Land: Public Use and Regulation

Hagelelgam, John; Hezel, Francis X. (2000-05-11). [www.micsem.org Land: Public Use and Regulation]. Micronesian Counselor (Report). Kolonia, Pohnpei: Micronesian Seminar.

• Has attachment: File:TFTPDQKB.pdf

Abstract: ...If we look at these situations more closely, we see that the clash is not simply between an individual and the government. It is really between the landowner and the people who would have profited from this land if it were used for the purpose for which the government attempted to lease it. In the first illustration, the family blockading the road were denying the entire community access to that road. In the belief that their land was worth much more than what they were receiving for it, they were appealing to the government to reimburse them fairly for what it was taking. Yet, it was their own community that stood to gain from an open road, just as it was the same community that was inconvenienced when the road was shut down.

The same is true of the other two examples. When the family in the next story reneges on its arrangement with the government and asks for its land back, the children are denied an elementary school in their own village. It is they who will have to walk to the next village if they want to attend school, and it is their families who will have to suffer the consequences upon those children who decide they won’t bother going to school if it means a longer walk. Likewise, the withdrawal of land for a dispensary means that the island community is in real danger of not receiving the health care that it needs.

Who suffers if the landowner does not accept the government’s terms? Not the government, which will get along nicely with or without the land lease, but the community. The community is forced to do without a school, a dispensary or a road. The same is true in conflicts that arise over easements that a landowner once signed giving permission to let power, water or sewage lines run through his land. When the landowner has a change of heart, whatever the reason, it is the local people who are deprived of the public services that the government is attempting to offer them. Whenever controversy develops over land used for airports, docks and hospitals, the public suffers.

Things aren’t always what they first appear to be. Conflicts over leased land may appear to be between the landowner and the government, but at bottom they really aren’t. All have to do with the public services that are offered the community...