Papua New Guinea Lines Up with Putin and Russia - on the Right Side of History

(Photo: Miklukho-Maklay was one of the few people who treated the Papuans as his equals)

It is 1800s. Miklouho-Maclay wrote about a paradise lost. 

He was a Russian humanist scholar and anthropologist. Although Miklouho-Maclay continued his scientific studies in New Guinea and Australia, the last ten years of his life was mainly devoted to defending the rights of indigenous peoples. In 1879 he wrote to the British and Russian governments demanding the recognition of the indigenous people to their land. The script would be the same today.

Paradise Lost - in the 21st Century?

Miklouho-Maclay became more and more concerned with protecting the people of Astrolabe Bay from the impending threat of British and European colonial expansion. In 1879 he wrote the first of several letters to the British and Russian governments demanding recognition of the rights of the Astrolabe Bay people to their land. He explained that "each piece of ground, each useful tree of the forest, the fish in each stream, etc., etc., has a proprietor".

Under his "Maclay Coast Scheme" of 1881, Miklouho-Maclay proposed the formation of a "native Great Council" and the establishment of plantations that the local inhabitants would work, with "reasonable remuneration". His position within this paternalistic scheme was to be as adviser and foreign representative. His plans never came to fruition.

In 1884 the German anthropologist Otto Finsch, posing as Miklouho-Maclay’s friend, settled at Astrolabe Bay and claimed the area for Germany. By the end of 1884 the eastern half of New Guinea had been divided between Germany and Britain.

(Photo: Russian Warship, Perekop, Port Moresby, 2018; the Russian Bear re - tracing history)

It is 2018, and rewind the time capsule. 

Russia is back on our shores which may or may not provoke controversy and debate. After the end of the Cold War era, the clash of political ideologies seemed to be over in which the prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists. But,  what contemporary liberal democracy stands for failed to come to pass, and flies in the face of world history. Due to the end of clash of political ideologies, viable alternatives to liberalism, and human history itself was seen as reaching an end - game.  

The question of how to forge a rational global order that can accommodate humanity's restless desire for recognition without a return to chaos is not the issue. It is unsettling for the West and proponents of the liberal world order in the aftermath the Cold War era from the 1990's on wards that there is compelling and confronting evidence which shows the opposite, the re - surging, and therefore re - visit of the same human history with the return of the Russian Bear. In Melanesia, the indigenous people's claim to sovereignty and royalty status in the 21st Century would irk the Russian Bear. 

West Papua and Kanaky are two nations in Melanesia whose dream of freedom has evaded them since the 1800s. This was a time in history in which colonialism was mapped out, paving the way forward for dreams to come true, or become a ghost, a catastrophe. 

Yet, it was paradise lost for the two Melanesian and Pacific Islands nations. So, the war against terrorism is being re - invented with a spark of divinity, a' poke in the eyes of the US.' And, right on Australia's doorstep.  

Nikolai Miklouho – Maclay saw it coming and was a supporter of indigenous people’s rights to self – determination in the 1800s, long before the UN saw the arguments to ratify international protocol for indigenous people’s issues in the 21st Century. According to him, there is a genesis to the West Papua issue. In his  New Guinea Diaries( Kristen Press, 1975), he wrote:

‘I am perfectly convinced that acts of injustice from the white men, and disregard of their customs and family life, will lead to an irreconcilable hatred, and to an endless struggle for independence and justice.’

Miklouho-Maclay was on a mission then, and would do the same today to fight and save indigenous lives in New Guinea and Australia in the mid 1800s. Nicole Steinke(2013) wrote about  the effort of Russian born humanist, naturalist and proto-anthropologist who fought for the rights of colonised peoples at a time when a  volatile mix made his aim to secure indigenous people’s rights difficult during the 1870s and 1880s. This was a period in which there was a state of excitement over New Guinea in the Australian colonies; it was regarded as the last unknown and the next big thing. 

Today, the Russian and Eastern European world – view still contrasts with the Western European one on the New Guinea settlement question with a Papuan nation divided. West Papua became a ‘Greek Tragedy’(Forbes Magazine, 2012). Indonesia invaded in the 1960s, and its illegal military occupation began, and a whole race faces obliteration today as we see a shift in indigenous population from majority demographic composition of the population in the former Dutch colony to a minority by 2000. 

In independent Papua New Guinea, the story also gathers dust. It lays off the Australian radar, yet its closest neighbour, usually forgotten unless tourists are being attacked there or the government is looking for somewhere to process asylum seekers.  West Papua means less. But this was not always the case. 

In scientific circles throughout Europe, Miklouho-Maclay was well – known and became one of the most enigmatic figures in the South Pacific during the mid to late 19th century, and the legacy he left behind was full of disturbing contradictions. He became best known for his fierce support of indigenous peoples, for establishing a world class scientific research station on Sydney Harbour and for having dissected his Polynesian servant, Boy, after he died of disease, because he wanted the brain of a dark skinned person. 

In the 1800s, the people of New South Wales and Queensland in particular were eager to lay claim to New Guinea, hoping to strike it rich with gold, timber and pearl shell taking the cue from public meetings with travellers and missionaries recently returned from New Guinea who drew crowds in the hundreds.  They lobbied the British government to colonise the island before the Germans, Dutch or Russians could get their hands on it. Nobody was asking the people of New Guinea what they thought. 

Miklouho-Maclay read the signs correctly in the 1800s. For instance, the West Papua issue is now internationalized, and has gone back or about to go back through MSG intervention to the drawing board of the UN for resolution. It is the UN’s colossal blunder in the 1960s that has come back to haunt humanity, as the world finds out about the fraud. 

(Photo: Russian Warship, Perekop, Simpson Harbour 200 years after Miklouho-Maclay lived among Papuans)  

Andrew Johnson(2016) writes that the UN – supervised plebiscite called Act of Free Choice in 1969 that sold off West Papua to Indonesia had been stage – managed by the West. For instance, following the refusal by black African nations led by Ghana to recognise the result of the vote, the General Assembly made amendments to the UN resolution on West Papua in which 30 nations wanted to make to the text for General Assembly resolution 2504; it calls for a referendum to be held by 1975. Unfortunately the motion failed, 30 in support, 42 against, and 42 abstained. In the wake of the controversy, the UN ‘noted’ that some type of consultation with the international community took place to decide the fate of West Papua. 

Russia was one of those countries who voted for a referendum for West Papua to be properly conducted by 1975. Let us take up the discussion on the Russian position on West Papua. 

Russian Position on Papuan Destiny - and West Papua. 

It begins with Nikolai Miklouho – Maclay, who saw it coming and was a supporter of indigenous people’s rights to self – determination even far back in the 1800s. He was a hero then, and remains a hero in Russia today. Leo Tolstoy, with whom he exchanged letters, wrote: ‘You are the first to prove by experiment that man is man everywhere, a sociable being with whom one should communicate with kindness and truth—and not with guns and vodka. You have proved this with a feat of true courage.’

Tolstoy went on to write: ‘For the sake of all that is sacred, describe in the minutest detail and with the strict truthfulness so typical of you, all your man-to-man relations with people there.’  

Miklouho-Maclay moved to Sydney in July 1878, after living for three years among people regarded as cannibals and head hunters on the north-eastern coast of New Guinea. Until his arrival with two servants, the local people had not encountered a European. Those local people became his friends, as well as the subjects of his research. He was determined to protect them from the worst excesses of white colonisation.

He travelled extensively in the South Pacific and South-East Asia between 1871 and 1886 using the Maclay Coast in New Guinea as the base for his fieldwork and Sydney as a second home. By this time most of the South Pacific had either been colonised or had forcibly resisted colonisation. The pressure was on New Guinea from all sides.

In Sydney the white population did not take much notice of the enigmatic Russian, whose stories did not register much because he was seen as a foreign aristocrat who had lived in wild places and his imagined land of riches to the north was just an exotic tale. The Eurocentric world – view was not dented, and even one of his greatest supporters, Sir William John Macleay, politician, gentleman-naturalist and a member of the family that established the Macleay Museum which is now part of Sydney University, wrote in March 1879, ‘Baron Maclay has been soliciting subscriptions today for a Zoological Station at Watsons Bay—a very foolish scheme.’

He did make a point. His view was that the biogeography of the Pacific region is not to be taken for granted. Although cash was a problem, in the end he successfully acquired the backing of the Linnean Society and the NSW government to establish the world’s second marine biological research station, locating it on the shores of Sydney Harbour. The European world – view was dominant, but did not distract Miklouho-Maclay from his passionate struggle for New Guinea's indigenous people, and his vision that they enjoy independence rather than colonization—or failing that, a benevolent form of protectorate that would not remove the local people's autonomy. 

And, he lobbied in the local papers, writing letters. An excerpt from a letter he wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald was to the point:

‘During my stay among the natives... I had ample time to make acquaintance with their character, their customs, and institutions. Speaking their language sufficiently, I thought it my duty as their friend (and also as a friend of justice and humanity) to warn the natives... about the arrival, sooner or later, of the white men, who, very possibly, would not respect their rights to their soil, their homes, and their family bonds.'

He went on, ‘should annexation of the south-eastern half of New Guinea be decided by the British Government, I trust it will not mean taking wholesale possession of the land and its inhabitants without knowledge or wish of the natives, and utterly regardless of the fact that they are human beings and not a mob of cattle.'

‘I am perfectly convinced that acts of injustice from the white men, and disregard of their customs and family life, will lead to an irreconcilable hatred, and to an endless struggle for independence and justice.’

(Photo: Miklouho-Maclay monument, Vanimo: He wrote a letter to German Chancellor Bismarck calling on him to protect the Pacific islanders from “white exploitation”. 

Miklouho-Maclay was disturbing the momentum, and contradictions, of white civilization in the region. He knew that the colonial powers had no time for him, and they distrusted him as a foreigner on the streets of Sydney with his proposal when he approached a number of colonial powers in attempting to broker a deal for the New Guinea people. He failed. New Guinea was colonised by the Dutch, the Germans and the British, and the colonies in Australia formed a federation that became Australia today. Indigenous people’s rights did not matter, and Miklouho-Maclay soon vanished from history.

In Russia, however, he became a national icon - although not during his lifetime but in the Soviet era when he became a symbol scientific discovery and humanitarian ethos, a giant. His legend grew after he died while on a rare trip to Russia with his wife Margaret and their two children. He was aged just 41 and had not yet written the major book he had planned, based on his researches in New Guinea. 

Tolstoy wrote to him before he died, ‘I don’t know what kind of contribution your collections and discoveries have made to the science that you serve, but the experience you have gained in communication with savages, forms a whole epoch in the science that I serve, the science of how people should live with one another. Write your story and you will do mankind a good turn.’

Miklouho-Maclay kept journals throughout all his voyages in the South Pacific including the original field journals written in numerous languages. Most of his papers went missing, or were destroyed by his wife after his death in St Petersburg in 1888. In Russia, Miklouho-Maclay's story was later used for propaganda purposes during Stalinist times. He was acclaimed as a man who saw beyond racial difference to the fundamental equality of all people and was used as a symbol of how the Soviet Union dealt with indigenous people in a more humane way than Western powers. Stalinist-style revised versions of his New Guinea diaries were published as evidence of this. Words such as ‘primitive’ were replaced with the word ‘indigenous’.

In post-Soviet times his lustre has dimmed with the younger generation, as Soviet icons are toppled, but Miklouho-Maclay’s scientific reputation lived on. In 1884, he married his wife Margaret Emma Clark, widowed daughter of Sir John Robertson at her father's home, Clovelly, Watsons Bay, and on a trip back to Russia, they were married by rites of the Russian Orthodox Church in early 1886. He planned to return to Sydney but his health deteriorated and he died in his wife’s arms on 2 April 1888. Margaret  returned to Sydney, and worked on publishing his New Guinea Diaries. She died in Sydney on 1 January 1936 survived by their two sons. The publication finally appeared in English in 1975, published by a PNG publisher, Kristen Press. 

Australia Mandate from the League of Nations  - Rule of German New Guinea, 1945 

(Image: the colonies that became Australia and Papua New Guinea,1885)

In 1920 Australia received a mandate from the League of Nations to rule German New Guinea and in 1945 Papua and New Guinea were combined in an administrative union. Papua New Guinea was ruled by Australia until its independence in 1975. Tens of thousands of Australians worked  in the eastern half of New Guinea over those years. Now, Papua New Guinea is the only evidence of the UN dream of the birth of a Papuan nation that stretched from Sorong to Samarai. It is the last unknown of the world, and like Nikolai, is largely forgotten by Australians. 

Yet, he made a strong statement on the fate of New Guinea then, as if he saw neo – liberal capitalism pushed by the West in the region today which was a sign post already in the 1800s. In 1879 he wrote the first of several letters to the British and Russian governments demanding recognition of the rights of the Astrolabe Bay people to their land. 

He explained that "each piece of ground, each useful tree of the forest, the fish in each stream, etc., etc., has a proprietor". Papuans who are indigenous to New Guinea from Sorong to Samarai have no other world – view. Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay spoke of the Russian world – view on the fate of indigenous people and approached Tsar Alexander III to organize a free Russian colony in New Guinea. It did not happen. Today, MSG options on West Papua through international arbitration may or may not yield, that the theatre of global geopolitics has pushed the Global South into a corner. One might argue that MSG options on West Papua must be located in the context of similar Western meddling which began in 1800s to foment unrest and destabilize BRICS nations in an effort to ensure the continuation of Western economic and political control over the Global South. 

According to this argument MSG could connect with Russia because the global geopolitics paradigm has shifted, and its member states could enjoy comparative advantage of multipolar diplomacy with BRICS as opposed to APEC and TPP. Or, exploit existential pluralism to cash in on the superpower rivalry. 

However, one should not miss the forest for the trees. There are powerful forces aligning behind Indonesia and other Western proxy political forces in order to destabilize MSG as a partner of the BRICS project. 

The MSG will be the target of a multi-faceted, asymmetric campaign of destabilization through soft coup in which economic, political, and psychological forms of warfare -- each of which has been specifically designed to inflict maximum damage on any move by the Global South to escape from US hegemony. For example, in Brazil the fancy anti-corruption rhetoric is really an assault on President Dilma Rousseff’s leftist government, and is the result of a coordinated campaign by business interests tied to Washington and Wall Street. 

In other words, the fancy anti-corruption rhetoric was a cover – up for the assault as the result of a coordinated campaign by business interests tied to Washington and Wall Street, and neoliberal capitalism, as it broadens its engagement with the non-Western world as well as use multi-faceted strategies to contain, isolate, and destabilize Russia and China. In Brazil, the government of Dilma Rousseff is facing a major destabilization campaign orchestrated by powerful right-wing elements in the country and their U.S. backers. MSG could orchestrate a move in anticipation for a similar storm that is orchestrated to stop the West Papua agenda from reaching the UN General Assembly.

Today, Papuanism and therefore Melanesian identity is on the precipice, and West Papua burns in the vortex of a global armed conflict. We remember Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, and the sins of Western civilization as we forgive. He was one of the earliest followers of Charles Darwin, and a humanist scholar who, on the basis of his comparative anatomical research, was one of the first anthropologists to refute the prevailing view that the different 'races' of mankind belonged to different species.By the end of 1884 the eastern half of New Guinea had been divided between Germany and Britain. It is now the independent state of Papua New Guinea. Australia continues to look the other way. The 250 indigenous Papuan tribes in West Papua face obliteration as a race under Indonesian colonial rule since its invasion of the former Dutch colony in the 1960s. 

Let West Papua Vote!  

When all things are said and done, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay was a Soviet cultural hero whose influence flowed into 20th century after the Russian revolution. During Stalinist times (long after his death) he was adopted by the state bureaucracy and raised up as a hero for political purposes, therefore a national hero who sprang from Russia’s past. It was a time then to reinterpret him during the course of Russia’s history. He has been a part of Russia’s rich culture that graced our shores in Melanesia, and the Pacific region in the late 1870s. 

In our region, it is time now to reinterpret him as a Russian who fought to save indigenous lives. The national liberation struggle in West Papua is an endless struggle for independence and justice by Papuans, and justice was denied for a long time. His advice, in the 1800s, and today is simple. 

Miklouho-Maclay - like New Guinea – is almost completely forgotten. It must be the disturbing contradictions that white civilization in the region just wants to leave behind, a moral universe that is contaminated, beginning early. Today, West Papua and Kanaky are still waiting to claim their inalienable right to sovereignty and royalty, and on the precipice. The former is burning in the vortex of a global armed conflict. We remember Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, and the sins of Western civilization as we forgive. In the 1800s, the Russian Bear was here. After 200 years, and Vladimir Putin took over as Russian leader, Eastern Christianity has come knocking on Christian country, Papua New Guinea.

Ask the people of New Guinea what they think. Let West Papua vote!  

(Photo: 7000 tonne Russian warship, Perekop, is loaded with 200 cadets, and armed with anti - submarine rockets and anti - aircraft guns; ' a poke in the eyes of the US', it was docked in Port Moresby from Wednesday 16th to Saturday 19th May 2018)

Robe Probe: Papua New Guinea's Temples of Injustice

(Photo: PNG Chief Justice Salamo Injia; online vitriol has been directed at unscrupulous judges including him by anonymous plaintiffs for judicial decisions they feel were biased or corrupt) 

In PNG  political corruption can divert scarce resources from the rural poor and disadvantaged people to the urban population. And, it happens, especially common in countries where democratic institutions are weak or absent. It becomes a matter of private rather than public interests dictating policy.

This means an ethical line has been crossed. Governments can’t act freely and democracy can’t function. Any trust in politicians is damaged. The easy way out is to turn away from involvement with how government is going on and look the other way. If political corruption continues unchecked, it will spill over, and a lot will be at stake especially in fragile states.

JUDICIAL CORRUPTION - NO SILVER BULLET!

It is now about a conversation that speaks to the truth and in so doing expose corruption at the heart of Papua New Guinea's judicial system, that seems entrenched and is disturbingly commonplace. And, judicial corruption undermines the fabric of any modern society. If the police routinely take bribes and court officials are for sale to the highest bidder, then justice is put beyond the reach of ordinary people and it becomes impossible to trust the law.

The contentious issue or milestone in this descent has been a growing concern that corruption has crept into our judiciary. In the past, courts were free of it. But as the weak structures of state collapse under the weight of political corruption, malaise continues to afflict our country, and graft has now permeated the hallowed grounds of the court. It is an institution that has a direct effect on all aspects of life and is mandated to uphold justice and therefore the distinguish the role of the judiciary as an arm of government.

In the shadowy trail of corruption seen through the murky window of PNG's courts, we can trace a chain of corruption and uncover a court system more akin to a market place where justice or rather injustice is on sale, with the higher bidders standing a better chance of sealing buys. It took syndicate journalism to  uncover crimes allegedly perpetrated by a cobweb of judicial officers, all out for profit in the guise of justice.

JOHN LOCKE'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

(Image: John Locke; his Two Treatises on political philosophy included the theory of property)

According to John Locke, landowners in resource project areas in the country have a right to demand their share of the production on their land. In his Two Treatises of Government the development of the concept of government was informed by his 7 propositions: Natural Law and Natural Right; State of Nature; Property; Consent; Political Obligation, and the Ends of Government; Locke and Punishment; Separation of Powers and the Dissolution of Government, and Toleration.

The Hela Crisis may be traced to conflict theory. Another Bougainville Crisis? This is why.

John Locke's political philosophy gives credence to both. John Locke (1632–1704) is among the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. In the Two Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal, which disputes claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch. His argument that people have rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, that have a foundation independent of the laws of any particular society means landowners of resource - rich provinces in the country have a point if they take issue with foreign investors and the state.

The foundation of Locke's claim is that men are naturally free and equal, which forms part of the justification for understanding legitimate political government as the result of a social contract where people in the state of nature conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property. Since governments exist by the consent of the people in order to protect the rights of the people and promote the public good, governments that fail to do so can be resisted and replaced with new governments.

Locke is thus referring also to any defense of the right of revolution.

Locke's treatment of property locates Exxon Mobil in its proper place. The current debates over whether landowners have a case is exactly what Locke was trying to accomplish with his theory. One interpretation that short - changes Exxon Mobil is its claim to defend unrestricted capitalist accumulation. However, Locke is thought to have set three restrictions on the accumulation of property in the state of nature. For instance, Exxon Mobil is required by PNG's laws to be operating within compliance standards throughout the period of its operations.

It can only escape or evade by navigating the loopholes. And, in developing countries like Papua New Guinea, the separation of powers principle or theory of government the crucial role of a functioning judiciary is to stop or contain any evasion, and those implicated in corrupt acts and escalation of the sleazy activities in government were prosecuted or called to task by the checks and balances in government.

The "Dutch Disease' or 'resources curse' can be brought under control, and allow transparent and accountable mining therefore contribute to sustainable development. It begins with judicial impartiality.

The culture of judicial impunity characterised by supreme court justices who can be bought cheaply as their financial conflicts of interest dictate already happened in Ghana, another developing country. Online vitriol directed at unscrupulous judges was a success as embittered, mostly anonymous plaintiffs ripped into judicial decisions they feel were biased or corrupt.  It turned the tide on the temples of injustice in Uganda. This  is a challenge for Ghana as it is in PNG.

MINING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Oil Search - Drill First And Then Try To Find Out later?

(Photo: PNG LNG drilling site; Southern High Province)

It may be put down to divine intervention or mere coincidence, but a number of countries in the developing world tend to possess lots of natural resources. It is therefore not surprising the heavy concentration of foreign investment in the natural resource (particularly mining and oil) sectors of these countries (Addison & Heshmati, 2003). The investment flows could be expected to have substantial socioeconomic and environmental implications for developing countries (Bridge, 2004).

PNG is one of them and is home of   the PNG LNG project considered one of the world’s best-performing LNG

Then disaster strikes. On 28 February 2018, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and aftershock has now exposed a lot of areas in the mass movement which will further cause instability in the surface infrastructure but also the hydro carbon resources underneath, and an audit on the quality and the quantity of the hydro carbon resources will show information on anticipated loss of revenue both for the State and the investors.

It will take a while for them to get back on stream.

WHAT’S AT STAKE?

Transparent and accountable mining can contribute to sustainable development. This begins with corruption-free approvals – the very first link in the mining value chain.

Corruption risks must be understood so corruption can be prevented from occurring.
Transparency International’s Mining for Sustainable Development Programme (M4SD) addresses where and how corruption can get a foothold in the mining approvals process – the notion is to combat corruption before ground is even. The earthquake exposed energy technology used by Exxon Mobil which was thought to cause the earthquake, and the extraction technology used came under the microscope. In PNG, wastewater re-injection or disposal was a petroleum industry practice that could have been used whilst hydraulic fracturing was less likely. But, both induced earthquakes. Exxon Mobil put down the cause of the earthquake to the hand of nature.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE ABOUT IT

TI's programme is about building foundations for accountable and transparent mining that benefits communities, and supports social and economic development. The programme is currently in the first of two phases: assessing corruption risks that focuses on 20 resource-rich countries and to conduct risk assessments to understand the nature and source of corruption risks in mining approval processes; and addressing corruption risks. It is anticipated that national chapters will be implement action plans to prevent corruption risks identified in Phase I. They will work with key stakeholders – government, civil society, local communities, and the mining industry – as part of a global strategy to build trust, improve transparency, and influence behaviour change in the mining sector.

The programme will advocate for the improvement of national and international policy and practice, and the strengthening of existing mining transparency initiatives and standards.

TI wants to ensure that its mining transparency initiatives and standards will  assist the participating national chapters to operate transparent and accountable mining, and therefore contribute to sustainable development in the mining sector. These countries with thriving mining sectors include Armenia, Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Niger, Peru, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

THE PRICE OF JUSTICE

The price of ensuring transparent and accountable mining would be very high in a country that ranks 137th place on the Corruption Perception Index or CPI , a sign that corruption is endemic, systemic, and systematic like many other developing countries sitting within this range on the CPI barometer among countries all over the world. And, in particular those countries that already suffer from the 'Dutch Disease' or 'resources curse' in which how the mining sector can contribute to sustainable development is only a myth beginning with doing things properly within the regulatory regime of state so that the state is going by corruption-free approvals – the very first link in the mining value chain, and corruption risks removed and prevented from occurring.

PNG’s LNG gas project may spark 'new civil war', a price to be paid because its mining transparency initiatives and standards targeting the participating players  to operate transparent and accountable mining, and therefore contribute to sustainable development in the mining sector failed by all international measurement best practice. The 'resources curse' has now begun to haunt the country. It was foreign direct investment by Oil Search in partnership  with Santos, and Exxon Mobil in PNG's petroleum and gas industry, and wealth derived from mining and oil extraction that promised much. Exxon Mobil has defended its contribution as a foreign direct investor in the PNG economy since 2009 country when the gas project started to make its presence felt in the energy sector in the country.

( Photo: PNG LNG first shipment, 2014;  it was on Prime Minister Peter O'Neill’s watch as the most dominant political player in PNG politics this decade) 

These benefits of mining operations in theory were to be apparent at both the macroeconomic and the local community levels. They include: substantial financial nourishment through export earnings, employment, and tax revenues at the macro level of the PNG economy; better the living standards of poor people by payment of royalties, occupation and other compensation fees to the local community, which are considered as traditional responsibilities at the local community level where it operates the project; host of manufacturing and service sector industries; the provision of other goods and services including the construction of infrastructure, roads, Bridges, health centres, and schools as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). 

Oil Search is a Multi Mining Company or MMCs and is under pressure to carry out these initiatives as a way of honouring their commitment to the government whilst being responsible for the diverse impacts of their operations on the host community. It is normal to put pressure on mining companies for increased Corporate Social Responsibility, which forces them to allocate revenue for the provision of local medical care, educational facilities, and other infrastructure that under normal circumstances are to be provided by the government.

However, going by the evidence available the economic boom promised collapsed. An Australian think tank warns of spiraling violence over royalties for landowners that have never been paid since the shipment of exports to world markets began in 2014.  The Exxon Mobil - led project attracted a half billion Australian government load in 2009. It is now confronted with landowner discontent that could "spiral out of control", and has the hallmarks of another Bougainville civil war. Since 2014, 8 million tonnes of gas a year has been exported to Japan, South Korea and China.

Despite gas flowing since 2014, landowners in Hela province are yet to receive royalty payments, resulting in escalating tensions, tribal violence, incidents of hostage-taking, blockades and sabotage. And, the fear of PNG government military crackdown is crystalising in order to protect the investment. State repression is to counter the build-up of arms to demand benefits from the gas project which has accelerated to a pointed where it is often speculated that the landowners are in possession of more firepower than the entire PNG defence force.

Exxon Mobil responded to the report. It pointed to its role in driving economic growth in PNG, producing significant benefits for local businesses, and thousands of jobs for local citizens. The company reaffirmed that its  commitment was still there to address developmental challenges in the country, which required ongoing collaboration, and it had been working to assist communities in the Highlands since construction of the project began. This included understanding the cultural and socio-economic context where it operates, and it had no issues with its social investment program that maintains a focus on education, community health and broader socio-economic development.

Its public relations ensured regular engagement with communities to keep them informed of the company’s activities and increase effective communication on legitimate issues that may arise, and where necessary managed through a rigorous grievance management process to quickly address any concerns.

So, Exxon Mobil has cleared its name. It is time to shoot into the void.  It is also a time to ask where in the process of the social licence to ensuring transparent and accountable mining was the mistake made. One mistake and its lessons have been ignored. Between 1987-1997, 20,000 people died in a civil war between PNG and its Bougainville province. Panguna, one of the world's largest copper and gold mines, sparked the conflict.

The issues have to do with undelivered infrastructure projects resource companies promised landowners including roads, airports, hospitals, housing and sewerage projects. Anthropologist and author of the two reports that evaluated the social impact of the gas project Michael Main, who spent seven months in Hela province, said the vast majority had not been built. A few were incomplete or not maintained properly or were white elephants. He pointed to the Komo hospital, which has no equipment, staff, fuel for its generator, or beds.

Since 2009 , Exxon Mobil, Oil Search, Santos and the PNG government, the due diligence undertaken by consultants paid for by Exxon Mobil did not meet international best practice.

Australian tax payers therefore would be calling for full Senate inquiry. The touted economic boom from the project had not eventuated and the people who own the land where the gas project is located, and PNG’s economy, would have been better off if it had not gone ahead. Thus, the February 2018 major earthquake which struck had ejected the skeleton in the wardrobe and  challenged the assumptions on the predicted economic boom for the country. It is not up to the PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to dismiss the questions raised about transparent and accountable mining. His ministers have acknowledged the government had some lessons to learn.

JUSTICE FOR SALE

The PNG LNG project is considered one of the world’s best-performing LNG operations, having started exports in 2014 ahead of schedule, despite the challenge of drilling for gas and building a plant and pipeline in the remote jungle of PNG. It happened on Prime Minister Peter O'Neill’s watch as the most dominant political player in PNG politics this decade. In the aftermath of the dramatic events of the 2011 constitutional crisis which resulted in the unexpected elevation of O'Neill into power, he quickly became revered among his peers as an experienced combatant of the country's hostile politics.

O'Neill maintained strong populist support in the early years of his government by promising free health and education programs and infrastructure development, backed by a strong anti-corruption focus in the form of the Investigative Task Force Sweep. However, his prolonged resistance against his arrest warrant for official corruption has contributed to the deterioration of regulatory and enforcement institutions as well as reducing confidence in his political longevity. 

With mounting allegations against him, O'Neill influenced key political allies and swayed the appointment of key bureaucrats whose loyalty helped consolidate his grip on power. O'Neill's influential political allies include William Duma, Dr Fabian Pok, Peter Ipatas, James Marape  and Mao Zeming. Playing into existing regionalist sentiment within PNG politics, O'Neill maintains a firm inner circle of Highlands MPs  and ensures that controversies involving them are subdued. Other key players in O'Neill's ascension include former Prime Minister Pais Wingti, Speaker of Parliament Theo Zurenouc, Don Polye, Patrick Pruaitch, and Ben Micah. Polye, Pruaitch and Micah were key allies in the early period of O'Neill's government and were rewarded with senior ministerial portfolios until their falling-out with O'Neill led them to the Opposition. Don Polye and Ben Micah lost their seats in the 2017 election.

O'Neill's political party, the People's National Congress (PNC), also suffered losses of influential political figures such as the former Deputy Prime Minister Leo Dion, Mao Zeming and Theo Zurenouc. The latter two were critical, as in the past they leveraged support for O'Neill from MPs in the mainland coastal region (Momase).

Unlike his previous government, O'Neill initially faced an uphill battle against a resurgent Opposition group with 46 MPs. However, some members in the Opposition have defected to join O'Neill since his election as the country's Prime Minister in August 2017. With the looming vote of no-confidence in the next 15 months, O'Neill will do whatever he can to retain support.

(Photo: Ben Micah was once Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Peter Oneill; in the 2016 VONC he voted with the Opposition against Oneill, reconciliation ceremony in Kavieng, 2018)  

Thus, the justice people across the country want from the legislative arm of state is sandwiched  between Peter Oneill’s mission to combat every inch of the way to retain support to keep his influence in the chambers of parliament given the country's hostile politics, and how the trickle – down effect is reaching the majority of the country’s disadvantaged and poor living in the rural areas.

It means implementation of policy is critical, yet poor. And, the rural majority must wait again. Papua New Guinea's 'resources curse' is blind.

It is taken for granted that justice, therefore, would be for sale. And, if the legislative and executive arms of state cannot function and caved in due to Peter Oneill’s prolonged resistance against his arrest warrant for official corruption. The long process has contributed to the deterioration of regulatory and enforcement institutions as well as reducing confidence in his political longevity. And, the option left is to sell justice as a commodity on the market to the highest bidder.  

Papua New Guinea can get tough on judicial corruption, and enable the country’s judicial system to function. The exposure of corruption in PNG’s  judicial system has not become an issue yet, but at the same time there are no signs the country is taking a tough stance to get its judiciary to be free from allegations of corruption.  This may not be unusual, but the scale of the problem is coming to light when local investigative journalists show instances revealing judges compromising themselves as officers of the law which influences their decisions in court.

In the mining sector justice delivery system and the negative impact of judicial corruption and loss of the right to a fair trial cannot be overstated because to do nothing means to promote injustice and unfairness, and undermines the rule of law and confidence in the administration of justice. It begins with restoring public confidence in the judiciary.

Thus, restoring public confidence in the judiciary is the forerunner to transparent and accountable mining, and therefore pave the way for sustainable development. This begins with corruption-free approvals – the very first link in the mining value chain. A functioning judiciary as opposed to a corrupt judiciary provides a platform for corruption risks to be understood so corruption can be prevented from occurring.

It follows that the judiciary without the corrosive effect of corruption is crucial to making certain Exxon Mobil and its partners, along with the state, can rise to the occasion to  ensure transparent and accountable mining. The landowner discontent is there because the flip side of the coin to the economic boom story seem to overwhelm the balance which tipped against the company. The disadvantages of the LNG gas project were not minimised since 2009 when the project started, and when the oil export to overseas markets brought in revenue to the country over the past 4 years from 2014 on wards to date.

(Photo: PNG LNG oil export shipments started in 2014; 285 shipment this month)

The arguments Oil Search must arrest or overcome means to counter criticisms against the mining sector for its disproportionate negative effects in developing countries, like in PNG, where its partner Exxon Mobil has operations as a MMC, and elsewhere in the world its  operations are located. Firstly, profit-seeking nature of Multinational Mining Corporations - Oil Search is here for profit, and  the limited state capacity in most developing countries (Hilson, 2012 p.134), which in many cases makes it hard for the benefits from the sector to be seen, given the profit-seeking nature of Multinational Mining Corporations. 

In the extractive sector, a weak state or 'failed state' makes it easy to undermine development in cases where negative environmental, social or economic costs are generated but not captured by the investor. Thus, Exxon Mobil and Oil Search blame the PNG government for failing to channel landowner benefits when the payments were due to be paid.

This is seen with large social and environmental externalities, which demands effective regulation in order to maximize the gains from extractive activities. However, the limited state capacity manifesting in the weak institutional structure in developing countries. 

PNG is in this category, therefore the problem of trying to blow the whistle or regulate on:pollution, migration, and infrastructure dilapidation.

Secondly, the PNG LNG project is an impediments to democracy and democratization (Ross, 2001)

Thirdly, the PNG LNG project since 2009 caused domestic wage rates to rise keeping to  the "Dutch Disease" thesis. The Dutch disease states that rising mineral export in a country causes the domestic currency to appreciate whilst raising domestic wage rates (Davis and Tilton, 2005; Auty, 2002). This results in making much agricultural and manufacturing industries in that country internationally uncompetitive, thereby impeding economic diversification and increasing dependence on volatile mineral markets (Davis & Tilton, 2005).

Fourthly, the PNG LNG project since 2009 led to a mineral - dependent economy or  the "Resource Curse". The “resource curse” states that the economic mismanagement and poor decision making will take place when the focus is on the petroleum and gas industry(Aryee, 2001).  And, the nature of volatile mineral prices leads to marked fluctuations in export revenues, and the trend  shows significant “boom and busts” in government revenue. In this case prudent economic management can be a problem.

Hence, the dependence on such revenues (during boom phases of cycles) creates economic disaster during bust phases, when revenues decline significantly through downswings in price, particularly as such dependent economies are unable to expand their non-mining tradeable sector to compensate for the “bust.” Such economic distortions means in typical mineral dependent economies like PNG, it can be a major impediments to the sustainable development of such economies.

PNG economy therefore is going to suffer from a bad development model, where there is no sustainable development.

Fifthly, the PNG LNG project since 2009 led to creation of an enclave economy characterised by  mineral and oil production made possible only a process that is highly capital intensive. Oil Search is employing only a handful of people with foreign procured large capital inputs. Hence, the sector yields modest local production linkages, thereby making a minimal contribution to economic development in such countries. 

Sixthly, the PNG LNG project since 2009 has led to economic growth decline due to international factors. Thus, World Bank mining policies despite promoting foreign investments as win-win situations for both mining corporations and host countries favor mining corporations more than the host countries. In a country where customary landownership  is recognised by law, the skewed distribution of benefits from the gas project will cause havoc.

The problem is there, about skewed distribution of benefits, in which the financial risks assumed by mining companies and their investors far outweigh that borne by the host countries. In this case, the World bank itself does not take into account the environmental, political, social and economic risks assumed and suffered by the landowners as these are assumed to be small things or obfuscated by the political, commercial, and geological risks associated with mining, and borne by investors. 

 In order to reduce investor risk, and governments are asked to reform their tax regime and offer other incentives. This makes way for an allocation of a disproportionate amount of profit - sharing arrangements or production - sharing arrangements.

The end result is the World Bank approves mining finance capital, whilst the financing formula approved, and therefore allowing for the distributional power of landowners to claim absolute rent from the extractive industry is not there. 

Finally the PNG LNG project since 2009 caused community disintegration called mining externalities.   There are health, social and cultural externalities associated with mining(McMahon, Gary, Remy and Felix (2001).  The operation of a mine is associated with increase in crime and prostitution; rise in cultural conflict with indigenous people; the distortion of existing social hierarchies; creation of conflict between the beneficiaries and the non-beneficiaries of the project; and, have adverse effects on local health conditions including the release of toxic substances like cyanide and other pollutants which increase morbidity and mortality rates in these communities.

Exxon Mobil as a partner of Oil Search has operations all over the world. The human costs are the same. In Liberia the Exxon Mobil oil deal went ahead despite anti - corruption concerns which questioned its compliance credibility. The story was no different in Chad where Exxon Mobil was fined by a court for non - compliance.

THE ROBE PROBE - PNG'S TEMPLES OF INJUSTICE

The failed scenario of economic boom and trickle - down effect poses interesting questions about the history of corrupt culture even in the judicial system of the country. It begs the question that in PNG's mining sector justice delivery system has become a stumbling block rather than setting the bar to be reached by investors and the state in order to break free from the 'resources curse' due to the negative impact of judicial corruption. PNG LNG gas project landowners were left in the dark since 2009 when the gas project was brought into the picture, and connected Hela Province to the PNG economy and the global market economy. This stemmed from observations from social scientists researching the social impact of the gas project featured by loss of the right to a fair trial in the courts as to the identity of landowners who had a stake as customary landowners of the gas project, which cannot be overstated because they happen to be non – unionized poor section of society and to do nothing means to promote injustice and unfairness, and undermines the rule of law and confidence in the administration of justice.

It begins with restoring public confidence in the judiciary.

Thus, restoring public confidence in the judiciary is the forerunner to transparent and accountable mining, and therefore pave the way for sustainable development rather than the country’s judiciary stepping back whilst the defrauding of the state goes on in broad day light due to the history of corrupt culture in the country in recent years with a CPI scale placing PNG on 137th out of all countries in the world. 

It may be argued that the greatest threat to the people of PNG on the receiving end of the ‘resources curse’’ is the deep-seated culture of the judiciary as an arm of state that does not function. It adversely affects national security and the lives of the vast majority living in rural areas who see development only when big projects come on stream through foreign direct investment. The option of reorganization will correct this problem, and it begins with exposing of the pattern of criminal and even subversive activities by the judiciary with complicity by executive and legislative arms of state that could set the pace to bring back integrity, honesty, and stop the erosion of ethical conduct associated with the judiciary which constitutes major crimes and would be punishable if they were ordinary citizens.

It is taken for granted that if the hypothesis is supported by data then a trend of deeply embedded culture of political corruption has mutated into judicial transgression and impunity in PNG's judiciary, if any, like anywhere else in the world is extremely dangerous to the people in an oral society. The lessons from Bougainville Crisis are on the table.

There is a fine line between politics and law. After the earthquake struck, enormous challenges confronting Papua New Guinea in the LNG era became clear.

ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ADR)

The syndicated stories point to PNG's democracy being under threat from powerful vested interests that resist public interest all because the state is weak and cannot enforce its regulatory regime properly on big business. A corrupt judiciary cannot do its job to investigate concocting structures – corporate fairytails   – to deceive regulators, governments, voters, and taxpayers. Exxon Mobil has a record of multinational tax avoidance through illusion, fabrication, and pretense. For instance, according to the United States Geological Surveys it is implicated in induced earthquakes where it operates throughout the world. The USGS points to hydraulic fracturing which accounts for only one or two per cent of induced earthquakes whilst the remaining were induced by waste water disposal into extraction. This was was the case in the Netherlands where Exxon Mobil fumbled to account for investigations that link extraction to earthquakes, and put it on notice for non - compliance and deceiving regulators and the government of the Netherlands.

It is a travesty that the non - unionised poor or landowners who seek justice are asked to pay for it. This would be judicial violation that frequently goes unpunished, and the courts’ battered integrity and lack of transparency on their systems cannot be touched. Yet, the point is to hold judges accountable when they are engaged in unethical behavior.

( Justice Ambeng Kandakasi; ADR came under scrutiny for him having financial conflict of interest)

   

A number of facts about Exxon Mobil are on hand. In Australia not only did Exxon mislead the Senate in 2015, they continue to do it now. For instance, Exxon vigorously apposed moves for it to disclose relationships of its Australian business to parties in foreign jurisdictions, the most basic fact that the Australian business was owned through the Netherlands. And, when asked to provide information to the Senate they failed, a case of Exxon Mobil being misunderstood.

Again, they had to disclose their ownership of operations in Papua New Guinea via another Australian entity, this time owned through an Exxon subsidiary in the US tax haven of Delaware. In 2016 Exxon and its partners Oil Search and others exported US$2.5 billion worth of LNG from PNG to four Asian customers through sales contracts with another Exxon company in the Bahamas.

In addition, negligible tax was paid by Exxon’s Australian entity in PNG and resentment is on the rise about dismal tax and royalty payments for landowners. 

Finally,  in February 2018 the gas project in PNG was devastated by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake which locals are blaming the the oil and gas drillers even though there is no scientific evidence as to the cause of the quake. Since the quake Exxon has donated $1 million for earthquake relief while its junior partner, Oil Search, has given $5 million. The gesture is to keep the temperature down, but the issues to be settled still linger and Exxon Mobil is in damage - control mode.

It will need a functioning judiciary in PNG to take stock of big business like Exxon Mobil with the state losing out on tax. In Australia the corporate chicanery around tax which would never have come to light but for the Senate Inquiry, some small sections of the media and growing community awareness and outrage.

The state cannot easily understand Exxon Mobil but is leaving it to the judiciary to protect landowners where necessary. For instance, the alternative dispute resolution exercise to address landowner identification and therefore channel royalty payments failed and seemed like a another scam on top of the trail of non - compliance contradictions suffered by Exxon Mobil wherever it operated in the energy sector world over including fraudulent record of multinational tax avoidance through illusion, fabrication, and pretense.  

And, the judiciary was in control of the exercise with millions of kina vanishing into thin air without trace.

The PNG LNG mediation led by the judiciary has become controversial. And, the judiciary may need cleaning up. ADR which aimed to avoid the trap of litigation-in-disguise was an important step in the effort to replace confrontation with negotiation. The challenge was to make sure it really paid dividends as opposed to allowing companies who have developed arbitration not so much to hold down as to disguise both costs and unnecessary procedures. As a result, arbitration is more expensive than it should be, and critics claim, with some justification, that ADR’s cost-cutting ability is exaggerated. 

If the judiciary failed to make the ADR work then arbitration did not have a platform which included: use experts selectively; agree to limit damages; participate in prehearing exchanges; limit the necessity for briefs; and, streamline the proceedings.

In addition, the Supreme Court judgement that squashed the controversial warrant of arrest against Prime Minister Peter Oneill may be factored into a scenario in which official corruption has contributed to the deterioration of regulatory and enforcement institutions in order to beef up confidence in his political longevity.

With mounting allegations against him, O'Neill influenced key political allies and swayed the appointment of key bureaucrats whose loyalty helped consolidate his grip on power.  The judges may or may not be found in this category.

( Photo: PNG Supreme Court and National Court justices enjoy a special privilege, which demands judicial impartiality and prohibits a jurist from presiding when he or she has a personal bias concerning a party to the case)

The suggestion here is that the Supreme Court ruling on Prime Minister Peter O’Neil's case seems to be bad and shocking, and there is too much mixing truth with falsehood with one aim of doing the wrong thing  which amounts to the highest form of corruption linking the judiciary to politics, power, and pragmatism, and may be seen as straying away rather than keep to the legal doctrine existing in the country.

PNG LNG gas project landowners can afford to stand up and challenge corruption.  And, it is a travesty that while the non - unionised poor or landowners seek for justice, they are asked to pay for it. The temple of injustice in the country thrives, and is common, because judicial violations frequently go unpunished. It is time to speak to the truth and restore the courts’ battered integrity by forcing more transparency on their systems and holding judges accountable when they engaged in unethical behavior. John Locke's position on landowners is clear.  His position on social contract where people in the state of nature conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property is also a statement for an impartial judiciary to play its correct role to protect the PNG Constitution.

It is a step forward rather than backward for media freedom and online expression and critical reporting online that the judiciary is held to account where it has overstepped its bounds. Hela's landowners have a point to make. In the case of the PNG LNG gas project, the law’s broadly worded provisions mean they are ripe for abuse by the government and Exxon Mobil.

And, it is up to the judiciary to shoot into the void.

The people can win. The lessons from the Bougainville Crisis are on the table. Will they triumph against the mighty? Only time will tell - but maybe this conversation will help.

(Photo: militant landowners, Hela: PNG LNG project's social impact projects were slammed in 2 separate reports by an Australian public policy think - tank) 

Pangu Pati Hits Proverbial Home Run: ' It Was A Right Choice?'

(Swearing - in ceremony at Government House, left to right: Finance Minister James Marape, Prime Minister Peter Oneill, Governor - General Sir Bob Dadae, and Goilala MP William Samb)


Bulolo MP Pangu Pati Parliamentary leader Sam Basil is blaming religion for the country's fate, as it agonises, and is fast swallowed by a sea of debt, a sinking ship. He is also praising PNC and Prime Minister Peter Oneill for appointing Goilala MP, which would be a ransom extracted from the enemy.

And, let Waigani move on with ‘religion’, ‘pass the collection plate around’, neither left nor right! Wrong move, Sam Basil.

In the drama developing during the week, Goilala MP and Pangu Pati Deputy Parliamentary Leader of Pangu Pati Samb has been appointed Minister of State to assist the Prime Minister or Assistant Prime Minister. It does litte to change the free - fall of Pangu Pati into oblivion. Papua New Guinea was a land of the unexpected, but Sam Basil was not about to hire a horde of lawyers to interpret every word, and led 10 MPs to cross over to join the government. He denied that he ever bullied the people of PNG. Instead it was them who lied to him and in full contempt for the truth for not giving Pangu Pati the numbers to form the government.

The developing drama is fast, something like an alliance of heretics making an end run around the mainstream conversation. Should we be listening?

One conversation is loud and clear. Pangu Pati National Executive decided to oust Sam Basil as parliamentary party leader of Pangu Pati in a calculated move, timely. It unequivocally puts the role of the party as the country’s leading vehicle of political culture forging the way forward to usher in the country's independence in its correct context. The frustration was clear. Pangu Pati council moved to put Sam Basil on notice and to redeem the party based on the party constitution.

The Trojan Horse is no more.

It begs the question if national interest was the reason he moved camps after the 2017 NGE. For a good answer we would need a curve of best – fit to ascertain what really constitutes a national issue, and therefore termed as a national interest.

The ideal is that the PNG legislature can afford to rise above the needs of the electorate, and think outside the box, so that that they diligently discharge their mandates at both the micro, and macro levels. PNG has yet to do without consultants and their expertise on deciding what constitutes PNG’s national interest because the legislature has been watered down to just dispensing its micro – level role to massage the pulse of the electorate.

Sam Basil was almost there. Then he fumbled with his options, and became a naïve opportunist whose real story behind the move to join Peter Oneill began to surface before too long.

He told the nation going into the 2017 NGE that PNG’s ratings as a member of the international community was worse than since Peter Oneill took office 6 years earlier, the scale is still infantile, and the want for alternate and better leadership was there for the electorate to consider when the ballot box next comes around.

He said it is a challenge that elected leaders, and bureaucrats who stand for something do not get co – opted into the system, and therefore fail to manufacture correctly the consent to rule over an ignorant people whose fate to be able to see the big picture, or conversely become casualties in the rat race to be a somebody and not a nobody because the rulers did not walk with them to see the big picture they did not know existed.

And, it starts with thinking big. Pangu Pati was to be the vehicle to think big.

He was convincing people everywhere he spoke: government spending money we do not have on projects in the electorate; PNG’s leadership got it wrong and did not deliver except in Port Moresby where the creatures are lurking in the swamp, and it was time to drain the swamp; the past 40 years was a time period in which PNG went from a plantation economy to a copper and gold economy, and now to LNG economy, but the results of the planned progress of a nation in transition from a stone – age to a modern capitalist state and mixed economy have not yielded, despite all the money generated over 40 years; and, PNG is now permanently indebted to the international system, and for the next 200 years we will have to pay off and retire the K30 billion nation debt.

Yes, he made the point eloquently every time most notably during the 2016 Vote of No Confidence taken against Prime Minister Peter Oneill for the people to take back PNG and opt for leaders who are gaining the hard yards for the country. Pangu Pati won the second largest number of seats in the 10th Parliament mastering a strong presence in the Momase provinces of Morobe and Madang.

Madang Open MP Bryan Kramer did not join Sam Basil to cross over to the government side, opting instead to be prone to vulgar statements and tactics from the Pangu Pati Parliamentary Leader who soon disowned him. The Madang MP's chilling willingness to lead another political party to carry on seemed to moderate Sam Basil's behavior. This week The Alliance Party certificate of registration was issued by the Registrar of Political Parties.

And, the novice Madang MP taught the Veteran Bulolo MP how not to pander to his troubled mind. It was a game for the big boys.

Then the back – flip. Sam Basil dissociated himself from the Opposition and joined Peter Oneill who called the shots from the highest office any man of substance can aspire which is to hold political office. And, it means to define the national interest which is part micro – politics and part macro – politics.

The country's vehicle for independence and development of political culture Pangu Pati seemed to have lost the plot to validate its place in PNG's political development and landscape. It vehemently opposed PNC going into the 2017 NGE. But, found the going hard without teeth to bite so gave up the fight. Sam Basil's failure is twofold: he cannot redeem himself ever and face up to the people throughout the country who believed his crusade to humiliate Peter Oneill's PNC Party; and, he cannot avoid inheriting PNC's enemies as a sign of loyalty.

(Bryan Kramer, MP for Madang, interviewed by media, Office of Registrar of Political Parties )

Pangu Pati Merges With PNC?

It follows that Pangu Pati has merged with PNC. And Sam Basil wonders why PNC is cowing him, and Prime Minister Peter Oneill thinks he is a small boy?

Actually, Sam Basil is a politician. He has shown both his colors, and weaknesses, as a member of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea since 2007, representing the electorate of Bulolo Open. His strength is his ability to be outspoken especially as a member of the Opposition during Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare's government, and after 2011/2012 political impasse he served as Minister for National Planning in the first ten months of Peter O'Neill's government, before returning to opposition after the 2012 election.

For the whole term of the 9th Parliament, he was Deputy Opposition Leader since 2012 and the leader of the Pangu Party since 2014. Prior to joining Pangu, he was deputy leader of the People's Progress Party and deputy leader of the Papua New Guinea Party.

Sam Basil may be a student of public opinion, or politics. May be none. He just became a student of religion to address heresy or lack of it in the Oneill - Abel regime and in doing so escape from freedom, and the people, who believed he would deliver on his word.

(Post - 2011/2012 political impasse Oneill/Namah government, Parliament Chamber:  left to right: Sam Basil, William Duma, Don Polye, Belden Namah, and Prime Minister Peter Oneill) 

Ideally, the people's concept of a leader in Sam Basil was perhaps simple. They do not need him to be a phantom superhero to live up to the responsibility he told them about going into the 2017 NGE. Pangu Pati boasted within its ranks elected MPs who had some basic attributes: a reasonable level of intellectual curiosity, a certain seriousness of purpose, a basic level of managerial competence, a decent attention span, a functional moral compass, a measure of restraint and self-control.

It was when Pangu Pati crossed over to join the government that the deficiency in one or more of them, we can be sure, was exposed.

As Minister Assisting the Prime Minister or Assistant Prime Minister Deputy Parliamentary Leader of Pangu Pati and Goilala MP William Samb would be challenged to match Peter Oneill's political talent — charisma, a raw cunning, an instinct for the jugular, a form of the common touch, a certain creativity that normal politicians lack. PNC Party would not have been returned to power, and its MPs elected without these qualities.

But they are not enough, they cannot fill the void where other, very normal human gifts should be. The country is calling for accountability, and Pangu Pati ran with the slogan, 'Pangu Bai Stretim Rot' to canvass for votes. It is now suffering from a serious deficit, becoming just another social club without moral or spiritual authority it once had to detect the pulse of the nation.

Political Theory - Political Change

In order to factor in on why Pangu Pati is right now the object of inquiry, caught between a rock and a hard place, an examination of political theory is necessary. The story is like this in which whether exploring between - system changes in society, withiin - system changes, or policy - induced changes in society, we theoretically assume that political change stems from conflict ; the severity of these conflicts explains the degree of systemic change. Mild conflicts or  'tensions' leads to within - system changes and moderate policy impacts. The political elites secure a blend of opposing elements so that the basic mode of political production - the political regime - remains stable.

As the classical conservative Edmund Burke asserted, ' A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.' Hence within - system change requires an adaptable strategy for handling disturbances to a system's equilibrium. More severe conflicts or 'contradiction' undermine the equilibrium of a political system. As a new mode of decision - making comes into being, the nation undergoes a between - systems political change and fundamental policy - induced changes in society.

Therefore the merger between Pangu Pati and PNC was inevitable, it was not a matter of choice, and the shift to the right - wing in the political spectrum was trendy and part of a chain of events punctuated by the 2012 - 2017 9th Parliament with Sam Basil sitting in the Opposition benches waiting for an opportunity to make his move. In 2011/2012 during the political impasse Peter Oneill and Sam Basil teamed up to overthrow the Somare - Abal regime in an illegal parliamentary coup. Light travels faster than sound. And, time takes a toll on the body. Sam Basil does not have to explain to the nation who he is, or what Pangu Pati stands for inside the PNC - led regime. Sam Basil apologised to Prime Minister Peter Oneill as a sign that he wanted to play his part to ensure the basic mode of political production - the political regime - remains stable. And, the rewards are coming.

Yet, if the swamp is full of creatures and is defined by religion as opposed to scientific credibility, a dark web of heresy would be there. Pangu Pati is inside to access the state apparatus in the mad scramble for riches, glory, and power. The tough call is the humble pursuit of justice, equality, and good governance which will have to wait, swept under the carpet.

William Samb is a civil engineer. His job is to become a good social engineer. Peter Oneill needs him, and the country wants him. The ship is sinking deeper into debt. If, we keep our fingers crossed, he could make a difference.

(Scramble at Government House, 2011/2012 political impasse: centre, Prime Minister Peter Oneill confronting a police cordon; forefront, North Waghi MP Jamie - Maxtone Gram and other MPs)