Marcus Stephen

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His Excellency  Marcus Stephen
President of Nauru
Incumbent
Assumed office  19 December 2007
Preceded by	Ludwig Scotty
Born	1 October 1969 (1969-10-01) (age 38)

Marcus Stephen (born October 1, 1969^[1]) is President of the Republic of Nauru, taking office in December, 2007, ruling constitutionally with the support of Parliament until March 2008, and by decree until the elections of April, 2008, when a constitutional base of support in Parliament was reestablished. He is also a former top-class weightlifter, winner of seven gold medals and five silver at the Commonwealth Games^[2], and the current president of the Oceania Weightlifting Federation.^[3]

Contents 1 Life 1.1 Family background 1.2 Sporting career 1.3 Political career 1.4 Presidency of Nauru 1.4.1 2007 1.4.2 2008 1.4.3 Prospects and political turmoil 1.4.4 Stephen and Speaker of Parliament accuse each other of unconstitutional acts 1.4.5 Supreme Court ruling 1.5 Stephen and supporters suspended from Parliament 1.6 State of emergency, snap election and reestablished mandate 2 See also 3 References

[edit] Life

[edit] Family background

Marcus Stephen's father, Lawrence Stephen, served as a Member of the Parliament of Nauru1971-1977 and 1980-1986. He is related to the prominent Keke family of Nauru.

[edit] Sporting career

He initially played Australian rules football for the local team the Aces, but opted to pursue the sport of weightlifting. In 1989 the Nauru Weightlifting Federation (NWF) was founded, primarily to give Stephen, the sole top-class weightlifter in Nauru at the time, the opportunity to compete internationally.

In 1992 he took part in his first Olympic Games in Barcelona. Since Nauru had no Olympic Committee at the time, he successfully applied for Samoan citizenship and was allowed to compete for Samoa. In 1993 the committee was founded and Stephen was able to represent Nauru in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

When the Olympic torch was carried to Sydney, Stephen had the honour of being a torch bearer during its stopover in Nauru. ^[4]

It was at the Commonwealth Games where most of his successes came: In the 1990 Commonwealth Games he surprisingly won a gold medal in the Snatch in the 60kg class. In the 1994 Commonwealth Games he won three gold medals in the 59kg class and in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in the 62kg class he collected three more golds. In his last Games, the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester he won three silvers in the 62kg class.

His greatest triumph came at the 1999 World Championship in Athens, where he was runner up in the clean and jerk in the 62kg class.

In March 2008, it was reported that Stephen had been appointed to the presidency of the Oceania Weightlifting Federation, the Pacific region's official continental weightlifting body.^[5]

[edit] Political career

Since 1997 he has been the Treasurer of the Nauru Olympic Committee. On 3 May 2003 Stephen was elected to the Nauru parliament with a score of just over 215 points, achieving first place in the Ewa and Anetan constituency. ^[6]

During the presidency of René Harris Stephen was Education and Finance Minister of Nauru from 8 August 2003 until 22 June 2004, a post he had to relinquish when Ludwig Scotty became the new president. In October 2004 he was re-elected to parliament. ^[7]

After Nauru joined the International Whaling Commission (IWC) on 15 June 2005, Stephen was nominated as a delegate for Nauru. He represented Nauru at the IWC-Congress in June 2005 in the South Korean city of Ulsan. ^[8]

Stephen was re-elected to parliament in the August 2007 parliamentary election. He unsuccessfully stood as a presidential candidate in the vote held in parliament on August 28, in which Scotty was re-elected.^[9]

However, following a successful vote of no confidence in Parliament against President Scotty on 19 December 2007, Marcus Stephen was sworn in as President of Nauru.^[10]

[edit] Presidency of Nauru

[edit] 2007

In the initial period of his Administration, Stephen moved to continue the practice, commenced by former President Ludwig Scotty, of appointing a separate Foreign Affairs Minister, when Dr. Kieren Keke (a cousin of Stephen) was installed in that post in December 2007. Previously, each President of Nauru had concurrently acted as his own Foreign Affairs Minister, although this was customary rather than a constitutional requirement. Stephen also appointed Frederick Pitcher as Finance Minister, and his Administration inherited the austerity meausures associated with the outgoing Scotty Administration.

Regarding constitutional affairs, however, one of the major issues facing the new Stephen Administration was the process of constitutional revision consultations, started by former President Ludwig Scotty. These centred mainly on proposals to elect the President of Nauru by direct, popular election, rather than indirectly by the Parliament of Nauru, and which would thus restrict somewhat the frequent recourse to the vote of no confidence, which has been a feature of Nauru's political life for many years. Since Marcus Stephen came to office in circumstances involving the overturning of the previous government's Parliamentary majority in just such a manner, it remained to be seen what the Stephen Administration's formal position and practice on this issue would be.

At a personal level, the appointment of Marcus Stephen as President of Nauru at the age of 38, together with a youthful ministerial team, marked somewhat of a generational shift from some of the political figures who have dominated Nauruan politics in recent years; e.g., he was nearly 40 years younger than Derog Gioura, who served as President of Nauru in 2003. However, the appointment of youthful heads of state in the Republic of Nauru is by no means unknown; Bernard Dowiyogo assumed the office of President of Nauru at the even younger age of 30 in 1976.

[edit] 2008

[edit] Prospects and political turmoil

As a maritime nation, Nauru's membership of the International Whaling Commission put the Stephen Administration in the spotlight, particularly in view of the IWC meeting in 2008, to be held in June, 2008, at Santiago, Chile. At the United Nations under previous government leadership, Nauru's Permanent Representative, Marlene Moses has voiced a pragmatic approach to issues of stock conservation, and, particularly given pressures to preserve the livelihood of Nauruans engaged in the tuna fishing industry, the Stephen Administration is likely to find it challenging to alter the stance taken at the IWC by previous governments; but the whaling file is one with which President Stephen has been very familiar, given his past appointment as a delegate to the IWC in 2005.

In March 2008 moves in the Parliament of Nauru to unseat the Administration of Marcus Stephen by means of a vote of no confidence were thwarted by the resignation of the Speaker, Riddell Akua^[11]. Unrest on the island which involved threats to export trade and the torching of a police station were events which occurred shortly prior to Parliamentary moves to remove President Stephen and his Administration from office. ^[12]

At the end of the first three months of Stephen's Presidency there was thus widespread unrest in the country.

[edit] Stephen and Speaker of Parliament accuse each other of unconstitutional acts

On March 22, the Speaker of the Parliament of Nauru, David Adeang, called a Parliamentary session, allegedly without informing government ministers, who therefore did not attend. Opposition MPs, Adeang included, constituted a majority of legislators present, and passed a ruling outlawing dual citizenship for Members of Parliament. The ruling, if applied, would have affected senior Cabinet ministers Dr. Kieren Keke and Frederick Pitcher. Had they been compelled to resign from Parliament, the Opposition would have controlled a majority of seats in Parliament. The government rejected the legitimacy of the ruling, stating that it was unconstitutional because of the lack of parliamentary quorum.^[13] President Marcus Stephen accused Adeang and the Opposition of passing the ruling "after dark on Easter Saturday", "under candelight".^[14] On March 31, Adeang claimed that the Stephen Administration had mounted a coup d'état because the loyalty of the police to the rule of Parliamentary law was no longer present, after the police refused to eject Keke and Pitcher from the chamber of the Parliament.

The Stephen Administration, in response, denied the claim of a coup d'état, stating that they were awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court on the issue. ^[15]

By the end of March 2008, the Stephen Administration was seemingly ruling by decree.^{[citation needed]} Ministers in the Stephen Administration derived their authority not from the support of a viable Parliamentary majority but from the personal rule of the President^{[citation needed]}, and observers were able to note that the professed aims of the Government were being followed in circumvention of the Parliament of Nauru, and that the Nauru Police Commissioner had been henceforth acting in clear breach of the Standing Orders of Parliament, thus reinforcing the personal rule of President Stephen.^{[citation needed]} The Police Commissioner's actions would, however, be seen later in the light of the fact that the Standing Orders were found invalid by the Supreme Court.

The crisis continued into early April 2008, with Adeang stating that he would consider the Supreme Court's ruling as "just an opinion", and Keke responding that the Supreme Court, not the Speaker, had the jurisdiction to determine a member of Parliament's eligibility^[16].

[edit] Supreme Court ruling

A ruling by the Supreme Court in April 2008 that the Speaker of the Parliament of Nauru had erred in seeking to exclude from Parliament two key ministers, who also made up the Government's majority, was seen to have enhanced the constitutionality of the Stephen Administration's make up. ^[17].

Relations between the Stephen Administration and Adeang remained under severe strain, however, and the Administration's ministers continued to exercise executive powers without the support of Parliament: sometimes seen as litmus test as to whether a system of Parliamentary government had survived a coup d'état, by whatever name.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Stephen and supporters suspended from Parliament

By April 10, the tenuous connection between the rule of the Stephen Administration and the Parliament of Nauru was further diminished. President Stephen and the eight other members of the 18-member Parliament who supported his Administration were suspended from the Parliamentary sitting, amidst rowdy scenes, by the Speaker, David Adeang, who had difficulty in making himself heard when commenting on the recent Supreme Court decision regarding dual nationality for MPs ^[18].

[edit] State of emergency, snap election and reestablished mandate

On April 18, 2008, Stephen declared a state of emergency and called a snap election to end months of political deadlock.^[19] At the election held on April 26, 2008, Marcus Stephen's supporters gave his administration a majority in the Parliament of Nauru ^[20].

[edit] See also

• Politics of Nauru
• Political families of the world#Nauru
• Nauruan parliamentary election, 2008

[edit] References

v • d • e Presidents of Nauru DeRoburt • Dowiyogo • L. Harris • DeRoburt • Adeang • DeRoburt • Adeang • DeRoburt • Aroi • Dowiyogo • L. Harris • Dowiyogo • Adeang • Kun • Clodumar • Dowiyogo • R. Harris • Dowiyogo • R. Harris • Dowiyogo • R. Harris • Dowiyogo • Gioura • Scotty • R. Harris • Scotty • Stephen