Post-Condominium Politics

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Since 1980 the task of the government of Vanuatu has been two fold: to foster a sense of national unity in the political sense, and secondly to promote economic development. Given the strong feelings of enmity and suspicion which pitted anglophones against francophones, neither has been an easy task.

For eleven years the government of Vanuatu was led by Prime Minister Walter Lini and his Vanuaaku Party. A parliamentary system of government was followed, and both English and French were constitutionally protected as official languages. (Bislama served as the national language.) Francophone parties in parliament, particularly the UMP, constituted initial opposition to the Vanuaaku Party. For a time, UMP members were suspended from parliament on account of their boycott.

With Former Prime Minister Walter Lini (Anglophone)

With Former Prime Minister Walter Lini (Anglophone)

Prime Minister Lini’s heavy-handed style of leadership fomented dissension within his own ranks. When President of the Republic George Sokamanu–a former Lini confidant–dissolved the government and swore in Maxime Carlot as its new head, both were arrested and jailed.

In 1991 the Vanuaaku Party split, and Lini was forced to form his own party. In elections of that year only the UMP, the party originally formed by francophones and headed by Maxime Carlot, was able to patch together a coalition and form a new government. Upon becoming prime minister, Carlot added the traditional name Korman to become Prime Minister Maxime Carlot Korman.

While stressing the need to redress the imbalance which a decade of anti-francophone discrimination had created, Prime Minister Carlot emphasized “moderation” in his policies. Vanuatu’s staunch support for liberation movements in New Caledonia, its expulsion of successive French ambassadors, its flirting with Libya, and its anti-American nuclear free Pacific stance were to be reversed.

Domestically, the socialist bent to Lini’s Melanesian path of development was to be replaced by a more free market, openly capitalistic policy. Reconciliation with the former secessionists- -begun under Lini when, shortly before losing power, he released Jimmy Stephens from prison–was to proceed even more strongly.

With Prime Minister Carlot Korman (Francophone)With Prime Minister Carlot Korman (Francophone)