By Howard Aru
We all love celebrating once in a while, especially when there is some significant achievement to recognise. Any excuse or itch to celebrate, we do it like nobody’s business. Vanuatu’s civil servants love celebrating, too.
We spent two working weeks celebrating ‘Yumi 40’ back in 2020, amid the height of COVID-19. Not because we achieved anything of real economic significance and importance for this crisis-driven poor country, but just because we turned “Sweet 40” – ‘the age of maturity.’ We graduated out of Least Developed Country (LDC) to Developed Country (DC) status on 4th of December 2020. The effects of cyclones and the 17 December 2024 earthquake aside, has anyone produced a report yet on the outcomes of that ‘graduation’ to date? Have we progressed or backtracked?
We intensely protect our list of public holidays from being amalgamated or being replaced, as what happened last month. Some for truly genuine reasons, such as the defense of Lini Day, while for others, just so we can take an extra off. The country is stuck with some religious relics (as public holidays) that don’t mean anything to our ‘religious’ or daily lives, yet we protest, argue and defend them as if the world would end if we eliminated those relics. As discussed in a previous week’s article, our mindset (or mentality) moulds our attitude, which in turn dictates our actions, which in turn determine the result or end product. Celebrations are great, to rejuvenate and breathe some fresh air, but when we are at work, what are we achieving?
I specifically referred to ‘civil servants’ above because they are the ones who are directly responsible for administering policies, laws, legislations, processing paperwork, and even approving financial commitments in the organisations, departments and agencies they run or serve in. After the celebrations are over and done with, the stage dismantled, coloured lights unplugged, specially-designed uniforms folded away, booths, banners and brochures packed away, the sizzling BBQ platters removed, and they return to work, from over a decade of observations, they return to ‘business-as-usual’: no follow up follow through, laissez-fair, computer games during working hours, unnecessary car trips, absenteeism, lateness to work, and more.
A country at a stand-still
Dr JT (a friend adviser to one of our senior leaders) raised the following question in a recent discussion: “What enables the most advantageous long term strategic interests of Vanuatu across four criteria: International Connectivity, Trade, Tourism, and Investor Confidence.” In order words, we need to focus our efforts on those four key areas to strategically position Vanuatu for its long-term economic growth.
As we celebrate, all four strategic areas are in total disarray right now. Numerous businesses have closed post-COVID-19 and following the earthquake of 17th December 2024. The remaining disaster-stricken private sector is struggling to keep afloat, survive and to generate profits that eventually land in Government coffers through some of the most expensive license fees, taxes, tariffs, duties, permits and levies in the region.
Slow down. Take time. Think. After the celebrations, then what? After we’ve hired a stage with coloured lights for around VT1.8 million for a few days, then what? Where do we stand in comparison to the rest of the region? Do we have an airline that brings a direct income to the country? No we don’t. I sat in those endless weekly ‘Aviation Crisis Taskforce’ meetings for several months last year in my previous role at VCCI discussing and debating flight issues with well-respected aviation, tourism, private sector and govt officials. Today, we still don’t have a national airline servicing the international market.
We’ve allowed several foreign ones in, great for tourism but a mere trickle for govt revenues. Though understandable, the struggle can be summarised in one brief phrase: National Sovereignty vs. Fiscal and Commercial realities. Whether we recoup the VT2 billion we spent on those Airbus aircrafts that still remains to be seen. Quite doubtful though.
The voluntary liquidation of Air Vanuatu in May 2024 heavily impacted our tourism industry for months on end. The 7.3 magnitude earthquake on 17th December 2024 brought the tourism sector down to its knees. As for trade and exports, our five top commodities (Beef, Coconut Oil, Kava, Cocoa and Copra) have shown little progress, even a certain level of stagnation and decline, according to the graph above. What’s wrong with us?
Health is no different. NCD is a Silent Killer in Small Pacific Island States, including Vanuatu “where 74% of deaths are attributed to non-communicable diseases,” according to the WHO, 2018 figures. Education has faced the worst disaster (10 months strike action) since our 44 years (now going 45) of independence. The matter will be resolved, though we’ve learned some pretty painful and regrettable lessons through the ordeal. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. While the strike was about ‘unpaid claims,’ we have a far more serious issue to grapple with – the very poor quality of the education being delivered to the children of this country. The evidence is crystal clear from very embarrassing PILNA (Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy Assessment) reports Vanuatu has featured in, in recent years. We’ve ranked very poorly at the bottom and this is totally unacceptable and a disservice to parents, to their children and to the country as a whole.
We have huge law and order problems, especially with youths and young children. The police have launched an operation last week to deal with this issue as they’ve done in the northern town. While that’s happening before our very eyes, we have a Child Protection Bill that is being pushed to go before Parliament to grant them more ‘rights’ and freedoms not only for the good but also, in effect, so they can disrespect chiefly and other societal authorities. The state of our roads is appalling, to say the very least.
Foreign Investment – well, that’s a long never ending story. The whole world and other Pacific Island Countries welcome and drive it as an important agenda, while in Vanuatu our administrative processes and exorbitant fees form part of the biggest barriers to entry. We are on the list of 3 PICs to be banned from travelling to the US. We’ve been yellow-flagged and black-flagged in the EU. Cost of living is one of the highest in the region and in the world. The list goes on, and on. While we are busy having fun and celebrating.
Disentangling the country from chaos
Vanuatu has drifted so far down a dark route that we are in danger of growing irrelevant in our leadership at all levels – both politically and administratively. We are simply managing the wheels of a merry-go-round.
We need to disentangle this country from chaos. In his book ‘Leadership’ (first published in 2022), Henry Kissinger – the 56th Secretary of State, and a respected American scholar and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate has this to say about leadership. ‘Any society, whatever its political system, is perpetually in transit between a past that forms its memory and a vision of the future that inspires its evolution. Along this route, leadership is indispensable: decisions must be made, trust earned, promises kept, a way forward proposed. Within human institutions – states, religions, armies, companies, schools – leadership is needed to help people reach from where they are to where they have never been and, sometimes, can scarcely imagine going. Without leadership, institutions drift, and nations court growing irrelevance and, ultimately, disaster.
While Howard Aru has held senior roles in various Government ministries, institutions, and the private sector, the views expressed here are solely his own and do not represent those of any organisation with which he is affiliated.
