PORT VILA (Vanuatu Daily Post/Pacific Media Watch): Transparency International, the civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption, should cease from instigating political instability in Vanuatu, says Prime Minister Sato Kilman.
Prime Minister Kilman made this comment in relation to the Transparency page in the Daily Post on Friday which questioned the government’s stand on West Papua.
“Transparency International must not advocate political instability in a country that is recovering from a natural disaster like Cyclone Pam because the West Papua issue has the potential to incite uprising in the Melanesian towns of Honiara, Solomon Islands; Port Moresby in the Papua New Guinea and in Port Vila.
“The West Papua issue could incite [a] riot domestically and it’s not in the interest of Transparency International to spark the first flame,’’ the prime minister said.
The government said when Vanuatu hosted the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) meeting when the then Vanuatu Prime Minister, Ham Lini, was at the helm, West Papuans knocked on the door for membership but Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu refused to grant it to them.
“To paraphrase from Transparency International chairman Dr Willie Tokon, ‘it could have been a prouder moment for Vanuatu if Vanuatu’ had convinced the Melanesian countries to grant West Papua observer status here in Port Vila.
“Nothing happened then, but there was no immense pressure on the then Prime Minister Lini by Transparency International to explain Vanuatu’s stand on the West Papua issue,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The latest MSG leaders' summit in Honiara earlier this month granted the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) movement observer status for the first time while granting the colonising nation Indonesia promotion to associate member status.
Melanesian Spearhead Group grants observer status to West Papuan movement
Fiji, PNG lead betrayal - David Robie's Cafe Pacific blog
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