Tahiti's Troubles

When he sat in the uproar of the National Assembly in Paris, Pouvanaa Oopa, sole representative of Tahiti and its sister Pacific islands of French Polynesia, was the mildest of men. But back home in peaceful Tahiti, Pouvanaa Oopa became a terror in paradise.

There beside the whisper of the surf, Oopa, who was once a fried-potato vendor and then a carpenter, roared like a Paris Assemblyman. Under the slogan, "Tahiti for the Tahitians; Frenchmen into the sea!", Oopa's Democratic Rally of the Tahitian People swept last year's elections, and Oopa, 63, became Premier of Polynesia. Oopa accused the French of allowing the islands' copra-and-phosphate economy to stagnate in the face of a population explosion that has doubled the population (to 70,000) in 25 years. Hoping to win greater control over an economy dominated by French and Chinese businessmen, he pushed through an unheard-of income tax. A shopkeepers' strike and the fury of well-organized rioters, who stoned the Territorial Assembly building, forced its repeal.

In last month's referendum on De Gaulle's new French constitution, Oopa renewed the cry of "Frenchmen into the sea!", urged Polynesians to vote for independence. The Polynesians voted, by a 2-to-1 margin, to stick with France.

One night last week police came upon Oopa in the sleepy streets of Papeete, Tahiti's capital. In his hand, they said, was a Molotov cocktail. With him were 50 henchmen, and, in a city largely built of wood, all were carrying either firearms or firebombs. In a raid on Oopa's home, police rounded up more henchmen, found more bombs. At week's end Pouvanaa Oopa was behind bars, and no longer functioning as Premier.

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