René Harris

René Reynaldo Harris (born November 11, 1947 in Aiwo , † July 5, 2008 in Denigomodu ) was a Nauruan politician and four times President of the Republic of Nauru. He was a Member of Parliament for Aiwo from 1977 to 2008.

Life

Harris trained at Geelong College in Victoria , Australia , where he played Australian football . After his return, he was active as president of the Nauru Australian Football Association (NAFA) and remained an avowed supporter of the local Menaida Tigers team and previously sponsored them.

Prior to his election to the Nauru Parliament , Harris worked for the Nauru Phosphate Society (NPC) and was a manager of the Nauru Pacific Line (NPL). Harris was elected Deputy Speaker in 1978 and Speaker of Parliament in 1986. In 1992 he became chairman of the NPC's management committee.

In 1998, Harris was convicted of forcibly rescuing three relatives from Nauru Police Prison with the help of two accomplices. An Australian television correspondent alleged that Harris, as chairman of the NPC, spent more than A $ 231,000 on luxury items, vacations and a property in Melbourne ; Harris owned a luxurious penthouse suite on the 51st floor of Nauru House in Melbourne.

Harris first became Nauruan President on April 27, 1999 and remained so until April 20, 2000, when Bernard Dowiyogo replaced him. That was on March 29, 2001 in turn ousted by Harris following a vote of no confidence . The situation turned into a farce in January 2003, when both were presidents. Dowiyogo eventually retained the presidency, although his death in March 2003 prompted another round of uncertainty.

Harris was quoted as saying that the reason for his re-election by the Nauruan Parliament was that MPs “did not see the light” with his predecessor, Ludwig Scotty . Harris successfully broke the government deadlock when he was able to pass legislation through parliament in 2003.
Harris dismissed the Scotty-occupied cabinet and appointed his followers ministers: Derog Gioura became Minister for Women and Family, Marcus Stephen Minister of Education and Finance. Remy Namaduk has been appointed Minister for Development, Transport and Industry and Godfrey Thoma has been appointed Minister for Justice and Fisheries.

Harris received monthly dialysis treatment in Melbourne because he suffered from diabetes . His health was most important to him as diabetes was the end of one of his political opponents, Bernard Dowiyogo. In December 2003, Harris collapsed in the Nauruan parliament building and was resuscitated by Kieren Keke .

On June 22, 2004, Harris was ousted in a vote of no confidence in Parliament as Kinza Clodumar , Harris' Treasury Secretary, voted against him. Clodumar's reason for changing sides was that he wanted to avert the dissolution of Parliament threatened by Harris. He was reappointed finance minister by Ludwig Scotty, who took over the presidency, as a token of appreciation. Shortly before he was voted out, he called for new elections to be held in addition to the dissolution of parliament. Now deposed, he feared that the new government would close the Nauru Detention Center and thus cut off the state's only source of income, which could lead to the bankruptcy of the state. Both camps were closed until February 2008.

Harris' demand for new elections was finally met: Scotty dissolved parliament in late September 2004. In the early parliamentary elections on October 23, 2004, Harris was re-elected, but lost seven of his opposition group; only Lyn Adam was re-elected. Four days after the elections, he attacked the election observers from the Pacific Islands Forum , calling them "idiots" for judging the elections to be fair and free. Harris said several votes were said to have been bought by the government.

Harris was also involved in the Nauru economic apparatus, namely in the Nauru Phosphate Society and in the Nauru Pacific Line .
His government is responsible for the Nauru Detention Center , the housing of the Afghan asylum seekers on the island as well as for the accession of Nauru to the UN and for the full membership in the Commonwealth . Harris has been criticized for corruption and human rights violations by the Nauruan opposition party ( Naoero Amo ) and the international community . In parliament he was often supported by Kinza Clodumar and his informal Center Party (Nauruan Center Party) .

In August 2007 he was re-elected to parliament, but his group only consisted of three members. After months of political crisis with power struggles between two government groups, Harris was not re-elected in new elections in April 2008. In June 2008, his wife died of cancer; on July 4th, 2008 he himself suffered a heart attack and died of its consequences the following morning in Denigomodu hospital. On the same day he was buried with a state funeral.

See also

• Politics in Nauru
• Portal: Nauru

Web links

• Nauru website (de.)
• René Harris in Encyclopedia of Political Information (en.)