TEMARU, WHADDA HECK'S NU?

South Pacific Forum 2007, Tonga. Oscar Temaru is re-hashing independence, the decolonization of Tahiti Nui (French Polynesia), the Pacific and all that lies beyond his presidential mandate. It's as if he never left. Except that now, critics who less than a year ago were literally raising the roof over O.T.'s racist diatribes have become strangely meek since the mind-blowing alliance with the main pro-french party and the blessing of its boss Gaston Flosse.

It was the coalition to topple Gaston Ton Sang, disciple fallen from grace that put the pariah Temaru's ass back on the throne. Yeah, that same Oscar who went down for the count in January 07 through a no-confidence vote was back on top in September as head of the country with the same cronies back in tow. Of course voters have no say in these back alley parliamentary shenanigans. The outrage of a year ago has toned down considerably. One blog traditionally vitriolic towards the Tavini, the UPLD and generally all things Temaru describes his rant at this year's forum as "same tune without the hate". It's the story of the bank robber in the Mickey Mouse mask who shot the cashier. At least she died smiling. "Without the hate!?" Temaru whose closest allies include New Zealand's Tame Iti as of this writing in custody under suspicion of aiding and abetting in the training of maori pro-independence paramilitary factions under that country's new anti-terrorism law (funding sources unknown) has built a political career on divisive hatred. His return to the Pacific forum sends a message to all who like him feed off the gesellschaft. He is seen from Honolulu to Noumea as a voice of the oppressed. The oppressed don't care much about the details of a complex process that would make actual decolonization of the Pacific virtually impossible without the "colonizers" willing participation. It's the old Stalinian concept of "nation" cemented with ethnicity that resonates among the masses and that's what Temaru and others exploit with ever increasing vigor. The cult of irreconcilable differences has turned the Pacific into an unfriendly place to visit and a dangerous one in which to live. Oscar even warns of trouble ahead, instability, maybe social unrest, who knows...But...there's always January. Oh, you didn't know?. There's going to be another vote. We'll see if there's any truth to the old "once bitten, twice shy, thrice..." How does it end again?