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Greenland premier presents positive outlook

Annual New Year’s Day address rallies support for troubled government

JANE GEORGE with files from Nuka Moller

MONTREAL — Jonathan Motzfeldt, the premier of Greenland’s home rule Government, is struggling to shore up support for his rocky coalition government.

In his annual New Year’s Day address, Motzfeldt took a stand against the U.S. plan to build up the Thule air base in northern Greenland as part of the proposed National Missile Defense system.

"The position of the Greenland government has been, and will always be, that the Thule base should not in the future be part of any arms race," he said.

The NMD system would involve upgrades to U.S. air force bases around the North, including Thule and sites in Alaska.

When completed, the system would protect the U.S. from attacks by countries such as North Korea or Iran by shooting down missiles before they could enter U.S. air space.

Under the existing home rule government agreement, Denmark has jurisdiction over international affairs, but Motzfeldt promised his government would be involved in any NMD discussions and would closely monitor developments.

"The U.S. has now abolished the Anti-ballistic Missile treaty, but there is a hope that Russia and the U.S. will enter a new agreement on stability and disarmament," Motzfeldt said.

Motzfeldt also touched on controversial domestic environmental issues in his address. Environmental groups in Greenland and abroad have criticized Greenlanders for their unsustainable harvest of beluga and other marine mammal stocks and several bird species.

"We cannot harvest our living resources excessively. We have to respect the limits of how much the individual species of birds, fish and animals can sustain, in terms of being hunted," he said

Motzfeldt’s address also focused on Greenland’s recent social unrest, in which hundreds of young people took to the streets to protest for a change in government.

He attempted in his speech to reach out to these young people and put a positive spin on their protests. He said youth should be active participants in government, particularly where tough decisions need to be made.

And Motzfeldt urged young people to prepare for themselves for a more independent Greenland by getting a good education.

"You, the youth, possess the unrestrained drive characterizing youth. You are the ones to give power and strength to our country. And even though "Life is lived forward and is understood backwards," as the Danish philosopher Soren Kirkegaard put it, it is your energy and determination that we need now," he said.

However, the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq wrote in an editorial: "Jonathan makes more promises than he can keep."

"The political statements are correct, but they are not followed up with necessary action," the paper reads. "The resources needed by the educational system have not been put aside and there is no follow-up on the quality of the existing system. The Premier talks about education as an important tool for Greenland’s independence, but, in the end, the politicians are unequal to this task. They want more than we can afford, and no one is brave enough to tell the population that we can’t afford the educational system we already have."

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