Academia Nomad

By Alan Bird, Governor of East Sepik Province

Is it possible to bribe the voters?

I see some smart commentators talking about transport, food and drink being provided by candidates at rallies saying it’s wrong and constitutes bribery.

First of all, I don’t believe our voters are stupid. Certainly not in Sepik. Sepik voters are mature, they will accept transport, food and drinks from ALL candidates who provide it and it will not influence them. They will still vote for the candidates of their choice.

Sepik voters want to know if the person they are electing will not only deliver on goods and services but will also stand in Parliament and speak for them. They have very exact standards of who they want. This is my experience over 3 elections. This is my 4th election.

Perhaps in NCD or Lae, supporters can catch a bus to a rally, spend an hour there and return home on the next bus. This is not so in ESP. For a villager to attend a rally for a candidate can mean catching a PMV at 7am, not having breakfast and returning home at 7pm just to hear a 20 minute campaign speech. Naturally they expect the candidate to pay for the transport and provide a meal. Why should they pay to attend 20 rallies if there are 20 candidates?

Alternatively, candidates have to go to each village. Even then, every village has a stage set up to be hired by candidates. They also have several string bands or singing groups ready to perform for a fee. They will also have a mother’s group ready to cook food which the candidate has to pay for.

The other peculiar thing in ESP is that supporters of a candidate will build a “Campaign House” for him/her. Then they expect the candidate to provide tea/coffee/sugar so they can sit around and talk politics for the entire campaign period. This is the hard one, do you say no to all the campaign houses built in your name without your consent? If one village supports 5 candidates, they will build one Haus each per candidate! My immediate village has 8 campaign houses right now (for open candidates and one for me).

When an NGO or government has a training workshop, consultation or other activity, participants are provided transport, meals, accommodation and allowances. This could cost around K500 per day for each participant. If a villager is expected to attend a rally and not his cocoa or vanilla garden and has an expectation of free transport and a biscuit and drink costing K3, surely that is not an unreasonable expectation for his or her 12 hour day?

People talk about bribery alot and I suppose it happens. I have never experienced it myself but say I need 12,000 votes to win an open seat. Each voter asks for a K100 bribe and I pay it, that’s K1.2m, say you buy 12,000 T shirts at K20 each, that’s K240,000. Say you need fuel, posters, a hire car, you get campaign coordinators, etc, and that’s another K200,000. These are crazy numbers.

Elections are not cheap. If you have a budget of K500,000, that will only cover your logistics. It’s hardly enough to bribe 12,000 voters.

In the case of a Provincial seat, it’s much more expensive. I received 88,000 votes in 2017. If I bribed my voters at K100 each it would cost me K8.8m. The person who came second scored 64,000 votes so if he bribed them too, he would have had to spend K6.4m.

The smart move would be to bribe the polling officials and the security officers. Less people to bribe and it’s much cheaper. They can then do something illegal to get you declared. But then is it worth spending 8 years in jail for that?

Many people who have never run a campaign have no idea what it costs to run one.

So give our voters some credit, our people are not stupid. They know what they are doing.

PANGU save lo rot, or PANGU knows the way, is a motto made popular by the late Sam Basil. It’s a reference to PANGU Pati, led by the late Michael Somare, that attained independence for Papua New Guinea in 1975.

In 2014, Sam Basil moved to PANGU Pati, which didn’t have any MP in parliament, and became its leader. He then led PANGU into 2017 elections, winning 11 seats nationwide (later increased to 16 when other MPs joined). He invoked PANGU’s historical place in PNG as the party that led PNG to independence. As a strong critic of Peter O’Neill at the time, he argued that PNG had lost its way, and needed to be guided back to the destiny intended by its founders – the forefathers of PNG. He used the motto “PANGU save lo rot.”

By 2019 Basil left PANGU, and those resigning from O’Neill’s People’s National Congress then joined PANGU, electing Marape as the prime minister.

PANGU under Marape continues with the motto “PANGU save lo rot.”

However, it’s important to know that to date PANGU has done nothing to show PANGU knows the way. It’s merely riding on the legacy of men like Somare and Pita Lus, and many others who have passed on.

PANGU under Marape knows how to get loans up to K30 billion in just three years! A PANGU that failed to capture tribal warlords who slaughtered 17 women and children in Eastern Highlands in 2019. A PANGU that watches as women get burnt alive for sorcery accusations.

Before parliament dissolved for elections, PANGU led a coalition that comprised of MPs accused of corruption and did nothing about it.

In the coalition were MPs accused of the corrupt multi-million Kina Manumanu land deal where governor ministers used state money to buy land they privately owned at inflated costs for the state.

There were MPs who have not explained why the expensive Maseratis were bought for the 2018 APEC in Port Moresby but not used. The Masaratis are now wasting away in a garage in downtown Port Moresby.

MPs who spent millions on “yoga” program are part of the coalition.

PANGU of this day is not the same PANGU that led PNG to independence.

In fact if PANGU was led by its current Marape and the current MPs, PNG would not have attained independence.

The level of compromise in the name of maintaining MPs alleged of corruption in the coalition is not something Pita Lus (a PANGU strong man) would have allowed. This PANGU knows how to entertain MPs alleged of corruption in the name of remaining in power. It’s a power hungry PANGU.

“PANGU save lot rot” is a phrase only true for historical purposes. Michael Somare’s PANGU knew the way to independence.

Now under James Marape, “PANGU ino save lo rot.” PANGU doesn’t know the way under James Marape.

Don’t confuse Michael Somare’s PANGU with James Marape’s PANGU.

Of the 983 PNG MPs elected since the first post-independence election in 1977, only 7 were female MPs. You’d hear voters say: female candidates should have good leadership qualities, have good policies, or they should be elected on merit. These are all good expectations.

But here’s the problem:

We’ve used these criteria for 47 years. We’ve elected 976 male candidates on merit, who had good policies, and great leadership qualities.

Where did that leave us after 47 years? What is there to show for our insistence on “merit, quality, and policies?”

How many can confidently point to a political party and state their policies? I’m not talking about useless mantras like “PANGU Save Lo Rot” or “PNC4PNG”.

How many can at least pick a PNG politican who has not switched sides at least once in his lifetime? What is policy if there are no commitments to policy?

How on earth do you elect leadership on merit for 47 years and still be consistently corrupt on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index?

How can you have a parliament full of leaders voted on great quality who then end up grossly misusing DSIP & PSIP funds (constituency development funds)?

There’s nothing much to show for merit, great qualities, or policies, is there?

You won’t lose much by voting a female candidate. The alternative is another male candidate with policies he doesn’t intend on keeping, qualities that he will ditch during government formation two weeks after election, and merits that are only useful in concealing corruption.

Aren’t you tired already voting male candidates? After 47 years of terrible results, what more excuse is there not to vote a female candidate? Definitely you cannot hide behind good policies, merit or qualities.

Maybe female MPs will be just as corrupt as male MPs, but what’s not new to us?

Or they will re-marry after being elected and change their surname: isn’t that what many male MP do anyways (re-marrying)?

Or they will get into a screaming competition with the airhostess, but again, is that worse than millions wasted on yoga deals?

Is there any good argument left for not voting a female candidate?

Some faces of PNG female candidate..

When addressing a crowd of Pangu Pati supporters on 27 May 2022 in Morobe Province, James Marape challenged People’s National Congress (PNC) leader and former PM Peter O’Neill, and his supporters to show to the country what they have done for Lae and Papua New Guinea during eight years in office from 2011-2019. Marape invited O’Neill to a debate.

O’Neill responded by saying that Marape landed at the Nazab Airport in Morobe Provicince which is been upgraded. The upgrading was an initiative of O’Neill government. The road Marape rode on into Lae town was upgraded under O’Neill government. The main hospital – ANGAU Memorial Hospital – just down the road from where Marape was speaking is been upgraded. An initiative under a deal O’Neill negotiated with partners.

Supporters of PANGU and PNC are divided across the country. Photos circulated on social media of youths burning PANGU banners in the Highlands, and four vehicles belonging to an incumbent PANGU MP and government minister burnt in the Highlands.

In all these debates, alternative facts and show by both Marape and O’Neill this fact is lost: that O’Neill & Marape are brothers.

Both men were in the same government and members of the Peoples National Congress (PNC) from 2012 to 2019. That’s eight years!

Every mess that Marape blames O’Neill for, Marape is an integral part of it. Every credit that O’Neill gives PNC and himself, Marape is part of it. When O’Neill talks about the developments under PNC, he is talking about developments that Marape was part of. When Marape criticises O’Neill of bad loans and corruption, Marape is part of it. There is a YouTube video online where Marape viciously defends the unconstitutional UBS loan under O’Neill government at UPNG.

The only people who are not seeing this fake morals are the followers and voters who blindly think Marape is different from O’Neill.

Both men have subjected PNG to close to US$ 50 billion loans in eight years. Both were responsible for 14 unconstitutional amendments to the Constitution between 2012 and 2018, including the extension of grace period and the Manus Detention Centre.

The Supreme Court ruled most of the amendments unconstitutional. This should tell you about these men’s disregard for the Constitution of PNG.

What you’re witnessing is the ego of two Highlands men, who are preying on the emotions of uncritical voters. Marape is as power hungry as O’Neill. Remember how Marape “bribed” Prauitch to drop the court case challenging his election as prime minister by offering Prauitch the Foreign Affairs Minister’s position in 2019? Marape had to take that ministry away from another MP to give to Prauitch so Prauitch could drop the case against Marape!

Or how about Marape accepting Basil back as Deputy PM after Basil’s failed attempt to remove Marape as PM in November 2020? How could you make someone who wanted to replace you as PM your deputy unless you are obsessed with power and want to stay in power?

So fellow Papua New Guineans, don’t be fooled by these two power hungry guys, who have a history of mocking the PNG Consequences, and running the debt of this country into historical heights.

The PM’s post has to move away from these two men. You can do that by using the facts above, and others, to convince your friends and families not to vote PNC and PANGU endorsed candidates.

You have power to make a change. You won’t get that power back for 5 years. Make it count.

This is a quote from a candidate contesting the Sohe Open in Oro Province is a message to all:

“Check your products before purchasing. Refunds are done every five years.” Stephen Kila Pat

Many young people are contesting the PNG 2022 national election. Some have graduated a few months ago with their university degrees, whilst others have been working for just a few years.

Young people in PNG have been politically active since independence. The likes of former Prime Minister Pias Wingti left his studies at the University of Papua New Guinea mid-way and contested elections and won. Julias Chan was only 28 when he became the first finance minister of PNG. Michael Somare was barely past his 30s when he led PNG to independence.

Some of the current politicians like Gary Juffa, Alan Bird, and Powes Parkop were at the forefront of student-led protests during their days at University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG).

This trend continues – where students develop ambitions during the many protests against the government during university studies, and then go for elections. It is not uncommon for former university students to tell the populace during elections that “I fought for your rights” and got shot at by the police. Several UPNG students have even contested the Port Moresby Northwest seat during the semester break (elections fall during semester break in PNG), failed to get elected, returned and completed their studies!

There is a distinction to be made between what we are seeing now, and the past generations.

Julias Chan and Michael Somare era was different because in their generation, they were about the only educated Papua New Guineans we had.

Gary Juffa, Alan Bird and Powes Parkop went into private and public sector, proved their worth, gained the necessary experience, and entered politics.

Unlike the 1970s and 80s, we already have an educated population and are in no desperate need for young graduates entering politics. And if you wonder why Gary Juffa is an effective orator or why Bird is so in delivering services, it has to do with experience.

There is a concern.

Many of the young people who contest the election see politics as the only way they can make a difference in their communities. In fact they see politics as the answer to all the questions. Phrases like “everything rises and falls on leaderships” is so manipulated and grossly abused in PNG.

This misconception partly has to do with what PNG politics has evolved into: that politics is about money. If you have money, you can solve about any problem in your community.

PNG Open MPs get K10 million in DSIP funds annually which they spend largely at their discretion. The Governors get K5 million multiplied by the number of districts in their province – annually.

Most PNG politicians don’t see themselves as law makers. The people don’t see them as lawmakers either. The MPs are seen as walking ATMs. Everything from haus krai contribution to health centres is the role of the MP.

You hardly hear candidates campaigning about the 370 colonial laws that are still applicable in PNG (according to Constitutional Law Reform Commission) and how to reform it.

Young people have a right to contest elections. But the twisted view that politics is the answer to everything is troubling. That leadership means occupying a political office is twisted. That you can only make a difference if you’re MP is a delusional.

In one of my Facebook posts, I posted this:

“… The day our musicians become international stars, our sports athletes win Olympic medals, our rugby, soccer, cricket teams start winning international trophies, our entrepreneurs and products become international brands, our literatures are made into movies, and our novels make the New York Times best sellers… is the day the number of PNG candidates who contest the elections will drop. At the moment, politics is the proven way one becomes rich and popular. Kids from a young age are introduced to three months of non-stop election frenzy. When they grow they want to be politicians. And the circle goes on. 2000+ candidates. Over a billion spent nationwide. All for what?…”

Politics is seen as how rockstars are made (Juffa, Bird, Kramer). Politics is seen as where all the answers lie. Politics is associated with leadership in the exclusion of other arenas. It’s a twisted view, and it needs to change.

It’s unfair not to say that some young people do understand elections as a process of getting elected to make laws. The main role of politicians. And they see a genuine need for political representation for their communities. The rant above doesn’t apply to you. In PNG, politics turns good men into evil men. Keep your hearts pure.