By Kai Ping Lew

When Alistar Kata first asked if I would take part in this mini doco, The PMC Project, I was really excited for the opportunity. The Pacific Media Centre has added so much to my learning curve as a journalist and I was more than happy to have a way to give back to it.

It’s a crucial support system for anyone who wants to report on the Asia-Pacific region, and Alistar’s video gives a little insight into the work they do, the team there, and why it matters.

Most people who want to become a journalist get told that they won’t get paid a lot of money. They get told that the media industry is driven by commercial values, that the large media corporations are owned by a few people who drive the agenda and nothing of real importance that harms their interests will never make it into mainstream news.

They get told that governments and societal elites will shut them down if they ever try to cover anything that paints them in a bad light.

These things are more or less true to a certain extent, varying from country to country, but an aspiring journalist plods on anyway because we are idealistic.

We dream of a more equal society and hope that we will have some small part in making that happen.

We dream of exposing corruption at the highest level, of giving voice to those who do not have the means or the access to make themselves heard, of improving peoples’ lives by giving them information that can help inform their choices.

Media industry challenges
This dream can sometimes seem childish and naïve in the face of the derision of others and the challenges facing the media industry today. Many industry professionals who have been in journalism long enough have become jaded and speak of their battles with tones tinged with cynicism.

It’s easy to be cynical. It’s harder to stand by your intangible, nebulous dream and fight for it.

It’s harder to know that the road is long, the battles will be tough, and you will have to face Goliath armed with a pen and your wits, and jump into the fray anyway.

David Robie is one of the people who has been in journalism for as long as he has who continues to burn with passion and idealism.

Under him, the Pacific Media Centre has grown as a resource, a media outlet, and a haven where like-minded journalists can find their purpose anchored, their small struggles appreciated, and a word of advice to spur them on when all they see are roadblocks ahead.

It is a place that nurtures idealism when the fire is dwindling. It is an outlet for the unheard voices of the Pacific, to give greater prominence to their issues.

“Making a difference” is a lofty ideal to aim for, and us aspiring journalists need all the help we can get to reach it.

To that end, I am grateful for the opportunities and knowledge I have gained through the Pacific Media Centre and hope I can continue doing so, wherever I am in my career.

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The editorial supervisor watches the students like a hawk as they type frantically, occasionally barking questions about their stories.

Her eyes alternate between scanning the laptop in front of her and monitoring the progress of her reporters-in-training doing their best to meet the looming print deadline.

The modest classroom is a makeshift newsroom, home to the award-winning University of South Pacific’s Wansolwara student newspaper. Wansolwara is pidgin for “one ocean, one people” and the newspaper covers serious local and regional issues.
Founded by the students, its humble beginnings go back to 1996, with 13 first-year student journalists, two passionate lecturers, and the seed of an idea.

“There were two things we were thinking when we started Wansolwara. One was that University of South Pacific used to be a hub of student activism in the 1980s, and we wanted to revive that spirit,” says Stanley Simpson, Wansolwara’s first editor.

“The second was that as journalism students, we wanted a platform that could be used to showcase our work.”

As student publications went, the small team started out with ambitious and in-depth stories, covering topics from school affairs, politics and current affairs in hard news and satirical styles that quickly brought them to the attention of the local media.

“I remember that from the early days, we were already writing stories challenging authorities like the government, stories that the mainstream media didn’t even want to go near,” says Simpson.

Still going strong
Nineteen years later, Wansolwara is still going strong and was early on integrated into the curriculum of the journalism degree offered at USP.

Simpson is now editor of Business Melanesia and maintains friendly relationships with his previous lecturers.

Wansolwara is now the longest surviving student publication in the Pacific region and continues to cover serious news on a quarterly basis.

It is printed as liftout in the daily newspaper Fiji Sun and also mailed around the Pacific region. With more than 20,000 copies it has the largest circulation of any student newspaper in Australasia or the Pacific.

Wansolwara has won numerous awards both at national and international level including the Fiji Media Excellence awards, the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) awards, and Australia’s Journalism Education and Research Association (JERAA) Ossie Awards.

“A major strategic advantage for Wansolwara is that it does not face some of the restrictions the mainstream media does in the Fijian context, such as the ownership structure and the commercial pressures that come with it,” says USP journalism programme co-ordinator Dr Shailendra Singh.

He adds that USP gets some talented and enthusiastic students who are able to produce high-quality work under the guidance of the lecturers.

“I think Wansolwara offers an opportunity for students to cover news, and there’s a lot to cover both at USP and in the region. The students really like working on the paper and the learning outcomes are quite good.”

Crash course
Sharol Kondaiya has been writing for Wansolwara for seven months and credits the experience for giving her a crash course in practical news-gathering skills.

“There’s always something new for me to learn every time I work on a story, and the guidance our editor Irene gives us highlights our mistakes and shows us where we can still improve,” says Kondaiya.

Third year student Emmanuel Duane Mar made a gamble when he picked up journalism after dropping economics as his second major.

“Journalism was a risk for me because I initially didn’t ever consider it as a career path,” he says.

“Most (journalists) are overworked and underpaid, and in Fiji the government can crack down hard upon media for critical reports against it.”

Mar has covered significant issues in the region in his tenure at Wansolwara, including coverage on the negative impacts that pollution from a resort was having on a village along the Coral Coast which garnered some mainstream media attention.

“I learned a lot here. Met people, took risks, fell and got back up. I wouldn’t replace it for anything.”

Threats, problems
It’s not all rainbows and roses as the students face problems ranging from threats to being ostracised in their role as Wansolwara journalists.

A student investigating the misuse of funds by the USP Student Association was assaulted, and in another incident Samoan student Vicky Lepou who wrote about the decreasing pass rates of Samoan students faced backlash both from her peers and the Samoan government. (Today she is Misa Vicky Lepou and a journalism lecturer at the National University of Samoa.)

“Pacific Islands nations are very strongly bound by their culture, so social and cultural ostracisation can be quite a serious thing,” says Singh.

“These are unwelcome developments, but in some respects we’ve come to accept them as part of the job of training journalists. This is the reality they will face in the real world, and we get an opportunity to learn how to cope with them these things happen.”

For supervising chief editor Irene Manarae, who left a long and respectable career as a Fiji Times senior journalist to take up the job, the position offers its own unique compensation.

Guiding, educating
“The reason I took up this position was in order to guide and educate the upcoming generation of journalists,” she says.

Manarae believes that despite the chilling effect placed by the Fiji Media Industry Development Decree, she believes there is still room for journalists – including student journalists – to write stories which encourage healthy debate about issues in the public interest.

“The most rewarding thing, for me, is when our students choose journalism as a career. It’s difficult and doesn’t pay well, but when students decide to answer that calling, I feel like what we do here is worth it.”

Kai Ping (KP) Lew is in the 2015 Asia-Pacific Journalism Studies paper and is doing an honours programme in journalism at AUT University. She was recently in Fiji.

Wansolwara Online

The Wansolwara story – a Pacific Journalism Review history

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Nauru’s recent announcement that it would ban transshipping practices makes it the third Pacific Island country to do so. Kai Ping Lew of Asia-Pacific Journalism reports on the impact for the region.

Nauru has joined the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu to become the third country in the Pacific to ban the controversial practice of transhipping.

The ban comes in the wake of the Rainbow Warrior III discovering Taiwanese longliner Shuen De Ching No 888 operating illegally in its waters, including offloading its catch to a mothership and keeping incomplete records of its catch.

The practice of transhipping allows longliner vessels to stay out on the high seas without coming to port for long periods at a time by transferring their catch to other ships.
This results in the “laundering” of fish, making it difficult to identify where the tuna was caught and where the fish is consumed and allows overfishing to occur.

Being at sea for long periods also allows the vessels to evade regulations checks as vessels use the high seas pocket to use unapproved fishing methods and carry out questionable human rights practices.

“For them they’re just sitting there like a facility and all they do is fish all year round,” says longtime Greenpeace campaigner Lagi Toribau on the Rainbow Warrior.

“The Pacific Islands are losing out on potential economic returns, but also in a lot of cases we don’t even know how much fish is being taken out and that affects the assessment of the overall fish stock.”

Fish stock status
Not knowing the status of the fish stock has significant implications as scientists and policymakers depend on the information reported by boats.

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) estimates show that the Western and Central Pacific Ocean tuna catch is worth between US$4 billion to US$5 billion.
Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Vanuatu have banned the practice for foreign fishing vessels.

New Zealand and Tokelau have banned the practice “with exceptions”, whereas Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati and the Cook Islands allow the practice with government authorisation.

Toribau said Greenpeace was pleased Nauru had taken such a strong stance against transhipping and the environmental organisation hoped that other Pacific Island countries would follow in their footsteps.

“If the countries that ban foreign vessels only decide to ban it altogether, then we would almost have a majority of Pacific Island countries that border the high seas which are in the middle of the countries’ national waters.

“If that happens, we can start eliminating vessels that are choosing to just be high seas and force them to have a licence with a Pacific Island country,” said Toribau.

Samoa adopts a laissez-faire approach as it does not deem fish caught outside Samoan waters as contributors to the economy such as revenue generated by fees collected from boarding and inspections conducted on the vessels.

Strict regulations
Samoa’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Assistant Chief Executive Officer Joyce Samuelu Ah Leong said the regulations in their country only allowed transhipping in their designated port, under strict regulations set by the Western Central Pacific Fishing Commission (WCPFC).

Ah Leong said since these vessels did not fish in Samoan waters, they did not catch “Samoan fish” and do not impact on the domestic fishing industry.

“Our regulations are very clear and we do have good relationships with foreign fishing companies wanting to tranship in our port,” said Ah Leong.

Other Pacific Island fleets are feeling the pinch due to the declining South Pacific albacore fish stock.

According to Greenpeace, hundreds of workers were laid off in Fiji and only one vessel in the Tongan fleet continues to fish.

Lost fish
The Pacific Island nations are small in land area but comprise vast ocean states, thus most of their natural resources are underwater.
According to the WCPFC, six major fishing powers account for the 70 percent of the region’s total tuna catch – Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States. Only 20 percent is caught by Pacific Island fleets.

In an effort to reclaim some of these profits, PNG Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources Mao Zeming recently announced at the Pacific Islands Forum that from 2016 all tuna caught in archipelagic waters must be processed in Papua New Guinea as a condition of licence for access to fish in Papua New Guinea waters.

Effectively, vessels that are not linked to processing plants will not be given fishing days in the archipelagic waters, and processing plants will receive more fishing days the more fish they process.

“For too long there is so much leakage of raw materials in the region that is flooding the markets in Asia and Latin America pushing the prices of raw materials down,” he said.

Mao said the problem was that both foreign and local fleets harvest the resources and take them away to other countries to be processed.

Lack of political will
While requiring the fish caught in archipelagic waters to be processed in Papua New Guinea may improve the local economy, questions of unethical fishing practices like transhipping and overfishing still need to be addressed.

Toribau said that the current level of overfishing will cause the stock of bigeye and yellowfin stock to drop.

“We expect that at this time there will be less vessels, but we see that people are building bigger vessels, more efficient boats, and that does not match with the situation and the status of the fishery,” said Toribau.

“There isn’t a shortage of awareness, warnings, or scientific advice. Where we’re stuck is the political will, as the governments are defending the interests of the industry.”

Toribau added that New Zealand had a critical role to play in taking a stand against transhipping as it had a major political role in the region and was heavily involved in Pacific Islands fisheries.

“This is an opportunity for New Zealand to show leadership and stand in solidarity with other Pacific nations.”

Failing that, Toribau sees the last resort for action being a change of consumer habits to send price signals to the market.

“It’s about time consumers start demanding for sustainable tuna as knowing there is a market for it is the only reason the industry is surviving,” said Toribau.

Kai Ping (KP) Lew is in the 2015 Asia-Pacific Journalism Studies paper and is doing an honours programme in journalism at AUT University.

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Teacher Mareani Sanegar left Rewa at 6am with her Year Three and Year Four students, taking a boat to attend the Literacy Day celebration in Suva. Image: KP Lew/PMC

Pacific Scoop: Report – By Kai Ping Lew in Suva

Education Minister Dr Mahendra Reddy says there is a “deficit culture” of thinking and reading in Fiji.

Speaking at the Literacy Day celebrations at Ratu Sukuna Park, Suva, today, he added that in order to have a knowledgeable society, Fiji needed to have a literate generation.

He appealed to parents to spend time with their children, encouraging them to read.

Statistics from the 2012 Educational Quality and Assessment Programme survey showed that only three in 10 Pacific children had acceptable levels of literacy for their age, Dr Reddy said.

Pacific Community director-general Colin Tukuitonga has also expressed concern, saying that improving literacy rates in the Pacific Islands is a priority for the development aspirations of the region to be realised.

Better opportunities
Read to Lead project chairperson Gazala Akbar said: “Not everyone has access to the same resources, especially in the rural and maritime areas. Read to Lead is trying to level the playing field and give everyone the same opportunities.”

The second phase of Vision Fiji’s Read to Lead project kicked off today. It will deliver 240 box library sets to primary schools in Fiji.

The Read to Lead project also includes a component monitoring and evaluating the literacy levels before and after receiving these books. The findings will be compiled into a report and shared with the Ministry of Education.

Having the same books in all schools will allow the report to gather more accurate information about the level of literacy in across the country.

“This is the first step building a more literate society,” said Akbar.

Inadequate libraries
Mereani Sanegar has been a teacher in Nukui Village School, one of the most rural schools in Rewa, for six years.

Her excited Year Three and Year Four students left Rewa with her at six in the morning, taking a boat to attend the Literacy Day celebration in Suva.

“We’re grateful for an opportunity like this because we really need those books,” she said.

“Currently in our library we only have very old books donated by schools overseas and the books prescribed in the syllabus. We use them.”

She added that one of the challenges in getting children to read was the second language barrier which discouraged her students, as they would rather do sports or watch television.

“It’s a challenge, but it’s attainable,” said Sanegar.

Reading alternatives
Ana Ledua, mother of five, echoed the need for school libraries to be upgraded and told Republika magazine that she bought books for her children two or three times a year and.

However, she added that they were not the only way for children to gain literacy nowadays.

“They have access to technology and the media, so its much better now than it used to be before.

“If its introduced in schools and they have e-books, then that’s an effective way of getting it across to kids to read more.”

Niklas Pedersen and Kai Ping Lew are postgraduate student journalists from AUT University on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course. They are in Fiji on a two-week internship with Repúblika Magazine and Wansolwara and will also file a series of reports for Pacific Scoop about their experience.

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Report – By Niklas Pedersen in Suva

Fiji’s Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Rosy Akbar, has branded Fiji’s crisis on violence against women as a “national shame”.

Figures from the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre shows more than 750 new cases of domestic violence just this year.

The minister spoke at this week’s third meeting of Interagency Taskforce on Elimination of Violence against Women and Children on Tuesday and called for a united stand against the crisis.

“Many times, we see, that though we work for the same cause, we work in different directions. That time has gone. We really need to come together as one,” said the minister.

“It’s not enough, that we meet up in this room, and when we walk out of the room, we have different agendas. That’s not going to work.”

On Wednesday, the Ministry for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation also signed a bilateral agreement with Australia and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

One of the goals with that agreement is to combat domestic violence in Fiji.

Niklas Pedersen and Kai Ping Lew are postgraduate student journalists from AUT University on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course. They are in Fiji on a two-week internship with Repúblika Magazine and Wansolwara and will also file a series of reports for Pacific Scoop about their experience.

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Seven Pacific leaders have signed a strong document on climate change in Fiji, mapping out what they want to achieve at COP 21 in Paris later this year.

Meeting for three days, the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) leaders said they were speaking with “one voice” on their demands for action.

Host Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama of Fiji described the Suva Declaration as an historic document and UN Special Envoy for Climate Change Mary Robinson called it a “strong statement”.

Niklas Pedersen and Kai Ping Lew are postgraduate student journalists from AUT University on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course. They are in Fiji on a two-week internship with Repúblika Magazine and Wansolwara and will also file a series of reports for Pacific Scoop about their experience.

Suva Declaration pushes losses, damages issue for COP 21 in Paris

Suva Declaration signed

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By Kai Ping Lew in Suva

Recognising losses and damages as a separate issue from adaptation in climate change policy is one of the major developments featured in the Suva Declaration signed by seven Pacific leaders.

The third Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) summit in Suva saw leaders, civil society representatives and the private sector convening to form the declaration which will be brought before COP21 Paris in 12 weeks’ time.

The previous COP agreement featured losses and damages as an element under adaptation, forcing governments to prioritise between both.

Other significant clauses in yesterday’s declaration include the need for the Paris agreement to be ambitious in its measures with a five-year review, be a legally binding protocol and be committed to keeping average global temperature rises below 1.5 degrees centigrade.

The Pacific nations most affected by climate change in the short term include Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands.

At an average of two metres above sea level, Kiribati could be underwater by the end of the century if nothing is done.

Tuvalu faces similar fears, with its highest land mass only five metres above sea level.

Village relocation
Kiribati has to relocate one of its villages, Tebunginako, and has bought 2430 hectares of land on the Fijian island of Vanua Levu to relocate its people.

“We want to come away from Paris with some clear guarantees that something will be done to ensure the future generations will have a chance of survival, that we would remain a sovereign state,” said Kiribati President Anote Tong.

“On the broader scale, we are hoping for the good of humanity to come away with meaningful agreements, not agreements that are cosmetic in nature.”

Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga said natural disasters had been highly exacerbated by climate change, and there was a need to ensure COP21 took that into account.

“We are dealing with the lives of human beings. It’s not about saving economies, or proving science.”

He added that there were limits to how much Tuvalu could adapt, and already they did so in their everyday lives.

Huge vulnerability
United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Change Mary Robinson said the Pacific faced huge vulnerability from the effects of climate change, and there was a need to ensure that their fundamental right to live on their ancestral homes was preserved.

“We’ve come to the realisation that adaptation for us is going to be beyond our borders, because we don’t have the high grounds most other countries have,” said Tong.

However, he had also committed towards building up the island so it will still exist in some form when the sea level rises.

Tongan Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva said relocation was no longer the issue – the issue was when and where they would migrate to as it had become a matter of survival.

Tonga has one of the largest diasporas within the Pacific Island communities, with an estimated 100,000 Tongans living overseas.

Migration with dignity
President Tong spoke of the uncertainty in the future of Kiribati – in the prospects of its citizens and the fate of its low-lying island country.

He rejected the term “climate refugees”, and instead hoped that his people could migrate with dignity, and the preparations needed to begin immediately.

“It’s going to take a long time to train them so that if and when they do migrate, they will not be migrating as we are seeing in Europe, but will migrate within existing processes as people with skills,” said Tong.

Prime Minister Sopoaga stressed the importance of solidarity within the region and emphasised the danger of settling for less in the COP21 negotiations.

“We cannot allow others to say “we’ll relocate you somewhere else” but come away with a loose agreement.

“We must come away with legally binding and ambitious agreements, because failing that we will have failed altogether,” said Sopoaga.

Marshall Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs Tony de Brum said: “There is nothing more humiliating for anyone than to become wards of another civilisation.”

Aggravated crisis
Special Envoy Robinson affirmed that the refugee crisis already seen in Europe would only be aggravated by climate change.

She urged the leaders of the Small Island Developing States to discuss what they needed to take away from COP21 further to present a united front and demand a strong agreement.

“We can get past this if we have enough human solidarity.”

Niklas Pedersen and Kai Ping Lew are postgraduate student journalists from AUT University on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course. They are in Fiji on a two-week internship with Repúblika Magazine and Wansolwara and will also file a series of reports for Pacific Scoop about their experience.

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By Kai Ping Lew in Suva

Despite trials of various individuals charged with sedition in Western Fiji, life goes on as normal in the capital city, Suva, the hub of the country.

But beneath the surface there is some concern among businesses, students, and the public about the potential effects of any escalation of political unrest.

Seventy people have been arrested in the Ra province on charges of sedition and inciting communal antagonism.

Of those arrested, 43 were charged with undergoing military-style training for the formation of a Christian state.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has stressed to the public that sedition is a serious offence, and that the Fijian authorities will mete out justice to anyone involved.

He added that the Fijian government could only serve the citizens if there was stability and confidence in its future.

Opposition SODELPA leaders Ro Teimumu Kepa and Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu were quick to point out that Bainimarama himself seized power in 2006 through a military coup.

This argument has been held against him by the opposition continuously in the years following the formation of Bainimarama’s government.

Fresh start
For some Fijians, the democratic elections last year represented a fresh start, especially for those who want to look to the future past the coups that have socially and economically devastated the country since 1987.

“I think we just want to get on with our lives and let the government do their thing,” said second year University of the South Pacific (USP) student Sakiusa Volavola.

Treehouse Boutique manager Sera Kasaqa was among the store managers who said their businesses were unaffected since they had loyal customers who continued to make purchases.

Kasaqa added that business was going on as normal for the average Fijian consumer.

Eagle Boys Pizza manager Niko Bulai said consumption had been constant and he was confident that the arrests had contained the issue.

“Right now everything is normal. If they continued with what they were doing it may have affected our customers because they will be too scared to go around,” he added.

He said if Fiji experienced political instability, the economy would be affected because it would hinder tourism.

“Without tourists, there will be lots of workers laid off, there would be no jobs,” said Bulai.

Badly affected
Tourism, Fiji’s major revenue earner and largest source of foreign exchange, was badly affected by the 1987 and 2000 coups.

The sector provides direct and indirect employment for an estimated 40,000 people, representing approximately 17 percent of the economy.

Several business owners declined to comment due to the uncertain political climate and the sensitivity of the issue.

For the student population, the expenses continue as per usual.

“I can say that it doesn’t affect me because I will spend on what I spend, even if something happens,” said USP student Safia Nisha, who is in the second year of her business programme.

“Being a carefree student [the arrests] don’t worry me, but if something happens then of course I will worry,” she added.

Students closer to graduation are concerned about how potential political instability could affect their employment opportunities.

Looking for options
“Already at hand we have a situation where only a small percentage of graduates are hired. In the event of political instability, the number would decline,” said USP third year business student Joshua Autar.

His colleague Christian Wendt agreed, saying he would have to look for options overseas.

“I would rather stay in Fiji because my family is here,” said Wendt.

“But if I didn’t get a job within a year of graduating then I would leave, probably to the United States where I have relatives.”

Investment Fiji said 108 foreign investments worth over F$315 million had been registered in the first quarter of the year, according to Investment Fiji chief executive officer Godo Müeller-Teut.

These investments where anticipated to generate 1473 jobs.

Potential instability could affect foreign investments negatively as overseas investors raise concerns over the security of their assets.

Lost growth
Analysis by economist Professor Wadan Narsey showed that the 2006 coup cost Fiji four years of economic growth.

He also compared the economy of Mauritius to the Fijian economy, both dependent on the same industries of sugar and tourism and on similar growth paths in 1976.

The comparison shows how Mauritius has increased its economy five-fold between 1976 and 2014, whereas Fiji’s has only doubled.

“Any instability is bad for the economy,” said the head of a major Fijian company who asked to remain anonymous.

“It’s a pity that the dissent has happened in the Ra district, which is part of the region the government has singled out for aggressive economic expansion.

Niklas Pedersen and Kai Ping Lew are postgraduate student journalists from AUT University on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course. They are in Fiji on a two-week internship with Repúblika Magazine and Wansolwara and will also file a series of reports for Pacific Scoop about their experience.

Fiji PM warns ‘plotters’

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Comment – By Kai Ping Lew

Started work yesterday at Wansolwara, the award-winning University of the South Pacific student newspaper, and met with the team of co-ordinators of the regional journalism programme in Fiji.

Tried to get our wi-fi sorted out, but no luck. I found the journalism students really helpful in getting me settled in, and really friendly.

Some of them were really passionate about the ideals of journalism, doing it as a public service, and the need to do it well. I could relate to that.

I spoke to Shailendra Singh, who is the co-ordinator of the Journalism Programme at USP. I wanted to understand why he chose to work here at the university in Fiji.

He told me that he prefers the way of life, the people, the mannerisms. It’s familiar and it’s something that he’s grown up around.

He moved his family overseas to Australia, but for himself, he chose to continue to work in Fiji, where he says many interesting things are happening.

It’s a struggle many Fijians face, as the educated portion of the population moves away in search of a faster-growing economy. It’s an issue that splits many families, as the ones who are able to find employment go abroad to greener pastures.

Escape dynamics
It’s something I can also understand, as part of a family who is in the middle of migrating to Australia to escape the very same dynamics happening in Fiji – racial inequality, government corruption, and economic stagnation.

Yet the fact that he could have moved abroad but chooses to stay in Fiji, to educate the young journalists who will play a part in shaping the path of the country while it makes its slow, meandering way… I find that selfless, and worthy of respect.

For me, it sits perpendicular my intention not to be a journalist in Malaysia, where media freedom is suppressed and journalists risk much for a poorly-paid job.

On the other hand, Shailendra may not be a journalist, but he has chosen to stay with this developing country, nurture it even as it works its way through its growing pains.

Running away, avoiding something is easy, but it takes real perseverance and tenacity continue to pursue the ideal of accountability journalism, despite the barriers placed in the way by the governments.

And it is arguably in the areas where press freedom is suppressed the most where the stories need to be told, because if the government had nothing to hide, they would have no reason to fear transparency.

For me, it’s hard to balance this continuum of wanting to be an accountability journalist, yet also wanting to be able to do so in an environment where my personal safety is not at risk from the very institutions meant to be protecting it.

Niklas Pedersen and Kai Ping Lew are postgraduate student journalists from AUT University on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course. They are in Fiji on a two-week internship with Repúblika Magazine and Wansolwara and will also file a series of reports for Pacific Scoop about their experience.

Kai Ping Lew’s Fiji blog

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Tongan newspaper publisher Kalafi Moala says bureaucracy, culture and religion are a “triune of power” standing in the way of reform in the 21st century Pacific. Asia-Pacific Journalism asks academic experts for their view.

Report – By Kai Ping Lew

Reformers in the kingdom of Tonga have often found themselves stymied by an unyielding bureaucracy, resulting in unnecessary delays in passing legislation citizens need, says Tongan newspaper publisher Kalafi Moala.

“No one benefits from such a situation. Those that lose the most are the people the government is serving,” he said.

Dr Steven Ratuva, University of Canterbury’s professor and director of the Macmillan Brown Research Centre for Pacific studies, agrees with Moala about the seriousness of the situation.

“This is a major problem. Bureaucracies have not been adaptable enough in responding to emerging situations and the dramatically changing world around us,” he says.

He told Pacific Scoop bureaucracy often tried to maintain the status quo, and for many Pacific countries routine operations rather than innovative transformation was the norm.

Moala drew comparisons between the country and a ship changing its captain and its officers, but still going in the same direction if all the procedures and people operating the ship were still doing things the same way as before.

“Reforms by the government need to be driven by political will and rationale to work. Civil servants need to be educated about the intent, and this requires retraining and rethinking,” said Dr Ratuva.

Massey University Pasifika director Malakai Koloamatangi said although bureaucracy may slow down the reforms being implemented by governments, it did not happen all the time.

“There are processes and procedures in place for a reason, but the government should streamline policy channels so that what passes in Parliament becomes policy smoothly,” he said.

He added that by convention, bureaucracy should have to toe the government line and it is the new government’s job to ensure the people in the public sector will drive their reforms.

“Structural reform in Tonga is a gradual progress and it will take time. It’s not bureaucracy that challenges them,” said Koloamatangi.

Stroke of pen
Moala also questioned the need for laws dictating that nobles received annual salaries, fostering the culture of entitlement accepted by the people of Tonga.

Koloamatangi responded by saying there were other democratic countries that had a monarch, citing the United Kingdom and Bhutan.

“The Tongans need to decide what type of democracy they want. But this needs to be grown organically from Tonga, and cannot be copied from elsewhere,” he said.

Monash University law professor Guy Powles said: “You cannot change peoples’ values and priorities with the stroke of a law-maker’s pen.”

However, Dr Powles added that it was important that steps were taken to introduce practices that would encourage attitudes that break with traditional notions of relationships built on subservience to social rank.

One of the major arguments for maintaining the bureaucratic and social systems is adherence to tradition and culture through ensuring that the old ways of doing things are preserved.

“There are good traditions and bad ones. Progress is not necessarily all good,” said Moala.

He emphasised that the policies introduced by the government need to be people-centred.

“Things that benefit the people are the things that must be implemented at any cost to tradition,” he said, recognising that these may be different for different countries.

Radical changes
“Fiji dismantled the Council of Chiefs and admonished the Methodist church about their political activities. Samoa changed its time zone. Radical, but the governments did it as they perceived these were components of tradition standing in the way of progress.”

Dr Ratuva said that tradition and progress did not necessarily have to be mutually exclusive even though people tend to think of them as such.

“For Pacific countries, the question is how they can address the critical daily issues of the people – poverty, food security, housing, and human security.”

Dr Ratuva said the answer lies in using the most affordable and effective approaches, whether they be traditional, modern, or a mixture of both. The focus should be on selecting the most equitable, just, and fulfilling system.

He acknowledged that one of the major fears around change was the loss identity, but denied the possibility.

“Nothing is further from the truth.

“Ultimately, what defines our identity is our sense of belonging to the group – even if we do not speak our parents’ language,” he added.

Failure to ratify CEDAW
Moala said that the protests in Tonga against the ratification of the United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) – an important bill outlining the rights of women – showed a deeply embedded cultural belief that women should be subservient to men.

The most surprising thing, he said, was that the leading opponents to CEDAW were women.

Abortion and same-sex marriage were the two main points of contention cited by the opponents of CEDAW ratification, clashing with strong religious beliefs.

AUT University Professor of Pacific Studies Tagaloatele Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop said the move signified that the family system had stronger importance in Tongan culture than the rights of the individual at this time.

“In all Pacific countries, the cultural system and the family are the glue that holds society together,” she said.

She outlined the tension between the nation’s sovereign right to uphold cultural beliefs and the acceptance of a global mandate crafted by people outside their culture.

“If we used the signing of CEDAW as an indicator of women’s status, then Tonga does not measure very well but the women of Tonga may disagree. They have their rights, roles, and responsibilities in their society. They have the opportunity to become highly educated.

Many PhDs
“They have one of the highest numbers of PhDs per capita,” said Tagaloatele.

However, she added that it was important to look at Tongan women’s customary place in society in terms of the changing times, democratisation, and youth views of their rights and responsibilities.

Tagaloatele said that the family rather than the nation or a global mandate was still the main unit of organisation, protection, basic human needs and economic security as Tonga did not have strong welfare support or legal systems. As such, issues about child protection or protection in general were always dealt within the family.

“Whether dealt with fairly or not, it is the only institution they have access to.

“The question is, is the family still protecting and maintaining Tongan women’s status?”

Kai Ping (KP) Lew is in the 2015 Asia-Pacific Journalism Studies paper and is doing an honours programme in journalism at AUT University.

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