatest language fragmentation in the world by far about 1,200 languages or one quarter of the world total, despite having only one thousandth of the
world’s population, and income and literacy levels for many are limited, so the market for papers in
indigenous languages is limited. The largest indigenous languages in the region are Samoan and Fijian
(each with perhaps 400,000 speakers world-wide), Tongan has perhaps 200,000 speakers world-wide.
There is one or more papers in each of those languages, mostly locally owned although the Fijian Nai
Lalakai is part of the US Murdoch empire. Kiribati, Nauru, Niue and Tuvalu have papers in their
languages, but in the Cook Islands the only two papers are in English (one with a small section in the
local language) and the media in French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna is
overwhelmingly in French.
Creole languages are used in Papua New Guinea (which has 820 languages), Solomon Islands
(88) and Vanuatu (110). In Papua New Guinea a local, partly church-owned but secular newspaper
Wantok was founded in 1975 and has wide coverage in Neo-Melanesian or Niugini Pidgin. The
Solomon Islands Development Trust publishes the magazines Link and Komiks in Solomon Islands Tok
Pijin, and some newspapers in Vanuatu publish every issue partly in English, partly in French and
partly in the Creole Bislama.
Whereas the Western-owned papers are specifically media companies, the first papers owned
by Asians were big companies in quite different lines of business that were subject to public criticism
for criminal actions and set up papers at least partly to improve their image. Thus Rimbunan Hijau, the
Malaysian timber, transport and trading conglomerate in Papua New Guinea, and probably the largest
firm in Papua New Guinea was found guilty of colossal corruption by a commission in 1988-9. It tried
to improve its notorious public image and in 1993 set up The Nation, the first paper in the country with
colour pictures. Written in English it was sold at a subsidized price. [3]
In a somewhat parallel case, the Tan family companies, the largest in the Northern Marianas,
own factories, a shipping line, planes, hotels, gambling machines, insurance, food franchises and other
3
enterprises. They were faced with adverse publicity – including having to pay the largest fine ever in
US history for the exploitation of workers (US$9 million), and the largest fine in the Northern
Marianas for environmental pollution. Food was a problem and 1,200 of his staff suffered food
poisoning at once on one occasion. The Tan group then set up the Saipan Tribune and gave it away
free for the first two years and subsidized to a price below production cost thereafter.
In the North Pacific Islands, Asia has been more noticed in the content of papers since the
1970s at least. One reason is that most of the reporters are Filipino, and there are many Asian settlers,
mostly Filipino but also Chinese, Korean, Burmese and others.
Newspaper staff in the South Pacific were mainly European but are now mostly indigenous
except in West Papua where they are mainly Indonesian. In the North Pacific Islands, however,
journalists in Guam, the Northern Marianas, Palau, FSM and the Marshall Islands are overwhelmingly
Filipino owing to the substantial immigrant Filipino populations in those countries. Few of those
reporters speak the local languages and they rely on English-language sources. Fiji journalists are
roughly balanced between Fijian, Indian and other ethnicities.
Perhaps the biggest growth in readership in the Islands is in foreign papers, journals,
magazines, comics and other literature that now swamp the newsstands. All of that is in international
languages and oriented to foreign audiences – the fact that they have a fringe market in the Islands does
not alter their content. Almost all have a high advertising content promoting consumerism for
imported products and services – mainly luxuries. Professional and technical journals too are almost
exclusively foreign. Briefings on security and international affairs come to Pacific Islands
governments overwhelmingly from sources outside the Islands – giving governments the perspectives
of foreign interests whereas no one has the same access to inform them of their national needs.
Until 2000 there were three Pacific-Islands wide journals but only one has survived as a flood
of international journals and magazines out-competes them. Pacific Islands universities publish but the
volume is a tiny fraction of that imported to the region.
Asian news in Pacific newspapers
Political crises in Asia sometimes get a mention in the Islands press, including reports on the long and
continuing saga of Indonesian military brutality in West Papua on unarmed civilians advocating more
freedom and less corruption.
Since China began its vigorous diplomacy in the Islands in late 1975, its national daily
(Renmin Ribao) featured each Pacific Islands nation as it became independent.
The Fiji Sun began in the late 1990s reprinting key sections from The Times of India, Japan’s
Daily Yomiuri, and the South China Morning Post along with one each from Australia, New Zealand
and USA. This was an important step that more Islands papers might emulate.
Pacific news in Asian newspapers
Virtually non-existent a decade or so ago, and still limited, reporting on the Islands is increasing.
Political crises, natural disasters and other events feature in the English-language newspapers (the only
ones I can read). Singapore’s Straits Times (and Sunday Times, which describes itself as “The Pacific
Area Newspaper”) include a little more than most. [4]
The most extensive coverage was in Asia Week, based in Hong Kong but distributed
throughout Asia and Oceania. Founded in 1975 by a New Zealander and an Indian, it thrived until the
Time publishing empire bought and closed it in 2005. Its regular feature “Bottom Line” gave data on
population, health, communications, inflation, exports, savings etc for all countries of Asia, Australia,
New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea .
I was in Bangladesh during the 2000 coup in Fiji. It was covered daily
by the Bangladesh Observer and Daily Star. The Bangladesh Independent also carried news of the
independence movement in West Papua and politics in Papua New Guinea. Even the Bangkok Post
carried an article on Air Marshall Islands. The Taipei Times covers Islands nations that recognize
Taiwan diplomatically, and Indian papers give most space to Fiji’s Indian community. Otherwise,
throughout Asia, Papua New Guinea receives most coverage of the Islands nations.
Japan gave extensive coverage to protests against French nuclear tests in the 1980s in which
Japanese activists and journalists took part. Travel in the Islands is also popular in Japan. In sport, top
Polynesian sumo wrestlers are widely known in Northeast Asia, in fact Samoan wrestler Konishiki was
“one of the most famous and influential foreigners in Japan” (Japan Echo 25(2):42). Rugby also gets
considerable coverage in Japan and many Islanders play both for and against Japanese teams.
Cricket is the most popular sport in India where newspapers (those in English at least) report
fully on Australian and New Zealand international cricket. Some coverage is also given to other sports
in those countries, but little to Pacific Islands.
4
Journals
Academia’s subsidized discovery of the Asia-Pacific. 30 years ago hardly a single academic journal
dealt with the Asia-Pacific. Now I know of 75 (not including the even more numerous newsletters
from Asia-Pacific governmental and NGO organizations). All Asia-Pacific journals I am aware of are
in English (or in some cases English and one other language). An early initiative for journals was from
Japan and Australia in their drive to promote an effective Asia-Pacific region. But the sources have
broadened. Now Singapore and Malaysia, India and Korea, and most recently China and Taiwan, have
initiated Asia-Pacific journals and hosted conferences and communications networks that go with them.
Travel industry journals and other publications. Special interest media have become prominent,
and one of the important ones for spreading awareness of the Pacific Islands in Asia is airline in-flight
journals. Air New Zealand, Fiji’s Air Pacific, USA’s Continental and others flying between Asia and
the Islands contain sections in the main languages of the countries they serve and all contain material
on the Islands.
Probably the largest volume of material in Asian languages on the Northern Marianas, Palau,
New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Fiji is tourist brochures and advertising. Airline in-flight
magazines, widely read by tourists and their relatives back home, give a positive picture of the Islands
in the parts of northeast Asia that they reach. The first and still most common Asian language used is
Japanese, with a little Chinese on services to Palau from Taiwan, and Korean to Fiji and New Zealand.
Destinations with many Asian tourists feature journals promoting activities and services in those
countries e.g. New Caledonia’s Picnic: Le Journal Japonais de Noumea is almost all in Japanese and
the Marianas Beach Press is in Japanese and English.[5 ]
More recently still, commercial journals covering this region have emerged e.g. Asia-Pacific
Tropical Homes and Asia Pacific Boating.
Books: Slower to catch up
Most books published in Asia about the Islands were in Japan for national consumption. They began in
the late 1800s with accounts by travellers, often given passage on naval ships, much as today’s military
forces carry “embedded journalists”.
With Japan’s acquisition of Micronesia in 1914, books in Japanese on that area flourished, as
well as those about the South Pacific Islands, with 40 books and articles about Papua New Guinea
alone in 1942-3.
Books by Japanese scholars and others resumed from the 1970s – especially on travel, and
from 1996 Jun Takeda began translating writings by Pacific Islands authors into Japanese and having
them published. The only Korean writer I know of is Daniel Kwon, who spent past 25 years managing
a logging business in Solomon Islands and has written five books on the South Pacific in Korean.
Some Fiji Indians read Hindi books but few are about the Pacific, and most books read by
Indians in the Islands are in English.
Travel books on the South Pacific are available in Asian capital city and airport bookshops,
but it was surprising to see Dupeyrat’s Papua and Theroux’s offensive and unreliable Happy Isles of
Oceania in a bookshop in Bangkok.
Some books are emerging on the Asia-Pacific region (e.g. the three volume Asia-Pacific Arts
Directory in 1996), but more slowly than journals, radio and television.
Pacific Islands libraries and bookshops stock very little from Asian perspectives, except for
books and journals given to the libraries by Asian embassies.
In the other direction, mention of Asia in Pacific Islands literature is still unusual. A
generation ago anti-colonial images were strong, but have since been replaced by critiques of local
politicians and other elites. Regis Stella’s (1999) novel describes an unnamed country with all the
attributes of Indonesia organizing a coup in Papua New Guinea. There are other references in the
stories of some other authors and poets, but creative writers, like their academic counterparts, take time
to catch up with changing realities. The media are a little more up to date.
Radio, cassettes, DVDs, TV, and video
Islands radio stations broadcast little about Asia except rebroadcasts from non-Asian sources - such as
Radio Australia (which gives good coverage of Asian news), Radio New Zealand International,
Associated Press, Australian Associated Press, the BBC or Voice of America. China pays to have
Chinese programs on Fiji national radio, and assists with engineering problems.
Radio Japan broadcasts to Oceania nine hours daily in Japanese and English. It is mostly for
Australia but also picked up by some listeners in the Islands. China, Korea and other Asian nations
5
also broadcast on short-wave to the Islands, in English and their own languages. Most people listen to
their national radio but some listen to Asian stations at night when the reception is best. In the 1960s
the government radio in Tahiti broadcast programs in Chinese for ethnic Chinese citizens but these
were later stopped to fit the French policy of assimilation.
Broadcasting from the Islands to Asia is by two stations in Micronesia, neither of which
projects an Islands image! Voice of America’s $30 million transmitter was built in the Northern
Marianas in 1997. Palau is home to Voice of Hope Radio that has since 1992 broadcast Christian
programs to China, Japan, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and the Islands. By 1996 they
were broadcasting in English, Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Tagalog.
Cassettes, DVDs, TV, film and video show a very small proportion of Islands-produced
material, and it does not seem to be growing due to the massive external competition. Most is from
Western sources but the flow from Singapore and elsewhere in East Asia is growing and Indian
Bollywood films, long shown in Fiji, are becoming popular in Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati and among
Maori and Pacific Islanders in New Zealand.
Almost everything used to be from a Western perspective but that is slowly becoming more
balanced. Hank Nelson’s superb film Angels of War on World War II in Papua New Guinea, for
example, gives the views of Western, Japanese and Papua New Guinean participants in the conflict.
Television began, in most cases with government-owned stations and promises of high local
content and an emphasis on education and public issues. The reality has been very different. Most
are now privatized or run as profit-making government corporations. The vast majority of programs
even on local stations is foreign, educational content is minimal, advertising content very high. And
while there is much criticism of television, the content of video and DVD is much worse – with a high
content of violence, pornography and slapstick because of a limited knowledge of the language they are
in (mainly English) and therefore a market for content that can be understood without full command of
the language.
In television, Australia’s Asia-Pacific program was the main external program in Samoa,
played several hours a day until 2005 China’s CCTV began paying Samoa Television to broadcast its
program free, in English, 18 hours a day after several years of 30 minute news bulletins. In 2006
CCTV began broadcasting through the Vanuatu Broadcasting service and plans to offer similar services
throughout the region. Fiji in 2001 replaced BBC programs it had to pay for by CCTV that it was paid
to broadcast. Sky Pacific offers 16 channels including CCTV and three Indian channels to the Cook
Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga and Tuvalu.
In the north Pacific Islands (Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands,
Republic of Palau, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and Territory of Guam) local stations
began with almost exclusively US sources. Now these are supplemented by Australian, British,
Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Singaporean, Taiwanese and occasionally Indian programs. For
instance Marianas Cable Vision carries Chinese, Filipino, Japanese and Korean as well as English
programs and their own local programs. The trend is spreading to the South Pacific.
What matters is not who broadcasts but who watches and listens. No study has been
undertaken but informal responses in Micronesia in 2006 were confirmed by a librarian at the College
of Micronesia (FSM) who mentioned that students used to see world news only from a US perspective,
but new sources that give them a broader comparative view include Britain’s BBC, China’s CCTV and
Singapore’s Channel News Asia – all of which are popular.
Filipino, Japanese and Korean channels seem to be watched mainly by tourists and residents
from those countries in the Islands but the range of viewers is likely to broaden. Korea’s KBS World
broadcasts 24 hours a day in Guam, Saipan and American Samoa in English and in Korean with
English sub-titles. Japan’s NHK is used by some channels though mainly used by Japanese-owned
hotels, businesses and homes. A new TV station on Saipan in 2005 offers mainly US programs but
also some Korean and Filipino.
Ownership of television stations was by Islands governments or local companies, but that era
may be ending. Fu Shun Television of China had its application to broadcast in Fiji “approved in
principle” in 2001 and claimed in 2004 to have spent $833,000 preparing its station in Labasa (the
main town of Northern Fiji) as their “entry point” for business interests in Fiji. But in 2005 Fiji’s
prime minister said Fu Shun would not get a licence because of unreliable information on its partners –
with implications of criminal connections.
Chinese aid technicians installed a new satellite dish, repeater towers and other equipment for
the Niue government’s television service in 2002 and 2005 (the latter after a hurricane).
In 1998 Jonmag of Malaysia was licensed to broadcast television and FM radio in Papua New
Guinea. Indonesian and Philippines television, and some Indian, is available in Papua New Guinea
and western Micronesia. Fiji’s national television station began every morning from the mid 1990s
6
with Asia Business News. Being the only option it was widely viewed, and paid for by advertising of
Asian products imbedded in it from Asia. Fiji Television plays programs in Hindi for Fiji’s Indian
community. In Pohnpei, the capital of FSM, the only service is a 15-channel cable television that
offers a Japanese and a Filipino channel among others.
The most influential foreign television in the South Pacific is the Australian Broadcasting
Commission’s Asia-Pacific service. Its claim to be the only service produced in the Asia-Pacific for
the Asia-Pacific is also made by Singapore’s Channel News Asia, but Australia includes more Pacific
Islands coverage. It is, however, facing increasing Asian competition.
Images of the Islands reaching Asia are few and unrepresentative. Film crews from Japan,
China, Taiwan, Korea and other Asian nations frequently visit the Islands to make films for their home
television services. On a wet Sunday afternoon in Delhi (18 July 1999 on CNBC) I watched the live
broadcast of Japan playing Tonga in the Pacific Rim Rugby tournament. Japan won but its coach and
some of its players were Pacific Islanders.
Video from Asia began with kung fu and other martial arts films, then pornography, and now
an ever-widening range.
The impact of consumer-driven media is similar everywhere. Kriengsak Charoenwongsak,
president of Thailand’s Institute of Future Studies, said “teenagers are helplessly caught in the
turbulence of reconciling Thai culture with...Western culture. The media’s emphasis on consumerism
treats youth as discerning customers of luxury goods rather than our treasured hope for future
development and improvement” (Bangkok Post 29 Dec 1996). But change does not mean that
everything changes, or the same way. A 1997 study of the 20 to 30 year-old urban elite of Southeast
Asia, China and India, showed big differences from Western counterparts. While asserting
independence of thought and self-expression, they “desire a kind of controlled freedom in which they
carry forward much of their Asian heritage”. It also noted higher levels of optimism among young
Asians than among young Westerners. [6]
Telecommunications and postal services: Changing flow patterns
Telecommunications was all from Western sources until recent years. The volume and flow of postal,
telephone, fax and data transmission traffic used to be published but since these services have been
privatized the information is kept secret. “Off the record” information, however, confirms growth in
communication with East Asia.
Internet services have flourished in the towns but most of the contact is in international
languages and outside the Islands. There are several Internet sites in Pacific Islands mainly for
communication between those at home in the Islands and their relatives who have emigrated to
Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada. However, most of the impact of Internet is a massive flow
of information and entertainment from the Western world to the Islands.
Internet sites that include the name “Asia-Pacific” (or similar) have surged since the mid1990s and are now in the many hundreds.
Public relations by governments and commerce: Impacting inwards more than outwards
Hardly heard of a generation ago, the name Asia-Pacific (or Asia Pacific, Asian Pacific etc) has
blossomed, reflecting growing interaction.
A 1995 study of student perceptions at the University of the South Pacific asked which foreign
country they considered most important for their economic future. Most (69%) saw Asia as of
increasing importance but they were divided as to whether Australia or Japan would be the most
important country for them in the 21st century. Asked what country they liked best (out of 10), New
Zealand rated highest (8.2), then Australia (7.8), Japan and Britain (7.5), USA (7.3) and others. Those
liked least were China and Indonesia (both 4.7) with India lowest (4.3). They saw Japan as the most
developed country, above USA, with China, Malaysia, India and Indonesia least developed. I expect
that an equivalent study of these perceptions today would see a more positive appreciation of a wider
range of countries and peoples of Asia, though much of Asia is simply unknown to most, and some
clearly retains a less than positive image.
Access to information
Most Pacific Islanders, particularly those on lower incomes, have little or no access to newspapers or
journals, and few if any books. Radio is widespread, but even it is not available to many rural families.
Television is mainly confined to towns and their surrounds for reasons of cost, electricity and
technological skills. DVDs are a little further spread, but again do not reach hundreds of thousands of
rural dwellers at all regularly. The lower the income, the more restricted the circle of awareness, and
7
the understanding of Asia is minimal in lower income areas whether rural or urban. Internet is very
much for the elite and they are the ones with the best potential to get a better understanding of Asia.
Elite communication with Asia
All the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands originated from Asia, but they left long ago. The first
Papuans left Asia up to 50,000 years ago and the first Austronesians left Taiwan more than 5,000 years
ago and entered the Pacific Islands probably 4,000 ago. The indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands
are descended from them. Having departed from Asia, there was almost no further contact. As with
the rest of the world at that time, communication was slow and limited in range.
Europeans came into the Pacific Islands from the 1500s, though mainly in the 1800s, and
many Asian people came in the 1800s – mainly as plantation workers, technicians or traders. But these
modern Asians were very different from those who came in the early era – the ancestors of those early
Pacific Islanders were overwhelmed by later Asians, and became small, marginalized fragments in
Asia. There was little communication between Asia and the Pacific Islands until the era of
constitutional independence, jet aircraft and telecommunications. The turning point was about 1970.
Since the 1970s communication between Asia and the Pacific Islands – and between Asians
and Pacific Islanders – has increased enormously. Yet few people seem aware of the paradigm shift in
communication that is taking place, or its likely consequences. I would like to focus on some changes
that reflect that shift. In doing so we should note that the conventional media: newspapers, journals,
magazines, radio, television, video, Internet etc are only part of the process of communication and
information, and that the big influences for change tend to come from:
1. Communication between political and commercial power-brokers. Personal contacts
between leaders of politics and business, because communication at that level is vastly more
influential than that at lower levels. But this paper will focus on communication between
political leaders.
2. Asia-Pacific regional organizations . The creation and operation of a new network of
information and awareness that involves millions. Almost non-existent 50 years ago there are
now over 700 Asia-Pacific regional organizations, and they connect millions of people
through the Asia-Pacific.
3. Future directions. Sources of information are still predominantly Western but slowly
catching up with the “hardware” of shifts in trade, investment, aid, strategic issues, diplomatic
leverage and so on.
Communication between political power-brokers.
Power attracts, and one reflection of the balance of power is who visits who, who pays for it, what
results from the visits, and what rituals and ceremonial utterances each side performs. In the dancedrama called diplomacy, the weak visit the strong more than vice versa, and the weak bow lower.
Independent governments only began in the Pacific Islands with Samoa’s independence in
1962 and other countries became independent from then until Palau in 1994. In the early stage of
independence the international contacts of Pacific Islands prime ministers and presidents were
overwhelmingly with their counterparts in the former colonial power, or with other Western nations as
they were then the main sources of funds and services. There were exceptions, one of which was Fiji,
whose leaders had close contact with Malaysia since the 1950s because Fijian soldiers served here in
the 1950s emergency and they shared many concerns about how to govern an ethnically diverse nation.
Although Islands heads of government have visited USA many times, they seldom get even a
token handshake with the US president, despite some desperate attempts to do so. Partly it is because a
short meeting interview with a US president still has more public relations value in the Islands than a
long one with most Asian leaders, despite most Islands nations having much more trade, aid,
investment and other relations with the big Asian nations than with USA. This is changing as image
catches up with reality.
France is the only nation of Europe whose president has met with all Pacific Islands leaders, in
2003, and again this year and to be regular every three years.
As the balance of power shifted in the direction of Asia, so did the path of Pacific Islands
leaders making contact with the new centres of power.
In addition to personal benefits are evaluations of the future. Although Papua New Guinea
still gets most aid, imports and external educational inputs from Australia (though a reducing
proportion), now most exports go to Asia, most new investment comes from Asia, and much
international orientation has turned north. The first overseas trip of any new Papua New Guinea prime
minister was for years to Australia and next Japan, its second largest aid and trading partner. But now
the first visit is to China, next to Japan and then Australia. Sir Michael Somare, re-elected as prime
8
minister of Papua New Guinea in 2003, met the Chinese premier four times in the next 18 months.
Likewise the first overseas visit by newly elected Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase of Fiji was to China.
Reflecting the differences of scale and power, Islands presidents and prime ministers visit
Asia many times more than vice versa. Japan has been the largest aid donor to many Islands nations.
Heads of most Pacific Islands governments have visited Japan’s head of government six to twelve
times in the past 20 years, but no return visits were made by anyone near those levels.
Japan is the only Asian nation to annually invite the head of government who chairs the
Pacific Islands Forum for that year and the Secretary General of the Forum (since 1987). Japan is also
the only Asian nation to invite all heads of Islands governments simultaneously, as it has done every
three years since 1997.
When USSR imploded into impotence Japan gave lower priority to the Islands until China's
vigorous diplomacy concerned them enough to invite the heads of all 14 Forum Islands governments to
Japan every three years from 1997. It was the first country to do so. Japan wanted more influence in
the region, and gave the first invitation when it wanted a seat on the UN Security Council. It needed,
sought and obtained the support of the Forum nations. Japan’s vice-minister of foreign affairs attended
the next Forum to thank the heads of government personally.
China has invited all heads of government with which it has diplomatic relations - and some
with which it does not. Most have made the trip several times. Between March 2004 and July 2005
eight heads of Pacific Islands governments visited Beijing, most with large delegations and at China’s
expense. The importance China attaches to personal visits is illustrated in the fact that its vice foreign
minister, in addressing Pacific heads of government at each year’s post-Forum dialogue, begins his
speech with a list of names and statuses of all those Pacific Islands heads of government, heads of state,
ministers and parliamentary speakers who had been guests of China in the previous year. In other
words, it gives the highest priority to elite communication. Precise figures are not available but
informed sources believe that China invites more Islander politicians, officials and influential citizens
than any other country. The high level of Chinese officials visiting the Islands shows the priority
China gives to the relationship. China now invites an additional category – all political parties. In
2005 delegations from major parties in at least Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Solomon Islands were
hosted to “step up friendly cooperation with all political parties” (The National 24 Aug 2005).
China wanted all heads of Pacific Islands governments to meet in Beijing in 2006, as Japan
does, but none of the six governments that recognize Taiwan’s independence would attend so a
meeting was held in Fiji for the eight heads of government that accept the One China Policy, at least in
public. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao opened the meeting, leading a delegation of more than 200
Chinese officials and business people. He announced a larger aid package (about $250 million grants
annually plus $375 million in interest-free and 5% loans over the next three years) covering a broader
range of topics. Existing loans to the least developed countries would be written off and anti-malarial
drugs supplied free for three years.
More Islands prime ministers, presidents, ministers and senior officials have been guests of
the governments of China, Taiwan and Japan than of any other nations of the world since 2000.
Taiwan is equally solicitous of the six Islands nations with which it has diplomatic ties.
Taiwan also sends large delegations to the Islands.
Papua New Guinea prime ministers have visited the Indonesian president, some of them
several times, but no Indonesian president visited any Pacific Islands nation. Ministerial visits have
been more frequent, almost all in the same direction. There is more reciprocity in visits of officials
and military officers, though still to more than from Indonesia. Visits involving other Islands nations
were few in either direction until an Indonesian delegation visited Fiji in 2001 to arrange an embassy
there. After opening its embassy in Suva, Indonesia began inviting senior politicians and officials from
Islands nations on three months familiarization visits.
Thailand has a symbolic connection with Tonga because both are kingdoms. The Tongan king
and other members of Tonga’s royal family have paid well-publicized visits to Thailand, but return
visits have been few and lower level. The two nations give each other some media coverage but not
much else.
Visits in the other direction, by the political elite of Asia to the Islands, are much fewer – as one
would expect given vast difference in populations, economies, military forces and other criteria.
However, China for several decades and Taiwan in the last few years send more senior representatives
to the Islands, more frequently, than other countries. The primary short-term motivation of both is
likely to be votes in international forums more than economic or military value.
Top-level visits from China have been to Papua New Guinea more than to any other country
in the region - logically as it is the largest nation and biggest trading partner with China. Samoa has
9
received a disproportionate number and level of official visitors from China, given Samoa’s small
population and negligible trade. Reasons may include the fact that Samoa was the first Islands country
to recognize China (Fiji’s relationship was formalized immediately thereafter), that Samoa has the
highest proportion of part-Chinese of any independent nation in the region, and that Samoa is one of
the few Islands nations to have consistently supported China’s goal of recolonizing Taiwan. When you
have no goods or strategic powers to trade, symbolic gestures and saving an embarrassed face can be
worth millions. When world leaders shunned China after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, the
first visitor was Samoa’s Prime Minister Tofilau Eti Alesana who flew right in and was rewarded with
a complete new set of government buildings, the largest and most prominent in Samoa.
Gifts of prominent buildings, especially those that symbolize sovereignty such as prominent
buildings, especially symbols of sovereignty like parliament buildings, government headquarters,
police, military and justice buildings, constitute another communication system.
China has a low profile in the three North Pacific Islands nations because two (Palau and
Marshall Islands) recognize Taiwan, and USA is the dominant force, followed by Japan, in all three –
including FSM where China is represented. Nevertheless, only China has an embassy at the new
national capital of FSM at Plaice (the others remain in the old capital, Kolonia), and close by China is
building elegant new residences for the national president, vice-president, chief justice and speaker,
and will then do so for the governor of Pohnpei State along with office buildings for his staff.
Japan has not needed to visit on this scale or to give sovereignty symbols. In fact it is to
Japan’s credit that much of its aid is for much needed facilities that are not in the public eye such as
communications cables, water supplies and sewage systems. However, the competition from China is
probably a factor in its new policy of sending members of Japan’s royal family on overseas goodwill
visits. It began with Prince Akishino visiting Fiji, Samoa and Tonga in 2004 and the Northern Mariana
Islands in 2005, and he meets heads of Pacific Islands governments when they come to Japan.
Visits of heads of government to other Asian governments have been few, except that the
heads of government of those Asian nations that belong to the Commonwealth (Bangladesh, Brunei,
India, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka) meet every two years with the heads of
government of the Pacific Commonwealth (Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New
Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu). Malaysia has welcomed the prime
ministers of Fiji and Papua New Guinea many times, and most other Islands nations at some time, but
return visits have been rare.
The prime minister of Fiji has visited India several times and in 2005 led the largest official
entourage ever from the Islands to India, to open an embassy there, sign a bilateral trade deal and
enhance Fiji’s status with one of the world’s fastest growing economies. The King of Tonga has been
twice to India, and the presidents of Nauru and Kiribati each once. The surge of interest in India
generated by its first two high commissioners, both outstanding men (A.P. Venkateswaran and
Bhagwan Singh), was not sustained probably because there was so little trade, investment, tourism,
media, religious or other linkage. The Indian minister of foreign affairs meets Australian and New
Zealand counterparts every two years, and officials every year, alternately in Australia and New
Zealand. Now that India is a dialogue partner of the Forum, there will also be a minister or senior
official meeting with Islands leaders every year. [7]
Few leaders have visited other countries of Asia. One of the few to have visited Russia was
the crown prince of Tonga when he was minister of foreign affairs, responding to an invitation by a
visiting Russian delegation. Fiji’s then president Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau visited Pakistan on a mission
to the Middle East and Europe.
Formal visits are not the only time that leaders meet. The Papua New Guinea prime minister
meets Asian counterparts at annual APEC summits (with Australia and New Zealand but not other
members of the Forum), and foreign ministers meet at APEC ministerial conferences. Heads of several
Islands governments (and the leader of the Kanak independence movement in New Caledonia) meet
Asian colleagues at summits of the Non-Aligned Movement. Ministers and officials from all Islands
nations meet all the time at conferences, workshops and seminars of many Asia-Pacific organizations.
While the most frequent invitations and most lavish attention are for politicians, the principle
also applies to journalists, business people, academics, church leaders, youth leaders and others who
are invited by some countries for visits. From the 1970s and 1980s Japan was most prominent, since
then China has been at least equally active. [8]
Naval visits, training and joint military exercises also used to be exclusively with Western
nations. Increasingly they also involve China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and to a lesser extent
other Asian nations. .
Who trains the elite communicators?
10
Almost all the first heads of independent Pacific Islands governments had been educated in New
Zealand, Australia or USA (in that order of frequency). Much the same applied with most ministers,
heads of business and organizations. Where one is trained usually gives one many values and systems
in common with the country of training, as well as more contacts there than elsewhere.
Now more of the high-level manpower is trained at universities with the Pacific Islands, and
of that done externally a growing proportion, but still a minority, is done in Asia – mainly Northeast
Asia, some in central Southeast Asia, and India. In the field of communication (print, broadcast, and
Internet), training, research and advice is not available through UNESCO’s Pacific programme based in
Samoa, and its Asia-Pacific Programme based in Bangkok. So do the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting
Union and the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development here in Malaysia, the Asia-Pacific
Telecommunications Council and the Asia-Pacific Postal Training Centre in Bangkok, and the Council
of Asia-Pacific Press Institutes in Singapore and Manila (which run on-line and on-site training
programs for journalists of the Asia-Pacific region), the Asia-Pacific Programme on Reading
Promotion and Book Development in Japan, and other various others.
There is good reason for high-level political contacts between countries but politicians give
themselves more opportunities than any other category. Apart from a constant flow of bi-lateral
meetings, the Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians Union (APPU) connects politicians; the Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association has many Commonwealth-wide activities, some are for South Pacific or
Asia-Pacific Commonwealth countries. In 2004 the first annual International Parliamentary Forum on
Asia-Pacific Security was held in Taipei, attended by lawmakers from 49 countries. Bi-lateral clubs for
politicians include the Papua New Guinea-Japan Parliamentarians Association and many similar
organizations. Parliamentary speakers, clerks and librarians in the Asia-Pacific region have their own
meetings. The Forum of Democratic Leaders in the Asia-Pacific promotes democracy in the region
was founded by President Kim Dae-Jung of Korea, President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines,
President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica, and Mrs Sonia Gandhi of India.
Diplomatic and other representation: Now reorienting more North-South
This too shows a steady trend of relative shrinkage of Western powers and relative growth of Asian –
Northeast Asian in particular. The Netherlands withdrew from West Papua and from Pacific regional
organizations in 1963. USA was the major external presence in the 1940s during and after the war, and
it was active during the Cold War, but closed its South Pacific embassies except for Papua New Guinea
and Fiji as soon as the Cold War was over. Britain closed embassies in Kiribati, Tonga and Vanuatu in
2004-6 and relates to those countries via its Fiji embassy. It withdrew from the Pacific Community and
the University of the South Pacific but contributes through the EU, which is active in the region.
France was first to begin decolonization but reversed the policy in 1958. Since the 1970s it has given
more autonomy to its territories and is said to be closing its embassy in Fiji to maintain Islands
relations from New Zealand. Of the Western bloc, only Australia and New Zealand remain very active.
Asian embassies, by contrast, are opening and expanding.
China established embassies in Samoa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea in 1976. China has
upgraded its representation, including appointing a deputy director-general of its ministry of foreign
affairs as ambassador in Fiji, with a supervisory role over its Pacific Islands embassies. China’s new
embassy complex in Suva looks to be the largest of any country in the region, and its assistant minister
for foreign affairs confirmed to South Pacific media delegates they invited to Beijing in 2005 that
China had more diplomats in the Islands region than any other country. Its embassy in Tonga is more
elaborate than the king’s palace. Japan’s new $16 million embassy in Papua New Guinea may reflect
Japan’s reaction to China’s increased activity.
Embassies are expensive so small countries have to choose where to put the few they can
afford. Most Islands nations have only one to four embassies in the world and deal with other
countries through them or from the national capital. Papua New Guinea has most (14), Fiji next (12),
giving them most international leverage. The first Asian countries to receive an Islands embassy were
Malaysia (from Fiji) and Japan (from Papua New Guinea). Only Papua New Guinea has an embassy
in Indonesia. Malaysia is important for Papua New Guinea and Fiji, and India for Fiji. Either China or
Taiwan took a high profile from the 1990s. A proportionate increase in representation in Asia is
apparent throughout, e.g. Papua New Guinea now has 6 embassies in Asia and has Fiji 4 (or 7 and 5 as
both have “trade missions” in Taiwan that are embassies in all but name). Other than in Pacific Islands
Forum capitals (including Canberra and Wellington), and at UN, Papua New Guinea and Fiji each has
2 in Europe and 1 in USA.
In the other direction, new Asian embassies came in. Of the 16 embassies in Papua New
Guinea, 7 are from Asia, 3 from members of the Pacific Islands Forum, 3 Europe and 1 each USA, UN
11
and the Vatican. Of the 18 embassies in Fiji, 6 are from Asia, 8 from Forum members, 3 from Europe
and 1 USA.
Some countries have no resident diplomats. Tuvalu had none until recently: an ambassador
from Taiwan. Other countries relate to Tuvalu via Fiji, Australia or New Zealand so their impact is
reduced. Tuvalu’s diplomats live in Tuvalu or Fiji and travel elsewhere for specific tasks.
Indonesia is the most recent. In 2000, the then President Wahid adopted a “Look East” policy.
Indonesia’s only embassy in the Islands from 1975 to 2002 was in Port Moresby. Relations between
the two countries have become closer since the 1998 agreement for regular meetings of ministers of
defense, agriculture, trade and human resources. In 2002 Indonesia opened an embassy in Fiji as the
“contact point” with other Islands nations.
The new evolving Asia-Pacific network of professional, cultural, educational, religious, sporting,
women’s, service and other organizations
30 years ago professional people in the Pacific Islands had almost all their external contacts with
Western institutions and organizations. There was hardly a single Asia-Pacific organization, except for
those affiliated with the United Nations, mostly based in Bangkok, some of which emerged earlier.
Inter-governmental organizations are now more numerous and involve personal participation by Pacific
Islands heads of government, ministers, politicians, and civil servants in almost every aspect of
government service. APEC alone involves many at all those levels directly, as well as academics and
business people who participate in their committees where the spadework is done. But APEC is only
one of dozens of inter-governmental organizations.
Health alone has 82 Asia-Pacific NGOs - separate ones for almost every medical specialty
(from the Asian and Oceanian Congress of Obstetricians, the Asia-Pacific Association for Laser
Medicine and Surgery, the Asia-Pacific Society of Impotence Research, the Asia-Pacific Traditional
Medicine Exchange Association and the Southeast Asian-Western Pacific Federation of
Pharmacologists as well as others dealing with heart problems, leprosy, gynaecology, AIDS, dentistry
and every medical specialty one can think of)). Most health-related NGOs are based in, were initiated
by, and largely funded from Japan, Australia or Singapore. Likewise, various branches of engineering,
telecommunications, media, computing, all have their own Asia-Pacific organizations, as do university
administrators, lawyers, accountants, broadcasters, surveyors, real estate agents, and so on.
Most organizations hold conferences, facilitate Internet contacts and List-servs, publish
newsletters, create a network of personal ties, and have an enormous impact on the sources and nature
of ideas and orientation. There are now at least 750 Asia-Pacific regional organizations. Most
members of any one Asia-Pacific organization are not aware of the others, yet they involve tens of
thousands directly and millions indirectly. Most members are of the elite of whichever category the
organization serves, so their influence is far beyond their numbers.
Overseas scholarships and training, and familiarization tours, once only to Western nations,
now see growing proportion to Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and beyond.
Religion, once exclusively Christian and in Western versions, now includes Asian versions
such as Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Movement, as well as Buddhist, Moslem, Hindu and
other Asia-derived beliefs, practices and influences.
Sport contributes to bridging the Asia-Pacific divide, with personal experiences of Asian and
Asians.
Pacific Islands business people now go increasingly to Asia and trade with Asians. The
goods ordinary people buy, from snack foods to cars and precision tools, are increasingly Asian.
And finally people. The proportion of Western people is steadily declining in the Pacific
Islands, and that of Asians steadily rising – and thus the people Islanders communicate with.
These changes are part of a slow-moving paradigm shift in communications, perceptions and actions
that is well under way. Improving the communications between the regions can only facilitate better
understanding and a more positive transition for all concerned.
.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Notes
1. The biggest papers in the two biggest Islands nations (Papua New Guinea Post Courier and
Fiji Times) are part of the US Murdoch empire. The Murdoch/local partnership that owns the
Papua New Guinea Post Courier also owns East Timor’s Timor Post. The biggest in
Micronesia (Pacific Daily News) belongs to the US Gannett conglomerate. All are in English.
The biggest in the French Pacific belong to the French Hersant group and are in French. In
West Papua Cenderawasih Pos and some others are owned by military figures in association
12
with politicians and are in Indonesian. From 1914 to 1945 Japan was the colonial power in
what is now the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the
Marshall Islands. During that time the only newspapers were Japanese-owned and in
Japanese language.]
2.
The largest market for Asian-language papers is West Papua where all papers are in
Indonesian. Second largest is the 400,000 ethnic Indians in Fiji, but whereas they used to read
papers in their own languages, now most of them read the English papers. Lal (1992:158)
listed 4 Hindi weeklies, 1 Hindi monthly and 1 Tamil monthly in the late 1950s, but most Fiji
Indian language papers have ceased publication as most people speak English and read
national papers. A.D. Patel’s weekly English-language Pacific Review began in the late 1950s
and lasted into the 1970s. Prabhaat, the most recent Hindi-language monthly news magazine,
began in 2000. According to the editor, the Canada-based ethnic Indian owners were only
prepared to invest when the Indian-dominated Labour Party won the election and the first
ethnic Indian prime minister was in charge. His government was, however, overturned in a
coup. In 2001 the Fiji Daily Post, in which the Fiji government held a controlling interest,
began a Hindi weekly, Raneek Jyoti, but it did not survive. In the late 1990s the C.P.Patel
merchandise group set up the Fiji Sun, an English-language paper in partnership with Fijian
Holdings. A few copies of The Indian Tribune, edited by an Indian but published in English
by the Tongan-owned, New Zealand-based Lali Media Group, reach Indian people in Fiji and
other Islands nations.
3.
Even the Papua New Guinea National Intelligence Organization, The Commission of Inquiry
into the Timber Industry, and various official and unofficial reports (including by the World
Bank and others) described Rimbunan Hijau as involved in political corruption, illegal logging
and human rights abuses.
4.
The only Asian language paper I have data on is the Japanese language Minami-Nihon
Shimbun of Kagoshima, where a colleague kindly summarized anything on the Islands in
August 1996. There were articles on the president of Palau, ethnicity in Hawai’i, South Pacific
exchanges (mainly with NZ), and two on the region generally.
5.
Continental was the first airline to offer information in Japanese on Pacific Islands (Hawai’i,
many ports in Micronesia and for a time Papua New Guinea) and its subsidiary Air
Micronesia (now Continental Micronesia) in its journal Pacifica from the 1970s. It contained
more Japanese than English but no other language. The airline also flew from those ports to
Hong Kong and Taiwan and by 1997 added some Chinese. It also flew to Indonesia, Korea
and the Philippines but had no in-flight reading in their languages - probably because it had 71
flights a week to Japan, but only 47 to all other Asian countries combined. In 2006
Continental Pacific still had Japanese and English as its only languages. Air New Zealand’s
Pacific Way (renamed Pacific Wave from 1996) started a Japanese section promoting New
Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Islands, by Fiji’s national airline Air Pacific, from the 1990s
had a 14 page section in Japanese on the Islands. Air Niugini renewed services to Japan in
1997 and provided some material in Japanese, but none in Filipino or Chinese despite serving
Manila and Singapore, presumably because most travelers from those places speak English.
When Russian tourists began visiting the Islands the magazine of its national airline Aeroflot
in January 1996 carried a lead article on Papua New Guinea - although Russians only visited
Micronesia!
6.
The survey, by O & M Asia-Pacific (a British firm), was summarized by Reuters in China
Post 15 May 1997.
7.
The only visit by an Indian prime minister or head of state was that by Indira Gandhi to Fiji
and Tonga in 1981. In 2004 the Minister for Indians Living Overseas visited Fiji.
8.
Japan’s Sasakawa Foundation invites Pacific journalists to Japan every year, China has on
several occasions, and Malaysia occasionally. India invites three eminent persons from the
Pacific each year (in 2003 the president of the Fiji chamber of commerce, the vice-chancellor
of the University of the South Pacific, and a prominent Fijian businessman were invited). But
13
since the 1980s China has invited the widest range. My wife and I were invited for a month of
most interesting and informative experience, and the most luxurious food we have ever eaten.