In the last installment of our interview series with Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr., KPRG's Naina Rao delves into how China’s growing influence in the region affects the consensus shared between Pacific Island countries. President Whipps also discussed the challenge of balancing traditional values with increasing modernity. But first, what will the renewed Compact funding be used for? And where will it go?
TRANSCRIPT
JEFFERSON CRONIN: And now this, from the KPRG newsroom. In the last installment of our interview series with Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr., KPRG's Naina Rao delves into how China's growing influence in the region is affecting the consensus shared between Pacific Island countries. The President also discussed the challenge of balancing traditional values with growing modernity. But first, what is the COFA funding going to be used for? And towards where is it going?
SURANGEL WHIPPS JR.: The funding is specifically for health, education, security, climate change, and infrastructure. So these are all, you know, basic needs that need to be addressed, because of our limited budgets. We have great programs through government to help train teachers, train nurses, doctors, and guess where they all go? They move to America. Because they're not paid enough. So really, a big part of is trying to raise those critical, people's wages, so that they can afford or earn a decent living to live in Palau.
NAINA RAO: Is the COFA funding gonna do that?
WHIPPS: Yeah. So one of the - one of the things that we've done is, we've raised wages from $3.50 an hour, the minimum wage in government, to now $5. And we have to continue to push it up. We want it to be the same as Guam. That's our goal. $45 million won't get us there.
RAO: That's more or less the amount Palau will receive every year from the latest compact renewal agreement. It will also be adjusted for inflation over the next 20 years.
WHIPPS: But that means we've got to build an economy that can get us there. And that's the next part of what we're doing. So whether it's building a fisheries industry, rebuilding it, building a new industry, like the financial sector, and of course, the military provides another leg of that economic development. To me, it's an another type of tourism, because they use accommodations, they provide money to the economy. So if anything, it diversifies our economy, so we're not so dependent on tourism. Otherwise, the next thing that everybody pushes for its casinos. But if you look at Guam and Hawaii, no casinos, they have the military. So really, it's building a diversified economy. You know, I'm always trying to invite universities to come and establish campuses in Palau, because one of the advantages that Palau has, is we, you know, visa free. Any country can come in for 30 days as a tourist. But you know, if you came to school we'd give you a visa. And so the idea was, you know, if you had a U.S. university that wanted to have a campus in Palau, it could be a huge revenue generator. So you know, these are just concepts. But, you know, if it's a state university, for example, you can charge those international fees. They don't have to come to U.S. soil. You live in paradise. Professors would love to live in paradise. But it's another economic opportunity that I think can be a win for Palau and help us diversify our economy, so.
RAO: I was reading something from the former Fijian ambassador to the UN. He said that consensus is DNA of the region. And I am very curious, moving forward with this consensus, as China's influence grows in the region. And as the U.S. increases efforts to combat it, how is it going to affect this consensus?
WHIPPS: Well, you know, each country has its sovereign relationships that they manage themselves. But I mean, I can just explain why Palau has continued to maintain relations with Taiwan. Taiwan has been a close ally and partner of Palau from '99 till now. We're celebrating 25 years. Palau has been very consistent in stating that we are friends to all enemies to none. And most importantly, no other countries should tell us who can't be our friend and who can. And China has repeatedly said 'Oh, we can do all this for you, but, denounce Taiwan.' And Palau said, no. You're a member of the UN, we recognize you as a country. But you're not going to tell us that we can't recognize Taiwan. And that has been our position continues to be our position because, you know, we believe in a rules based order, respect for human rights and rule of law. Taiwan has been self governing. You can't say it hasn't. They have been self governing for almost 80 years. So Palau feels that it's important that the world understands the importance of Taiwan, the importance of the voice of those 23 million people that live in Taiwan, and they should be participating in WHO, they should be participating in ICAO, they should be part of the UN, because their voices, the technology that they have, their contribution to the world needs to be part of solving the world problems that we have, especially climate change. That's just our view. I think it's important, you know, with these challenges, whether it's those influence that, yes, we have consensus, like, on environmental issues. But still, there's some of us that want to deep sea mine. Right? Same thing, there's some of us that have relations with China, some have relations with Taiwan. So it's trying to build consensus on issues. I don't think we can have uniformity all the time, because every country's interests are particular to them. But I think part of that is, is the respect that we have for each other. So we respect our differences. But we work together for solutions.
RAO: Do you think your relationship with Taiwan would have been jeopardized if COFA continued to be delayed?
WHIPPS: Well, at the end of the day, the diplomatic relations are the decision of the President of the country. And, yes, if there's economic hardship, people are seeing that there's no hope. They begin to question, what is the point of this relationship with the U.S.? If China's dangling this huge carat over here, maybe it's time we reconsider our options. Because at the end of the day, we have to take care of our people. China has been influencing politics in Palau for a while now. So yes, delays, definitely create that doubt. That could influence how people think, or who they elect to be the next president. So, Compact has passed. Probably not a good subject now in Palau. Probably won't get too many votes. But you know, it definitely, definitely, there's a correlation.
RAO: Yeah.
WHIPPS: Getting that passage of the Compact through Congress was a challenge, but very rewarding in the end, because really, what it was about is, you know, there was a letter that got out that I had sent to some senators, warning them about the consequences of inaction. It's important that our friends in Washington, but not only that, the U.S. public in general, understands the relationship and the importance of the relationship. And you know, so after that letter, I had, I think, 14 interviews by different news agencies all around the world. I just remember the one from Australia, they called me up, and it was ABC News Australia. And so the news reporter asked me, 'so what can Australia do?' I said, 'well, [if] they have 30 million, that would be nice to just send over now.' And quickly, the foreign minister responded, and Australia and New Zealand, wrote letters to the U.S. Congress, encouraging them to get things done. So many of our allies were also supporting. Taiwan even, Japan, everybody, all the diplomats, our allies were encouraging the U.S. that, let's get this done. This doesn't look good.
RAO: Would it be fair to say that that letter, really, really pushed things? Moved things faster?
WHIPPS: I think what was important about the letter was that recognition and getting the U.S. public to understand because as you know, we're politicians. And it's, sometimes, it's the public opinion, that helps us make decisions and helps us come to compromises sometimes that are hard to do. And that's really what had to happen. They had to make some compromises between the administration and Congress to be able to get this done. We had heard both Democrats and Republicans all unanimously when we met with him, that they support it, but they had differences. And the only way you force them to come to a compromise is of course, I think the public, the media, helping educate the public, so that they can say, 'okay, we have to make a decision. We can't sit on this any longer.' So I'd like to think that all of those efforts, working together with our partners, we're able to get things moving. And I like to say it was little late, but just in time.
RAO: I have one last question. How do you approach the challenges of balancing traditional cultural values, with the demands of modernity and development?
WHIPPS: Oh, there's no question that it's, it's very difficult. I mean, the influence of media for example. Facebook, television, all those things, all done in English, right? And because they're done in English, our schools are in English, we're losing our language. It's another challenge that we have. And when you lose your language, you lose your identity. I mean, how do you have a chief who's supposed to speak in Palauan, not know how to speak Palauan? You know, because he's got to be talking about land and titles and whatever, all in Palauan. It's that human element, that understanding of our culture, our language, that we already see eroding. And that's also a result of increased population of foreigners that live in Palau. Right now they make up 30% of our population. And that's going to grow. As the economy grows, it's going to grow. So balancing that is that's trying to put policies in place to really ensure that we're proud of speaking our language, we need to keep that going. Those traditional practices that we have, like the conservation practices, recognizing those, appreciating them, promoting them. If we're on the projected target, to be at three degrees, our outer islands are eight feet under, are those chiefs from those islands still chiefs? Because their titles are tied to the land and there's no land, what are they? And then some of those islands have their own languages. If they all move to the main island, we know that they lose that language. So these are treasures that we're going to lose if we don't do our part for climate change. But how do we preserve that? How do we keep it? That's a challenge that we have to deal with. So Palau has one of its requirements in the Constitution is that it has a council of chiefs, to recognize the traditional leaders, and they're the cultural advisors to the President. But in Palau we have a matrilineal society. So the women also play a very important role, because they're the ones who decide who becomes chief. So they actually, for the last 30 years, have had a women's conference every year. And they get very involved in on the legislation that's getting passed. But also, in preserving our culture and our traditions, whether it's the birthing ceremony, or the funerals, or whatever ceremonial activities that we have, that are part of our life, making sure that they're carried out in the proper manners. They've really revived the traditional dances, and making the young children of Palau proud of their culture, and dancing. And so you know, they sing with loud voices and take it seriously. And so it's having those kinds of programs. We used to have the traditional men's meeting house, and that's where you learned all these things. Now, it's the reverse. We got to bring that to school because that's, that's the new meeting house. How do we integrate that and train our children and then stop being embarrassed of having our own language. When I speak in Palau, it's always in Palauan. If you're a foreigner, well, you can get a copy of the draft or there'll be a translator, but it's doing it, you know, doing those little things to ensure that our Palauan language, our Palauan traditions, are carried on and not be embarrassed about it and always trying to be accommodating. A lot of times what happens is, because we're so respectful, because that's our culture, we like to accommodate, but we have to be careful not to accommodate and then lose what our identity is. And I think the other thing that's important is helping our kids understand that you should be proud to be a Palauan, Have the pride to be a Palauan. So, so important.
RAO: President Surangel Whipps, thank you so much for being here.
WHIPPS: Thank you.
RAO: That was the third and last installment of our interview series with Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. You can find this episode and the previous two episodes on our website at w-w-w dot isla public dot org. This episode was reported, produced, and edited by me, Naina Rao, with help from producer David Lopez. Special thanks to KPRG's General Manager, Chris Hartig. Music used was from Blue Dot sessions.
