Feature Commentary
At least five (5) characteristics or challenges of decolonization need to be re-observed on the eve of PNG’s 50th Independence anniversary in 2025.
In the Retrospect
The decolonization of Oceania occurred after World War II when nations in Oceania achieved independence by transitioning from European colonial rule to full independence:
United Kingdom: Tonga and Fiji (1970); Solomon Islands and Tuvalu (1978); Kiribati (1979)
United Kingdom and France: Vanuatu (1980)
Australia: Nauru (1968); Papua New Guinea (1975)
New Zealand: Samoa (1962)
United States: Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia (1986); Palau (1994)
Challenge 1 – State-building:
After independence, the PNG (new state) needed to establish or strengthen the institutions of its sovereign state – governments, laws, a military, schools, administrative systems, and so on. The amount of self-rule granted prior to Independence and assistance from the colonial power and/or international organizations after independence, varied greatly between colonial powers, and between individual colonies.
We adopted Constitutional democracy from the political ideology of Liberal democracy where liberty and equity lay the foundation for our nationhood.
We devised a Constitution and its sacrosanctity is as holy as it has been. Every effort thus far could only be tested against its wisdom and this has been our strength – respecting the Constitution.
We devised an electoral system that is functioning and acceptable at United Nations’ level. We have done 10 national elections since 1964 and achieving one ‘generational gap’ of 50 years of election experience.
Cross-Road
In 2022, PNG reached a junction at cross-road when we including I who stood for Angoram Open hosted the national general elections (NGE22). We go left or we go right. The fall of ‘fathers’; GC Sir Pita Lus, GC Michael Somare, and others mark the end of one ‘generational gap’ and the beginning of another. Sir J is the ‘last man standing’. We wish him good health and speedy recovery from his hospital bed.
Together all founding fathers of this country mark the end of ‘one generational gap’ and the beginning of another. The NGE22 is significant in this regard in our short history.
Universal Suffrage and Representative Democracy
National elections in PNG have been free and fair until 1990’s. Since then we have been witnessing a tapestry of problems from mediocrity in election funding and planning, corrupt election officials, bribery and vote buying, tampering of ballot boxes, violence and arson, ethnic and tribal killings, destruction of public assets and properties, and ill-fated increasing number of Election Petition (EP) litigations that result in more hatred, constraint budgets from hefty legal fees, constrain on court system and judges’ work load, and other such election related owes. We ask if the political representation (election) system we adopted at Independence needs a re-look?
Challenge 2 – Nation Building
Nation-building is the process of creating a sense of identification with, and loyalty to, the state. Nation-building projects seek to replace loyalty to the old colonial power, and/or tribal or regional loyalties, with loyalty to the new state. Elements of nation-building include creating and promoting symbols of the state like a flag, a coat of arms and a national anthem, monuments, official histories (National Museum and Art Gallery (NMAG)), national sports teams (Kumul and Hunters (rugby), Barramundi (Cricket), Kapuls (Soccer)), codifying one or more Indigenous official languages (English, Pdgin, and Motu), and replacing colonial place-names with local ones. Nation-building after independence often continues the work began by independence movements during the colonial period.
Challenge 3 – Economic development
On Independence, PNG a newly independent State also had to develop independent economic institutions – a national currency, banks, companies, regulation, tax systems, etc.
Like many other former colonies we became a serving resource colony for Australia and the European economies which produced raw materials and agricultural products, and as a captive market for goods manufactured in the colonizing country.
As a decolonized country, we created programs to promote industrialization with local content through nationalized industries and building infrastructure, and engaged in land reform to redistribute land to individual farmers or create collective farms and plantations.
Agriculture sector Currently, the agriculture sector in PNG is underscored, generating around K2.5 billion for the national coffers annually. Justify this through the Value Chain; from production to processing and marketing and maybe the fourth tier – downstream processing. One can apprehend the value of this one but important sector in our economy, how much it contributes in terms of direct and indirect businesses and spin-offs. So many people, businesses, and the economy depend on it.
In 1977, the agriculture sector contributed as much as 37 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Today, the sector contributes less than 25 per cent. In the last 20 years DAL received less than two (2) per cent from the national budget resulting in a dead-end to its core functions and effective service delivery mechanisms.
The sector continues to suffer as its departmental head’s position debacle and power struggle continue. Under two years, DAL has changed three Secretaries and staff performance and morale is at its lowest. This does not help the sector to freedom but punishment.
Cooperative Societies and Stret Pasin Stua
We saw the birth and success of Cooperative Societies in 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s and establishment of the Agriculture bank. We saw the rise and successes of Stret Pasin Stua (SPS) businesses.
The SPS scheme helped a number of Papua New Guineans to own and operate retail shops throughout the country.
A number of them have become successful but along the way, some have failed while others sold off to mostly businessmen of Asian origin. Some of these SPS millionaires have gone back to ‘walking the streets’.
Human Development Institute (HDI) which was established by Samuel Tam who started the Stret Pasin Stoa scheme to train locals to operate retail outlets in the country under the Development Bank then, says the scheme which had operated over three decades had mixed successes. Tam has pointed out occasions the reasons why the scheme failed.
The National Research Institute (NRI) in its June, 2021 discussion paper on the history of the scheme made the following recommendations:
Ban all foreigners from expanding to restricted reserve businesses and strictly regulate and legislate the reserve business space for nationals only;
Increase national government budget allocation annually from K200 million to over K1billion for SME sector in PNG, open up credit market and relax applications process to incentivise borrowing by nationals;
Support the Stret Pasin Stoa scheme by introducing complementary incentives such as tax credit, freight subsidies and grants;
Develop a new model of the Stret Pasin Stoa scheme with key features of old scheme intact (include selection and training requirements and effective monitoring and audit);
Expand the scope of Stret Pasin Stoa scheme to include other SMEs (agriculture, tourism, cottage etc.) with 100 per cent credits and no collateral and equity;
Expand Stret Pasin Stoa scheme to small business centres in other provinces with increase credit to nationals (especially medium- to low-income groups) consistent with the SME policy; and
Legislate the SME policy and make Stret Pasin Stoa programme mandatory in PNG.
Nonetheless, PNG as a decolonized country continue to maintain strong economic ties with the former colonial power and expanding its bi-lateral and multi-lateral relationships simultaneously. After independence, PNG became member to the United Nations, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, and other regional and sub-regional organizations such as APEC, Pacific Island Forum (PIF), Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and continue to create new relations with countries of the world to promote trade and economic development.
Challenge 4 – Military
In military, the colonizer has done something but little to build “capacity” and “capability” of our PNG Defense Force although PNG has an existing Defense Cooperation Program (DCP) with Australia for years.
“The defence relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea is a strong and enduring one. It is founded on the basis of history and shared experiences – many current Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) units trace their regimental history to Papuan and New Guinea units formed as part of the Australian Army and Royal Australian Navy during and after the Second World War.
“Australia places a high priority on defence cooperation with PNG. Australia and PNG have a unique strategic role in contributing to the security and stability of our region. Our Defence Cooperation Program (DCP)—Australia’s largest—is building PNG’s defence capabilities in response to PNG’s priorities by making long-term investments in PNG’s personnel, equipment and infrastructure.
No one talked when the Mekere Government with assistance from New Zealand and Australia down-sized the PNGDF from 4,200 to 1,500 troops in 2001. Mekere called it “radical overhaul” because of the “instability” within the PNGDF structure.
US-PNG DCA
On May 22, 2023, the Marape-Rosso Government turned to the United States and signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the US with the aim of building the PNDF’s troops’ number, its capability, training, governance, and importantly ‘presence’ of security in the region in light of the swinging of geo-political pendulum and militarization of the ‘blue Pacific’.
ANZUS Treaty
The Australia, New Zealand and United States Security Treaty, or ANZUS Treaty, was an agreement signed in 1951 to protect the security of the Pacific. Although the agreement has not been formally abrogated, the United States and New Zealand no longer maintain the security relationship between their countries.
Marape achieved in this “direct” deal between Port Moresby and Washington when the US-PNG DCA was signed bypassing Wellington and Canberra.
No wonder the noise and hysteria created by New Zealand and Australian media and a snippet of China-war fear mongers among students, civil societies and politicians in PNG.
Challenge 5 – Infrastructure:
One of the key priorities in the decolonization process is infrastructure. Australia has done little in this area before decolonization. Most of the roads or parts of the roads in PNG were built by hand by locals; the highlands highway, the Simogun highway in East Sepik were few examples.
Successive Governments over time had to invest billions of kina in infrastructure development to ‘fill the vacuum’ left by the colonizer. Compare infrastructure of India by Great Britain prior to decolonization.
Since 1975, PNG had invested hundreds of billions of kina in road development and critical asset and infrastructure development to bring itself in par with world standard for service delivery to flow.
This comes with great cost to Personal Quality of Life (PQL) improvement in rural PNG.
Connect PNG
Prime Minister James Marape has lauded the Government’s groundbreaking ‘Connect PNG’ programme, stating that it is transforming Papua New Guinea like never before. His remarks came after Works and Highways Minister Hon. Solan Mirisim presented a comprehensive report on the initiative in Parliament on Wednesday, June 7, 2023.
The ambitious ‘Connect PNG’ programme, spanning a 20-year period from 2020 to 2040, aims to construct and maintain 16,000km of roads, including national highways, ‘Missing Link’ roads, bridges, provincial roads, and district roads. The Government’s Medium-Term Plan sets the goal of completing 16 priority national highways, totaling over 4,200km, and 1,800km of ‘Missing Link’ roads by 2027. Notably, this includes the highly anticipated Trans-Island Highway connecting Lae to Port Moresby and the New Britain Highway linking Kimbe to Kokopo.
PM Marape expressed his happiness in the transformative impact of the ‘Connect PNG’ programme, stating, “I invite those self-proclaimed ‘Think Tanks’ who dedicate their time to social media criticism of me and my Government to witness the tangible progress of ‘Connect PNG’ in the rural areas of our nation.”
He further commended Minister Mirisim, former Minister Michael Nali, Works and Highways Secretary David Wereh, and the department’s staff for the successful implementation of the programme thus far.
Highlights from the ‘Connect PNG’ report presented by Minister Mirisim include:
The commencement of work on upgrading and enhancing 4,200km of strategically important economic highways, with a projected investment of K3.5 billion by 2027. These highways, such as Hiritano, Magi, New Britain, Boluminski, Manus, Highlands, and Sepik Coastal, account for 85 percent of freight and passenger movements in their respective regions. Already, more than 50 percent (2,500km) has been completed between 2019 and 2022, amounting to a cost of K1.35 billion. Presently, there are ongoing contracts valued at over K3 billion for multi-year maintenance and capital works, with an additional K2 billion worth of projects in the design and tendering stages.
Improvement of ‘Missing Link’ roads, encompassing 1,900km, with an annual investment of K200 million from 2023 onwards, and a target of K1 billion by 2027. These road enhancements will benefit areas such as Finschhafen, Karamui, Telefomin, and Menyamya, collectively supporting a population of over one million.
The completion of the Trans-Island Highway, connecting Lae and Port Moresby, is expected by 2025 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of independence. This crucial route will also link Goroka, Madang, Mt Hagen, Wewak, Mendi, and Tari.
Other ‘Missing Link’ roads to be upgraded include Southern Highlands-Gulf, Central-Milne Bay, New Britain, Madang-Baiyer, Gulf, Fisika, Madang-Gulf, Trans-Fly Border (Kiunga-Aiambak), Tabubil-Telefomin, and Trans-Fly Border (Oriomo-Wipim)
Recognising the importance of provincial and district roads, which serve 85 per cent of the rural population, the Government has allocated K300 million annually between 2023 and 2027 to deliver 9,000km of such roads in partnership with sub-national authorities. This initiative includes the enhancement and improvement of major arterial roads in urban centres such as Mt Hagen, Port Moresby, Kokopo, and Lae. From 2019 to 2022, the Government has invested K1.29 billion to complete 1,066km of provincial and district roads out of a target of 3,000km.
Under the ‘Connect PNG’ programme, the Government is committed to upgrading and replacing 3,000m of overdue bridge structures to meet design standards. This component also encompasses the development of 2,000m of rural standard bridges. The total cost for this endeavor will amount to K1 billion, with an annual budget of K200 million allocated from 2023 to 2027. Over the past four years, the Government has spent K195.57 million on 165 bridges, covering 3,000m of rural roads and 591.44m on national highways. Additionally, major bridge replacement and upgrading of 71 bridges on the Highlands Highway to a two-lane standard are underway, with an additional 2,000m of rural bridge development currently in progres.
Conclusion
Any economy operate on the principal formula of Land + labour + Capital = Production. To achieve production you need power (electricity) and water supply systems without these two key energies you cannot achieve production.
There must be roads, bridges and airports to connect ‘production’ centers which are rural villages that own land and unskilled labour with ‘service’ centers which are towns and cities for telecommunications, internet, banking and finance, commerce and trade and importantly, export points for markets.
We congratulate Prime Minister James Marape on his fourth anniversary in taking Office as Prime Minister on May 30, 2019 and pledge our trust and support towards your leadership as our ‘Chief Servant’ leading us into our 50th anniversary as an Independent country.
