Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

One of New Zealand’s best-selling and most-respected historians and social commentators, Professor Paul Moon, has been acknowledged for his contributions as a researcher, academic and teacher.

The AUT Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate excellence in the university’s community.

Professor Moon was awarded the top accolade – the AUT University Medal – this week for sustained and exceptional academic achievement, especially in Māori, Treaty of Waitangi-related issues and early New Zealand history.

The award at Auckland University of Technology comes as Professor Moon prepares to launch a new online course, focusing on the Holocaust.

The paper is the first of its kind in New Zealand and will be delivered entirely online, enabling people to study from all over the world. It is anticipated that the course will be available next year.

Surveying the Holocaust, from its historic origins in European anti-Semitism, through to its implementation during the period of the Third Reich, the course will centre on the preconditions of the Holocaust in Europe, its subsequent implementation and scale, and recent historiographical issues relating to its enduring significance.

Students will have the opportunity to investigate in detail a specific case study relating to the Holocaust, and to examine the relevance of the Shoah in the contemporary world.

Interactive learning
There will be lecturer support, tutorials for students to participate in, interactive learning, regular feedback on students’ work, and a comprehensive range of resources. The technical aspects of the paper will be supported by AUT’s Centre for Learning and Teaching.

“Now, more than ever, it’s important to remember the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and to understand the mentality that led to it,” Professor Moon says.

Professor Moon also received the Teaching Innovation award. His innovative approach to increasing student engagement has resulted in a number of fully online papers focusing on New Zealand history.

These four papers have formed the basis of AUT’s minor in history.

In his 24 years at AUT, Professor Moon has built an international reputation in the field of New Zealand history.

His innovative approach to learning has led to the development of online history papers and delivery of history based treaty seminars, resulting in a new undergraduate history minor at AUT in 2016.

Professor Moon has published 26 books, including Encounters: The Creation of New Zealand, which was shortlisted for the international Ernest Scott Prize in History.

Biographies, Treaty claims
Other titles include This Horrid Practice: The Myth and Reality of Traditional Maori Cannibalism, A History of New Zealand in the Twentieth Century, a trilogy of volumes on the Tūhoe tohunga (expert) Hohepa Kereopa, as well as biographies of Governors Hobson, FitzRoy, and the Ngapuhi chief Hone Heke,

His works have been published by some of the biggest international publishers including Penguin, Random House and HarperCollins.

He has worked on several Treaty of Waitangi claims and with numerous government agencies on Treaty-related issues. He is one of only a few historians whose work has been cited favourably in Parliament by MPs.

“The award is recognition of the growing role of history as a discipline at AUT, and of the contribution of all the people involved in teaching the subject,” Professor Moon says.

Indonesia’s foreign policy under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has become more visible regionally and globally, contrary to popular assumptions from the early days of his administration that saw him concerned only with domestic affairs, says a senior diplomat.

Today, October 20, marks Jokowi’s third year in office.

“There used to be this perception that President Joko Widodo, in the early days of his administration, was not too concerned with foreign policy, but now we are seeing the opposite,” said Dino Patti Djalal, Indonesia’s former ambassador to the United States and founder of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI).

Speaking at a press conference in Jakarta, Djalal highlighted the need to reflect on the past 50 years of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its future, for the sake of Indonesia’s presence on the international scene.

He said it was crucial if Indonesia “wants to be a leader recognised by the international community,” because Asean is the one domain where its leadership has been “naturally accepted”.

“Indonesia’s policy toward Asean is the backbone of our foreign policy, so we must continue to lead in the association,” Djalal added.

In the context of Asean, Indonesia’s leadership has been in the face of the ongoing crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, in which more than half a million people have already fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Free, active policy needed
Djalal also noted the importance of free, active and creative foreign policy for Indonesia to be a key player in global peace and cooperation efforts.

According to the seasoned diplomat, one of the challenges for the country’s policy in the future will be “non-traditional issues” such as humanitarian crises.

FPCI is hosting its third Conference on Indonesian Foreign Policy (CIFP) in Jakarta tomorrow. The Jakarta Globe is one of the event’s media partners.

The conference’s 18 sessions will cover a range of topics, with Asean and globalisation as the main theme.

Participants will also discuss the South China Sea dispute and the regional influence of the world’s powerful leaders — United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

One of the sessions will be devoted to the potential Indonesia’s provincial and district leaders have to tap into international opportunities.

According to Dino, a survey conducted recently by FPCI revealed that so far only a few regions know how to capitalise on the country’s position as one of the founders of Asean.

More Indonesian stories

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

An unprecedented level of mismanagement of Papua New Guinea’s affairs since 2012 has caused serious health issues, including widespread suffering and preventable deaths, reports Loop PNG.

The opposition’s Shadow Minister for Health and HIV/AIDS, Joseph Yopyyopy, has called for swift and appropriate government action to prevent further deterioration of PNG’s most basic and essential health services.

He warned of “catastrophic consequences” resulting from government inaction while noting that the PNC-led government drastically cut health spending for the past three years, including 2017.

Yopyyopy cited most recent instances, including:

• Laloki Psychiatric Hospital in Central Province being on the verge of closure with patients likely to be sent back home to their families due to shortage of medical drugs at the hospital. (Director of Medical Services at the hospital Dr Ludwig Nanawar revealed this as the institution marked World Mental Health Day on Oct 10);
• Health workers in Manus Province have been without such medicine for more than a month;
• Medicines running out PNG-wide with health facilities lacking essential equipment and in a state of disrepair;
• Health workers not being paid properly with doctors and health workers threatening stop work; and
• Recent media reports of a story from Abau district where a ward councillor claimed more than 20 people had died in the past two years due to medicine shortage.(People had to be taken to Port Moresby for treatment while some died along the way).

Other unreported cases are indicators of very serious system failure, the shadow minister said.

Yopyyopy noted that from the 2015 to 2017 budget, health funding was cut by 40 percent from K1.7 billion to K1.2 billion.

He also warned of further planned cuts of up to 30 percent over the next five years (to about K850 million).

Yopyyopy cited some “shocking” statistics about PNG’s state of health, including:

• In 2016, health cuts hurt many people, but fortunately the impact was softened by external health funding which may not be available;
• According to latest reports, PNG’s tuberculosis (TB) crisis is yet to be brought under control;
• ChildFund Australia estimates that up to 9000 PNG citizens died from TB in the past three years – one out of four are children);
• On PNG’s maternal and child mortality, a government decision in late 2016 to pay for women to give birth in a clinic or hospital was in fact an “admission of defeat”;
• Health experts have explicitly expressed that the health funding cuts have destroyed people in rural and remote areas where the need is urgent; and
• Up to 1500 women die in childbirth each year, and about 45 babies out of every 1000 die.

The UN estimates that about 12,000 children under five die each year, reports Loop PNG.

Also, a recent Asia Development Bank (ADB) report shows that PNG has some of the worst health indicators in the Asia-Pacific region:

• The prevalence of stunting among children under the age of five is 49.5 percent, ranking 29th out of 30 countries with information;
• The prevalence of malnutrition (wasting) among children under five is 14.3 percent, the highest rate for 30 countries;
• The maternal mortality ratio per 100,000 live births is 215, the equal third highest of 40 countries;
• The under-five mortality rate per 1000 live births is 57, the fourth highest of 43 countries;
• The number of new HIV aids infections in 2015 is 0.36 per 1000 of the uninfected population – the highest of 21 countries;
• The TB incidence per 100,000 people is 432, the second highest of 44 countries; and
• The incidence of malaria per 1000 people is 185, nearly double the next highest incidence.

Yopyyopy said facts speak volumes and it is incumbent on the government to stop painting a false picture when in fact, there are very serious underlying health issues affecting PNG.

“The government is not only duty bound, but morally obliged to put the health issues of PNG citizens above all else,” he added.

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Matangi Tonga has hit-out at what it says are attempts by the government to take over and “muzzle” the Tonga Broadcasting Commission.

In an editorial, Matangi Tonga said today recent restructuring led by TBC’s new board chairman, Dr Tu’i Uata, had “annihilated” the public broadcaster and turned the government watchdog into a “lapdog”.

Matangi Tonga’s editorial comes amid the latest controversy to befall the embattled public broadcaster, which has seen two of the TBC’s most senior journalists, Viola Ulakai and Laumanu Petelō, moved out of the newsroom and into a division labelled “NGO Services”.

The editorial:
With Tonga only weeks away from a snap general election, the Tongan government is taking full control of the Tonga Broadcasting Commission (TBC), in a move that has annihilated its right to function as an honest public broadcaster.

The TBC’s two most senior journalists, Viola Ulakai, the manager of news content, and Laumanu Petelō, the news editor, have been ordered out of the newsroom and into a corner called “NGO Services”.

The decision by the TBC’s new chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr Tevita Tu’i Uata, is a blatant attempt to turn watchdogs into lap dogs.

Petelō and Ulakai, the most senior journalists remaining at the TBC, after their CEO was removed earlier this year, at first resisted the move.

No Go
Petelō said that Ulakai had renewed her working contract with the TBC, and she had signed a working contract with the TBC as a news editor in June. She said that they refused to move because they were contracted as journalists to work in the news division, and they did not know what they were supposed to be doing at the new “NGO Services” Division.

But at the end of last week they decided to move out from the newsroom and over to the NGO Services Division.

They are hearing rhetoric that the TBC is losing money, and that their news service, which is not pro-government, is being blamed for its financial woes.

There have been talks for the TBC news to be in Tongan only, which Petelō believes will be a disappointment for foreign diplomats who financially prop up the service of TBC, and rely on their daily news coverage of Tongan affairs.

Petelō goes on leave today, October 16, and will not return to work until early next month.

Political control
The feud between government and the TBC has been going on since the present government came into power at the end of 2014. There have also been court cases between government and members of the board and the CEO of TBC.

The rhetoric by government officials, that because the TBC is a public enterprise its news coverage “should be pro-government”, is completely off the mark. No genuinely professional journalists will work under such a politically controlled system.

It is quite clear with the beheading of the news service that government is taking full control of the public broadcaster in the lead up to the November 16 general election.

The concept of public broadcasting, as with the BBC, Radio Australia and broadcasting establishments in some Commonwealth countries, is that governments allocate funds for public broadcasters with independent newsrooms espousing a principle of “impartial, free and fair”.

Public broadcasters do not rely on advertising to the same degree as commercial broadcasters. This allows public broadcasters to transmit programmes that are not commercially viable to the mass market, such as well-balanced public affairs shows, radio and television documentaries, and educational programmes, that otherwise could not be produced.

The current members of the TBC Board of Directors are: chairman, Dr Tevita Tu’i Uata; directors, ‘Aloma Johansson, Pita Moala, Siosaia Fonua and Leonaitasi Hoponoa.

The TBC was established in 1961, and it has developed and benefited over the years with continuing assistance from foreign aid donors. Over the years, it has managed to play its part as a watchdog over national affairs.

Now there appears to be an unfortunate attempt to muzzle the watchdog.

On the 10th anniversary of the Urewera raids, we should recount the lessons – and we should remember.

Breathless police and media commentary about a cocktail of napalm bombs, terrorist cells, guns, ammunition, Māori extremists, guerrilla warfare, assassination threats against politicians, greeted the public on the 15 October 2007.

You name it – the police claimed it and the media hyped it.

From the 17 arrests and the dozens searched and detained – illegally as it turned out – just four people were charged with illegal possession of firearms – two were jailed and two given home detention.

The progressive left was quick to hit back against the hysterical police narrative and bring some semblance of sanity and common sense to the public debate.

This was highly successful and within 24 hours some elements of the media and much of the public were expressing scepticism concerning the police claims.

We worked with Tuhoe activists to organise marches and public demonstrations highlighting the appalling police behaviour and calling for a reigning in of the surveillance state.

Police overreacted
Subsequent developments showed we were right – the police had overreacted and dramatically overreached. They should have taken concerns about military style camps in the Urewera seriously and sent in a Māori liaison officer to find out what was happening and why.

Instead, the police deliberately sidelined their community officers in favour of a dramatic $8 million surveillance operation which they hoped would bring public justification for the massive increase in police (and SIS) powers and resources in the wake of the US September 11 attacks.

New Zealand had become a surveillance state and these raids would show that while we didn’t have Islamic extremists, we had our own home-grown “terrorists”.

A lot of that initial response from the left was instinctive. We knew most of the people the police were claiming as terrorists and knew this was at least a gross over-reaction to whatever had been going on.

The most important lesson from the Urewera raids is to always be sceptical of state agencies who often have their own non-public interest justifications for what they do.

On the other side I don’t think it’s too cynical to say the main lesson the police will have learnt is NOT that they got it wrong and couldn’t tell the difference between a bullshit conversation in a car and a credible terrorist threat, but that it was a failure of PR to prepare carefully enough.

Tuhoe have their own lessons which they have been speaking about in the past few days.

It’s worth remembering too the long list of legislation passed by successive Labour and National governments to extend the surveillance state on the pretext of keeping us safe.

Instead, it has turned this country into a surveillance state where civil liberties and the right to privacy take second place to the powers of Big Brother to intrude into our lives.

This article was first published on The Daily Blog and has been republished with permission.

By Dames Alexander Sinaga in Jakarta

A civil society group has urged the Indonesian government to revoke a presidential decree on the indigenous resettlement schemes in forest areas, which was issued about a month ago.

The forest areas in the decree signed by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on September 6 are classified as conservation forests, protected forests and production forests.

Muhammad Arman, head of legal and advocacy division of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), said the resettlement programme under the decree could threaten and potentially criminalise indigenous communities that for years have been living in the areas.

“[Indigenous communities that live on] 1.6 million hectares of conservation forests are in threat of resettlement,” Arman told reporters.

The lands constitute 20 percent of 8.2 million hectares registered by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the Ministry of Spatial Planning as indigenous.

Association for Community and Ecology-Based Law Reform (Perkumpulan HuMa) researcher Erwin Dwi Kristianto said in a statement that the decree “creates uncertainty” and damages social forestry and communal rights.

While the decree, of which implementation started on September 11, obliges local governments to provide legal protection for the communities living in the forest areas, it also permits their resettlement.

Dames Alexander Sinaga is a Jakarta Globe journalist.

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Prestige, financial prizes and the chance for your story to be read worldwide. This is what lies ahead for authors of successful entries in the 2017 Samoa Observer Tusitala Short Story competition.

This is a competition specifically set up for writers in the Pacific.

The top three entries from the three areas, Australia and New Zealand, Samoa and All other Pacific Islands, win generous, cash prizes of US$1000 (NZ$1400) each. Then the overall winner judged from those three categories, receives an additional US$2000 (NZ$2800).

A further 12 or so stories from the competition will be included with the winners’ entries and published in a book of short stories in the third “Our Heritage, the Ocean” series.

You may start submitting your entries online up to the deadline – November 10 on the website, www.tusitalacompetition.com.

Organising committee member Marj Moore said this was the third year this competition had been running.

Forum for Pacific writers
It was started as an initiative in 2015 by the Samoa Observer editor-in-chief, Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa, a noted writer, published author and poet.

He wanted to provide a forum for Pacific writers to tell the stories of their own lives and to share issues and ideas which were important to them.

Following the success of this inaugural competition, the stories in that 2015 publication were later translated into Chinese by the Chinese Ambassador in Samoa, Wang Xuefeng and Madam Tong Xin. That translation of Pacific stories was then published in China.

The second annual Samoa Observer Tusitala Short Story Competition in 2016, also attracted some outstanding entries. These original stories were set around the Pacific – in American Samoa, Australia, Fiji, Hawai’i, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa, with one even further afield.

“Stories of superstition and courage, migration and old age, tales set in the past, present, and future. While the plots are diverse, many have the same underlying message – we need our family and each other” said an early reviewer of the collection.

This second publication of the best stories from 2016 was entitled, Only the Word Survives. It has recently been published and is available from the Samoa Stationery and Books outlets in Samoa; American Samoa, and Mangere, Auckland, New Zealand.

ANALYSIS: By David Hall of AUT’s The Policy Observatory

The problem with climate change – like any wicked problem – is that its story can be told in many different ways. The same goes for migration. The facts, as far as they go, can be conjured into a multitude of understandings.

Still, some stories are less credible than others. Michael Reddell’s recent analysis of migration and climate change in Newsroom is one.

That these vastly complex issues cross over at times is obvious: climate change leaves nothing untouched. But Reddell goes further by arguing that the Productivity Commission’s low emissions inquiry ought to treat immigration as a contributing factor to New Zealand’s rising greenhouse gas emissions; and that our national emissions targets should justify reduced inward migration.

His first argument is one of scale: “more people need more transport, more heating, more energy in their workplaces” – and hence more emissions.

Notably, though, he presumes current technologies and current prices. Not only does this misrepresent all likely futures, but also our actual past. The Ministry for the Environment’s most recent Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990–2015 notes that energy emissions decreased in 2008–2011 and remained stable since, which is the same period that net migration rose steeply.

The Ministry attributes these reductions to decreased manufacturing emissions and increased renewable energy generation. We have more people, sure, but more people relying on our low-emissions energy. And what matters from the perspective of Earth’s atmosphere is what people emit, not where they emit it.

Emissions from transport, by contrast, have risen. Indeed, road transport emissions increased by 78 percent since 1990, offsetting those other reductions in fuel use.

Over-reliance on vehicles
But the fault here lies with New Zealand’s over-reliance on private vehicles. Migrants (and citizens) contribute to road traffic by necessity, because alternative means of transport are less available, indeed far less so than many migrants are used to, coming from places where travel by trains, trams, cycles and footpaths is not unusual.

If low-carbon alternatives in places like Auckland were more serviceable, migrants would doubtlessly use them, as indeed would citizens. And if the excuse for under-investment is the lack of markets of sufficient scale, then population increase and cultural change will drive progress.

Reddell’s second argument links migration to agricultural emissions. As I understand him, he argues that New Zealand’s high living standards depend upon dairy exports, which makes it politically infeasible to impose costs for environmental damages. The greater the population, the greater this reliance upon the dairy sector, and so the greater the reluctance to make polluters pay.

But it is bizarre to suggest that new and old New Zealanders – including those not employed in agriculture – rely so heavily on dairy for their standard of living. Sure, dairy is our largest export sector, but only 3.5 percent of total GDP.

Actually, many New Zealanders, including many farmers, rely on healthy environments for their standard of living, both in the non-economic sense of quality of life, and in the economic sense that tourism and exports benefit from New Zealand’s clean, green reputation. (Tourism, incidentally, accounts for 5.6 percent of total GDP.)

This is likely why – contra Reddell – a strong majority of New Zealanders (77 percent) do support water charges for agriculture and horticulture, despite the fiscal burden.

It is also misleading to treat economics and environment as a zero-sum game, as if one must lose out in order for the other to gain. It simply isn’t the case that internalising the environmental costs of agriculture necessarily undermines profitability.

Innovation proves point
Innovation within the dairy sector proves the point. Recently, Lincoln University’s demonstration farm reduced nitrate leaching by 30 percent without undermining affecting profitability.

This contradicts Reddell’s claim that “all informed observers recognise that the marginal abatement costs in New Zealand, through conventional means, are high”. I’ve written for Pure Advantage about the potential of forests – both production and permanent forests – to offset agricultural emissions in a way that isn’t only cost-effective but potentially profitable.

This is corroborated by other “informed observers”, such as the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and Vivid Economics. The latter’s Net Zero in New Zealand report highlights other low-cost opportunities in energy efficiency, heating technologies, agricultural efficiency, and technological advances in methane vaccines and cheaper electric vehicles.

What’s striking about all this is not only Reddell’s argument is from the perspective of climate change, but also economics. He resists the orthodox view that migration has a modest positive impact on national GDP.

I’m no enemy of disciplinary iconoclasm, but it does beg for robust positive arguments. Reddell’s appeals to uncertainty (economists cannot prove definitively that migration increases GDP, therefore it might not be true) do not count. Climate scientists are all too familiar with this kind of denial.

So if economic evidence cannot always carry his arguments, one can only conclude that non-economic reasons are doing some of the work. To Reddell’s credit, he is explicit about his concerns for cultural cohesion, or that “Islam is a threat to the West, and a threat to the church wherever it is found”.

These are real reasons for wanting to reduce immigration, but should be debated on their ethical and sociological merits, not couched in an idiosyncratic take on climate policy.

When it comes to global warming, it’s the carbon intensive economy, stupid. The only genuine solution is to transform the world’s high-emissions economies into low-emissions economies, so that anyone entering them by way of birth or migration can lead a prosperous low-carbon life.

Our national emissions targets are a means to this global end. Focusing on peripheral issues like migration only distracts from the work that needs to be done. But that’s what happens when you tell the story of a global problem through a nationalist lens.

David Hall is senior researcher at The Policy Observatory, AUT, where he researches migration and climate policy. He is also editor of the BWB Text, Fair Borders?: Migration Policy in the Twenty-First Century. This article is republished with the author’s permission.

By Kalino Latu, editor of Kaniva News

The Tonga Broadcasting Commission was restructured to save it from being closed down, says the commission’s chair, Dr Tu’i Uata.

Dr Uata told Kaniva News the TBC faced being shut down in two months because it was running at a loss despite having a strong “technical” management to make sure it functioned financially.

Dr Uata blamed the situation on the way the TBC news was being created and broadcast.

In Tongan he said: “Ko e palopalema ko e content oku ‘ikai manakoa aia makatuunga ai a e mole.”

This can be translated into English as: “The problem is that the content is not popular, that’s why it ran at a loss.”

He said he had launched a reform at TBC which was based on the idea that everything in the organisation had to be “people centred” and focused on customers.

News chiefs moved
As Kaniva News reported earlier, two senior and long serving journalists at TBC were moved out of the newsroom and moved into the sales and marketing department.

Laumanu Petelo, the editor, and Viola Ulakai, the news manager, were moved to a new department within the sales section known as NGO.

Chief engineer Solomone Finau has since been appointed acting general manager and Vilisoni Tu’iniua was taking care of the newsroom.

Dr Uata said he wanted to put a stop to the “loss” so that the organisation could be profitable.

“According to the public enterprise law which we are under, if the organisation is not financially viable or it cannot be able to perform like you (Kaniva News), there is a ground for dismissal,” Dr Uata said.

“TBC cash flow will shut down in two months, and all will go home.”

Dr Uata said this was his priority at this stage.

“That’s the reality,” he said.

Stopping losses
He said he was concerned at TBC operating at loss.

Dr Uata was asked about Petelō and Ulakai’s expertise in marketing as they had been in the newsroom for most of their services.

He replied: “Koe expertise ke mau ha silini ikai koe mole he tukuhau kakai oku uesia.” “The expertise should bring in revenue and not cause losses to the people’s tax money.”

The reform comes after Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva told Kaniva News in an interview that the TBC had run at a loss for many years because the majority of sponsors and listeners had moved and were using private broadcasters.

In February, the government, which is TBC’s main sponsor, injected TP$200,000 to the broadcaster to support its operations.

By Anita Roberts in Port Vila

The frequent volcano rumblings felt on Ambae and surface events seen from neighboring islands of Maewo, Pentecost and even Santo in Vanuatu are ideal settings of a volcano experiencing minor eruption categorised at alert level 3, say volcanologists.

This was the reply from the Manager of the Geohazards Department, Esline Bule, when she was asked to clarify public concerns on the increasing number of eruptions at the Manaro Voui volcano causing more fear among people.

The volcano seems to be making more smoke and rumblings that can be felt far away compared to when it was experiencing major unrest stage – the second highest alert level.

The entire 11,000 population of Ambae island was evacuated to other islands in Vanuatu earlier this month.

Locals from Maewo reported seeing flames and lava cascading down slope from the volcano recently.

These activities are related to the volcano being in a minor eruption state, the Geohazards Manager explained.

About the continuous erupting sounds, Bule said the reason they are louder is because they are coming out from a dry cone.

“Before, activities were happening beneath the lake (Lake Voui),” she said.

“Current eruptions are occurring from a dry cone.

Echo of erupting sounds
“The cone has also grown in height after the unstable activity. The echo of the erupting sounds bounce through the dry cone and can be heard from a very far distance.

“People in places or nearby islands facing the wind direction will receive the sound more clearly.

“Unlike Mt Yasur where its cone is located to a corner, the cone of Ambae volcano sits right at the top of the hill in the centre of the island.

“Definitely, erupting sounds will be heard from great distances as far as from the neighboring islands of Maewo and Pentecost.”

Bule continued to explain that the alert level 3 meant volcanic eruptions were continuing and – just like Mt Yasur – it was expected to throw out flying molten lava and volcanic gases.

No human activity was expected within 3km from the vent in Lake Voui.

People must not approach the volcano or go near the danger zone as chances for moderate explosions are likely, said the Geohazards Manager.

Anita Roberts is a Vanuatu Daily Post reporter and articles from the VDP are republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

By Kalino Latu, editor of Kaniva News

Two senior journalists have been ousted from the newsroom for new roles in a shake-up at the state broadcaster,

Laumanu Petelō, editor of Tonga Broadcasting Commission’s (TBC) television and radio, and news manager Viola Ulakai have moved into a new department under the commission’s marketing and sales management.

The restructuring has been made under the direction of TBC’s new board chairman, Dr Tu’i Uata, who replaced ‘Ahongalu Fusimālohi last month.

Kaniva Tonga reports Petelō, Ulakai and Uata did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

However, Kakalu ‘o Tonga editor ‘Ulu’alo Po’uhila told Kaniva News Petelō had been interviewed about the reshuffle.

Po’uhila alleged Petelō and Ulakai were not happy with the shake-up and were seeking help from the Ombudsman’s Office and legal advisers.

The restructure comes after advice that Ulakai should be suspended in April 2016 after Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva was disappointed to learn she had falsely claimed a request for a press conference to answer questions regarding his son had been made on the behalf of the Tonga Media Council.

Run-ins with Pōhiva
In March, Petelō repeatedly clashed with Pōhiva during a press conference in Nuku’alofa after the prime minister accused TBC for reporting negatively against his government.

Kaniva Tonga reports the rows between the government and TBC staffers reached a crisis after the Minister of Public Enterprises warned that the automatic renewal of its former general manager Nanisē Fifita’s contract with the broadcaster in May was void.

The minister wanted the post to be advertised.

Fifita took the minister to court but the judge ruled in favour of the government.

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Critics have rebuked the Indonesian Military, or TNI,  for meddling in politics, as it celebrated its 72nd anniversary last week, reports the Jakarta Globe.

The critics of the institution say there are signs it is trying to reestablish its political power — curbed since the fall of the military dictator President Suharto in 1998, including by regaining its old dwifungsi, or dual-function, role under current commander General Gatot Nurmantyo.

The TNI’s dwifungsi role, maintained for 32 years under military strongman Suharto, was scrapped soon after his downfall. Dwifungsi had allowed soldiers to be involved in business and politics, earning them enormous advantage and helping them stay in power.

Concerns that civil supremacy is slipping in Indonesia have been rising since Gatot took the reins of the TNI in July 2015. The general makes frequent public appearances, seems to court media attention and in recent months has been putting forth ultra-nationalistic remarks that created controversies.

Activists from Jakarta-based Kontras, a non-governmental organisation that has been helping victims of military violence, said in a note on civil-military relations entitled “A Gift for the Military’s 72nd Anniversary,” that Gatot had been making “obvious political maneouvres.”

“The commander of the military will always get drawn into politics,” Gatot told reporters in Banten, during preparations for TNI’s anniversary celebrations which were held last Thursday.

“But it’s state politics, not practical politics. The military remains neutral in practical politics,” Gatot, who is due to retire in March next year, said.

Gatot under fire
Gatot came under fire for his claim last month that an “institution outside the TNI” had illegally imported 5000 military-standard weapons. The claim had pit the TNI squarely against the police and forced Chief Security Minister Wiranto — himself a former TNI commander — to clarify matters.

Last month Gatot also ordered soldiers to hold screenings of a Suharto-era propaganda film depicting the killings of six army generals on the fateful night of September 30, 1965.

The murders were part of a failed coup attempt that was blamed on the now-banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and led to an anti-communist pogrom that historians say killed up to 3 million people.

Large crowds, including children, were herded to watch the often violent film, which failed to mention the military-backed retaliation against the communists that followed.

Gatot’s claim of the illegal weapon import and his order to screen the propaganda film were mentioned in a list published in Kontras’s note on Wednesday along with other incidents that also involved the TNI commander since May last year.

The list, Kontras argued, “showed the military still retains its ambition to bring back dwifungsi”.

“We should keep in mind that almost all members of the current military elite were raised under the climate of dual function,” Kontras activist Puri Kencana Putri said.

“They were trained to be a force that won’t just stay put in the barracks.”

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Anyone who wants to live a healthy life may have to consider moving out of Jakarta, as the city continues to climb up the rankings for the world’s worst air quality.

Based on a real-time air quality index uploaded to the Airvisual application at a recent survey, Jakarta ranked third as the most polluted city in the world, after Beijing and Dhaka, among 70 cities measured across the globe.

In mid-August, the application showed that Jakarta was at the top of the list, followed by Ankara, Turkey, and Lahore in Pakistan.

Residents in the Indonesian capital may have experienced the worsening air quality due to hazy air and the sharp smell of exhaust fumes from vehicles.

Filani Olyvia, 25, a resident of Mampang Prapatan, in South Jakarta, said she was worried about her health because she rides an ojek (motorcycle taxi) to work every day.

Greenpeace Indonesia revealed that air pollution in Greater Jakarta, with its high exposure to a carcinogenic pollutant called PM2.5, was three times higher than the maximum “safe” level recommended by the World Health Organisation of 25 micrograms per cubic metre.

According to research conducted by Greenpeace from January to June, the air in Greater Jakarta was considered “unhealthy” and hazardous for residents, especially children, pregnant women and the elderly.

Premature deaths rise
“In general, there has been a significant increase in premature deaths resulting from strokes, heart disease, respiratory infections (or what the local authorities call ISPA) in children, lung cancer and chronic lung diseases,” said Bondan Andriyanu, Greenpeace campaign spokesman for climate and energy.

Using the risk analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Project conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Greenpeace found that the great increase of people who suffered from pollution-related diseases occurred in areas highly exposed to the pollutant.

To protect themselves against emissions of PM2.5, residents have been advised by Greenpeace to wear N95 surgical masks, instead of regular disposable masks.

“We also urge the government to establish a proper, publicly accessible air quality monitoring system for residents,” he said.

Pacific Media Watch Newdesk

The Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has been awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, reports Al Jazeera English.

In an announcement in Oslo, Norway, yesterday, the Nobel committee cited ICAN’s role in pushing for a global prohibition on the use of nuclear weapons, through the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted at the United Nations in July 2017 by a vote of 122-1 with one country abstaining.

ICAN executive director Beatrice Fihn told reporters that given the current political atmosphere around the world, the call to ban nuclear weapons is more imperative.

“The treaty is meant to make it harder to justify nuclear weapons, to make it uncomfortable for states to continue the status quo, to put more pressure on them,” she said.

Here are some things to know about the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize:

Banning nukes

• In a landmark resolution, 123 countries voted to start talks on a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons” in the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2016.
• In July, a UN conference adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
• It is the “first multilateral legally-binding instrument for nuclear disarmament to have been negotiated in 20 years”, the UN said in a statement.
• The treaty opened for signature during the annual UN General Assembly last month.
• As of September 20, 50 states had signed the treaty, which bans the use, development, testing or storing of nuclear weapons under any circumstances.
• However, some of the top nuclear powers have yet to sign on to the pact, including the United States, Russia and China.
• Significantly, Iran, which has been accused by the US President Donald Trump of pursuing a nuclear programme, has signed the treaty.

INSIDE STORY: Will the US pull out of the Iran nuclear deal? (25:30)

Strength in numbers
Before Friday, ICAN was a little-known organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Originally founded in Australia in 2007, ICAN has now become a global coalition of 468 non-government organisations spread over 100 countries.

International partners include peace organisations to humanitarian and environmental groups.

Among its coalition partners are The Ceasefire Campaign in South Africa and the Africa Peace Forum in Kenya.

Physicians for Social Responsibility in Bangladesh is also a partner, as well as the Arab Network for Research on Landmines and Explosive Remnants of War.

Public figures who have voiced support for ICAN include Nobel Prize winners the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, as well as artist and activist Ai Weiwei, and internationally-known artists Herbie Hancock and Yoko Ono.

“Let’s act up! Ban nuclear weapons completely and unconditionally,” Ai Weiwei was quoted as saying as he declared his support for the nuclear weapons ban treaty.

Its roots
In 2006, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize, adopted ICAN as a major priority at its world congress in Helsinki Finland. A year later, ICAN was formed in Australia, and its international campaign was officially launched in Vienna, Austria.

Beatrice Fihn said ICAN founders were also inspired to establish the group following the success of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which won the Nobel Prize in 1997.

As part of its work to push for the nuclear prohibition treaty, ICAN launched in 2012 the campaign “Don’t Bank on the Bomb”, pushing for divestment from hundreds of banks, pension funds and insurance companies with investments in companies producing nuclear arms.

Call for global responsibility
Online, many celebrated the news that ICAN was awarded this year’s prize.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres congratulated the campaign, saying “now more than ever we need a world without nuclear weapons”.

Others called the Nobel committee’s decision a “resounding call to global responsibility”.

Challenges
While ICAN’s Beatrice Fihn said that the prize is a “huge” boost for her organisation and other groups working on the nuclear weapons issue, the world faces significant hurdles related to the nuclear weapons and threats of war.

Just before the Nobel committee made the announcement in Oslo, US President Donald Trump had threatened not to re-certify the nuclear deal agreed between world powers and Iran.

“We must not allow Iran … to obtain nuclear weapons,” Trump said.

“The Iranian regime supports terrorism and exports violence, bloodshed and chaos across the Middle East. That is why we must put an end to Iran’s continued aggression and nuclear ambitions. They have not lived up to the spirit of their agreement,” he said.

Iran has denied it is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme and said it would continue to abide by the deal. The UN nuclear monitor also said that Iran is in compliance with the deal.

Trump has also threatened “to destroy North Korea” if necessary after its leader Kim Jong-un said that nothing could stop his country from acquiring ballistic missiles with the capability of carrying nuclear warheads.

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

The 77 Chinese citizens deported from Fiji by uniformed Chinese police in August were sex workers, according to an investigative report by the Australia Broadcasting Corporation.

The ABC’s Background Briefing investigation by Hagar Cohen has reported an unnamed source challenging official claims that the deported individuals were involved in an online gambling fraud ring, reports Fiji Newswire.

According to the ABC investigative report, Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho declined to comment on the allegations.

The Office of the Prime Minister and the Chinese Embassy in Suva did not reply to the ABC’s requests.

The ABC reported that the deportees were “mainly young women brought to Fiji to service the Chinese diaspora,” and those locals close to their Nadi house said the inhabitants were primarily young women aged between 15 and 19.

One of those deportees was a young mother with a baby.

LISTEN: Fiji Silenced – China’s secret mission exposed on Sunday Extra: Background Briefing (Part 1)

In the two weeks before their removal, witnesses reported seeing Fijian police officers moving in and out of the compound — including movements that resembled a changing of the guard, and overnight shifts.

According to one local, who asked not to be identified, several of the women had attempted to escape but were chased and caught by local police.

By Dan McGarry on Santo

Only the howling of dogs can be heard now in Ambae’s abandoned villages. The entire population has now been moved off the island.

Of those who cannot stay with friends or family, the majority have found refuge in 36 evacuation centres scattered around Luganville, Santo.

Today, Ambae’s chiefs will formally thank the people of Santo with what is informally called a “10 pigs” kastom ceremony.

Chief Douglas Ngwele from Lolobuebue informed the Daily Post that he would be departing Port Vila for Santo immediately to prepare.

The Ambae community in Port Vila is now refocusing its efforts. Originally occupied with supporting evacuees within the island of Ambae, and later with their safe and timely removal, the community now plans to put its efforts into supporting the Ambaean diaspora in Santo.

In a statement on social media, Ambae Manaro Organising Committee member Henry Vira wrote that they had “resolved to move members of its Vila-based team to Luganville tomorrow morning to assist with coordination efforts there”. He added:

Entire population moved
“We will be joining efforts with the Santo Manaro Organising Committee, which was established following declaration of the State of Emergency for Total Evacuation of Ambae island. We have moved an entire population of approximately 11,600 people from Ambae including the very young, elderly, disabled, people with ill health, etc.

“We will be working closely with the various clusters already established through NDMO, SANMA Province and Ambae leaders identified within the evacuees.

“The Ambae Manaro Organising committee in Vila will finalise its arrangements today at Sarabulu Church (Namburu) and welcomes input from any one with the heart to help. The team will reconvene at Sarabulu Church today [Wednesday] at 12 noon to finalise arrangements.”

Other committee members clarified that the majority of volunteers would be remaining in Port Vila.

“We want to identify and empower community leaders within the evacuee groups in order to make sure we get the best coordination,” said one.

The committee recognises that there are numerous people here in Port Vila who have invited friends and family to stay with them in the capital. Support and assistance will be offered to them, but the sheer weight of numbers requires that they place their emphasis on supporting the Ambae community efforts in Luganville.

The volunteers gathered at Sarabulu church in Namburu emphasised that donations and supplies are still sorely needed. Bedding, tents, tarpaulins, food and water are all still welcome. Cash donations are desirable, as they offer the most flexibility in dealing with the shifting priorities of this open-ended crisis.

The members plan to extend a formal thank you to all those who have contributed to the effort so far. Without these early actions, the response would have been much smaller — and much slower — than it was.

Dan McGarry is media director of the Vanuatu Daily Post. Asia Pacific Report republishes VDP articles with permission.

ANALYSIS: By Josef Benedict

Today, we are watching history repeat itself in Southeast Asia in the worst possible way.

Once again, the Myanmar military has launched a brutal military campaign against the Rohingya minority, killing civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

And once again, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has failed to take a stand against horrors unfolding in one of its member states.

There is no question that what is taking place in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State is ethnic cleansing. Since August 25, when a Rohingya armed group attacked security posts and killed at least 12 security officers, the Myanmar military has responded with vicious, unlawful and disproportionate violence targeting the Rohingya population as a whole.

Soldiers have torched entire villages and opened fire on people fleeing in panic in what amounts to a clear and deliberate campaign to drive the Rohingya people out of their country once and for all.

The Asean Charter, the treaty that binds Asean states together, declares a clear commitment to human rights, and Asean leaders have been paying lip service to this for years.

So the crisis in Rakhine State would have been – perhaps still is – an opportunity to prove that this was more than just talk. Instead, the regional bloc has so far, once again, proved that it is both unwilling and unable to address ongoing violations.

Bland statement
It took Asean almost a full month to even issue a statement on the situation, but the organisation might have been better off staying silent.

When it finally did materialise, on September 24, the statement by Asean foreign ministers, expressed “concern” over developments in Rakhine State, but completely failed to even mention the word “Rohingya” and atrocities so obviously inflicted on them by the security forces.

Instead, the foreign ministers labelled the crisis a “complex inter-communal issue” and only condemned the August 25 attacks on Myanmar security forces and “all acts of violence”.

The statement was so bland that at least one individual Asean member state felt a need to distance itself. The Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman called the statement a “misrepresentation of the reality of the situation”.

It is to Kuala Lumpur’s credit that it has taken a strong stance on the crimes of the Myanmar army, even though its treatment of Rohingya refugees inside its own borders leaves a lot to be desired.

Strong and urgent Asean action is all the more important as there is no sign of the violence in Rakhine State ending any time soon. Despite the claims by Aung San Suu Kyi – Myanmar’s de facto leader – that the fighting has stopped, Amnesty International was able to confirm fresh burnings in Myanmar as late as last week.

Fleeing in desperation
And people continue to flee in desperation into Bangladesh – more than half a million according to latest UN figures.

There is also a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding within Rakhine State, as the Myanmar government has cut off aid agencies’ access to affected areas and severely restricted their life-sustaining activities in other parts of the state.

Recently, we have received credible reports that Rohingya are not just fleeing violence but also face the very real risk of starvation, as food is running desperately short in many places.

The Rakhine State crisis could also have spill-over affects across Southeast Asia as a whole. Many of us will still remember the “boat crisis” in 2015, when thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshis were stranded in the Bay of Bengal as governments in the region refused to let their boats in.

Asean countries must ensure that refugees are able to take safe routes to enter their countries, and that no one is forced to return to a country where they could face persecution or serious human rights violations, as the Rohingya most definitely will.

Asean should immediately hold an emergency summit to deal with the crisis in Rakhine State. Its members must also acknowledge and condemn the human rights violations being committed by the Myanmar military in strong and unequivocal terms.

Crimes against humanity
And make no mistake, what we are witnessing in Rakhine State are, under international law, crimes against humanity – surely a concern to Asean as well.

Asean states must also work to ensure that the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya does not succeed, and that Myanmar ends all persecution, and discrimination against and segregation of the Rohingya.

All this would be well within the provisions of the Asean Charter, which allows its leaders to take action “in the case of a serious breach of the Charter” and to “address emergency situations affecting Asean by taking appropriate actions”.

It is time for Asean to bring to the fore these core values – of responding to emergencies and of respecting human rights – which are just as germane to Asean and part of its constitution as the over-flaunted principle of “non-intervention”.

This is a moment of truth for Asean, when the association has to decide which side of history it wants to be on. With ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity taking place on its doorstep, will it do everything it can to end and redress it or simply sit idly by?

Josef Benedict is the Amnesty International’s deputy campaigns director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

By Johnny Poiya and Jeffrey Elapa in Port Moresby

A rampaging crowd has attacked Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s official vehicle and business interests in Mendi, Southern Highlands Province.

The Toyota LandCruiser V8 vehicle was stolen, and construction and mining logistics company Wildcat Construction base looted and torched on Saturday afternoon.

Another company, South West Air’s airport hangar, was ransacked although its fleet of fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft had been moved elsewhere earlier.

The LandCruiser was among 10 vehicles, including an excavator, backhoe and grader, stolen by a rampaging crowd that had ran amok through the town.

An expatriate manager was rescued by bystanders when the Prime Minister’s premises were attacked.

The Wildcat Construction and South West Air are the two biggest locally owned companies in the province that employees many locals and foreigners.

The attack followed the declaration of William Powi as Governor of Southern Highlands Province last Thursday.

O’Neill blamed over election
Witnesses in Mendi yesterday said the rampaging crowd blamed O’Neill for the long delay in counting and eventual declaration of Powi as Governor.

All government services and businesses were closed and Mendi town was quiet and deserted yesterday.

The police station gate was locked with chain while the hospital, post office and Bank South Pacific were also closed.

Traffic along the Southern Highlands section of the Highlands Highway was scarce.

Senior public servants and a policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all facilities and business house like the bank, shops, airlines and schools, besides the provincial administration, had shut operations in fear of violence.

They said Air Niugini and South West Air, which lost computers and aircraft parts, have closed their operations for an indefinite period.

The former Carson Pratt Services workshop at Wara Maigani, now owned by Wildcat Construction, was burned down while the main Papindo Supermarket was looted.

Two policemen shot dead
“Also on Saturday afternoon, two policemen were shot dead while another was seriously wounded and is now admitted at the Mt Hagen General Hospital.

Two teachers were with the policemen when attacked; one of them had his hands chopped off while his colleague is still missing.

It was reported that gates at the Mendi General Hospital and the Mendi School of Nursing  were rammed while the staff were threatened.

Public servants and schools in Mendi, including Mendi Day Secondary Schools, have all been affected.

Sources said police in the province have sought refuge with the candidates, allowing criminals to take over the town, firing guns indiscriminately.

Southern Highlands Governor William Powi condemned the actions of the minority who continue to take the law into their hands.

He said it was the work of the police to maintain law and order but the province had been taken over by warlords.

Condolences sent
Sending his condolences to the families of the two police based in Koroba, Enga Province, killed and the wounded, Powi said he did not understand the motive of the killings.

“I send my condolences to the families of those attacked. We have no issue with Hela and the attack on innocent people is unacceptable. I call on the police hierarchy to arrest people involved in instigating violence and denying freedom of the citizens,” he said.

He said it was only a handful of people from Mendi who were sabotaging peace and harmony in the town.