The South PacificBoard

Following nine long months of debate, fierce and grudging at times, and with several votes that failed due to strong and vocal opposition, the Assembly seems to have finally reached a broad agreement to split the Ministry of Regional Affairs into three successor ministries.

It could be argued that this broad agreement is as much due to genuine agreement as it is due to a lack of willingness to argue, but that's a topic for a different column. For now let's focus on the curious and amusing that this whole debate has raised: should our ministries all have the term 'affairs' in their names? The rule to have all ministries contain the term 'affairs' in their name has been closely followed since 2016, when the Ministry of the Army became the Ministry of Military Affairs. Some argue that this should also be done with the future ministries, while others argue that there's no reason why that rule should be observed so fiercely.

To understand how much this rule holds up in terms of the historical precedent I consulted Kris Kringle, our unofficial historian, who kindly agreed to give me a brief summary of our naming conventions:

“The practice of adding the 'affairs' suffix to all ministry names is a bit of a recent development. Between 2013 and 2016 we had the Ministry of the Army. Before 2013 we had ministries of Intelligence, Security and Justice. Over a decade ago we had a Ministry of the Region. If you actually pay attention to our history, most ministries did not have a suffix.

What about a more practical argument, such as the need for uniformity? That makes some sense, but im my opinion it's just not enough. Somyrion said it best when they argued that "the 'affairs' is nonessential and can be removed without changing the meaning". Bending over backwards to find a name that goes well with the 'affairs' suffix isn't essential, it's just unnecessary effort. A ministry that deals with culture should simply be called Ministry of Culture. A ministry that deals with media should simply be called Ministry of Media.

The South Pacific, unlike some of its sister regions, thrives on simplicity and a direct approach to issues. There's no reason why we shouldn't continue that tradition with ministry names that are simple, direct and tell citizens exactly what it is they do.

The South Pacific Independent News Network (SPINN) is an independent news organisation established in 2003 with the goal of providing good, insightful and timely commentary on regional events for the citizens of the South Pacific. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board. Content is published via pseudonyms. The SPINN is not associated with the Government of the South Pacific.