The Contemporary Pacific
Volume 20, Number 2, Fall 2008, pp. 460-469 

Melanesia in Review: Issues and Events, 2007: New Caledonia

David Chappell

After three years of ad hoc, issue-by-issue cooperation in the Congress of New Caledonia between the loyalist but centrist Avenir Ensemble (AE, or “Future Together”) and various pro-independence parties in the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS), the formerly dominant Gaullist Rassemblement pour la Calédonie dans la République (RPCR) reconfirmed its control over New Caledonian representation in the French Parliament, thanks in part to the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy as successor to Gaullist Jacques Chirac in the presidential election. But the new regime in Paris confirmed France ’s commitment to the Noumea Accord of 1998, which stipulates a gradual devolution of self-governing powers to the territory (since 2003 referred to officially as a semi-autonomous “overseas entity”) and working toward a “common destiny” for this multiethnic society. Progress continued in the development of new nickel mining projects despite ongoing concerns over environmental pollution; in economic growth, despite rising problems with a high cost of living and homelessness; in the recognition of Kanak cultural identity and the teaching of Kanak languages; and in the country’s role in the Pacific region. Militant labor unions remained as active as ever, even forming a new Labor Party. 

The RPCR had dominated local politics for many years, building a reputation for not consulting much with other parties in making government decisions. But in the 2004 provincial elections, loyalist opponents and dissidents formed the AE coalition and won control of Congress and the Southern Province. Since then it has been the RPCR’s turn to complain about being marginalized in government decision-making. So, starting in 2006, RPCR leader Pierre Frogier began a strident campaign reminiscent of the fear tactics that had polarized the country in the 1980s. In a bid to appeal to French loyalists, especially recent immigrants, Frogier opposed the freezing of the electorate in congressional elections and referendums on independence, calling the concept (embedded in the Noumea Accord, which he signed in 1998) a violation of human rights. The FLNKS, on the other hand, has been struggling for twenty-five years against allowing new migrants from France and its other Pacific territories to vote on the country’s destiny, considering that in the 1970s France [End Page 460] orchestrated an immigration wave that brought in 25,000 people, during a nickel boom, to make a minority of parties wanting autonomy or independence. The FLNKS adheres strongly to the Noumea Accord, which stipulated that only those who had been residents for ten years in 1998, or their adult descendants, could vote in key congressional elections or referendums. But Frogier has complained that such a stipulation would exclude 11 percent of residents who could already vote in national, municipal, and even European Union elections; and in Noumea , the capital, perhaps 20 percent of voters would be excluded, including many RPCR supporters. Because French presidential and legislative elections were approaching in 2007, the rhetoric grew more shrill as 2006 came to a close, and some members of the Gaullist allies of the RPCR in France, Chirac’s UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) joined the debate, while the Socialists (generally pro-FLNKS) and the centrist UDF (Union pour la Démocratie Française, to which many AE members adhere) tended to side with the FLNKS viewpoint to uphold the consensual Noumea Accord and the organic laws that enacted it in 1999. 

As the issue moved through metropolitan and European institutions, the FLNKS interpretation prevailed. As early as 2005, the European Court of Human Rights had approved the frozen electorate, and in March 2006 the French Council of Ministers did the same. But in December 2006 and early 2007, the RPCR nevertheless mobilized opponents of the concept in what was clearly an electoral gambit for the 2007 elections. Senator Simon Loueckhote even proposed that three rather than ten years of residence should suffice for all voters, and in January 2007 the RPCR coalition warned that the FLNKS and its allies wanted to “confiscate the right to vote” and ultimately impose an “ultra-communalist” notion of citizenship “based on blood, and not on soil,” thereby creating second class citizens (KOL, 8 Jan 2007). AE territorial President Marie-Noëlle Thémereau called Frogier “irresponsible” because he himself had signed the Noumea Accord (Le Monde, 15 Jan 2007). Ironically, many loyalists now in the AE had not signed the accord, and had also voted against its approval in 1998. Despite the acrimonious debates and demonstrations, in December 2006 the French National Assembly adopted the frozen electorate for New Caledonian congressional elections in 2009 and 2014 and in the possible independence referendums (NC, 15 Dec 2006). In January the French Senate followed suit, and the combined Parliament did likewise in February, by 724 votes to 91 with 55 abstentions, thus enshrining the principle in the French national constitution (NC, 18 Jan, 21 Feb 2007). 

In April and May, the French presidential election pitted primarily Sarkozy of Chirac’s UMP against Ségolène Royal of the Socialists and François Bayrou of the UDF (former President Giscard d’Estaing’s party), though lesser candidates like anti-immigration Jean-Marie Le Pen of the Front National (fn) and anti-globalization activist José Bové made the campaign colorful. In New Caledonia , the RPCR and some AE members who belong to the UMP campaigned for [End Page 461] Sarkozy, Didier Leroux of the AE campaigned for Bayrou, and liberals and pro-independence supporters backed Royal, while the local fn supported Le Pen and radical labor unions supported Bové. In 2006, a French court had convicted Le Pen of inciting racial hatred because of his anti-immigration venom, yet in New Caledonia the immigrant fn opposes the frozen electorate as racist (BBC News, 16 April 2007; NC, 4 Dec 2006). After the first round of voting on 22 April, in which a record 85 percent of French voters participated, Sarkozy and Royal had a run-off on 6 May, with the UMP leader winning 53 percent of the final vote (BBC News, 22 April, 6 May 2007). In New Caledonia , the Kanak-ruled North and Islands provinces voted about three-to-one for Royal, reaching as high as 93 percent in some communes, while the immigrant-dominated South did the opposite, with 80 percent of Noumeans choosing Sarkozy. Because the South is more populous, overall 63 percent of New Caledonians voted for Sarkozy (NC, 7 May 2007). He promised to uphold French honor, identity, and security, and to promote economic growth while reducing taxes (NC, 8 May 2007). 

The RPCR-UMP regarded Sarkozy’s victory as a plebiscite for its loyalist platform, since the South, where the turnout was 76 percent of the electorate, had voted overwhelmingly for him. The fn and many in the AE had also supported Sarkozy in the runoff, since both are loyalist, and Loueck-hote conceded that the frozen electorate issue did not really change much. Turnout in the pro-Royal North had been 63 percent, but in the Islands only 37 percent, while in the South, Bayrou got more votes than Royal did (NC, 7–8 May 2007). In the French legislative elections of May and June, eleven local candidates presented themselves for the two deputy seats in the National Assembly. For once, the FLNKS showed more unity than its loyalist opponents did, but districting and demography favored the loyalists: Noumea was grouped with the much less populated outer islands in the first district, and the populous suburbs of the South were grouped with the “Bush” (small communes and Kanak tribes on Grande Terre) in the second district. The competition was intense between the RPCR-UMPGump and the AE, complicated by various dissident groups and the fn (NC, 7 May 2007). With Jacques Lafleur (who founded the RPCR in 1978) and his longtime aide, Algerian pied noir Pierre Maresca, pushed to the loyalist margins in 2006, Frogier ran in the second district for the RPCR-UMP and Gaël Yanno in the first. Both Lafleur and Maresca would run in the legislative election but without significant support (NC, 16 April, 5 May, 11 May 2007). 

Frogier argued that the Noumea Accord needed to be “dusted off” and reconsidered, because it was not, he said, a magic incantation nor a sacred talisman. He claimed that the freezing of the New Caledonian electorate by France was caused more by the guilt felt by Chirac over the 1988 Ouvea massacre than by real dialogue. Worse, the FLNKS goal of a local citizenship and favoritism in hiring for local-born residents “creates a sort of nationality before its time. It’s really independence [End Page 462] that they are preparing” (NC, 2 March, 14 June 2007). He criticized the new primary school history and geography textbook that the local congress had paid for, because its preface was signed by the president of New Caledonia , Thémereau of the AE, and by Charles Washetine, the pro-independence minister of education; he said both were playing politics (NC, 9 March 2007). The AE would propose Southern Province President Philippe Gomes as candidate for deputy in the first district and Congress President Harold Martin of the UMP in the second, thus alienating Leroux, who was of the UDF, and thereby splitting the AE voters (NC, 12 April, 11 May 2007). After more than a decade of dissension, the pro-independence Union Calédonienne (UC) agreed to form a single ticket with the rest of the FLNKS, which was led by Palika (Parti de Libération Kanak). Together, they proposed Washetine of Palika in the first district and Charles Pidjot of the UC in the second, who both upheld the Noumea Accord (NC, 13–15 June 2007). The only real dissidence came from the powerful pro-independence labor union, USTKE (Union Syndicaliste des Travailleurs Kanak et Exploités). After the first round, the runoff pitted Frogier/ Yanno against the two Charleses, a replay of the 1980s’ ethnic polarization because each side had a different attitude toward the consensual accords that had brought peace. As in the presidential election, the more numerous loyalists rallied behind the RPCR-UMP. Frogier and Yanno both won their deputy seats, by percentages of 54–46 and 69–31, respectively, and they quickly proposed to UMP voters in the defeated AE that they ally with the RPCR in a “presidential” majority in Congress against the FLNKS (NC, 12 June, 18 June, 25 July 2007). 

The UMP prevailed in France as well, where it preserved its absolute majority in the National Assembly, while the UDF, Communists, and fn all declined. François Fillon, whom President Sarkozy had named as his prime minister, kept his job (NC, 12 June 2007). But there was no direct link between the French presidential and legislative elections and the Congress of New Caledonia, which the AE still ran along with the Southern Province. The RPCR had already controlled the two deputy seats for twenty years, but would the UMP victory in France change power relations in Noumea ? The RPCR-UMP certainly wanted that, just as they had used the reelection of Lafleur as deputy in 1982 as a lever to challenge a ruling coalition between pro-independence and centrist parties in the local Governing Council back then, claiming the majority had spoken, but to no avail. The RPCR-UMP now “offered its hand” to other loyalists in the Congress so that it could try to regain its former place in local governing institutions (NC, 25 June 2007). Prevented from expanding its voice from local politics to the French Parliament and torn by the divided loyalties of its UMP members, the AE dialogued with the RPCR-UMP for over a month, finally agreeing to reshuffle some positions in Congress after Thémereau resigned as president of the government executive due to exhaustion, which forced the Congress to elect a new territorial leader and cabinet (NC, 24 July 2007). [End Page 463] 

The centrist AE arose essentially in opposition to Lafleur’s dominance for a quarter century, so would its UMP members accept Frogier’s offer to form a new majority in the Congress? Two key policies of the AE might become obstacles to such an arrangement: its adherence to the Noumea Accord (with its implied collegiality in decision-making), and its socioeconomic policy to help those middle and lower income people who were not part of the old ruling elite that had battled with Maurice Lenormand’s multiethnic, autonomist version of the UC in the 1950s and 1960s. While Frogier now attacked the Noumea Accord, former RPCR dissident Martin (whom Lafleur had once tried but failed to remove as mayor of Paita) pointed out that the AE position conformed with that of Sarkozy’s new Overseas Secretary Christian Estrosi—namely, that the Noumea Accord was the lawful path to follow, since it had been made part of the French constitution in 1999 (NC, 26 June 2007). But Sarkozy had already tried to promote a unification of loyalists like Frogier and Martin under the UMP banner in 2006 (in a publicized event now known as “the sandwich accord”), and now that he was president, Sarkozy continued that effort. By July, Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes ran a headline announcing that the AE “bites the sandwich,” as Martin and Gomes agreed to share power with Frogier, while Leroux and Thémereau both resigned from the executive, though they would remain in the Congress. Sarkozy had promised that the French State would remain an impartial arbiter, and Estrosi promised a meeting of the annual Noumea Accord Signers Committee before the end of the year (NC, 20 July 2007). 

By the end of the month, the “sandwich” became a signed accord, as Frogier too would resign from the territorial executive but remain in Congress, and Estrosi would support AE socioeconomic policies, including favoring locals in hiring. Frogier was elected president of Congress, defeating his FLNKS opponent by two to one, and congressional vice presidencies were divided among the RPCR (2), AE (3), and FLNKS (3) (NC, 31 July 2007; PIR, 31 July 2007). In August, the first vote for the executive failed due to an “error,” as two ballots stuck together in the urn and were disqualified, which led to an FLNKS walkout because it would thus have gotten only three positions in the cabinet (as before). The voting procedure was then improved, but in the revote, Christiane Gambey of the AE (and LKS, or Libération Kanak Socialiste) deliberately left her ballot blank, thus enabling the FLNKS to gain four cabinet seats proportionally (with 18 out of 35 votes instead of 36). Gambey, the only Kanak representative from the South (because most Kanak vote in their home districts, not where they work), said she was protesting against the RPCR’s longtime foot-dragging on the Noumea Accord, such as creating a local citizenship, and its earlier opposition to peaceful solutions in the early 1980s (NC, 15 Aug 2007; PIR, 13 Aug 2007). Yet even with four cabinet posts out of eleven, it was clear that the independence cause was supported by only one-third of the total population (but by perhaps 80 percent of Kanak). 

The FLNKS had displayed new unity [End Page 464] in the French legislative elections, and even after failing to win a seat (when the old UC had dominated representation in Paris in the 1950s and 1960s, thanks to Lenormand and Kanak leader Roch Pidjot), it had lobbied hard in Paris to get the new regime to support the Noumea Accord, while also renewing its own friendships with the Socialists and other metropolitan parties (NC, 4 July 2007). In October, UC President Pascal Naouna complained that the congressional majority got angry when FLNKS delegates spoke of independence, arguing that French State support for the Noumea Accord was now the main source of hope in decolonization. But he admitted that locally “it is necessary to conquer a new electorate” by “convincing the others,” namely, enough loyalists to win the required 60 percent vote in Congress to hold a referendum on independence toward the end of the decade or soon after (NC, 1 Oct 2007). In November, Charles Pidjot replaced Naouna as head of the UC in a 96–83 vote and soon said of the radicalized loyalists, “We don’t need them in order to discuss with Paris and to move forward on the Noumea Accord and the emancipation of the country” (NC, 5 Nov, 9 Nov 2007). With the Signers Committee meeting approaching, as well as municipal elections in 2008 and provincial elections in 2009, the FLNKS sought to solidify its new unity and push for the rapid transfer of more self-governing powers to the country. Spokesperson Victor Tutugoro admitted that “independence can cause fear,” so “to win in 2014, we must go beyond our own walls to go look for the others beyond” (NC, 10 Dec 2007). Kanak activist Sarimin Boengkih reminded Frogier in a letter that the United Nations had passed a Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September that supported indigenous self-government and autonomy over economic development within the official borders of an established country, and that the Kanak opposed assimilation (KOL, 24 Oct 2007). 

Estrosi got off to a rocky start as overseas secretary in October, when he formally visited French High Commissioner Michel Mathieu in Noumea . As part of a general strike, USTKE held a barbecue nearby with loud music playing, so Estrosi complained about the lack of State police action against union blockades, a common problem in New Caledonia . Mathieu resigned in protest, an unprecedented action, and Sarkozy quickly replaced him with Yves Dassonville, who assured the public that the State would play a more active role in mediating labor disputes and that he regarded police action only as a last resort (NC, 15 Oct, 10 Nov 2007). Meanwhile, Estrosi espoused the Signers Committee meeting, which at first displeased Frogier, because he opposed a “socialist” reading of the Noumea Accord that implied possible independence (NC, 8 Oct 2007). Trying to straddle the local political spectrum, Estrosi also saw the AE as a legitimate partner in the Signers Committee dialogue, along with the RPCR and FLNKS, which had signed the accord in 1998 along with Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin (NC, 18 Oct 2007). The AE was regrouping and prepared a detailed agenda for the December signers meeting in Paris , which Prime Minister Fillon himself took charge of [End Page 465] (NC, 19 Oct, 29 Oct 2007). The result was a document that prioritized the irreversible transfer of more self-governing powers to New Caledonia, thus backing the AE /FLNKS version of the accord, as well as promising State help with economic development, particularly the new nickel mining projects to balance the North and South while paying closer attention to environmental issues such as protecting the offshore reef, addressing infrastructure issues, providing housing and education for those with lower incomes, dealing with contentious labor disputes, hosting the Pacific Games in 2011, and enhancing France’s role in the Pacific Forum now that New Caledonia and French Polynesia had become associate members. The AE and FLNKS were happy, and the RPCR touted consensus and downplayed the power transfers (NC, 22 Dec, 27 Dec 2007). 

Economic growth in New Caledonia is higher than in any other French overseas entity, though the country also has serious socioeconomic challenges. On the basis of overall statistics, the economy is healthy, with low inflation and rising consumption, rising job creation and decreasing unemployment, but high housing costs are reaching the level of Paris , partly because metropolitan officials and retirees receive almost double the salary or pension they would receive in France . Rising urban population is causing more crowding in homes and expanding squatter camps and homelessness, and the primarily Kanak-inhabited North and Islands provinces have higher poverty and unemployment rates and lower educational levels. Nearly 40 percent of the potential working population lack high school diplomas, while new immigration provides a fifth of the annual demographic growth that is expected to bring the total population to 250,000 in 2008 (NC, 15 Feb 2007). In response, the AE-led government has increased family allowances, lowered prices for essential products like food, frozen rents for a year, expanded social services, and raised the minimum wage (NC, 29 June 2007). It has also tried to increase tourism, especially from China , but the dominance of mining and the flow of French aid keeps New Caledonia tourism small in scale; in addition, agriculture has suffered from rainstorms, so there is ongoing dependence on budgetary help and development contracts from Paris . In December, the Congress passed a us$2 billion budget, financed partly from new local taxes and the rest from French or European Union financial aid (NC, 21 Nov 2007; PIR, 3 Dec, 14 Dec 2007). 

In the most industrial country in Oceania , labor unions are quite strong and active, and at times their strikes become militant and political, pushing politicians to complain or listen, for example, on the issue of favoring local hiring that was inscribed in both the Noumea Accord and the organic laws that followed (NC, 18 Oct 2007). Faced with rising living costs, they also want their share of the proceeds from economic development, so the minimum monthly wage was raised in January to 120,000 Pacific francs, or about us$1,200 (NC, 8 Jan 2007). Mining unions noted the rising price of nickel and demanded a corresponding increase in wages, and those in various support or service sectors felt [End Page 466] likewise. But social dialogue between workers and employers has all too often not gone smoothly in New Caledonia, leading to roadblocks with burning tires and work stoppages without enough action by the State, positive or negative (NC, 4 Sep, 2 Oct, 9 Oct 2007). France too has its powerful labor unions who strike militantly, but in late 2007 Sarkozy battled transporters over pension reforms, while a thousand people marched in Noumea against “terrorism” by local unions (BBC News, 13 Nov 2007; NC, 12 Nov 2007). For example, USTKE, which Estrosi had criticized, blocked the local cement industry and urban bus company for months—along with other strikes to support favoring local hiring and protecting workers fired for union activities—and in October USTKE called a general strike because the police had intervened (NC, 13 Oct 2007). After testing the waters in the presidential and legislative elections by backing Bové and then its own candidates, respectively, USTKE defied appeals by the FLNKS not to divide the Kanak vote and formed its own Labor Party in November, with support from metropolitan Trotskyists, dedicating itself to independence, anti-globalization, and revolutionary socialism (NC, 16 Nov 2007). It remained one of the two largest unions, as labor leaders compete for membership using dramatic strikes to attract support (NC, 12 April 2007). 

Nickel mining has long been the mainstay of New Caledonian exports, and that sector is increasing still further in importance, raising concerns about vulnerability to ups and downs in price cycles and uncertainty as competing multinational corporations buy and sell each other and chief executive officers come and go. For example, since January 2006 the price of nickel had jumped 135 percent because of the demand for stainless steel in China and India . In January 2007, when a single ship carrying 1,000 tons of nickel sank off England , the price went up another 15 percent on the London Metal Exchange, as that loss represented nearly a fifth of available world supply. Then in May 2007, the price per ton dropped by us$11,000 due to overspeculation, rising competition among producers, and a decision by China (which buys one fifth of the global supply) to stop imports temporarily. By August, the price had dropped another $15,000, but by October, it had stabilized at about $25,000 a ton, and predictions for rising demand in 2008 and a price of $35,000 a ton fueled local development projects in New Caledonia, which has about a third of the world nickel reserves (NC, 27 Jan, 14 June, 23 Aug, 24 Oct 2007). La Société Le Nickel (SLN), the largest local mining company, enjoyed a record profit in 2006 and is expanding its production at mining sites in the North and at the Doniambo processing plant outside Noumea , aiming to export 75,000 tons a year. New Caledonia has increased its shares in the SLN to about one-third, giving it a considerable voice in policy-making in a firm that was once half State-owned and held a near-monopoly locally (NC, 15 March, 25 July 2007). 

In contrast, the territory’s financial participation in the Goro nickel plant project in the South and its nearby power plant at Prony has actually dropped from 10 percent to only 5 [End Page 467] percent, but Goro’s Brazilian partner CVRD (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce) assures the government that after initial construction is complete and production starts in 2009, the royalties will reach 10 percent. The Goro-Prony project has been the focus of repeated protests because of environmental and local hiring concerns, but CVRD says that the rise in nickel prices will enable it to afford better pollution controls, and it has increased efforts to train local workers. Raphael Mapou of Rhéébù Nùù has therefore changed his stance from open opposition to ongoing vigilance (NC, 20 June, 17 Nov, 13 Dec 2007). The Koniambo mining and processing project (a partnership between the Kanak-run Northern Province and the Swiss firm Xstrata, with additional support from France ) will pay 51 percent of dividends to the province, and it finally got the green light to begin construction, while addressing infrastructure development and environmental and local hiring concerns. In a complex financial arrangement made by local-born André Dang, director of the North’s SMSP (Société Minière du Sud Pacifique), the province will help pay for its share of construction by partnering with the South Korean firm Posco to process nickel ore at a new plant in that country (NC, 26 Feb, 18–19 Oct 2007). The Goro and Koniambo projects each involve investments of us$3–4 billion, or about twice the territorial budget. The Koniambo project in particular is important to the FLNKS for rebalancing the territory’s economy by creating more income and jobs in the North. Even Martin of the South and Loueck-hote of the Islands applauded the project, showing needed support for working toward the common destiny prescribed by the Noumea Accord (NC, 28 Dec 2007). 

In that spirit, notable progress was made in 2007, despite all the politics, in efforts to build a multicultural citizenship. In April, the government created a committee to develop identity symbols, as the Noumea Accord suggested, such as a new name for the country (Kanaky New Caledonia ?), a flag, a hymn, banknote images, and a motto. The last three would be chosen by public competitions, while the first two, more contentious, would be negotiated in committee. Vice President Déwé Gorodey of Palika assembled twenty representatives of civil society, from historians and customary leaders to political parties and voluntary associations, and told them, using Kanak imagery, “The Great House we are going to build together is that of our children” (NC, 13 April, 28 Dec 2007). A new, localized primary school textbook of history and geography was also unveiled, the product of three years work by numerous experts from every community, complete with documents from different viewpoints. Historian Christiane Terrier explained that it was not an official history because, despite accusations to the contrary, “We were under no pressure from politicians, who never looked at the contents” (NC, 24 Feb 2007). Congress also voted unanimously to create an Academy of Kanak Languages to preserve and promote the continued use of the forty indigenous languages and dialects of the country, some of which are now being taught in schools (NC, 18 Jan 2007; PIR, 18 Jan 2007). Once again on 24 September, [End Page 468] a date that formerly commemorated the French taking possession of New Caledonia in 1853, the 150 Years Later Committee celebrated a multi-cultural day of unity around the site of the Mwâ Kâ, a symbolic totem pole made four years ago by Kanak artists. Participants expressed pride in their country in music, dance, poetry, and refreshments for eight hours, under the rubric “Caledonia My Country” (NC, 22 Sep 2007). 

References

BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk   

KOL, Kanaky Online. http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/kanaky   

Le Monde. Daily. Paris .

NC, Les Nouvelles-Calédoniennes. Daily. Noumea . http://www.lnc.nc    

PIR, Pacific Islands Report. http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport

David Chappell is associate professor of Pacific Islands history at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa. For the past decade, he has been focusing his studies on the French Pacific territories, especially Kanaky New Caledonia.