Academia Nomad

There were many tributes written about Sam Basil, including one by Sam Koim, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue Commission, which was re-published here.

In this article, I will talk about the impact of Sam Basil’s passing on the political party he formed in 2020 and was leading into the 2022 elections before the tragic accident that took his life – The United Labour Party (ULP).

The nationwide outpouring of mourning and sympathy for Sam Basil is only second to Sir Mekere Mourata and Sir Michael Somare in 2020.

There is a difference though. Both Somare and Mourata were former prime ministers (PM) well into their old age. Sam Basil, on the other hand was young, and had the ambitions to become prime minister. He was a life full of potential, taken too young.

This outpouring of sympathy has an immense impact on candidates endorsed by United Labour Party. The profile of the party has shot up astronomically since the death of Basil on 11 May 2022.

Orange, the ULP colour is dominating PNG social media. Those who have not heard of URP, or didn’t care about URP before, are now hearing about it on a daily basis.

On 16 May multitudes were waiting at the Jackson’s International Airport drapped in PNG flags, Morobe flags (Sam Basil’s province) and orange shirts and hats, as they waited Sam Basil’s body to arrive from Morobe.

There’s a three days National Haus Krai (mourning) at the John Guise Indoor Stadium where people from all walks of life are coming to pay their respects. The stadium is draped in orange. Even the ULP candidate for Port Moresby’s name was announced during one of the performances which he organised for the mourning. He got a national televised publicity whilst other contestants are waiting for 19 May 2022 to start campaigns when the nominations open.

Getting a free national coverage during events like this is not unique. But in PNG, there’s an added layer.

Death and mourning is a very significant moment. It’s a time where arguments are resolved, mistakes of the past are forgiven, and support comes from those you expect the least from.

How do these moments translate into political capital?

Take Dame Carol Kidu as an example. Whenever you have the chance to speak to Carol, ask her how she got elected in 2002. She will tell you she won because of “sympathy votes.” This is a loosely translated phrase from the Tok Pisin phrase “bel sore” vote. Out of compassion and sympathy for your loss, people will support you, including voting you.

Carol Kidu’s husband Sir Buri Kidu was the first national Chief Justice of PNG. He was expected to contested the Port Moresby South electorate in 2002 where his village Hanuabada is located. He unfortunately died in 1994. Carol Kidu then contested the seat in 2002 to fulfil her husband’s ambitions. And out of “sympathy” or “bel sore” for her husband, she was elected. Carol then had to work hard to get political support to get re-elected in 2007 on her own merits. She retired from politics in 2012.

With all due respect, Sam Basil was not popular since 2017 when he switched from opposition to O’Neill led government. This was because since his election to parliament in 2012, Sam Basil was a vocal critic of Somare Government (2012 – 2011), and O’Neill Government (2012-2017). Basil was synonymous with anti-corruption, and was tipped to be the next prime minister.

This support was evident in the success of PANGU Party in 2017 election. PANGU at the time didn’t have any MP in parliament, so Basil left his party at the time – PNG Party – and took leadership of PANGU and led it into the 2017 election. He emerged with 14 MPs, a respectable number in a parliament that has 111 MPs, and where no party gets more than 30 seats.

Basil then tried to form the government but failed, and O’Neill’s People Congress Party with 28 MPs formed the government. Basil then did the unthinkable. After briefly remaining in the opposition, towards the end of 2017, he took PANGU party MPs and moved over to join the O’Neill Government.

It was at this point that he lost the popularity among Papua New Guineans. When the government changed in 2019, Basil played his cards and got the deputy PM post.

Then in 2020 he left his deputy PM seat and attempted to remove James Marape as PM. When this failed, he returned to his position as deputy PM along side James Marape.

Basil again lost the respect among many Papua New Guineans. ULP was not that popular among Papua New Guineans for these reasons. Many saw Basil as lacking integrity for constantly switching alliances. This was until a few days ago when Sam Basil lost his life in a car accident.

Now with all the sympathy pouring in, Sam Basil’s candidates will enjoy similar success to that of Carol Kidu in 2002. Sympathy votes will increase ULP candidates chances of winning. There are three preferences in PNG elections. In many places, voters will express their “bel sore” with one of these preferences by voting a ULP candidate.

When I first posted a short extract of third article on Facebook to get a reaction, many commented with phrases like “that was what I was thinking.” This means it’s a popular opinion. Interesting if it translates into reality.

This article was first posted by Sam Koim on his Facebook post.

By Sam Koim

TRIBUTE TO late SAM BASIL, MY BROTHER.

We met on the battlefield, not against each other, but against an invisible enemy that still threatens the wellbeing of our nation today. I was a rookie State Lawyer and he was a firebrand opposition Member of Parliament. We shared a common passion to combat the invisible enemy – corruption.

When the Government changed in August 2011, he was appointed the coveted economic Ministry of National Planning. That department was fraught with controversy and his first assignment was to do some cleaning up. This Kumul Blong Morobe, together with the then Attorney General, called me up to draft a NEC Submission to establish a team to investigate the allegations of corruption at his department.

Inexperienced and armed with limited precedence, yet driven by a desire to combat corruption, I designed a multi-agency team structure that would draw resources and powers from multiple State agencies to establish a dragnet in sweeping corruption at all its multiple facets. I delivered the draft submission the next day and advised the two ministers to find a retired judge or an experienced person to lead the team. He insisted I take it up because I designed the investigation structure. I declined but he asked me to think it over a few days and revert to him.

After two days, he called me up and asked if I had made up my mind. I was into my third year of working then and wasn’t confident of taking up such an onerous responsibility. I told him I wasn’t confident of chairing the team but could assist as a team member. However, this first termer MP who had spent four years in opposition then, saw something in me that I didn’t at that time. To force me to take up the role, he threatened to resign from his ministry. He told me “brother, I came to National Planning because we were going to clean it up and if you cannot help me do it, then maski mi go back bencher.” That was really hard to bargain so I reluctantly took it up and the rest is history.

I had it in me, but it took this National Leader with the seeing eyes to see it. He identified a raw talent in me and launched me forth. We have no blood, tribal, political, or business connection. I am not one of his voters or political supporters –something that unfortunately takes precedence in some cases.

Since then, I’ve always strived to live up to the trust he had on me by performing well wherever I am deployed. In turn, he respects my apolitical distance and professional judgement.

I am forever grateful to this giant PNGean.

Our bond is a shared desire to make a difference in this country. Investigation Taskforce Sweep was a testament of this common bond of purpose.

He reached the top yet remained humble to be reachable by his largely rural people. From my apolitical distance, I watched him plied his craft in politics from a single MP to resurrecting a dead party in Pangu, to reconstituting a destabilised group in ULP within days, and was on his way to be a force in this election when tragedy struck him.

He had more to give to this country. It is indeed a great loss to this country.

I have been privileged and proud to call him ‘brother’. There were times when he talked and I listened. There were times when I spoke and he listened. There were times when we both got along. He gave me every reason to call him my brother. I will surely miss him.

Rest Easy, Brother!
Rest Easy, Deputy Prime Minister!

If I had an option of creating my own village, I would be happy to have all the University graduates without jobs as members of the village.

Our chief would be someone with a degree in psychology from UPNG. Our church treasurer would be an accountant graduate from Unitech. Our marriage counsellor from the church would be a law graduate from UPNG who understands international conventions on human rights and the constitutional limitations on the application of custom. An anthropology graduate would be our land mediator.

Our village committees would be headed by degree holders. An environmental graduate would lead the village’s efforts to build resilience against climate change. We would have a wide array of educated individuals who would fight against government sponsored land grabbing and loggers.

Guys from University of National Resources & Environment would lead the inland fisheries farming, and adoption of climate resilient crops.

This village would be more educated than my current village back home. My folks home don’t have a formal job. But they also have very limited understanding of the issues listed above. A village settled by job-less University graduates is better than one that doesn’t.

Our village meetings would give equal opportunities for men and women to speak. The quality of the discussions would be far superior.

My point is this, getting a formal job should not be the main reason for getting an education. And The National Newspaper’s front page story that paints that it’s all gloom and doom is because there are no jobs is just wrong.

PNG’s literacy rate is the lowest in the region, and we need everyone educated. Not necessarily so they can get a formal employment, but because an educated population is critical of their government, make educated decisions, health conscious, and can fight for their rights more effectively, among many other things.

By Betani Ruhup

I graduated with Bachelor of Arts on 26 April 2022 from the University of Papua New Guinea. But before that, I had interesting careers as subsistence farmer, boiler at a mine, security guard, cleaner, secondary school teacher, and then as a student at UPNG worked as cleaner at night. It’s been a long journey. This is my story.

I did my grade seven at Aitape High School in 1993 after completing Grade 6 at the Divanapmin Primary School. After suffering from malaria attack I transferred to Telefomin High School and continued Grades 7 – 8. I then attended Grades 9 and 10 at Tabubil High School.

I failed the Grade 10 examination.

My brother Joe Finn Ruhup Snr told me to go home and plant taro and kaukau. I followed his advise.

After some time, I went back to Tabubil and enrolled for the flexible learning or distant education (CODE/FODE) at the OK Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) Training Center.While upgrading my marks I was given a job at the OTML and I learnt at the job as I went along. I worked at the Mill Chemistry Laboratory.

I often used to take my CODE assignments to the work place(OTML Chem Lab) and worked on them during tea breaks and lunch hours. It was hard.

In 2005 I resigned from Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML). I need to tell the story of why I resigned.

One fortnight Friday afternoon, I was crushing some Geology Blast Hole Samples and I felt that somebody was staring at me. At the back door I saw a white man starring at me above his lenses.

I was so scared. He told me to stop and sit down. He was the Managing Director of Ok Tedi Mining Limited, Keith Faukner.

He told me: “Son you know what? I am an underground Mining Engineer [and my advise to you is this – move on].”

He then just walked off without an explanation. Taken back by these words I resigned immediately.

After that I tried many institutions hoping to get a qualification that would get me a good job. I attended several institutions like Pom Tech ( now Pom Poly Tech), Lae Tech( now Lae Poly Tech, and other private institutions like Commercial Training College, Mae Professional Institute, International Training Institute, and Mapex Training Institute.

To support my studies during this period I worked as a Security Guard with Tawap Kaman Security Services (at Tabubil) and Cleaner at the Tabubil Super Market.

I then applied to the University of Goroka to study Diploma in Melanesian Studies, and once I completed it, I pursued a Bachelor of Education. I graduated and taught for six years in various secondary schools before applying to UPNG.

While studying at UPNG, for two years (2018 and 2019) I was a cleaner in the night at 9 Mile, Makana Morobe Block, and during the day I was a student.

In 2020 Christmas I worked with Pacific Cooperate Security as a Security Guard and in 2021 I was engaged to mark Grade 11 distance mode geography assessments for PC Central at Waigani. Thats how I survived at UPNG.

Today (26 April 2022) I graduated with Bachelor of Arts. I now have a BA in Education from Goroka University, and Bachelor of Arts from University of Papua New Guinea. I could have settled as subsistence farmer after grade 10, or stopped studying once I got the job as a secondary school teacher. But I refused. Even if that meant working as a cleaner and security guard to complete a BA from UPNG.

Note from Michael Kabuni: I taught Betani for one of the political science subjects. He was well mannered gentleman. All the best Betani. You are an inspiration to many.

Among the thousands who graduated from the University of Papua New Guinea from 25 – 27 April 2022, a small number, about 40, were from the UPNG Political Science Department.

A graduate of Political Science received the Dean’s Award for attaining the highest GPA. Due to limited quota, politics department only selects students with GPA of 4.0 – there are only 30 spaces. So the department has some of the brightest who come through from the secondary schools.

At the graduation, the politics department was also the only department within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences to graduate honors students – three of them. Honors is a one year graduate program offered across UPNG faculties where students who have BA or qualified to graduate with a BA from the preceding year produce a thesis on a specific topic. These three wrote about cases of intimate partner violence in NCD, tax evasion in the forestry sector, and the public private partnership in health assistance to Kwikila Health Centre.

Two of the honors students graduated with first class honors – both were female students. The third student graduated with second class honors. Two of the graduates are junior tutors with the politics department.

It was a good year for us. But about a decade ago, it wasn’t so great.

The department has gone through a lot of difficulties. When I came through as a student, at one point we had only two lecturers – Mr Mattew Bige and Mr Dixon Susub – teaching the whole political science students at the University of Papua New Guinea, from first to final year.

Dixon Susub had a graduate certificate in diplomacy at an institute in Paris. Mattew Bige had a MA from UPNG. We didn’t have a professor or a PhD academic at the department. The likes of Dr Ray Anere (late), Dr Henry Okole (late), Dr Alphonse Gelu had all left for the National Research Institute. Dr Orove Sepoe decided not to renew her contract. These academics were accomplished researchers and respected political commentators in PNG and the region.

The department went from being one of the best to one surviving on life-support.

As I completed my final year, a Dutch man, Professor Jan Kees van Donge whose wife was a medical doctor arrived. She had some voluntary job at the Port Moresby General Hospital, so he decided to teach at Politics Department whilst they were in PNG.

Professor Jan Kees Van Donge spent time teaching in universities in Africa, and had won several awards for his publications, had led large scale researches and had a long list of publications. He was later joined by Alan Robson, who was employed by Australian National University and sent to PNG as a representative of the now defunct Group of Eight Australian Universities (G8). The G8 comprised of the top 8 Australian universities, funded by the then AusAID program, and he was there to help PNG universities as part of the G8 initiatives.

Both Alan and Jan Kees had brief teaching stints at UPNG before that, so they very familiar with the culture, and the students.

From the outset they realised that if nothing was done, the Politics Department would collapse after they left. They decided to revive the Politics Honors Program, with the hope of raising a new generation of UPNG Political Science academics.

Seven of us enrolled in 2013. Six male and one female, who dropped out mid-year. By 2014, all six of us graduated. Three of us left for Masters overseas. The honors program continued.

Geejay Milli and Teddy Winn, former graduates of Politics returned to the strand after completing Masters overseas. The rebuilding was underway.

I completed Masters and joined the department in 2016. Russel Yangin, who was from my honors cohort also completed MA and joined us in 2018. Dr Francis Wagarai, from our honors cohort, who continued on to PhD whilst we returned after completing MA, recently joined the department.

Jan Kees retired in 2015 and returned to the Netherlands, and Dixion left in 2016. Mattew is still with the department.

Teddy is completing PhD at James Cook and returning. Geejay and I started PhD at ANU. It’s not looking that bad anymore. Two more years and we’ll have a complete team.

We still struggle with high number of students. For the last five years I taught 500 students on average every year. Most of these students come to take politics courses from other disciplines.

This year we applied for and secured two grants from international agencies for research. Our honors program is evolving well. This year we have seven students. The UPNG Political Students Association was very active last year, and continue to host forums and discussions with politicians and researchers.

There’s always the question about what job prospects are out there for political science graduates. I don’t have an answer to that. But I do know of political science graduates who are now departmental heads, working in NGOs, consultants, administrators and many running their own businesses, and of course some have become politicians. You just have to start somewhere.

The study of politics remains important. As the Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson argue in their best seller book “Why Nations Fail”, the relative success of nations is due not to geography, culture, or ignorance, but rather is due to how inclusive their political institutions are.

The more inclusive their political institutions, the more inclusive their economic institutions will be. And that is why the study of politics remains important for PNG.