Amanda Masono eyes Atolls seat in Bougainville's election
Photo:
Facebook / Amanda Masono
The Bougainville elections, which happen once every five years, are underway.
The [https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/566255/bougainville-election-process-begins-as-writs-issued writs were issued last week, candidate nominations have now finished, and campaigning will be getting underway for voting over the first week of September.
It will be an interesting poll for Amanda Masono, who came into parliament in 2020, winning one of the three seats reserved for women, North Bougainville.
But this time around she is contesting the Atolls seat, campaigning alongside men, in a seat that her late father once held.
RNZ spoke to Masono and began by asking how the previous five years had gone for her.
(This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
AMANDA MASONO:
I think, yes, there's been some challenges, but more of them, which is, getting to know the people and trying to deliver to their expectations. Overall, generally try to support my government in ensuring that we prepare for independence for Bougainville.
So yes, I've decided to recontest this election to get in for a 2025 to 2030 government.
DON WISEMAN: When you say you've got your sights set on independence for Bougainville, what do you think you have achieved in the past five years, down that road?
AM:
Personally, I've been involved with negotiations between the national government and ABG (Autonomous Bougainville Government) in terms of the consultations after the referendum has been conducted. And now with the moderation talks with the PNG government, I've been personally involved with that team.
For me, it's being in the process and getting to contribute to ensuring that Bougainville gets its independence. On the ground, internally, as member for North Bougainville, we've worked really hard in terms of implementing the independent strategy motion that was passed by our House when we came into parliament. We, as North Bougainville women, I went on to support our community governments and North Bougainville women to develop a strategic plan, which we recently launched.
It's called North Bougainville Women and North Bougainville Community Government Strategic Plan 2025 to 2030, where it is a blueprint that guides all community governments to make sure that they are assisted in mobilising resources to continue developing their community governments as we prepare for independence.
DW: Let's say we're talking in five years. Where do you think Bougainville will be by 2030. where would you like Bougainville to be by 2030?
AM:
I believe I'd like to see Bougainville independent by then and exercising some of the sovereign powers and functions that are still with PNG, particularly in terms of the fisheries, because under the Bougainville Peace Agreement there is this arrangement for the benefits from the fisheries to be shared. But Bougainville has not really received what is supposed to be given to it.
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I'll say that this election is very critical to ensuring we have a government that is elected to make sure it realises the independence for Bougainville because how we're going, the leaders on the ground have already made a bold statement that by 1 September 2027, we should be independent.
So everyone is working towards that, and I believe by 2030 we should already be exercising some of those powers and functions to enable us to really contribute meaningfully and head to independence.
DW: Yes, but to a large extent, it's not Bougainville's decision, is it? These plans could be stymied by Port Moresby.
AM:
Yes, yes, that's That's right, but Bougainville gan really is also working on its independent constitution. It's already established the Bougainville Constituent Assembly to, you know, debate its constitution, and from what we've passed last house, our preparation should not be - what should I say?
When we established the Bougainville Constituent Assembly, there was this work done to ensure that, like while we are working, we also organised that, you know, ratification will come from PNG government.
But with that unnecessary delay from the other side, our leaders are pretty determined on ensuring that we prepare ourselves internally, and whether the results are ratified or not, it is not PNG's decision to make, as long as we are prepared for that internally.
For me, that's what I'd like to say about the ratification process.
DW: You have been holding one of the three seats reserved for women, but you're not going to be doing that in this coming election. You're throwing your hat in one of the open seats. It's a fairly fraught thing, isn't it? So how do you think you'll go?
AM:
For Bougainville, in the current House, there's two women who came from the single constituencies.
For us, I came into the reserve seat, so this time, I intend to contest the Atolls seat.
I know it will be a bit challenging for me because it's not as straightforward as a woman's reserve seat I will have.
I am going up against - most of them are male candidates - but I believe that at such a time as this, I am more than capable to be that voice, that adults' conscience, it needs right now.
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He said document demonstrated "the administrating power's (France) contempt towards our struggle for recognition as the colonised people". However, he called on the FLNKS to "remain open to dialogue", but only focusing on ways to obtain "full sovereignty" after bilateral talks only with the French State, and no longer with the opposing local political parties (who want New Caledonia to remain a part of France). Some of the mentioned deadlines, he said, were 24 September 2025 and eventually before the end of President Macron's mandate in April 2027, when French Presidential elections are scheduled to take place. Téin was also part of the 13 August media conference, joining via videoconference, to confirm the FLNKS resolutions made at the weekend. Apart from reiterating its calendar of events, the FLNKS, in its final document, endorses the "total and unambiguous rejection" of the French-fostered document" because it is "incompatible" with the right to self-determination and bears a "logic of recolonisation" on the part of France. The document, labelled "motion of general policy", also demands that as a result of the rejection of the Bougival document, and since the previous 1998 Nouméa Accord remains in force, provincial elections previously scheduled for no later than November 2025 should now be maintained. Under the Bougival format, the provincial elections were to be postponed once again to mid-2026. "This will be a good opportunity to verify the legitimacy of those people who want to discuss the future of the country", FLNKS member Sylvain Pabouty (head of Dynamique Unitaire Sud -DUS-) told reporters. Signatures on the last page of New Caledonia's new agreement Photo: Philippe Dunoyer As for the five negotiators who, initially, put their signatures on the document on behalf of FLNKS (including chief negotiator And Union Calédonienne Chairman Emmanuel Tjibaou), they have been de-missioned and their mandate deemed null and void. "Let this be clear to everyone. This is a block rejection of all that is related to the Bougival project," FLNKS political bureau member and leader of the Labour party Marie-Pierre Goyetche told local reporters. "Bougival is behind us, end of the story. The fundamental aim is for our country to access full sovereignty and independence through a decolonisation process within the framework of international law, including the right of the peoples to dispose of themselves." She said that, from now on, the FLNKS will refuse to engage in any aspect of the Bougival document. Part of this further Bougival engagement is a "drafting committee" suggested by French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls, aiming at elaborating all documents (including necessary bills, legal and constitutional texts) related to the general agreement signed in July. Anticipating the FLNKS decision, Valls has already announced he will travel to New Caledonia next week to pursue talks and further "clarify" the spirit of the negotiations that led to the signing. He said he would not give up and that a failure to go along with the agreed document would be "everyone's failure". The Bougival document envisages a path to more autonomy for New Caledonia, including transferring more powers (such as foreign affairs) from France. It also proposes to augment its status by creating a "State" of New Caledonia and creating a dual French/New Caledonia citizenship. The FLNKS stressed it still wanted to talk to Valls, albeit on their own terms, especially when he visits New Caledonia next week. However, according to the FLNKS "motion", this would mean only on one-to-one format (no longer inclusively with the local pro-France parties), with United Nations "technical assistance" and "under the supervision" of the FLNKS president. The only admitted subjects would then be related to a path to "full sovereignty" and further talks were only to take place in New Caledonia. As for the timeline, the FLNKS "motion" states that a "Kanaky Agreement" should be signed before 24 September, which would open a transitional period to full sovereignty not later than April 2027, in other words "before (French) Presidential elections". Goyetche also stressed that the FLNKS motion is warning France against "any new attempt to force its way", as was the case in the days preceding 13 May 2024. This is when a vote in Parliament to amend the French constitution and change the rules of eligibility for voters at New Caledonia's local provincial elections triggered deadly and destructive riots that killed 14 and caused damages worth over €2 billion (as a result of arson and looting). "It seems as if the French government wants to go through the same hardships again", Téin was heard saying through his telephone at the Wednesday conference. "Don't do the same mistake again", Pabouty spoke in a fictitious warning to Valls. In his message posted on social networks on Sunday (10 August), the French minister had blamed those who "refuse the agreement" and who "choose confrontation and let the situation rot away". At the same media conference on Wednesday, FLNKS officials also called on "all of pro-independence forces to do all in their power to peacefully stop the (French) State's agenda as agreed in Bougival". The FLNKS text, as released on Wednesday, also "reaffirms that FLNKS remains the only legitimate representative of the Kanak people, to carry its inalienable right to self-determination". Téin is the leader of the CCAT (field action coordinating cell), a group set up by Union Calédonienne late 2023 to protest against the proposed French Constitutional amendment to alter voters' rules of eligibility at local elections. The protests mainly stemmed from the perception that if the new rules were to come into force, the indigenous Kanaks would find themselves in a position of minority in their own country. Téin was arrested in June 2024 and was charged for a number of crime-related offences, as well as his alleged involvement in the May 2024 riots. He was released from jail mid-June 2025 pending his trial and under the condition that he does not return to New Caledonia for the time being. From his prison cell in Mulhouse (North-east of mainland France), Téin was however elected President of FLNKS in absentia late August 2024. At the same time, as part of the same August 2024 FLNKS meeting, CCAT was admitted as one of the new components of FLNKS, just like a number of other organisations such as trade union USTKE, the Labour party and other smaller pro-independence movement components. Also late August 2024, in a de facto split, the two main moderate pillars of FLNKS, UPM and PALIKA, at the same time, distanced themselves from the pro-independence UC-dominated platform, materialising a persisting rift within the pro-independence umbrella. They asked their supporters to stay away from the riot-related violence, which also materialised through arson, looting and the destruction of hundreds of local businesses, causing in turn thousands of job losses. UPM and PALIKA once again did not take part in the latest FLNKS meeting at the weekend. The two moderate pro-independence parties are part of the political groups who also signed the Bougival document and pledged to uphold it, as it is formulated, and keep the "Bougival spirit" in further talks. The other groups, apart from UPM and PALIKA, are pro-France (Les Loyalistes, Rassemblement-LR, Calédonie Ensemble, as well as Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien. FLNKS, even though five of their negotiators had also signed the document, has since denounced them and said their representative had "no mandate" to do so. Whereas pro-France parties had carefully chosen to not comment on the latest FLNKS moves until they were made public, the official rejection was met by a joint communiqué from Les Loyalistes and Rassemblement-LR. In a long-winded text, the two outspoken pro-France parties have "deplored" what they termed "yet another betrayal". They confirm they will meet Valls along Bougival lines when he visits next week and are now calling on a "bipartisan" committee of those supporting the Bougival text, including parties from all sides, as well as members of the civil society and "experts". They maintain that the Bougival document is "the only viable way to pull New Caledonia out of the critical situation in which it finds itself" and the "political balances" it contains "cannot be put into question".
RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
New Caledonia's FLNKS to reject France's Bougival project
The French-fostered Bougival project was signed on 12 July. Photo: AFP / Ludovic / Marin New Caledonia's pro-independence front, the FLNKS, is set to reject the French-fostered Bougival project, signed on 12 July, prompting its Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls to travel again next week. The FLNKS held its extraordinary meeting on Saturday with high on its agenda its much-awaited, albeit widely anticipated stance regarding the agreement signed near Paris one month ago. The meeting, in Mont-Dore (near Nouméa), is reported to have unanimously endorsed its rejection of the document, even though it has not yet made it official and hints at a statement on Tuesday (12 August). It was officially opened by FLNKS President Christian Téin via telephone from mainland France. He called on FLNKS militants to "clearly and unequivocally" reject the Bougival document which, he said, demonstrated "the administrating power's (France) contempt towards our struggle for recognition as the colonised people". He however called on the FLNKS to "remain open to dialogue", but only focusing on ways to obtain "full sovereignty" after bilateral talks only with the French State, not the opposing local political parties. Some of the mentioned deadlines, he said, were 24 September 2025 and eventually before the end of President Macron's mandate in April 2027. Téin was released from jail mid-June 2025 pending his trial on crime-related charges he still faces in relation to his alleged involvement in the May 2024 riots in New Caledonia. He was released under the condition that he does not return to New Caledonia for the time being. As leader of the CCAT (field action coordinating cell), he was jailed for one year in mainland France, but was elected President of FLNKS in absentia late August 2024. The CCAT was created by Union Calédonienne late 2023 to protest against a proposed French Constitutional amendment to alter voters' rules of eligibility at local elections. On 13 May 2024, the protests degenerated into fully-fledged riots and caused 14 dead, as well as over 2 billion Euros in material damage. In late August 2024 CCAT was admitted as one of the new components of FLNKS, just like a number of other organisations such as trade union USTKE, the Labour party and other smaller pro-independence movement components. Also late August 2024, in a de facto split, the two main moderate pillars of FLNKS, UPM and PALIKA, at the same time, distanced themselves from the pro-independence UC-dominated platform, materialising a persisting rift within the pro-independence umbrella. They asked their supporters to stay away from the riot-related violence, which also materialised through arson, looting and the destruction of hundreds of local businesses, causing in turn thousands of job losses. UPM and PALIKA once again did not take part in the latest FLNKS meeting at the weekend. Politicians who signed the Bougival agreement on 12 July 2025 held a joint meeting with the public on 6 August 2025. Photo: Supplied / UNI-PALIKA On 31 July, Union Calédonienne (UC), now the overarching component of FLNKS, with a larger hard-line base, set the tone when it "formally" denounced and rejected the Bougival document, labelling it a 'lure of sovereignty' and saying that "the fundamentals of our struggle and the principles of decolonisation are not there". UC's chairperson Emmanuel Tjibaou, who was FLNKS chief negotiator during the Bougival talks, said his signature on the document "didn't mean an acceptance on our part". He said he looked at this document as "temporary" and subject to further discussions. He argued with local reporters that he understood his signature on the document was merely a commitment that once back in Nouméa, he was to explain the text and then get -or not- the approval of the political base. He did not and was sanctioned: Tjibaou and every member of his negotiating team who signed the document on 12 July were since demoted and stripped of their mandate by FLNKS, until a new negotiating team is appointed, if required. In a simultaneous release, UC states that the Bougival text cannot be regarded as a balance between two visions, but rather a way of "maintaining New Caledonia French". "With the label of a 'State', a fundamental law (a de facto Constitution), the capacity to self-organise, an international recognition, this document is perceived as a project for an agreement to integrate (New Caledonia) into France under the guise of a decolonisation". UC is also critical of plans to extend the list of persons entitled to vote at New Caledonia's local elections, the very issue that triggered deadly and destructive riots in May 2024 because it is perceived by the Kanak movement as a way of "diluting" the indigenous vote. Considering current population trends and a fresh system of representation at the Congress that will allow more representatives from the Southern province (about three quarters of New Caledonia's population), UC said "in other words, it would be the non-independence (camp) who will have the power to authorise us -or not- to ask for our sovereignty". The document, mediated by French minister for Overseas Manuel Valls and under the Presidency of French Head of State Emmanuel Macron (who convened the Bougival meeting), came after ten days of intense negotiations between pro-France and pro-independence parties. It was signed by some 18 politicians representing New Caledonia's parties at the local Congress (Parliament). The signatures were perceived as a commitment from all signatories to support its general guidelines, including the proposed notion of a "State of New Caledonia" within France, a dual French/New Caledonian citizenship - provided future New Caledonian citizens are French nationals in the first place - and the transfer of some key powers (such as foreign affairs, provided it does not contradict France's key interests) from France to its Pacific entity. The text is described as a "project", a blueprint for an agreement that would shape New Caledonia's political future. It also envisages stronger powers for each of the three provinces (North, South and Loyalty Islands), especially in terms of revenue and tax collection. Parties who have signed the Bougival document and unreservedly pledged their support are: on the pro-France side, Les Loyalistes, Rassemblement-LR, Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien and Calédonie ensemble and on the pro-independence side, UNI-FLNKS (which comprises moderate parties UPM -Union Progressiste en Mélanésie- and PALIKA -Kanak Liberation Party-). Over the past four weeks, back in New Caledonia, all of these parties have played the game and defended the agreement. This involved numerous meetings - sometimes daily - and sessions with their respective supporters and militants, mostly to explain the contents of what was signed. Most of the leaders who have inked the text have also held lengthy interviews, in explanation mode, with local media. Last week, in a rarely seen event hosted by local business leaders, both pro-France (Les Loyalistes, Rassemblement-LR, Calédonie Ensemble) and moderate pro-independence parties (namely PALIKA and its leader Jean-Pierre Djaïwé) were all present together to take part in an interactive session with the general public to explain their respective reasons for defending the Bougival document. In the same spirit, pro-independence PALIKA leader Jean-Pierre Djaïwé, last Friday, in a lengthy interview, also told pro-France Radio Rythme Bleu the Bougival "compromise" could only work if both sides agreed to give and take. "You have delegations who want full sovereignty, others who want New Caledonia to remain part of France. So we have to find a middle position for everyone. So we agreed, all together, to choose an option of more shared sovereignty with France. This is what is called a 'bet on trust'. And it's what comes out of a respect for giving our word. Because in order to have trust, you need to keep your word", he said. "Of course, we have militants (in our party) who are asking questions, who are sceptical, who have reservations". "You cannot have an agreement that suits everyone. The (1988) Matignon Accord was also criticised (...) And we all know what happened to the one who signed (for FLNKS)", Djaïwé recalled. The signatory was the late Jean-Marie Tjibaou who, in 1988, shook hands with pro-France leader Jacques Lafleur to end half a decade of quasi civil war, also related to the independence issue. He and his closest associate, Yeiwéné Yeiwéné, were gunned down by a radical pro-independence militant, Djubeli Wéa, in 1989. Jean-Marie Tjibaou was the father of Emmanuel Tjibaou. Said Djaïwé: "Independence now is not possible. There is no independent country in this world. You always depend on someone, but you are sovereign when all key powers belong to you". "You can't have everything all at once. It's a gradual process. Full sovereignty means when all of the key powers are retroceded (by France) to New Caledonia. "Even if this means giving some of these powers (such as defence) back to France. Because if you have to monitor an Exclusive Economic Zone as large as mainland France, you might as well consider giving it back if you don't have the means", he explained in defence of the concept of "shared sovereignty". Djaïwé also referred to the three referendums on self-determination held between 2018 and 2021, which resulted in three rejections of independence (even though the last one, in December 2021, was largely boycotted by the pro-independence movement). "Democracy has been allowed to express itself, it has to be respected (...) Now we have to find a way to go further along our path to full sovereignty. But not by way of a 'yes or no' referendum. This is the job we have to do now through this Bougival agreement. It allows to have those signs of sovereignty such as this State of New Caledonia. Some say it is nothing but a window display exercise, but that can still evolve in the future and be later recognised by the international community", the moderate pro-independence leader told the local radio. Late July 2025, FLNKS president Christian Téin told French media the Bougival document was "far from being akin to full sovereignty". Téin said that during the days that led to the signing of the document in Bougival "the pressure" exerted on negotiators was "terrible". In the face of FLNKS's rejection, not only the pursuit of more negotiations, but also the drafting of necessary related documents (such as a "fundamental law" -a de facto constitution- for New Caledonia and other key documents such as the instruments to enshrine this in the French Constitution) are now increasingly regarded as potentially jeopardised. Djaïwé said now everyone was needed around the table to further refine what was signed in Paris because, he said, "this is an opportunity" that arises to clarify any misunderstanding or misconception when a "drafting committee" is held later this month. The committee is expected to write documents that will later be used to implement the Bougival guidelines in legal and constitutional terms, along the lines of the compromise that was found in July 2025. Djaïwé said there was no time to waste as another very real factor was French national politics with a fragile Parliament majority and the ever-looming threat of another motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister François Bayrou's current government in Paris. "If this happens, we don't know and this is a constraint we have to take into account. So we cannot go on playing like this, because at least this minister (Valls) has demonstrated he is determined to take New Caledonia somewhere with positive results. So we, all of us, must engage in the construction of our country. And we all have one thing in common: the love of our country." Between early 2022 and May 2024, numerous attempts (and half a dozen travels to Nouméa) to initiate inclusive talks among all political parties by Manuel Valls's predecessors (including Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin) also failed to eventuate, because Union Calédonienne had already and persistently refused to attend. The confrontation, which crystallised around a Constitutional project to amend the French Constitution to modify the list of eligible voters at local provincial elections, peaked into the riots that erupted on 13 May 2024. French Overseas Territories Minister Manuel Valls meets the press at the Haut-commissariat in Noumea to announce that no agreement has been reached between pro-independence and non-independence parties on the institutional future of New Caledonia at the end of 'conclave' discussions held at the Sheraton in Deva. Photo: AFP / Delphine Mayeur The latest political developments in New Caledonia on Sunday prompted Valls to swiftly issue a release. In advocacy mode, the former French prime minister said if this stance was to be formally confirmed by FLNKS, he "would regret that (FLNKS) chose to turn its back on the Bougival agreement, (even though) it was signed by its fully informed representatives". Valls also underlined that the FLNKS now has a "new configuration" following "the withdrawal of historic PALIKA and UPM parties". As in previous messages, he also stressed that the document is a "historic compromise" and "since February (2025) stems from months of labour, difficult exchanges with all delegations, including FLNKS's conducted by Emmanuel Tjibaou. Everyone put their signature". He said tTe document now required to be clarified and completed. "This is the very purpose of this drafting committee that I have suggested," he said, "to clarify the spirit" of the document, including what role and place the indigenous Kanak identity holds in New Caledonia's future society. He assured the indigenous people's roles and place were already widely recognised in the previous 1988 Matignon and even more in the 1998 Nouméa Accords, and that they remained fully valid and could not be questioned by the new document. Valls also announced he will be travelling once again to New Caledonia on the week "beginning 18 August" to "listen to all of those who refuse sterile confrontations" and "want to move forward together on the only possible path: the path of trust". These, he said, would include not only politicians, but also chiefly authorities, economic and social stakeholders, "as many (New) Caledonians as possible". "I am not giving up. My door remains open. Dialogue is the only way. But I'm saying one more time, directly: to refuse the agreement is to choose confrontation and let the situation rot away. "And this would be a failure for everyone. Without a compromise, no sustainable reconstruction, no real economic recovery, and social and health fractures will only worsen". Valls said he wanted to reassure the population that "we will not allow uncertainty to set in. The (French) State must guarantee for everyone the exercise of security and democracy, which cannot live under threats of violence." "I am determined to implement the Bougival Accord and its agenda, and to create the conditions for New Caledonia to finally recover the stability, peace, confidence and success it deserves," he added.
