Bloody demonstrations broke out recently in the French territory of New Caledonia in the South Pacific following Paris’ adoption of a constitutional amendment allowing new arrivals to vote in the territory’s provincial elections. France has declared a State of emergency and reinforced its police presence, adding 500 officers to the 1,800 usually present on the island after at least three Kanaks died.
French authorities have ordered a ban on all forms of gatherings and forbade people from moving around the French-ruled island. They have shut the international airport and all schools and imposed a curfew in the capital Noumea, where businesses and vehicles were set alight.
The amendment, which some local leaders believe would weaken the indigenous Kanak vote, is the latest escalation in a decades-long dispute over France’s position with respect to representation on the island.
The Nouméa Accord of 1998 restricted voting in provincial elections to those who had lived in New Caledonia before 1998 and their offspring. The purpose was to increase representation for the Kanaks, who had become a minority population.
Paris has since grown to regard the arrangement as “undemocratic,” and MPs have passed a constitutional change to expand the electorate to include those who have resided in New Caledonia for at least ten years.
New Caledonia, located in the warm seas of the southwest Pacific around 1,500 kilometers east of Australia, has a population of 270,000 people. 41% are Melanesian Kanaks and 24% are of European heritage, predominantly French.
Captain James Cook, a British navigator, named the archipelago in 1774. It was seized by France in 1853 and served as a prison colony until just before the turn of the twentieth century.
Macron has proposed to enhance French dominance in the Indo-Pacific centers on New Caledonia, one of five French-controlled island territories.
One of the world’s third-largest nickel producers, the island is located amid a geopolitically complicated maritime region where China and the United States compete for strength and influence in security and commerce.
While avoiding any mention of China, Macron has previously stated that France’s goal in expanding its influence in the Pacific is to assure “rules-based development.”
According to the UN, New Caledonia is one of 17 non-self-governing territories, defined as “territories whose populations do not yet have full self-government.” Two of the 17 are French: French Polynesia and New Caledonia.
The Nouméa Accord of 1998 helped to resolve the dispute by setting a route to progressive autonomy and limiting voting rights to indigenous Kanak and immigrants who had lived in New Caledonia before 1998.
The pact established three referendums to determine the country’s destiny. In all three cases, the polls said no to “independance”.
The last referendum occurred in 2021, during the Covid-19 lockdown. Pro-independence parties boycotted it and there remains lingering skepticism over the legitimacy of the result.
A French researcher, who asked to remain anonymous, told Barlaman Today that the situation cannot be resolved other than by “referendum” to give one last chance to Kanaks to decide whether they want to stay under the French flag or choose full independence.
The researcher added that a referendum should be held on the other islands to guarantee equal rights to all of France’s overseas territories to “self-determination.” The Polynesians rejected “independence” in 2018, with 86% voting to stay under French authority.
“Kanaks and French people live in peace with each other, there are mixed couples, just as there are pro-independence people who work with Kanaks and vice versa. The problem here is not one of population, but of Kanak people and the laws imposed on them. Since the island has been undergoing a major migration of French people, [the question is] who in their eyes will decide their internal policies and who may ‘erase’ their identity and culture over time,” continued the researcher.
“Another problem is that the new arrivals are always better paid than the locals, given their qualifications and the fact that they don’t have to travel overseas,” the researcher concluded.