'Shed sovereignty to make Pacific work'

Pacific nations must be prepared to relinquish some of their sovereign powers if regionalism is to prosper, the chair of the Pacific Forum said yesterday in Wellington.

Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said: "In a globalised world none of us can remain an island."

But he told the Pacific Cooperation Foundation that sovereignty would always be a basic part of identity and he did not expect countries' senses of nationhood to disappear.

"Over the next few years we will need to explore how far we can take our sense of shared sovereignty, and shared responsibility, in our pursuit of regionalism," he said.

Tuilaepa made his comments on the eve of a meeting in Auckland today of some of the leaders of the 16 Pacific Forum countries to discuss the development of the Pacific Plan, which was first announced last year.

The plan aims to pool regional resources and align policies towards economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security.

Tuilaepa said Pacific people should retain the best of their traditions and cultures, but initiatives were needed to transform the Pacific into a dynamic and progressive region capable of meeting challenges of modernity and globalisation. That would need wide consultation not just among forum governments but by the public at large.

"The last thing we want is a Pacific Plan designed only by government officials and dropped on the region as it were from the sky ... nothing could be better designed to ensure that it simply gathers dust as a number of regional grand designs have done in the past," he said.

Tuilaepa said there would be a series of national consultations over the next few months and he urged private sector, civil society groups and the public to ensure their views were heard. A draft Pacific Plan will go to the full forum meeting in Papua New Guinea later this year.

Tuilaepa said that over the years commitment to regionalism had been patchy.

"There are complex reasons for this, among them the pursuit of inward looking policies as well as the fact, put frankly, that our members can still benefit from regionalism without making a serious commitment to it."

Support for regionalism had sometimes relied on a few larger more prosperous members, he said.

Tuilaepa said the Pacific was also seeing increased cooperation among law enforcement agencies. This might eventually lead to harmonised laws and policies like a regional pool of public prosecutors.