WHAT is the achievement that PNG is to celebrate at 46th anniversary of its inauguration as a nation, come September 16, 2021? The Global Development Index reports from around the region and the world have downgraded PNG to lowest scores and this is a bad trend and a bad news. If my mind is in its right condition, I can only think of the destructions and failures our political leadership and bureaucracy have inflicted upon the people and society of this nation of thousand tribes. Sadly, all should bury the heads and mourn the losses and misfortunes instead of putting up celebrations.
Papua New Guinea became free from the control, restraint and power of Australia on September 16th 1975, when self-rule was granted with a golden handshake following United Nation’s Resolution on Decolonization of Trust Territories in the South Pacific region, five years after Fiji, who became independent on 10th of October, 1970, at the time the international political movement of decolonization was sweeping across the globe.
We are now marking the 46th anniversary of self-rule but only to find that the country has sunk to a low pitch of abject fortune. The country’s economic and fiscal management of things, particularly in terms of taxation and collection of revenues from resources like liquefied natural gas (LNG) has become an abject failure. The prime resources which were tipped to alleviate poverty and provide much needed cash for national development purposes have been hijacked and robbed by multinational companies, who have taken advantage of the lack of knowledge and skills on the part of the leadership to negotiate a better and fair deal for PNG, and above all, preying on a weak leadership and bureaucracy riddled with corruption.
A clear example relates to the PNG LNG project, where 98.6% of the revenues have been taken out of the country by so-called foreign investors, whilst the PNG Government has been pushed down illegally to settle at a mere 0.2% and for the Landowners to take it or leave it at 1.2%, which is 20.6% less than what is legally protected. Under the Oil & Gas Act, the host Government is to retain 22% for all petroleum projects undertaken in the country. However, for some unknown reasons, this is not the case for the PNG LNG project and again our laws have been breached and our LNG resources cheated and plundered.
Obviously, one of the biggest opportunities for PNG to have become financially independent had been mishandled and messed up. Now it remains a missed opportunity. Hence, the dream project that was to bail PNG out of its financial woes and alleviate poverty has now become a lost treasure and another of the missed opportunities. Hence, it cannot be possible for PNG to utilize scarce resources and money to celebrate its own failures and stupidity on National Day with such bad records of failed deals.
The next generation of leadership has taken carriage of the struggle to develop and progress the country but this time with the aim to take back the respect and integrity destroyed by previous regimes. With the elevation of Honourable James Marape as the Prime Minister of the younger generation, there is a light at the end of the tunnel to get the country out of downward trend, particularly, with his policy platform to Take Back PNG…
The Marape Government must turn the trend and course around before this beautiful ship of ours hit the iceberg, otherwise it’s already heading that direction. We have the answers and yet cannot demonstrate it. Government must start with the resource projects and REVIEW all existing project arrangements pertaining to Logging and Timber, Gold, Copper and Minerals, Oil, Gas and LNG, and all Fisheries resources with the aim to bringing them under our control to get better deals out of them.
Then the Government must review all the importation of cheap Chinese goods and the syndicates who are responsible for killing PNG’s manufacturing sector. The market is flooded with cheap and contraband goods from Asia and we must quickly put a stop to it.
Then seriously look at reinstating the Agriculture Stabilisation Fund to boost agriculture and farming at rural settings to improve cash flow and employment opportunities in terms of labour mobility.
Until and unless the above corrective measures are taken on board and actioned by future Governments which will be installed after Election 2022 and thereafter, PNG will have no reason to celebrate the Day September 16, now and in future. In other words, there is nothing to be happy about and celebrate for.
The author is a Private Consultant on both Government and Private sector affairs and can be contacted on +6757272 6673 or WhatsApp on +6757462 8490 or Email address: sekinolo.sawala@gmail.com