The political economy of all that’s wrong

BY MARTIN NAMORONG

If there is only one article you read in PNG Attitude this year, let this be the one   –   Keith Jackson

MY NAME IS MARTYN NAMORONG. I was born in Baimuru, Gulf Province. That doesn’t mean I’m from Gulf because my mum is from Western and my Dad is from Madang.

I regard myself as being from Western Province because I grew up there - mostly in a remote Rimbunan Hijau logging camp called Kamusie. I am thus familiar with the languages, customs and oral histories of my mum’s people.

My introduction to the phenomenon of neotribalism was at high school in Port Moresby during the last decade. The key question that arose was: “What does it mean to be a Papua New Guinean?”

It is easy to identify a New Irelander, Sepik or Engan but who is a ‘Papua New Guinean’. The fact of the matter is there isn’t one. So every time someone asked me where I was from, I simply said ‘PNG’ although I knew they were inquiring about my home province.

Today, however, my notion of being from PNG is not as concrete as it used to be.

Last year I dropped out of medical school because I had not performed well academically. I was hoping to return to university this year but, for reasons unknown to me, I haven’t been accepted to repeat Year 4 Bach Med Surg.

While it has been a testing time of my life, it has also been a time of huge change in terms of how I perceive myself and the world I live in. I always thought I was destined to great things and make a difference to humanity.

Today, faced with the uncertainty about the future and the hardship of living in the city, I’m more concerned with being able to survive each day. I am more concerned about my own welfare than saving the world.

In talking about my situation I was hoping to give some context to the challenges faced by many fellow Papua New Guineans. Herein lies the dilemma faced by this nation - what does it mean to be a Papua New Guinean?

The system of education in this country is a failure trap. It is supposed to groom Papua New Guineans, but all it does is produce a lot of failures. In Grade 8, 10,000 get thrown out; in Grades 10 and 12, thousands more fall through cracks in the system. This is the failure trap.

Students spend much of their lives learning about ideas in arts, science and mathematics and are not prepared for either the cash economy and the subsistence economy. In my case, I regret going to medical school because now I am just an unskilled person.

I am definitely not skilled to survive in the savannah of East TransFly nor do I have formal qualifications to be recognised in the cash economy. Thus by default I sell betel nut on the street, like many other disenfranchised people.

Hundreds of thousands of young people around this nation are trapped like me. For some hopelessness and depression lead to suicide. I lost three of my colleagues from Year 12 who committed suicide within two years of dropping out.

A fellow medical school dropout is now a patient in a psychiatric ward. I believe the mental health of many young people deteriorates once they are caught up in the ‘education trap’. There is an intense feeling of shame and loss of self-esteem associated with someone dropping out of school.

As for me I tried to deal with my mental state by engaging with former colleagues at high school and medical school. I figured, from the suicides of my Year 12 colleagues, that what they had done was to go into a downward spiral by isolating themselves.

Many try to escape reality by resorting to drugs, alcohol and risky sexual practices. Others take out their frustrations on society through juvenile delinquency, petty crime, fights, sexual violence and other indictable offences. I empathise with all of them because I now understand what it’s like to lose everything, including one’s dreams and ambitions.

Many who do not understand the psyche of those of us disenfranchised think we have ‘an attitude problem’. When reduced to the simplest elements there is an ‘I don’t care about anything or anyone including myself’ attitude amongst most of us.

Many males make wrong choices and become a nuisance or threat to society. They don’t care if the police or their rivals kill them nor do they have second thoughts about prison. After all, once you feel you’ve lost everything, what more is there to lose? It is suicidal behavior.

That is why band-aid solutions or knee-jerk reactions such as awareness activities on HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, toughening of laws, or promotion of sporting activities have been categorically ineffective in curbing the chaos the PNG.

The antidote to crime in this country is to enable everyone to earn a living, so they are able to meet some of the challenges they face in life and achieve personal goals. Obviously, some challenges are difficult for individuals to handle and individuals with mental health issues need professional help.

In order to bring meaningful and sustainable change in the physical and social settings of this nation, one has to liberate its people from this education trap. I’m referring to every Papua New Guinean, may they be in the urban or rural areas.

A married man in a village who cannot sustain his family within the subsistence economy will commit crimes to make ends meet. Likewise a man in the urban setting would do something similar.

Young women who are unable to participate in either economy are vulnerable to prostitution and suicide. Uncertainty about the future creates negative sentiments thus manifesting in the kind of law and order problems faced by the country.

The solution is not necessarily to ‘teach a person how to catch fish’, but to give them a net. I believe it’s now fair to comment that microfinance institutions in PNG have failed in providing people with that net.

Politicians, churches, NGOs and business interests have been excellent distributors of free handouts instead of the net. The net is the ability to trade goods and services and/or labour. Our rural people need efficient and affordable transport networks to move goods to local and global markets and to access services. Our urban people need jobs or financial assistance to start small businesses.

Earning an income brings enormous benefits to individuals and their community. People who have money are less of a burden on others and on the State. For example, people with money are able to send children to private schools and seek healthcare at private hospitals thus easing the pressure of state health and education facilities.

People with money are more likely to have access to technology that makes life easier and more productive. A villager with good income can send his children to school and, should they fall into the education trap, he is able to bail them out by sponsoring them elsewhere or making them partners or employees.

Unfortunately, there is too much hypocrisy and tokenism from all parties involved in aid and development. People want to be seen to be trying to address issues without actually doing anything of substance. That is why news media are full of stories about conferences, symposiums, summits, workshops, forums where everyone spends huge amounts of money on stipends, venue fees, accommodation of guests… 

Worse still are donor projects handed over to communities only to disintegrate with time. If a classroom is built, or a water supply project or road for that matter, what happens with long term maintenance? Communities where people don’t have income generating opportunities cannot possibly guarantee the sustainability of donor projects.

I believe change is driven by innovation and that innovative people are empowered people.

When my home village of Malam, in the Morehead area of the Western Province was being built at a new site, it coincided with a period in 1995 where the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) was buying acacia seeds at K80-K100 per kilo.

Many villagers decided to use some of their income to buy corrugated iron sheets for their houses. Villagers had no problems paying school fees and airfares for students to fly to high school.

Today Malam people are very proud of their village which has a main street down the center lined by flowers and trees. Many homes have metal roofs and villagers exaggerate that pilots get confused whether they’re at a village or government station.

Self-generated change addresses the needs and aspirations of individuals and communities and is profound in how its inspires and motivates people.

Malam is also where a CSIRO project funded by AusAID flopped. The villages of Malam, Kwiwang and Bensbach were chosen as sites for the distillation of essential oils from two plant species found in the savannah. The projects were doomed from the start.

Firstly, no management structure was put in place to manage the project once the donor pulled out. Secondly, markets were inaccessible and there was no distribution network created. There also were various other technical flaws that made the project resource and labour intensive and inefficient.

People became disillusioned and gave up production altogether. All production equipment has been dismantled and is rusting away in tall grass. Imposed change can be positive but is usually temporary if individuals and communities aren’t empowered to take ownership of the new developments.

I don’t believe handouts solve issues; they just cover them up for another time. This has been so profoundly manifested in my life such that I now tell people, “I don’t need your money, I need an education and a job”.

Perhaps more irritating for me is that some people think they know what is best for me. While expert advice is valuable, an expert who is not fully versed with the unique circumstances of each case is not in a position to give a fully rounded assessment.

The CSIRO is expert in the science but failed the villagers in the economics of the project.

I don’t dream any more. I am grounded in the reality. I grapple with the facts as they are. Perhaps there are too many visionaries and dreamers such that no one is there to deal with the reality of life in PNG.

Even a vast majority of people who are trapped like me do not wish to deal with reality. That is why fast money schemes continue to thrive and voters are gullible in their attitude towards politicians.

Bill Clinton is famous for saying that his number one campaign issue was the economy – ‘It’s the economy, stupid’.

In developed countries growth and employment are at the heart of government policies. If we are to become a fairer, wiser, healthier, happier society by 2050 we need to remove impediments to income-earning opportunities for all Papua New Guineans.

By addressing the bottlenecks that prevent everyone from meaningfully participating in income earning opportunities, we will address issues such as law and order, food security, HIV&AIDS, and so on.

I have deliberately said nothing about what the government should do. All I can say, in reference to the government, is that it must implement all that it has been planning to do.

There are so many well meaning plans that are gathering dust on the shelves of state agencies. This nation is being governed on an ad hoc basis with decisions being made solely for perpetuating the survival of the ruling class instead of addressing fundamental issues that affect the nation.

I must conclude by thanking Dame Carol Kidu for the Informal Sector Act that protects me at my roadside buai market.

This is a classic example of giving people the opportunity to be self-sufficient or in my case relatively autonomous. I bought an internet modem that I use to access the internet mainly to publish on my blog (www.medicmangi.blogspot.com) and communicate via email as well as social network sites such as TWITTER (@Mangimosbi).

Comments

[Ahkeem Stero]

Exactly!

[Mark Thomson]

Martyn is spot on. PNG's people are its main resource and their genius is overlooked in the prescriptions foisted by donors.

The only way to sustain change is through processes owned by the intended beneficiaries. The rest is waste...

Ex-colleagues of mine in AusAID would look aghast when it was suggested that major donors should be grappling with the issues around customary land management, access to markets, the organic law on decentralisation and civil society mobilisation.

[Gordon Taylor]

This is a great post - and, like a lot of inspiring writing, it leaves me with more questions than answers.

If we can remain mindful of those questions as we go about our daily lives, then perhaps together we can improve things - not just for the people of PNG, but for the whole world.

Thanks.

[Icarus]

As a stone rolls, Martyn.

[Kylie Butler-McIntosh]

Martyn - You always thought you were destined to make a difference to humanity and I believe, for everyone that reads this article, you have!

I will pass this on to as many people as I can in hopes that people who have the power to change things can keep your wisdom in mind. Thank you.

[Lydia Kailap]

Totally agree with Keith. This is the "must read" article.

The most valuable natural resource that Papua New Guinea has is going to waste on the street; like Martyn.

These people have nothing left but the human spirit to carry on and survive; to make something of themselves against the odds.

Because of their suffering they have first hand knowledge of what is going on in PNG and know what they need.

You are destined for great things Martyn. Believe.