LETTER TO THE EDITOR (DAILY POST 4 JULY 2014) MINISTER OF LANDS RESPONSE TO MP WILLY JIMMYS STATEMENT ABOUT THE NEW LAND LAWS Dear Editor, I write in response to the recent statement by the Opposition Whip MP Willy Jimmy attacking the new land laws (Daily Post 30 June 2014). I am surprised that Mr Jimmy has so quickly changed his mind about the land reforms, given his statement and vote in support of the amendments in Parliament just two months ago. Could this change simply be that he is now in Opposition and must “oppose”? I acknowledge that these reforms represent significant and historic changes to the way we have been leasing land in Vanuatu for over 30 years. National leasing data statistics indicate that over 10 per cent of customary land in Vanuatu is now under lease, and over 56 per cent of coastal Efate. Many of these leases were granted without the consent of the customary owners of the land. Many were granted by abuse of Ministerial powers over land. Nearly half of all leases over customary land in Vanuatu name the Minister of Lands as lessor and not the custom owners. Many custom owners are taking the Government to court for granting leases over their land without their consent. Last year almost two thirds of all lawsuits being brought against the Government were for improper dealings with leases by the Ministry and Department of Lands. Does Mr Jimmy support the government registering leases without the custom owners agreement of knowledge? The National Land Summit in 2006 proposed 20 resolutions to address the problems of land leasing in Vanuatu. Three reviews of the Custom Land Tribunal Act undertaken between 2002 and 2012 also recommended changes to the Act to improve the process for resolving land disputes. The recent package of land reforms - the new Land Reform Act, the replacement of the Custom Land Tribunal Act with the Customary Land Management Act and changes to the Constitution - address almost all of the 20 resolutions of the Land Summit and implement all of the recommendations of the three review reports. These changes were endorsed by both the Council of Ministers and the Malvatumauri on at least three separate occasions and now twice by Parliament. In fact the first time they were endorsed by the Council of Ministers was in 2006 when Mr Jimmy was himself a Minister! The implementation of the resolutions of the Land Summit is also mandated by the PAA, a mandate the Ministry is now fulfilling. The changes do what the people of Vanuatu have asked the government to do. They take away the power of the Minister to sign leases on behalf of custom owners, unless the custom owners give their consent. The laws create a new fair process for leasing customary land, and require that all custom owners understand and consent to leases on their land. The new laws pass the power to determine who the custom owners of an area of land are from courts to Nakamals and Custom Area Land Tribunals – the government and the courts can no longer determine who custom owners are. This reflects the spirit and the letter of article 74 of the Constitution which says “The rules of custom shall form the basis of ownership and use of land in the Republic of Vanuatu”. The new laws also require that environmental and planning safeguards are met and that Ni-Vanuatu can retain access to gardens and coastal estates. And the new laws remove the power of the Minister to lease state land without the consent of the Council of Ministers. These are substantial changes and they will need constant evaluation and review for some time. That is normal for a change of this magnitude and I make no apologies for it – the Government will continue to be make further amendments to the laws to continue to improve their applicability and their implementation. I acknowledge that some of the new processes for creating new leases on customary land are taking longer to set up than I would have liked. However, this is a transition phase, and we expect that once the processes are properly put in place, with appropriate resources and capacity, new leases will start to be issued. Mr Jimmy is right that it will take longer and will be more costly to get a new lease over customary land. That is to be expected because we are changing from a system where the Minister could sit in his office and unilaterally issue a lease over any customary land anywhere in Vanuatu without asking anyone - including the custom owners - to one where the custom owners must be properly identified and the government must go down to their level in the village to make sure they understand and give their informed consent to any lease over their land. However, existing leases in both urban and rural areas continue to be transacted as normal. For people who already have leases in the urban areas, the new laws have now made it easier for them to transfer or mortgage them. The new Land Management Planning Committee is in place to review all lease applications which means that decisions will be made by experts and are transparent. The LMPC must report to Parliament in a publicly available report every year. There will be no more envelopes being passed under the table for the granting of leases. I hope that the Ministry of Lands will soon lose its long-held reputation as a principal seat of corruption within Government. Mr Jimmy’s statement that “indefeasibility has been eroded” is simply wrong; in fact the changes to the laws have strengthened the security of leases, because now once you get a lease you can be assured that it was gained lawfully and with the agreement of the correct custom owners – something which was almost always in question before. In coming years I believe we will see a decline in the number of cases in the courts related to land dealings. Under the new process investors can have confidence that their leases will not be open to legal challenge. The process is thorough, so that there can be better investor confidence. The effect on Vanuatu will not be to create ‘division’ and ‘haves and have nots’. In fact, unless Mr Jimmy is being wilfully ignorant, this division is already happening, and in many cases it is happening exactly because of how leases have been granted in the past. In Vanuatu land is what creates stability and a social safety net. It is because we have access to customary land that we do not have abject poverty in Vanuatu. It is because we have access to customary land that we enjoy the strength of our traditional or kastom economy. This is a strength that meant villages in Vanuatu could safely withstand economic shocks such as the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 while people in other countries faced huge social deprivation from which many have still not recovered. This is not a return to the 1600s as MP Willy Jimmy states. Rather it is about moving forward into a new era where the people of Vanuatu are able to make better and more informed decisions about what development they want to see on customary land and can become partners in developments on this land rather than bystanders. It will mean better decisions about leasing which will provide increased benefits and the greater participation in development for custom owners. What we are saying to custom owners is, make sure you get a fair deal, make sure you get the best deal possible. Let us work towards real joint-ventures in Vanuatu, like we hear about in other places in the Pacific and the world. Let us talk about development that is environmentally sustainable and creates employment. Let us do business better in Vanuatu. Let us make leasing fairer for custom owners and more secure for investors. What we do not need is the old broken system of leasing that disenfranchised so many custom owners, created division within families and communities and often facilitated inappropriate development. That was a system where only politicians and a few chiefs made a lot of money. We need the new model of leasing where custom owners make decisions about what happens to their land. That is the government’s vision for the future and I am proud that almost all of the MPs in Parliament looked beyond their own self-interest and supported this vision and voted for these new land reforms and the changes to the Constitution. I thank you for your comments, Mr Jimmy. The reform has started but it is not yet finished, so we continue to welcome all constructive comments that will lead to further improvement. Ralph Regenvanu Minister of Lands
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 06:25:15 +0000
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