Book Review: Norman Meller, Constitutionalism in Micronesia

Premdas, Ralph R; Steeves, Jeff S; Aruch, Bernard M B (1987). "Book Review: Norman Meller, Constitutionalism in Micronesia". Jurnal Asia Pacific Studies. 10 (3).

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Abstract: In Constitutionalism in Micronesia, Norman Meller has, in a sense, given us two books in one. The first is a richly detailed, firsthand account of the 1975 Micronesian Constitutional Convention in Saipan and the historical and political contexts in which it took place. What would eventually become the Constitution of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) was drafted there. As one who lived through a piece of that history, and continues to contemplate its aftermath, I can express only appreciation for the acuity of this account; it will no doubt stand as the history of American Micronesia in the 1970s. The second book therein is an interpretation of that history. Meller played a key role in much of it, and he tells his tale from the perspective of his place on stage. It would, of course, be quite impossible to do otherwise. But precisely because this will be the history of the newMicronesian nations, and will probably be required reading for the var- ious young diplomats, technocrats, and carpetbaggers assigned to work in and with them, I find it necessary both to stress that this is an interpretation of what happened and to suggest that an array of alternative interpretations might shed more light on much of what took place during those critical years. I would not, I hasten to add, want anyone to take my word on this at face value. Meller’s is a book first to be read, and only then debated. It would be a gross error to let my arguments and those of others stand in place of his enormous accomplishment.