13
The Political Situation
Decisions on the local level are made by the council of
family heads and other males.
The council is headed by
Magistrate Juda, who is also the senior male of the Bikini
group according to the traditional system.
the local chiefs (iroij), of Bikini.
He is the heir of
The Bikini people were
also traditionally subjects of a paramount chief (1roij lablab),
whose ancestor had conquered Bikini over a
century ago.
The
paramount chiefs of Bikini had never lived on the atoll but
only visited it from time to time to collect tribute from their
subjects.
A percentage of the cash proceeds from copra produc-
tion was collected during the Japanese period.
The Bikini people,
in effect, declared thelr independence
from the paramount chief shortly after their move from Bikini.
They rejected him completely and declared that the U.S.
Government was their paramount chief, and not the absentee
title holder, whom they complained had never done anything to
help them, but only exploited them.
for the past twenty years.
This has been the theme
On my last trip to the Marshalls
I found that this attitude has not changed.
They want nothing
to do with Iroij Lejol§fH Kabua who holds the paramount chief's
rights to Bikini according to the traditional Marshallese
custom.
The attitude of rejection and refusal to accept him as
their leader and spokesman has hardened, if anything, after
more than twenty years of independence.
As I understand it,
Le jo1l8Ai continuesto maintain his claim to his hereditary rights