20th October, 2024: Arrival of the Torch of Change event . [YouTube]
[Derek McDougall is a member of the Round Table’s International Advisory Board and will be filing his Samoa Diary during the Commonwealth Hreads of Government Meeting in Samoa.]
At last! I have arrived in Apia, capital of Samoa and venue for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) over the next six days (21-26 October). Samoans are incredibly friendly, and one can see this in the way they are welcoming their Commonwealth visitors. ‘Welcome to King Charles and Commonwealth Friends’ as one sign proclaimed. An interesting feature of the Samoa CHOGM is the way in which villages have adopted a Commonwealth country as their own. Near the airport one village had adopted Australia, with the locality festooned with the Australian flag and the Australian sporting colours (green and gold) everywhere. Travelling to Apia I noticed a similar welcome for Belize and Dominica. At the hotel one of the staff told us of her village adopting Sierra Leone. The Commonwealth is a good entrée to world geography!
If we exclude Hawaii (a US state but with the native Hawaiian minority Polynesian), Samoa is the most populous of the independent Polynesian states. Its population of about 210,000 puts it ahead of Tonga with 105,000 and Tuvalu with 12,000, also members of the Commonwealth. Cook Islands (8,000) and Niue (2,000) are self-governing states (independent for some purposes) linked to New Zealand and thus indirectly part of the Commonwealth. The Maori of New Zealand are also Polynesian, as are the people of Tokelau (population of 1600), a New Zealand territory north of Samoa.
Geographically Samoa is roughly halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii but closer to the former, north of Tonga and northeast of Fiji. For those travelling from the United Kingdom or The Gambia, it’s a long way! In my case the trip was from Melbourne via Auckland, going a day earlier than originally planned because of a flight cancellation; I’ll return via Brisbane.
A taster of articles by Derek McDougall for the Round Table
Editorial: CHOGM and/or CPF—the complex mysterious Commonwealth
Samoa has an hereditary chiefly system. In fact, members of parliament have to be matai even though universal suffrage prevails for voting. About 12 per cent of the population are matai, of which about 5 per cent are women. The current prime minister is a woman, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa (winning that post after a constitutional crisis in 2021). The form of government is republican, with a non-executive chief of state. Officially the country’s title is the Independent State of Samoa. As Western Samoa the country became independent in 1962, the first Pacific island state to do so. It was a League of Nations Mandate and then a United Nations Trust Territory, both under New Zealand. Between 1899 and the First World War the country had been German Samoa. Robert Louis Stevenson lived there in the early 1890s (until his death in 1894). In 1997 Western Samoa became simply Samoa, leading to objections in neighbouring American (eastern) Samoa.
Samoa is a conservative and evangelical Christian society. ‘God Bless the Commonwealth’ as one sign said. Churchgoing is the norm, as is Sunday observance. Gay relationships are restricted.
Samoa received some international attention when it decided in 2011 to move from east of the international date line to west (thus being at the start of the day internationally instead of the end). In 2009 Samoa changed the driving side of the road from right to left, hoping that this would improve access to cheaper Japanese cars. There is a significant Samoan diaspora in New Zealand, the United States and Australia.
Internationally Samoa has been a leader in the Pacific Islands Forum and in the grouping of small island developing states (SIDS), playing host to the decennial meeting of SIDS in 2015 that resulted in the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway. The latest meeting of SIDS was in Antigua in May 2024, with a new agenda known as the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS). As the host country for CHOGM, one can expect Samoa to promote ABAS, linking not just with its fellow Pacific Island countries (PICs) but Commonwealth SIDS from the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean, as well as Commonwealth small states generally (33 out of 56 so classified, including Malta, Cyprus and some non-island countries from Africa). Issues such as sustainable development and climate change are foremost. These issues will be promoted in particular on Wednesday, with a whole day devoted to small state issues.
Samoa makes resilience CHOGM’s theme as fight over financing looms
The theme for the Samoa CHOGM is ‘One Resilient Common Future: Transforming our Common Wealth’. This fits in well with the SIDS agenda being promoted by Samoa, but is relevant across the Commonwealth.
On Monday and Tuesday, the focus is Commonwealth civil society, with the main forum being the People’s Forum. Issues such as climate justice, health justice and human rights are central. There are many side events sponsored by groups engaged with these issues. There also forums for women, youth and business. Of the 3000 people expected for CHOGM, many of them are civil society representatives.
The meetings of foreign ministers are on Thursday and Saturday, with the latter day an opportunity for NGOs to engage with the ministers. Politically the big day is Friday when the Commonwealth leaders are present, as well as King Charles. CHOGM at that point is accurately a heads of government meeting although much preparatory work has been done by the Commonwealth Secretariat and representatives of the various Commonwealth governments. This is when leaders will also make their choice for the next Commonwealth Secretary-General. It is Africa’s turn. Shirley Botchwey (foreign minister, Ghana), Dr Mamadou Tangara (foreign minister, The Gambia) and Senator Joshua Setipa (Lesotho; former member of Commonwealth Secretariat) are the candidates.
Meet the Commonwealth secretary-general candidates
Given the way in which the programme for the week is structured, it will be interesting to see how the issues to the fore within the civil society programme are taken up at the political level. The emphasis for civil society is progressive; realpolitik can be stronger with the political leaders who mostly look at issues from the perspective of their perceived interests. The Commonwealth is a forum where a range of Global South countries, small to large, can engage with each other, but also with the United Kingdom and the ‘old dominions’ (Canada, Australia, New Zealand). In Australia it has been reported that the government sees CHOGM as another opportunity to limit Chinese influence with the PICs. Some Commonwealth countries, such as India, might be sympathetic to this approach, but Global South countries are generally more open to opportunities with China.
Within the Commonwealth it will be interesting to see whether there is any CHOGM response to the tensions between Canada and India. Will there be any human rights response to the UK-Mauritius agreement on Chagos, thinking of the situation of the Chagossians? What will happen on the issue of Zimbabwe returning to Commonwealth membership?
Thinking of the big geopolitical issues such as US-China (including Taiwan), the Middle East (Gaza and beyond) and Ukraine-Russia, I do not expect any Commonwealth statements. Nor do I expect CHOGM to endorse AUKUS. However, the Commonwealth issues as mentioned might receive some attention, no doubt in a diplomatic way. The bigger question for me is how well CHOGM does in advancing some key aspects of the Global South agenda, particularly in relation to small states, including the SIDS. Winning the support of the older Commonwealth members is important in this respect, including such matters as climate finance, but immediately in the context of the Azerbaijan COP (Conference of the Parties) on climate change and the Brazil meeting of the G-20, both in November 2024. We should also keep in mind that it is the ABC countries (Australia, Britain, Canada) that are the key funders for the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Derek McDougall is the Professorial Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne.
CHOGM Samoa 2024 home page
