Island Politics

Hezel, Francis X. (2007-05-10). [www.micsem.org/schools/index.htm. Island Politics]. Micronesian Counselor (Report). Kolonia, Pohnpei: Micronesian Seminar. pp. 1–10.

• Has attachment: File:TDEWRTGH.pdf

Abstract: “Aren’t you church people supposed to stay out of politics?” he asked me. He was a public official objecting to an article that I had written about a lawsuit that the Government of the Marshall Islands had lodged against Big Tobacco seeking millions of dollars in damages for the harm that smoking had done in the islands.

In the article I did not challenge the harmful impact of smoking on the population, only on the matter of who should be assigned the blame–the tobacco companies, the RMI Government (which until then had done little to counter the advertising), or the smokers themselves. But the official’s point was that such activity was inappropriate for me, a churchman, since church and politics were not to be mixed. Why couldn’t I be content with doing what I was supposed to do: pray for people, lead church services, and bless funerals, weddings and newly born babies?

There may have been some justification in his attempt to warn me off what he regarded as political territory, but what about the others, especially citizens, who try to poke around this fenced off area? What are we to think when a Micronesian (who holds no church office) asks about the long delays in a community development project, whether the construction of a new school or work on a road, and is answered with a shrug of the shoulders and the single word “politics.” He could pursue the point and ask further questions about what is going on, but he knows that he stands a good chance of being rebuffed. The final reply might be more politely worded, but often enough the substance runs something along these lines: “You don’t have any idea how things work in the political arena. Why don’t you just leave all that to the initiated?...

Extra details:

DOI: 10.1163/24056480-00303006
MAG: 2886418188
CorpusID: 158276701
OpenAlex: W2886418188