Vanuatu announces the opening of a ‘Tamtam bubble’
The Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Hon Bob Loughman, has announced the opening of a ‘Tamtam bubble’. Starting in April, there will be an easing of restrictions on travel between New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
This move will be welcomed by the tourism industry in Vanuatu, which has been hugely affected by the closing of international borders. It will also allow for ni-Vanuatu students to travel to New Caledonia and for people to return home to both countries.
There are some community concerns about whether this will create an additional risk of COVID-19 entering the country. Travellers will not be permitted to go beyond the island of Efate. However, a travel corridor between Noumea and Port Vila may provide a conduit into Vanuatu for travellers from Europe.
The government of New Caledonia has yet to confirm its agreement to this arrangement.
PNG COVID-19 situation worsens
A significant number of new cases of COVID-19 infections has been recorded in Papua New Guinea. The number of infections has now risen above 1000. Ten people have died.
Among the latest batch of confirmed infections is the national COVID-19 controller and Commissioner of Police, David Manning. He is now in isolation along with two members of his family who have also been infected.
Commissioner Manning has announced an end to ‘at home’ quarantine other than if it is required for medical reasons. People arriving in the country will now be required to spend the quarantine period in a government mandated facility. The Commissioner has also noted that the levels of testing in PNG are still very low. This makes it hard to determine what the actual level of community transmission is.
China has repeated its offer of providing 100,000 of COVID-19 vaccine to PNG.
PIF fallout continues
The fallout from the recent Pacific Islands Forum Special Leaders’ Retreat continues. On Friday Foreign Minister of Marshall Islands, Casten Nemra, announced that the Cabinet had given the go-ahead to start the process of formal withdrawal from the Forum. The next step is for this decision to be endorsed by the Nitijela (parliament).
This follows similar moves by Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia who have initiated withdrawal procedures.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Fiji has written to the Micronesian leaders. He has implored them to stay in the Forum ‘family’ and expressed his hope that they will travel to Fiji for a Forum leaders’ meeting in August.
Writing for The Guardian, the President of Palau, Surangel Whipps Jr has restated his anger and disappointment at the way in which the selection of the next Secretary-General has been handled. He claimed that the PIF leadership had been “deaf to Micronesian concerns”.
Facebook shutdown cuts news to the Pacific
Facebook has banned posts that link to Australian news content. This is in response to the Australian government’s plans to legislate that the platform should pay news producers for content.
The shutdown has had a significant impact in the Pacific islands region. Many people in the region rely on Facebook to obtain news from reliable international sources such as the ABC and SBS.
The reliance on Facebook is enhanced by the fact that in several countries, telecommunications companies provide access to Facebook as something of a ‘loss leader’. This means people can access Facebook without using their data allocation, but costs kick in as soon as they click through to source articles.
This situation has raised concerns that a lack of access to good news sources will make it difficult to counter misinformation regarding COVID-19 and the rollout of vaccinations.
USP saga ongoing
The conflicts and tensions surrounding the senior leadership of USP show no signs of abating. Vice-Chancellor Ahluwalia Pal and his wife, Sandra Price, are now out of quarantine in Brisbane. They found themselves there further to a dead of night deportation by the government of Fiji earlier this month.
Whilst the USP Council is yet to determine whether the Vice-Chancellor can continue in his role the claims and counterclaims are coming thick and fast. Pal retains a lot of support from among staff and students. The Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Bob Loughman, has offered that he can continue his work from the Emalus campus in Port Vila.
Meanwhile, others have lashed out at Pal accusing him of cronyism and being too close to members of the political opposition in Fiji, including Biman Prasad who leads the National Federation Party.
Tess Newton Cain is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Griffith Asia Institute and project lead of the Pacific Hub.
