J
Ö N K Ö P I N GI
N T E R N A T I O N A LB
U S I N E S SS
C H O O LJÖ N KÖ P I N G U N IVER SITY
C o r r u p t i o n i n S m a l l P a c i f i c
I s l a n d Sta t e s
- A Case Study of Vanuatu
Master Thesis within Political science Author: Marie Vaadre
Tutor: Mikael Sandberg
REPUBLIC OF VANUATU
Acknowledgements
This thesis has been written as a Minor Field Study (MFS), spon-sored by the Swedish International Development Agency, SIDA. The requirements set by SIDA for a MFS-study is that the thesis should be written in a developing country. Due to developed cir-cumstances in Vanuatu and with respect for my own safety I spent the last weeks of my study in New Zealand. Tough, I have fulfilled a MFS study concerning corruption.
When I started to write this thesis in the beginning it was supposed to be about coconut oil, and how successful the project about driv-ing with coconut oil has been on the small island developdriv-ing coun-try Vanuatu. But when I arrived in Vanuatu things became not what it was supposed to be, and it was my very first connection with corruption…
Master’s Thesis within Political science
Title: Corruption in Small Pacific Island States - A Case Study of Vanuatu
Author: Marie Vaadre
Tutor: Associate Professor Mikael Sandberg Date: 2009-05-24
Subject terms: Pacific Islands, Vanuatu, tribes, public and political administration, corruption
Abstract
Corruption is defined as the abuse of public office for private gain. Often, cor-ruption has devastating consequences, the two main consequences of which are economic and social. Unfortunately corruption exists most in developing countries, where people already live under hard economical and social condi-tions. The Pacific Islands are a region where corruption is a problem. Some countries are doing better than others, some have improved and some have got worse. But almost all of the Pacific island countries have faced cups or riots, breakdown of law and order as a consequence of corruption. The region is unique and characterized by ecological and cultural diversity, colonization, tribes, a human history rich in epic ritual, travel, narrative, and innovation. This thesis has examined one small Pacific Island country, Vanuatu which is a typi-cal example of an island country in the region. 76 % of the people lives on 83 different islands and have little contact with the central island and its public and political administration. The purpose was to examine why corruption ex-ists in the region with the help of different corruption theories. The result was that many Islands in the Pacific have been colonised and have had very little time to build up a stable public and political administration. Results also showed that the islands have a strong tribal tradition and people lives isolated on islands far away from the “real political life”, there is also a culture which accepts e.g. bribery and the general attitude is that parliamentarians should look after their original tribe rather than the entire country.
Magisteruppsats inom Statsvetenskap
Titel: Korruption i små stillahavsländer- fallstudien av Vanuatu Författare: Marie Vaadre
Handledare: Docent Mikael Sandberg Datum: 2009-05-24
Ämnesord Stillahavsöar, Vanuatu, stamkultur, politisk och offentlig ad-ministration, korruption
Sammanfattning
Korruption definieras som missbruk av offentliga medel för privata ändamål. Ofta, har korruption förödande konsekvenser, de två alvarligaste är ekonomis-ka och sociala. Tyvärr förekommer korruption mest i utvecklingsländer, där befolkning redan lever under svåra ekonomiska och sociala förhållanden. Stil-lahavsöarna är en region där korruption är ett problem. I Vissa länder är pro-blemet mindre och i vissa större. Men nästan alla av stillahavsöarna har råkat ut för kupper och upplopp på grund av korruption. Regionen är unik och karak-täriserad av ekologiska och kulturella skillnader, kolonisering, stammar, en hi-storia rik av storslagna ritualer, resande, berättarkultur och innovation. Den här uppsatsen har utforskat ett liten stillahavsland, Vanuatu, som är ett typexempel på en ö i regionen. 76 % av befolkningen bor utspridda på 83 olika öar och har lite kontakt med huvudön och den offentliga och politiska administrationen. Syftet har varit att undersöka varför korruption existerar i regionen med hjälp av olika korruptionsteorier. Resultatet visade att många öar i stilla havet har va-rit koloniserade och haft väldigt lite tid på sig att bygga upp en stabil offentlig och politisk administration. Resultaten visade också att öarna har en stark tradi-tion av stamkultur och de flesta bor långt bort från den ”politiska verklighe-ten”. Det finns också en kulturell acceptans för t.ex. mutor, och den generella attityden visade att man tycker att parlamentariker borde först och främst se till sin ursprungliga stams bästa och därefter till det allmänna bästa.
Acronyms and abbreviations
ADB - Asian Development Bank
ANZUS - Australia, New Zeeland and United States Defence Treaty
Approx - approximately
CPI - Corruption Perceptions Index
Kastom - Vanuatu and Pacific island traditions including tribe tradition, religion and magic
NAM - Non-Aligned Movement
Ni Vanuatu - Citizens of Vanuatu
QoG - The quality of government institute
UMP - Union of Moderate Parties
VP - Vanua´ku pati
WB - World Bank
WBI - World Bank Institute
Table of Contents
1
Research problem and approach ... 1
1.1 The problem ... 1
1.2 Purpose ... 2
1.3 Questions ... 2
1.4 Design of case ... 3
1.5 Method and approach ... 5
1.6 Sources and material ... 6
1.6.1 Research overview on corruption ... 7
1.6.2 The interviews ... 8
1.7 Outline ... 9
2
Theoretical framework ... 10
2.1 Corruption ... 10
2.2 Reasons for corruption ... 11
2.2.1 Public institutions and administration... 11
2.2.2 “The soft state” ... 14
2.3 Consequences of corruption ... 16
2.3.1 Poverty ... 16
2.3.2 Inequality ... 16
2.3.3 Credibility of the state ... 16
3
Strategies for combating corruption ... 17
3.1 The problems with change the particularistic administration in developing countries ... 17
3.2 Increase political responsibility ... 18
3.3 Increase public participation ... 19
3.4 Make a competitive private sector ... 20
4
Case study Vanuatu ... 21
4.1 The Postcolonial heritage from Britain and France ... 21
4.2 Weak party system ... 24
4.3 Isolated islands ... 25
4.4 The Cultural tradition of gifts and tribes ... 27
5
Analysis ... 29
5.1 Why corruption exist in the pacific island countries like Vanuatu ... 29
5.2 Differences between corruption on Vanuatu and the general explanations, theories ... 32
5.3 Methods to combat corruption in Pacific Island Countries ... 34
6
Concluding discussion ... 36
References ... 38
Appendix ... 40
1
Research problem and approach
The Pacific Islands are a region where corruption is a problem. Some countries are doing better than others, some have improved and some have got worse. But almost all of the Pacific island countries have faced cups or riots, breakdown of law and order as a conse-quence of corruption. The region is unique and characterized by ecological and cultural di-versity, colonization, tribes, a human history rich in epic ritual, travel, narrative, and inno-vation.
1.1 The problem
Corruption is defined as the abuse of public office for private gain.1 Often corruption has
devastating consequences, two main are economic and social. Corruption can hinder both domestic and foreign investment, it can reduce growth, restrict trade, distort the size and composition of government expenditure, weaken the financial system and strengthen the underground economy. Socially can corruption increase levels of poverty and income ine-quality.2
Unfortunately corruption exists most in developing countries where people already live un-der hard economical and social conditions. Many times is it contacts or money which de-cides if public employees carry out the public politics. 3 Not only political scientists, but
also economists and sociologists have identified quality in an administration as the crucial factor to achieve development within democracy and welfare in the third world. 4
Transparency International (TI) has made a Corruption Perceptions Index where countries are ranked in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived among public officials and politicians. Generally (with som e exceptions) north countries are ranked high, south counties low and small pacific island countries in the middle. The small pacific island coun-tries are very similar; they are former colonial councoun-tries, geographically isolated, they have
1 Transparency International. http://www.transparency.org 2009-04-13 time: 20:20
2 The World Bank. Anticorruption in Transition a Contribution to the Policy Debate., Washington DC, 2000.
.http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/17506/contribution.pdf 2009-04-14 time 20:11
3 Gunnarson, Carina. Jämförande politik. Uppsala universitet, 2005. p 12.
http://www.fhs.se/upload/Utbildning/Dokument/Material/ISS/jamforande_pol_2.pdf 2009-04-14 time: 16:05
small number of inhabitants and most of these countries population lives on the outer is-lands and have limited contact with the main island.
Vanuatu is and represents a typical small pacific island country where 76% of the popula-tion lives on 83 different islands and have little contact with the central island and its politi-cal administration. On the islands is the access to newspapers, radio, television, phone or internet very limited. 5 There is also an unfair disproportionate amount of money
distrib-uted to the capital city, compared to the provinces.6 Citizens on the outer islands miss their
civil rights since there is a lack of public administration on the islands.7 On the main
is-lands, self serving attitudes and decision making based on self-interest rather than national interest are commonplace among politicians and officials. In Vanuatu, and the Pacific in general, people are linked by strong tribal allegiances. They take actions or decisions to pay back past favours or to store up future favours or rewards, such as jobs or contracts. The attitudes have contributed to a political instability and inequality. 8
1.2 Purpose
The purpose of this thesis is with the example of Vanuatu, to analyse why corruption exists in small pacific island countries. Vanuatu is chosen because it is not different from other pacific island countries. The purpose is also to survey through which methods it is possible to combat corruption
1.3 Questions
1. Why does corruption exist on the pacific island countries like Vanuatu?
2. Is it some differences between corruption on Vanuatu and the general explanations and theories?
3. How can corruption be combated in pacific island countries?
5 Asian Development Bank & Vanuatu, fact sheet, 2008.
http://www.adb.org/Documents/Fact_Sheets/VAN.pdf 2008-07-07, Time: 12:45
6 Lee, O with others. Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific: Concepts and Issues. Spring, 2004. p181.
http://books.google.com/books?id=7V0ZTrzvIDcC&pg=PA175&dq=democracy+in+Vanuatu&hl=sv# PPA181,M1 2009-01-06, time: 20:33
7 Gunnarson, Carina.
8 CPA Malaysia, Dealing with conflicts of interest and corruption in small states – Vanuatu’s experience. August, 2008.
http://www.cpa-conference.org/uploads/docs/Plenary%202%20-%20Conflict%20of%20Interest%20-%20Vanuatu.pdf 2009-05-16, time 18:58
1.4 Design of case
The pacific islands are characterized by ecological and cultural diversity, tribes, a human history rich in epic ritual, travel, narrative, and innovation. 9 The median population on
some islands is less than 100, 000. The region is divided into three major cultural areas Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia. 10 Oceania was colonized by Europeans relatively late
in global terms, and the Pacific islands were also among the last to be decolonized. Since 1960s the process of decolonization has created nine independent countries and five enti-ties that are self governing. Decolonization entailed for the islands liberation from direct control by outside power. 11
Pacific people have today adopted a number of creative survival strategies in the face of rapid cultural, social, political and economical changes. People live in multiple worlds that might include both Christian and indigenous spiritual practices, western and indigenous lifestyles, and western and traditional political and economic structures. In the opinions of some scholars, scientists investors and journalists the Pacific typifies an extreme double condition; paradise with postcolonial, political and economic chaos. The region is complex
9 Center for Pacific Island Studies. http://www.hawaii.edu/cpis/oceania_1.html 2009-05-17, time 17:11 10 Larmour, Peter. Culture and corruption in the Pacific Islands. Asia Pacific School of Economics and
Govern-ment, The Australian National University, 2006. p 4
http://www.crawford.anu.edu.au/degrees/pogo/discussion_papers/PDP06-05.pdf 2009-05-23, time 10:16
and caricaturized by tourism reliance, failed states, geographical isolation, economic aid and dependency abound. 12
The most difficult problem that the region deals with is corruption. Some countries are do-ing better than others, some have improved and some have got worse. But almost all of the Pacific island countries have faced cups or riots, breakdown of law and order as a conse-quence of corruption.13
To better understand why corruption exists in the Pacific Islands I have chosen to make a case study of one country, Vanuatu, since it represents a typical pacific island country. I have personally been in the country, interviewed people and taken part in the countries cul-ture and politics. I have also chosen Vanuatu since it was the country Swedish Foreign De-partment suggested as the safest country in the region. Due to limited access of money and time I had no possibility to visit other countries in the region.
On the Vanuatu islands is the access to newspapers, radio, television, phone or internet very limited. 14 There is also an unfair disproportionate amount of money distributed to the
capital city, compared to the provinces.15 Citizens on the outer islands miss their civil rights
since there is a lack of public administration on the islands.16 On the main islands, self
serv-ing attitudes and decision makserv-ing based on self-interest rather than national interest are commonplace among politicians and officials. In Vanuatu, and the Pacific in general, peo-ple are linked by strong tribal allegiances. They take actions or decisions to pay back past favours or to store up future favours or rewards, such as jobs or contracts.17 The attitudes
have contributed to a political instability and inequality. 18
12 Center for Pacific Island Studies.
13 Larmour, Peter. Pacific Islands corruption a confusing picture. Asia Pacific School of Economics and
Gov-ernment, The Australian National University, July 2008. http://news.anu.edu.au/?p=538 2009-05-17, time: 18:18
14 Asian Development Bank & Vanuatu. 15 Lee, O with others.
16 Gunnarson, Carina. 17 CPA Malaysia. 18 Ibid
1.5 Method and approach
The method that is used in this thesis has been a qualitative study of corruption, with the purpose to analyse why corruption exists in small pacific island countries with help of the case study of Vanuatu. The purpose is also to survey through which methods corruption is possible to combat in the region.
To clarify even more the method, two classical method questions are answered: (1) What is the returning, general phenomenon one examine (case of what)? (2) Why have one chosen to study the specific case selected?19
(1) The general phenomenon I have chosen to study is corruption in the small pacific is-land countries.
(2) I have chosen Vanuatu as a case since it is a typical small pacific island country
The research problem and questions are formulated on the theoretical level, corruption is the concept, but it must be defined what is it, what it involves, and what consequences it brings, in order to further understand why it exists and how to combat it.
The examination is made by observations, collection of data and information on the “op-erational” level. To measure why corruption exists in pacific island countries, a typical small pacific island country, Vanuatu was chosen. The country is typical because it is a former co-lonial country, it consists of many isolated islands where a majority of the population lives and two main island where the public and political administration is, and where corruption is common. Due to lack of administration in the islands, people many times miss their civil rights, like employment service, healthcare, access to schools, pension, benefits etc. On the other hand, people on the main islands who have the political or public administrative power, misuses the public finances for their own personal benefit.
This research strives after “the general” rather than “the unique or specific”. The aim is to find a general answer on patterns, regularity and returning connections of why corruption is common in the pacific island countries.
To make sure that the correspondence is good between the theory and the operational in-dicator we must define variables. The independent variable, (explanatory factor) influ-ence/affect the dependent variable (the phenomenon which are supposed to be explained). The independent variables (explanatory variables) are: (1) peoples isolation on the islands and isolation from the political-public administration, (2) postcolonial heritage like western and traditional political and economic structures, (3) tradition of giving gifts and put the tribe (family members) first no matter what, (4) and weak party system, affects the depend-ent variable (the phenomenon which are supposed to be explained): (1) corruption in Vanuatu and in pacific island countries in general.
Finally, when the conclusions are made, answers are suppose to be find in the theory. This thesis is a most similar system design, which means that the purpose of the method is to do a conclusion/comparison between cases (countries) which are as similar as possible and relevant on the independent variables (explanatory variables). The keyword is to select a case strategically on the basis of the “value” of the independent variable in order to ex-plain the dependent variable. 20
1.6 Sources and material
In this thesis secondary and primary materials have been used. For the theoretical frame-work books, articles, internet, reports, are used. Fore the case study section in depth inter-views have been used together with literature.
The sources about Vanuatu have a high validity since they are written by independent searchers, the material is written from a neutral point of view. I have used independent re-searchers like e.g. Michael G Morgan, Hank Nelson, Arch Puddington, William F.S Miles and many others.
The theoretical framework consist of two main sources World Bank (WB) and Transpar-ency international (TI). I have used those sources since they have the best information about corruption and its consequences. Though can validity be questioned, since the two sources have been criticised for different reasons. The World Bank has been criticised for the veto right that USA have on all questions and that actions are made for US benefit.
Transparency International has been criticised for its anticorruption methods, which some critics mean is not suitable for all developing countries.
But I have used their material only on a basic level where corruption is described, why it exists and what the easiest methods is to combat it. I have also used other independent sources to confirm the material from WB and TI. Therefore I think the validity is quite high.
1.6.1 Research overview on corruption
The material that is available about corruption consists mostly of brief essays and articles from institutions or books.
I have used “The quality of government institute” (QoG), University of Gothenburg. The institute conducts and promotes research about good governance and Quality of Government, that is trustworthy, reliable, impartial uncorrupted and competent government institutions. The research of the institute addresses the questions of how to create and maintain high quality government institutions and how the quality of such institutions influences public policy. 21
One of the leading researchers in QoG is Bo Rothstein. He states that “most research show that problems with democracy and economy in developing countries lie in the ad-ministration and that quality in an adad-ministration is the crucial factor to achieve develop-ment within democracy and welfare in the third world. Rothstein’s research focuses on the public administration as the main problem to corruption.
Rothstein refers to Putnam and his work Making Democracy Work (1993). His conclusion is “that the scientific study of politics (political science) must contain a large part of organisa-tion and administraorganisa-tion analysis to understand e.g. corruporganisa-tion”.
Gunnar Myrdal is another well known researcher and (Minster of Trade 19xx-) within cor-ruption and developing countries. His research confirms both Rothstein’s and Putnam’s conclusion that the most important is a god functioning public administration. What Myr-dal contributes with that most developing countries is “the soft state”- which means that the rules and laws that exist in a country are neglected. Many times is it contacts or money
21 The Quality of Government institute. University of Gothenburg. http://www.qog.pol.gu.se/ 2009-04-11,
which decides if public employees carry out the public politics. Which on the other hand leads to corruption.
World Bank Institute (WBI) was one of the main sources. WBI is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. The institution works for developing individual, organizational, and institutional capacity through exchange of knowledge.One of the central themes for the institute is corruption, nowadays hundreds of governance and anti-corruption activities are taking place throughout the World Bank Group. The focus is on internal organizational integrity, minimizing corruption, and assist-ing countries in improvassist-ing governance. 22
One of the leading researchers about corruption in WBI is Maria Gonzales de Asis. Her re-search and works basically focuses on anticorruption programs and to learn out god gov-ernance methods to politicians, officials and the general public. Gonzales de Asis research is also about legislation and how to prevent corruption on national and local level.23
I have also used Transparency International (TI) as a source since the organisation fight against corruption trough different projects and research. TI fights corruption in the na-tional arena in a number of ways. They bring together relevant players from government, civil society, business and the media to promote transparency in elections, in public admini-stration, in procurement and in business. The also use advocacy campaigns to lobby gov-ernments to implement anti-corruption reforms. TI has anticorruption department on Vanuatu as well. 24
1.6.2 The interviews
The interviews that were made was delimited to ni-Vanuatu’s who were located on New Zealand. I had to leave Vanuatu since I hade no possibility to fulfil my research there. We were not allowed to interview Vanuatu inhabitants about the conditions of Vanuatu. If au-thorities would have found out that we interviewed people, we would have been deported, therefore was the case study made in New Zealand. All interviewed were working in the
22 World Bank Institute http://.worldbank.org 2009-04-11, time:15:34 23 Gonzales de Asis, Maria. p2
kiwi industry through the RSE25 (Recognised Seasonal Employee) scheme. The interviewed
were all Vanuatu citizens, 18 years old or older. You can find the interview questions as an appendix in the end of this thesis.
1.7 Outline
Chapter 2, the next chapter is a theoretical framework about corruption and its conse-quences.
Chapter 3 provides the difficulties with combating corruption and methods from World Bank and Transparency International of how to combat corruption.
Chapter 4 is the case study of Vanuatu which includes colonialism, weak party system, iso-lated islands, cultural traditions and interviews.
Chapter 5 is an analysis where the theoretical framework is tied together with the empirics about Vanuatu.
Chapter 6 is a concluding discussion where the research question are summarized and the method, theoretical framework and sources are discussed.
25 It is a policy that will facilitate temporary overseas workers to plant, maintain, harvest and pack crops in the
horticulture and viticulture industries. Department of labour, New Zealand, 2009. http://www.dol.govt.nz/initiatives/strategy/rse/index.asp 2009-06-29, time 22:44
2
Theoretical framework
Since I have used sources like Transparency International and World Bank does
this theoretical framework define and explain corruption from a “Western” point of view.
2.1 Corruption
“Corruption is behaviour of public officials which deviates from accepted norms in order to serve private ends.” Corruption exists in all societies but it is obvious that it is more common in some
so-cieties than others. Corruption is one measure of the absence of effective political institu-tionalization. Public officials lack autonomy and coherence. Corruption may be more prevalent in some cultures than in others but in most cultures it seems to be most prevalent during the most intense phase of modernization. 26
Transparency International (TI) further differentiates between "according to rule" corrup-tion and "against the rule" corrupcorrup-tion. “Facilitacorrup-tion payments, where a bribe is paid to receive
prefer-ential treatment for something that the bribe receiver is required to do by law, constitute the former. The lat-ter, on the other hand, is a bribe paid to obtain services the bribe receiver is prohibited from providing.”27
Corruption is most common where institutional checks on power are missing, where deci-sion making remains obscure, where civil society is thin on the ground, and where great inequalities in the distribution of wealth condemn people to live in poverty. Corruption is also alive where political, economic, legal and social institutions are well entrenched.28
Corruption, at first glance, according to TI, seems to confirm the stereotypical notion that corruption is most predominant problem of the south. While Scandinavian countries in in-dexes come out top, most sub-Saharan Africa ranks at the bottom. Somalia and Myanmar are the most corrupted countries in the world, but TI also states that there is no intent to pit the North against the South. The issues of corruption are rather a tool to raise public awareness and promote better governance. Corruption is as much a problem of the North as of the South. Recent scandals in Germany, France, Japan, the US or the UK attest to that. People are as corrupt as the system allows them to be 29
26 Huntington. P. Samuel. Political order in changing societies. Yale University, 2006. p 59 27 Transparency International.
28 Ibid. 29 Ibid.
Critics argue that the fight against corruption is just another case of the West trying to im-pose its views and values on the South. Some go on to say that gift giving and taking in the public realm is a normal tradition in many non-Western cultures. Gift-giving is part of ne-gotiating and relationship building in some parts of the world. But there is a matter of de-gree: there are limits in all cultures beyond which an action becomes corrupt and unaccept-able. But cultural relativism ends where the Swiss bank account enters the scene. It is a matter of degree: there are limits in all cultures beyond which an action becomes corrupt and unacceptable.30 When Olusegun Obasanjo, now President of Nigeria, criticised the
cor-rupt practices of the dictatorial regime of Sani Abach, he was imprisoned. He once com-mented that, in African tradition, "a gift is made in the open for all to see, never in secret. Where a
gift is excessive, it becomes an embarrassment, and is returned."31
2.2 Reasons for corruption
There are many different forms of government and social structures that exist in the world, and it would be too difficult to find out every single factor of why corruption emerge. Therefore, this chapter is more of a generalisation of why corruption occurs in some areas of state public sections.
2.2.1 Public institutions and administration
Political processes and political systems can not be explained and understood without in-cluding analysis of the public administration. If parliamentary, government or other politi-cal decisions are meant to be implemented, must an organization be established to achieve the decisions. Social security, pension, healthcare, childcare, and education requires large-scale organisation. Even more traditional state assignments like defence, police, judicial sys-tem, voting and collection of taxes requires a comprehensive administration. The choice of organisation form often affects how the final result of a decision will be. The administra-tion staff does often have an impact on the decisions which are made by politicians. 32
The significance of an administration does not only concern welfare states but also other political systems, e.g. international political systems and developing countries. Most re-search show that problems with democracy and economy in developing countries lie in the
30 Transparency International.
administration. Not only political scientists, but also economists and sociologists have iden-tified quality in an administration as the crucial factor to achieve development within de-mocracy and welfare in the third world. 33
Most well known example of the importance of a god working administration is illustrated by the American political scientist Robert D. Putnam and his work Making Democracy Work (1993). The conclusion Putnam and his team made from 25 years research about democ-racy reform in Italy was that “the working democdemoc-racy” used twelve different criterions, of which not less then half of them was about how well the administration in different regions functioned. A god working democracy does not only deal with correct implemented elec-tions, ability to create representative and powerful governments and an extensive political participation, but it is also about to have an administration characterized by competence, high ethics and professionalism. The generalizing conclusion of this is that the scientific study of politics (political science) must contain a large part of organisation and administra-tion analysis. The classical political science quesadministra-tion about who gets what, when and why can not be answered without an administration analysis. 34
Gonzalez de Asis who works as a researcher on WBI believes that the common ground for the misuse of public power for private benefits is related to three elements:
1. Basic unsatisfactory with a certain system
2. Lack of public information, administration and transparency. 3. Few cases of corrupted public employees are reported. 35
1.) Asis means that the risk for corruption increases when local officials are given new re-sponsibilities and functions in a combination with a lower budget. Common examples of unsatisfactory among officials can be lack of efficiency, low salaries, pressure from pay-ments, low quality of public administration, lack of key sources of revenue, ties to family and friends, and non merit based appointments/promotions. 36
32 Rothstein, Bo. Politik som organisation- Förvaltningspolitikens grundproblem. SNS Förlag, Stockholm, 2001. p 7 33 Ibid. p 10
34 Ibid. p 11
35 Gonzales de Asis, Maria. Reducing Corruption at the Local Level Word Bank Institute, 2000. p2
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/pdf/municipal_eng.pdf 2009-04-12 18:09
2.) Further does Asis write that lack of public information, administration and transparency leads to that employee can use the secrecy which prevails in e.g. institutions as a method to receive bribes. If the risk for an official employee is minimal to get reported or punished if he/she receives bribes, does also the risk and opportunity for corruption increase. If the gain or profit with corruption is greater than the penalty, is corruption more profitable. 37
3.) Power without accountability could be an incentive for corruption. There is a saying that a
gun itself is neither good nor bad; it is the hand on the trigger that makes it so. It is the same with the
lack of accountability; if a good man strives to acquire or provide a bribe, he is likely to do so if he knows that nothing will happen to him. Corruption in this sense is a rational choice based on a calculation, a “crime of calculation”.38
Concerning elections are voters’ political opinion affected by their image of the public ad-ministration. The willingness to support a public administration can be affected by the vot-ers own experience, basic ideological opinion or the picture media supply. Does the public employee consist of professional persons with high ethics, working for the common good and who loyally implement democratic decisions? Or does the public employees consist of own interested, corrupted persons, without competence, who make their welfare through taxpayers, and who sabotages the decisions which are made by publicly chosen politicians? The answers to these questions have a large importance for the political public opinion.39
37 Gonzales de Asis, Maria. p 4 38 Ibid.
2.2.2 “The soft state”
The issue concerning the public administration in most developing countries is what Gun-nar Myrdal refers as “the soft state”- which means:
1.) Rules and laws that exist in a country are neglected.
2.) Many times is it contacts or money which decides if public employees carry out the public politics.
3.) There is no accordance between how rich a country is and how much corruption the country has. Some developing countries have little corruption and some developed countries have much corruption.
4.) Formally does a state with democratic institutions exist, but the institutions do not work properly. Administrations are influenced by arbitrary and personal domination. 5.) Administrations are strongly politically influenced, it is not unusual that ministers
in-terfere in different cases, e.g. appointments and promotions.
6.) The Parliament lack influence over what administrations do. People are exposed to de-cision makers arbitrary.
7.) The State has little influence over peoples lives, the government make new laws which seldom go through. The state is not legitimate.
8.) Instead of voting ideologically, voters vote for the person who has biggest chances to function like a “protector”.
Source40
To make changes in politics, in most north European countries is it natural to focus on the institutions where the politics are shaped. But in many developing countries is it the oppo-site, the most significant political arena is the public administrations “meeting” with the citizens. “Having a friend in city hall are immensely important aspects of political participa-tion in developing countries. “ 41
A weakness with description and explanations of developing countries administration is that they are a reflection of a postcolonial society, an international dependence, or the countries economic situation. Most research shows that this point of view is quite prob-lematic, researchers within “new institutional theory” means that the capacity of a state lies in the administrations norms, rules, and organisation. But the public administration can also be affected and explained through factors outside the state; how voters, interest groups, classes affect the administration.42
One reason why most developing counties administrations are “soft” or particularistic is their colonial origin. The administration weakness lies in that they where dominated by a European power until recently. The dependence theory that was popular in the 1970s shows that the former colonial countries are still dependent of the countries who once ruled them. This dependence explains the specific with the state and administration in the third world. The reason why administration behaves in a different way in developing coun-tries and developed councoun-tries is that the class dominance is unclear. 43
Many researchers mean that the particularistic behaviour in several developing countries is a dominating norm. One example of this is what Göran Hydén calls “togetherness econ-omy”, an ethic where neighbours, relatives and friends help each other. It is also common in public administration. If the administration would not share water, electricity or seed in a village, it would be considered as an objectionable behaviour if public employees would not help relatives and friends first. 44
41 Rothstein, Bo. p 217 42 Ibid. p 242
43 Ibid. p 243 44 Ibid. p 245
2.3 Consequences of corruption
Consequences of corruption can vary in many ways, but the two main consequences are economic and social. Corruption can hinder investment both domestic and foreign, it can reduce growth, restrict trade, distort the size and composition of government expenditure, weaken the financial system and strengthen the underground economy. Socially can corrup-tion increase levels of poverty and income inequality.45
2.3.1 Poverty
The most immediate and visible consequence of corruption for many individuals and fami-lies has been a decline in living standards. Poverty is usually connected to the administra-tion in a country. The big issue is that poverty gives birth to corrupadministra-tion, because poor countries have usually smaller resources to keep the administration public. The problem can concern lack of public employees, low educational standard or lack of good working computer systems. Corruption can lead to administrational misuse of unemployment or disability benefits, delay pensions, weaken the provision of basic public services, and as a consequence it is usually the poor who suffer most. Such corruption undermines the social safety net and may deter the poor from seeking basic entitlements or public services. 46
2.3.2 Inequality
Corruption is also a consequence of inequality due to there is only a narrow elite who have the “possibility” to take part in corruption activities, and the benefits of social and eco-nomic advantages. 47
2.3.3 Credibility of the state
Combating corruption requires a strong and credible leadership. The leadership is the first factor to get affected hardest and fastest when corruption is revealed within public admini-stration. Since corruption damages faith for public administrations and institutions, is it even harder for the state to combat corruption. 48
45 World Bank. Anticorruption in Transition a Contribution to the Policy Debate. 46 Ibid. p 19
47 Ibid. p 21 48 Ibid. p 22
3
Strategies for combating corruption
This chapter explains first of all the difficulties to combat corruption in a particularistic sys-tem. Thereafter are some examples and methods given of how to combat corruption. The methods are suggested by the World Bank.
3.1 The problems with change the particularistic
administra-tion in developing countries
The question is why developing countries do not change their “soft” and particularistic administration if it entails many negative effects such as corruption, bribes, unreliability etc. The India-American economist Pranab Bardhan has in his article given four reasons why an institution is difficult to change.
First he means that “the collective actions logics” is prevailing, even if all individuals wants to change a condition or institution is it uncertain if it can be made. It is about “costs” and “profits” in a new system and how they are going to be divided. There is lot of situations when people are willing to contribute with labour or money if also other people do it. E.g. keep it clean on the public market, protect the rainforest from being devastated, and not participate in corruption. But in these collective actions is there always a risk that someone takes advantage and contributes with nothing or less than rest of the participants.49
Second, many participants are investing in the prevailing system (“sunk costs”) trough a profession or political behaviour. The prevailing system is well known, knowledge and con-tacts are relevant. In other words, individuals have resources which run the risk of being useless in a new system. 50
Third, in every society prevails systems of social sanctions tied to norms, which means that social and political traditions can survival despite that many dislikes it 51
The fourth and last argument to why political institutions are difficult to change is “path dependency”. It can be compared with computers keyboard, the “q w e r t y” system was
49 Bardhan, Pranab. The New Institutional Economics and Development Theory: A Brief Critical Assessment. World
De-velopment, Vol 17, No 9. University of California, 1989. p 1389-1395.
http://www.gsid.nagoya-u.ac.jp/sotsubo/Papers/The%20New%20Institution%20Economics%20and%20Development%20Theory, %20A%20brief%20Critical%20Assessment.pdf 2009-03-22, time: 15:29
50 Ibid.
once introduced but is not logical at all, since it has always been that way is it very difficult to change. It is hard to change a well established pattern where many actors are involved despite that many dislike it and are losing on it. This kind of paradoxes in the society is a product from research concerning collective action logics. A very good illustration is opinion poll surveys in India, Which always shows that corruption is one of the three most impor-tant political problems, but despite that do most people in India participate in this activity. In other words does everybody participate in the corruption poor or rich even if they know that it would be better for everybody if the system stopped.52
3.2 Increase political responsibility
To make the public and political administration more reliable political responsibility must increase:
a) Leave paper trail. During elections should all donations and other sources of party revenue be made in public, donors and amounts of their donations should be identified in the pub-lic record. Candidate links with lobbyists, types, amount of support, and their purposes, both before and after elections should be available for audit.53
b) The use of state resources for political purposes should be banned. Parties in government should not use state funds, postal services, cars, computers, or other assets for political purposes or in election campaigns.54
c) Limit expenditures. Party politics should be as inexpensive as possible, usually the demand exceeds the supply of funds. 55
d) Consider public funding. Public funding reduces the scope for private interests to “buy in-fluence”. 56
e) Build public service neutrality. Public service should be politically neutral and public servants should neither allowed nor require making contributions to political parties as a way of ob-taining public sector employment.
52 Bardhan, Pranab.
53 The World Bank, Political accountability. http://go.worldbank.org/ZZTD74REV0 2009-05-24, time 14:10 54 Ibid.
55 Ibid. 56 Ibid.
3.3 Increase public participation
According to Gonzales de Asis citizens’ participation and institutions openness is crucial to combat corruption.57
Civil society must be empowered and realize its full potential which includes basic human rights such as freedom of expression and freedom to establish nongovernmental entities. Access to information and knowledge as well as the ability to attract talent is important. Lack of well-educated and highly motivated people can not compromise the positive role Civil society can play in combating corruption. 58
Civil society as an independent actor representing the interests of the general public is uniquely positioned to investigate and bring to light cases of corruption. According to “world bank” is there three different main ways to increase public participation to fight corruption. 59
a) Creating public awareness about corruption, trough country surveys on corruption, sur-veys, and assessments are ways in which organizations can raise awareness of policy-makers and the general public.60
b) Formulating and promoting action plans to fight corruption, trough seminars, confer-ences, and workshops. It is effective ways of publicizing information about the patterns and severity of corruption, building coalitions amongst anticorruption. It is also important to influence new legislation that will aid corruption control and lobby for new institutional devices. Another civil society intervention can be advocacy for legal and juridical reform, freedom of information, deregulation and privatization61
c) Monitoring governments’ actions and decisions is important to reduce corruption. Edu-cate local monitors.62
57 Gonzales de Asis, Maria. p 5
58 The World Bank, Civil Society Participation http://go.worldbank.org/EGIHKIXTM0 2009-05-24, time 13:30 59 Ibid.
60 Ibid. 61 Ibid. 62 Ibid.
3.4 Make a competitive private sector
A fair, competitive, honest and transparent private sector is important for development. Deregulation of prices and other aspects of production are important towards reducing opportunities for corruption. Enhancing competition and clarifying ownership structures are also important elements toward creating a vibrant and corruption free private sector.63
63 The World Bank. Competitive Parivate Sector. http://go.worldbank.org/FAW4ZXGJM0 2009-05-24, time
4
Case study Vanuatu
This chapter is “a case study” of why corruption exists in Vanuatu, it takes up four differ-ent possible reasons for corruption in the country: Vanuatu is a former colonial state, it has a weak party system, many isolates islands and a tradition of gift giving.
4.1 The Postcolonial heritage from Britain and France
Two major conflicts which affect Vanuatu today is political conflict and conflicts related to property and land rights, with roots in the past colonial era.
The political conflict started during the pre-independence era in connection with the strug-gle for power between Britain and France. The competition between the two powers led to an establishment of condominium in 1906. The consequences became that protestant (associated with the British) and Catholic (connected with the French) missionaries divided the population. The Melanesian found them allied with either the French or British de-pending on their religious affiliation. 64
The Ni- Vanuatu’s were excluded from participation in all key political administrations until independence 1980. Though, the first organised political movement emerged on the north-ern island of Santo already in 1970, the critical national issue became independence and re-ligion became part of politics. 65
From the beginning of 1970s until the late 1980s Vanuatu’s political landscape was charac-terised by strong colonial rivalries between United Kingdom and France. Vanu´aku pati, VP the first organised political movement by members of the Anglican and Presbyterian clergy, junior British Administration bureaucrats and teachers. The party pressed for a rapid decolonisation of Vanuatu, but was strongly opposed by foreign federalist agent move-ments from the south and north islands.66
64 Pcific-peace net. Project of the United Development Programme- Pacific Ocean.
http://www.pacific-peace.net/countries/vanuatu/ (1-2) 2008-12-18, time 19:32
65 Ibid. (3-4)
66 Morgan, Michael G. Political fragmentation and the policy environment in Vanuatu, 1980-2004. Pacific Economic
Bulletin Volume 19 Number 3, 2004.
http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/sol_adobe_documents/usp%20only/vanuatu/morgan.pdf 2009-05-25, time 22:50
The Vanua´kus pati goals were to return alienated land, respect, kastom (Vanuatu and Pa-cific Island traditions including tribe tradition, religion and magic) as the basis of national cohesion. The goals were conceived under “Melanesian socialism”. VP:s foreign policy was based on its membership of the NAM, Non-Aligned Movement and focused on de-colonisation of the remaining colonies in the Pacific Ocean and Melanesia. VP:s policy played off one foreign power against another and rejected cold war alliances. In the decade after independence Vanuatu offered fishing rights to the Soviet Union and hade trade and training relations with Cuba and Libya. Vanuatu played risky and unexpected game, Vanu-atu´s foreign policy was a real threat against the powerful ANZUS (Australia, New Zee-land, United States Defence Treaty and Council, a military pact).67
After independence VP became more centralised and faced hard opposition from federal-ists, Union of Moderate Parties, UMP, who favoured greater regional autonomy. In the be-ginning of 1988 Vanuatu’s political stabilisation started to erode. There were tensions within the ruling party VP and the party lost office in 1991. Fragile collations were made and tensions over the power prevailed. Opposition members were denied access to gov-ernment resources or good positions. Intense political instability was a fact, several short lived governments made political dramas parliament members sold state assets to them-selves. Corruption became a means, a help for government members of parliament to seek their own wealth. 68
The corruption behaviours all ended with that Vanuatu was virtually corrupt in 1997, and Serge Vohor, then UMP prime minister began a comprehensive reform program, sup-ported by Asian Development Bank and foreign aid donors. Though the pessimism from NI-Vanuatu’s’ was strong since citizens believed that the Westminster democracy on Vanuatu would hurt the origin people. The negative impact on structural adjustment pro-grams came from a neighbour country Papua New Guinea People thought that people of Vanuatu would “serve the interest of Australia and New Zealand”. Vanuatu had a deficit estimated four billion vatu (34 million US dollar), Vanuatu was forced to accept a US 22 million loan from the Asian development bank, earmarked for the reduction of bureauc-racy and the implementation of guidelines for public servants. 69
67 Morgan, Michael G. p 41 68 Ibid. p 42
In February 2000 the most incredible happens, a Indian businessman , Amerendra Nath Ghosh arrives in February in the capital Port Vila, with what is described as “possibly the world’s largest ruby” and donates it to the people of Vanuatu (!). Gosh promised to initiate a road project around the main island, build a walled complex for the Council of ministers, and to build a new international airport etc. In return for the ruby, Gosh was to receive 300 million US dollars (from Prime Minister Barak) in bearer bonds from the Reserve Bank, equal to 140 percent of Vanuatu’s gross domestic production. This quadrupled Vanuatu’s debts. After the revealing Gosh was reported internationally wanted and Barak was impris-oned, sentenced three years in prison for forging government guarantees. Though Barak continues his popularity and have won every election he has contested. 70
The post independence era had thereafter been dominated by conflicts, rivalry, violence, corruption and breakdown of law and order. E.g. in October 1996 a group of officers in the Vanuatu Mobile Force dissatisfied with pay arrested the president and forced the prime minister to negotiate. In January 1998 a huge riot broke out after the ombudsman reported extensive misuse of Funds in Vanuatu National Provident Found. 71 In 2002 was Prime
Minister Barak Sope sentenced three years in prison for forging government guarantees, but he was pardoned by the president at that time, Father John Bani. In 2004 Alfred Maseng Nalo was elected president while serving a two-year suspended sentence for cor-ruption. He only stepped down when his criminal record was revealed.72
The issue about women should also be noted since it is much underrepresented group in Vanuatu politics, in the latest election 2008, only 3, 85% of the parliament members were women.73
70 Morgan, Michael G. p 44 71 Ibid. (5-6)
72 Puddington, Arch with others. Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties.
Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. p 876
http://books.google.com/books?id=xN5O15Xzm1cC&pg=PA876&dq=corruption+in+Vanuatu&hl=sv #PPA876,M1 2009-01-07, time, 16:30
73 Inter parliamentary union. Parliamentary democracy http://www.ipu.org/parline/reports/2345_E.htm
4.2 Weak party system
In western nations, parties stretch across a spectrum from left to right, from Marxists to neo-fascists, and the ruling coalitions is formed from the groups near the centre, moving slightly to either side. In the small pacific island countries, parties are only marginally re-lated to ideology or even policy. 74 Parties are generally not tied to a particular place or
community. Most members in a party owe their election to their personal standing and to their membership of a dominant clan or culture group.
Where there are many parties and independents, there is also a problem of forming a gov-ernment and maintaining a majority. The absence of strong popular support for parties, weak non-parliamentary structure and loose commitment to a philosophy and policy, means that any form of parties and independence may come together to form a govern-ment. E.g. can a potential prime minister offer positions such as ministers and vice minis-ters, parliamentary secretaries, position on committees, government funded projects, mate-rial and cash that the member himself can disperse. The consequences are that public money is putted in the hands of members of parliament rather than public servants. 75
Governments that are weak, have limited or no authority in various parts of the country and do not meet the most basic expectations of the people, like health care, education and sufficient food.76
Vanuatu does not have a strong political party system. Voter behaviour is more linked to the support of persons rather than parties. Members of Parliament frequently switch par-ties, which make it very difficult for voters to rely on a vote that has been cast for a party rather than a person. As mentioned before lack of clear policy differentiation weakens party coalitions, as party coalitions are based on the similar policies. There are an increasing number of parties, and independents in Vanuatu since independence and establishing new parties continue. There are now laws of how parties receive funds or what those funds are spent on. Some candidates have even used money to bribe voters just prior voting time.77
74 Nelson, Hank. Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it? Oxford University press, 2007. p
5 http://rspas.anu.edu.au/papers/melanesia/working_papers/08_01wp_Nelson.pdf 2009-05-22, time 12:52
75 Nelson, Hank. p 6 76 Ibid. p 14
The weak and confusing party system is confirmed by a voter from North Efate, Saama vil-lage: “I think it is too many parties now in Vanuatu, a long time ago, we had only two parties. I think
we now have almost 20 different parties, it is too many and people get confused and find it hard to choose who you should vote for. In my opinion the best would be if we all in my community decided to vote for the same candidate. We could get together and through a meeting decide who we all should vote fore, together. I think that would be the best for all of us. Another thing is that I don’t think we should have political par-ties at all, because they don’t work anyway. We should officially have persons, because when we vote, we vote anyway for persons who should sit in the government not parties.” 78
4.3 Isolated islands
In the pacific islands is it very hard to find an exact translation of the word corruption in lo-cal languages. Most people oppose corruption, though they often differ on what they re-gard it is. There are several words with proximate meanings in the small languages but with a different meaning: “unkindness” or “uprightness”. From a study made by Australian Na-tional University of 14 different pacific island countries inhabitants on the islands defined corruption very broadly to include e.g. “leaders who do not go to church and who party and travel overseas frequently” or “personal as well as official indiscretions”. The common attitude among Pacific island countries inhabitants is that power is connected with corrup-tion and a way to get a better life. 79
A woman from Mangalilu Island on Vanuatu confirms the statement: “Often politicians start
to live “the good life” when they become parliament members, they have expensive cars, nice clothes and large houses. Recently four parliamentarians were caught because they had stolen I think about 42 million VU. I can not understand that, that would cover the undergraduate school fees for the whole Vanuatu population for many years!” 80
Another woman from Tanna Island on Vanuatu says: “Most of ni-Vanuatus are really tired of
the elections. Because most of us know that the politicians only promise and promise that they will do certain things, and when they then get the power they only think about themselves. We feel like if we vote fore some-one, we only vote fore the person to get a better life for himself. Most of the politicians are more interested in being out late in the night, dance, drink and have lots of nice women. They don’t care about us, just
78 Interview 9, question 8 and question 15. 79 Larmour, Peter. p 9
selves, they buy nice houses, cars, etc. and live a good life. They spent money on everything else than the peo-ple of Vanuatu, it seems like they don’t care.“ 81
It is a real challenge for Vanuatu to beat corruption and ensure the accountability of rulers. This is confirmed from the interviews I have made. Almost half of the interviewed 11 per-sons82 out of 27, confirmed that they are dissatisfied with the rulers and think that
politi-cians use their positions for their own personal advantages and that corruption is common. One of the interviewed states that he thinks politicians forget why people have voted for them. “Politicians do campaigning and promise a lot of things, but after the elections they don’t care about
what they have promised.” 83 “Many think that politicians have it too easy. If they do something wrong or
inappropriate they don’t lose their position. There is no justice, they can do what they want, and they still sit in the parliament.” 84
The most relevant level of decision making for Vanuatu citizens and pacific people in gen-eral is in the village. Except for the village, citizens have limited involvement in the political process, which creates a sense of both disaffection and disempowerment. 85
Citizenship, democracy and community well-being is based on traditional values which in-cludes sharing of local resources, decision making, shared stories etc. At the same time is there a desire to confront these harmonious agreements and to participate in something else, therefore does the prevailing condition create dual communities; people living in rural areas or in urban areas; those with work and those without work, children who can stay on at schools and those who can’t, and the unfair disproportionate amount of money distrib-uted to the capital city, compared to the outer provinces. People in Vanuatu most com-monly refer to their origins as the Birth Island/ village. Citizenship and democracy framed by the idea of political community, the nation state is a relatively new concept. 86
Twenty years of foreign aid projects and comprehensive reform of the entire public ad-ministration have not created an appetite for change in the general public. The population 81 Interview nr 18, question 15. 82 Interview nr7, Q1. nr9, Q15. nr11, Q4. nr14, Q15.nr 15, Q4. nr 16, Q4. nr 18, Q15. nr 16, Q4. nr18 Q15. nr19, Q4. nr21 Q4, nr20 Q4. nr22 Q4. 83 Interview nr 7, question 1. 84 Interview nr 9, question 15.
85 Rajesh, Tandon with others. Citizens and Governance Toolkit: Creating Change by Making People's Voices Heard.
Commonwealth Secretariat, 2004. p21
http://books.google.com/books?id=UICTSKy9HVEC&pg=PA21&dq=democracy+in+Vanuatu&hl=sv 2009-01-06, time 19:27
itself is involved in a conflict of interest, chiefs and community leaders put their peoples’ votes up for sale at every national election. Candidates are offered the “guarantee” of block of votes in exchange of money or jobs. Most people do not understand that their behav-iour will lead to a lower standard of living tomorrow. Others are cynical and believe that it does not really matter if the system collapses: people expect development partner countries to come to rescue, like they have done many times in the Pacific Island countries. 87
“Mi stap nomo” – I just live, is a common philosophy among many Vanuatu citizens, lack of regular employment is a difficult issue. Most citizens are fishing, do garden work, but don’t actually bother to holding a job. “Work “is something one is paid to do; living of the sea or
land is just “being”. If one works it is usually for a limited length of time, or until ones has
achieved a specific financial goal. Lifetime of carer is relatively rare. 88 Although there are
signs that a ruling or a higher class is emerging, who for example sends their children abroad to be educated. This in the long run can be problematic.89
4.4 The Cultural tradition of gifts and tribes
Proponents of cultural relativism often point to the way gifts maybe are mistaken for bribes, and the critics mean that the mistake is only a “cultural excuse”. A mentioned ear-lier in this thesis, Olusegun Obasanjo, now President of Nigeria, commented that with "a
gift is made in the open for all to see, never in secret. Where a gift is excessive, it becomes an embarrassment, and is returned." 90
Generally in Pacific Islands a gift or a “bribe” is expected and natural. It is mostly common during elections and election campaigns. E.g. in Kiribati gifts of tobacco are expected by visitors. In Samoa, politicians are expected to provide gifts of “food money and school fees” to voters. In Niue candidates makes “donations”, in Marshall Islands “chiefs and el-ites are expected to offer services and gifts when available. In Tuvalu ministers give gifts
87 Ferrieux-Patterson, Marie-Noëlle. Conflict of interest –Vanuatu’s experience. Malaysia, 2008
http://www.cpa-conference.org/uploads/docs/Plenary%202%20-%20Conflict%20of%20Interest%20-%20Vanuatu.pdf 2009-05-24, time 20:07
88 Miles, William F. S. Bridging Mental Boundaries in a Postcolonial Microcosm: Identity and Development in Vanuatu.
University of Hawaii Press, 1998. p178
http://books.google.com/books?id=iICOOs0UUeMC&pg=PA179&dq=economy+of+Vanuatu&hl=sv# PPA178,M1 2009-01-07, time 12:03
89 Ibid. p 179
between elections, for example when a minister visit an outer island, local people might of-fer a feast and expect something in return, etc.91
In Nauru is gifts a legitimate part of the electoral system. Gift giving is also spread beyond the government, it is common with public ceremonies of “free gifting to churches” and competition between villages occur over the size of gifts to retiring church ministers.92
And bribe is common in Vanuatu according to these two voters (in Vanuatu parliament elections 2008): “In Vanuatu it is better to be friends with the politicians, because then you can affect
them much more. The politicians feel then that they have a responsibility to help their friends. But sometimes you can be addicted to one politician, e.g. if you have lost your “blue card” (the card that gives you the right to vote). You can then go to a politician and ask if he/she can buy you a new one, but he/she will only do that if you in return promise to vote for that certain candidate.” 93
“If you vote for a good candidate he can do a lot for you. There is a VRP (Vanuatu republican party) candidate who I like very much. He has been in the parliament almost 50 years I think, but he does a lot for the people in Vanuatu. E.g. we have a little women’s club and he has given us sewing machines, so we will vote for him in this year’s election as well.”94
In Pacific countries have a strong tribal tradition. In Vanuatu people often use family members or kin as go betweens in their dealings with bureaucracy (nepotism), in Tonga relatives were often called upon to facilitate transactions with government. Political and popular pressures on politicians may make them use their control of policy and implemen-tation for political or personal purposes. Officials do not face re-elections, but they come under pressure from relatives or people from their home islands. 95
91 Larmour, Peter. p 11 92 Ibid. p 11 93 Interview 16, question 4. 94 Interview 20, question 4. 95 Larmour, Peter. p 12
