Academia Nomad: Cross-Cutting Issues
Test you knowledge on PNG politics. Link below:
So decided set up a quiz on PNG politics. Tried to keep it basic, but allocated higher scores (as high as 3 points) if the questions are a bit different.
12 Questions, massive 24 points!
Share the link with friends. Leave your scores below if you want. K5 flex for first 5 who score 24/24.
SHARE. HAVE FUN.
The PNG Police Commissioner says the Pandemic Act of PNG gives him power as the Controller to intervene in issues affecting the country – including the fuel shortage in PNG.
The Pandemic Act was enacted to deal with “COVID-19”, not foreign currency rationing and fuel shortages. What will the Commission do: use the Pandemic Act to float the Kina?
This is what we don’t get. Bending the rules to fit our will and conveniences. From University rugby competitions to abuse of the Pandemic Act.
The Pandemic Act is one of the most abused piece of legislation the parliament has passed in decades. The Pandemic Act ensures that the tendering processes and accountability provisions in the Public Finance Management Act are suspended to expedite response during a crisis or contagious disease.
Using this provisions, the accountability provisions under Public Finance Management Act which requires, among other things, that a tender is put out for competent service providers to bid for provision of services were suspended during the height of COVID-19. This was supposed to allow the government to move swiftly to address the threats posed by COVID-19.
Instead, the suspension of accountability measures allowed the government to give contracts to their cronies. We are yet to see the reports on COVID-19 funds.
Where did the money go?
And now, the Commissioner is stretching the Pandemic Act way beyond its intended purpose.
This fuel shortage is a policy issue: the Central Bank thinks the best approach for PNG is to ration foreign currency.
Central Bank keeps the foreign currencies. Companies get the foreign currency from the Central Bank to import products like oil. The fuel shortage is a result of Central Bank issuing less foreign currency to Puma Gas Company than requested by Puma Gas.
As a result, Puma Gas cannot buy the volume of fuel it thinks is demanded by the PNG market.
Now, how will the Commissioner fix this problem using the Pandemic Act? It’s got nothing to do with COVID-19.
The Pandemic Act has outlived its purpose. The World Health Organisation has declared COVID-19 as not a pandemic anymore in May 2023. It’s about time the government remove the powers of the Police Commissioner under the Pandemic Act.
PNG has become the prime real estate in the big geopolitical rivalry in the Pacific.
In a short span of time, the prime ministers of India and Australia, the presidents of Indonesia and France, US Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence, and Chinese envoys have all paid visits to PNG. Even the Pacific leaders descended on Port Moresby when Biden’s now cancelled visit was announced.
Why is PNG a very important piece of real estate in the region?
Four factors:
PNG is the buffer between the formerly communist part of the world, which turned to authoritarianism and now having mixed successes with democracy – the Asian region – and democracies of New Zealand and Australia.
PNG is also geostrategically located between the largest Muslim country in the world in Indonesia, the quintessential enemy of the West in China, and a irrational nuclear loving dictator up north in the Korean Peninsula.
World War II has shown that in a war that involves an Asian country and the West, the battle will be won or lost on PNG soil.
PNG was the buffer between Asian and Southeast Asian countries that fell to the communist dominio effect.
And with the perception that terrorism is associated with the Muslim religion, PNG becomes important in containing Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim population.
Apart from Fiji, PNG is the most dominant player in the Pacific islands regional institutions. PNG is is the Big Brother among the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). PNG is is a very influential member of the Pacific Islands Forum. To gain regional influence, every country that is interested in the Pacific are courting PNG.
PNG’s natural resources attracts established multinational companies from ExxonMobil to Total. Countries investing in PNG include US, Australia, China, France, Japan, and many more.
If for nothing, these world superpowers would still be interested in PNG because of their companies’ investments.
Despite its rich natural resource endowments, PNG is poor, and has weak institutions. Due to the extractive and enclave nature of the resource companies, most of the proceeds of these mines and LNG companies are siphoned out of the country, leaving the populace to fight over fragments.
It’s weak institutions makes it vulnerable to exploitation.
The foreign powers then offer PNG resources and support that are irresistible. China offers loans, US provides resources to monitor PNG maritime borders against transnational crimes and illegal fishing. Australia and IMF provide grants and further loans.
For everything these superpowers give to PNG, it comes with conditions that advances their interests.
So why are powerful countries interested in the PNG?
The answer would be: a combination of all the factors listed above. China wants to get a strong foothold in the Pacific. PNG’s geographical position, it’s influence among the Pacific island countries, and it’s vast population makes it the most important Pacific country. The United States, Australia, New Zealand, France and Japan are all interested in PNG for the same reason. Gaining access to a geostrategically important piece of real estate.
It’s also commercial. PNG has massive natural resources. LNG is becoming the more important since the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused fuel prices to skyrocket, but also with the emphasis on moving away from coal and oil. LNG has relatively less carbon emissions than oil and coal.
The opportunity to gain access in PNG presents itself in the form of a poor nation with vulnerable institutions and weak capabilities needing help.
Many have criticised a recent post on the awarding the PNG VC trophy to Unitech without a finals being played. But the main message of the post was how rules are bent in PNG at their convenience, and then rationalised after the fact. Sadly many missed the main message. So here’s another example of bending the rules in PNG:
Last month the Constitutional Law Reform Commission (CLRC) completed a nationwide consultation gauging views on whether the prime minister should be elected directly by the people as in a presidential system. The directive to do this came from the national government.
Why the need to change the current system?
Because the government thinks that the unicameral parliamentary system is “not working”?
The obvious question therefore is: is the current parliamentary system not working for PNG because it’s a bad system, or because PNG is not using the parliamentary system as it is supposed to be used?
The latter is true. You see, in a parliamentary system elsewhere, the politicians (MPs) are lawmakers. They are NOT service deliverers! In PNG, MPs are both lawmakers and service deliverers.
Why does this dual role matter?
Because MPs are more concerned with their service delivery roles whilst their lawmaking responsibilities suffer. In 2020, 500kg of cocaine was discovered on the outskirts of Port Moresby when the plane carrying it crashed. The pilot and those involved couldn’t be charged because cocaine at the time was not regarded an “illicit drug” by PNG’s Drug Act 1954. Imagine having a law that was outdated by more than half a century.
A year later, meth was discovered. Again, the person producing it couldn’t be charged because the Drug Act 1954 didn’t recognise meth as an illicit drug.
It gets worse: we have 370 laws in PNG, according to CLRC, that are outdated by more than half a century, and of no practical use.
Whose role is it to update these laws?
Your politicians.
Why aren’t they updating it? Because they are busy delivering services.
Is delivering services the MPs role? NO
Who gave MPs the additional service delivery role? The MPs themselves. They amended the organic law in 1995, and then created the District Development Act in 2014, to make themselves service deliverers.
About K1. 5 billion is given to these MPs to deliver services. K10 million to Open MPs every year, and K5 million times the number of Districts to the Governors. These funds are commonly known in PNG as DSIP/PSIP funds.
How is the service delivery in your provinces now that your MPs are controlling more than a billion Kina?
The Auditor General this year said only 40% of the MPs submitted acquittals for the millions they spend the year before. The rest didn’t. And even for those who acquitted, we have not idea whether projects were actually implemented.
You see your MPs switching from one side of the parliament to another. Why do they do this? Because they want to be on the side of the government, which controls the DSIP/PSIP.
Your MPs have no interest in making laws, providing representation in parliament, or holding the government accountable. They made themselves services deliverers, and instead of making laws, they pride themselves in delivering services. With very low to no accountability, they spend millions through DSIP/PSIP. When they don’t have enough, they borrow and plunge the country into more debt. To get the loans, the give into conditions set by the institutions offering these loans, like the IMF.
So if you’re supporting “bending of rules” or “bending of accepted norms and conventions”, you should be happy with:
The parliamentary system is not working because it’s conventions are not being followed. Now the government wants a presidential style of electing your prime minister? Nothing will stop the presidential styled prime minister from bending more rules now that he is not subject to a vote of no confidence.
We shouldn’t condone bending of rules and conventions. Whether it’s traffic rules, VC’s CUP finals, or what the role of the MPs should be.
We have a tendency to bend the rules, and when it doesn’t work, we say it was introduced by the white man. And then we bend the new system we adopt, and when it doesn’t work we blame the consultants who advised us.
We are a country that refuses to accept accountability. We rationalise our way out of every mess. We support our tribes and schools and communities against the most basic and illogical mistakes.
This country is being plundered not by foreigners (if foreigners are involved, it’s with the permission of rule bending Papua New Guineans), but by its own citizens who have no regard for rules and conventions. This country is in a mess because everyone from politicians to the streets bend the rules.
Today is public holiday in PNG remembering the courage of those who fought in the Second World War – it’s actually a beautiful day in Port Moresby. Makes me think of the stories from my grandparents about the Second World War.
One of the my fond memories growing up was village kids sitting around a fire and listening to stories and legends from our grandmothers and grandfathers, and occasionally from those who travelled to town and had seen movies like “Saving Private Ryan”. A few old men from our village – Kabuni Village in Tufi, Oro Province, had served as “carriers” in the Second World War. I heard about the tales of war from old men who acted as guides, scouts, and carriers of war. Below are my recollections of the stories told to us:
According to my grandfathers, the young Australian soldiers fought the hardest, the bravest, and suffered the most in the battle for Gona, Buna and Sananada. My grandfathers told of how the young Australian soldiers would tell the allied forces, mostly Americans, that this is “our war” and took on the front line. This story is not verified, but it would make sense for Australians to regard the war in PNG as theirs – both as an Australian colony and proximity to Australia.
According to my grandfathers, the allied forces slaughtered the Japanese by the hundreds, if not throusands, even after they surrendered. Some were gunned down with their hands raised as the battle drew to an end on the beaches of Buna, Gona and Sananada – the sea was red with blood.
There’s a costal village in Oro, a part of it re-named “Holy Cross.” As the Japanese advanced, the Anglican missionaries left one of their mission bases. One for the Japanese bullets hit the Cross on the the church ⛪️ ground. As they got closer, it is said that the cross bled. A Japanese officer wrote a note, and stuck it on the Cross with instructions that the Cross and the Church be preserved. This note is said to be picked up later and preserved somewhere in Museums (someone from these areas can provide more insights). It’s not clear whether it was blood from the many casualties of war or the Cross literally bled. But it was significant enough for the story to remain to this day, with the church ground renamed Holy Cross. I saw the cross, weathered and old before it crumbled. There was no blood as it was weathered over the years.
According to these old men, the King of England realised that soldiers were low on moral, so ordered that the prettiest nurses be sent to work in the war zones, with instructions to be promiscuous. One of my grand fathers said that the week after the nurses arrived and diligently performed His Majesty’s decree, there was a transformation in the mood of the young “red-faced” solders taking on the front lines.
One day, someone visited. But he was so special he was highly protected. Some even said he was a spirit. Some thought it was the Jesus the British missionaries used to talk about.
Majority of my people lived in caves at the height of war. Men went out at night to look for food. One day, supply boats of the Japanese were bombed. The goods of the yellow men were washed ashore. It was a great time of feasting in the caves.
They talked of the spirit of the Japanese not to give up. The Japanese would climb a sago palm tree and entrench themselves with their machine guns and fight to the death.
The cost of war on carrier communities…
Some of the carriers lost their lives. Because post traumatic disorder was not in our culture, and wasn’t even a thing in the West until later on, there were many kids who were raised during the war era that may have lived onto to adulthood with trauma. As the US-China rivalry intensifies, it’s worth remembering that whenever two giants fight, it’s the grass that suffers.
Academia Nomad 