New vocation: ‘boi blo Minister’ or ‘boi blo Secretary’

BERNARD YEGIORA

PAPUA NEW GUINEA AS A NATION is changing at a rapid pace. One can see all this changes through careful observation.

A more interesting change is the rise of political cronies and how they have altered the political environment in the name of survival.

I was quite amazed to see one departmental head attending a grand occasion with his entourage. The entourage had two Land Cruiser ten seaters and a Land Cruiser ute.

One of the Land Cruisers, silver in colour, drove around keeping an eye on the departmental head as he moved from one location to another on foot.

It was like a movie where you have all these secret service agents in their suits driving around in big American-sized Chevrolets.

But these guys were not wearing suits. And the Land Cruiser was both a Cadillac limousine and a Chevrolet. It transported the departmental head and acted as a security and surveillance vehicle.

Before this experience I had the perception that only state ministers and the prime minister travelled around with such large entourages when on official duty. It is protocol to see these security agents around such very important people.

This was evident a week ago when the prime minister visited Divine Word University.

The campus was infested to certain degree with ‘blue flies’. This strange name literally refers to the Blue Bottle Fly or Bottlebee (Calliphora vomitoria), but is a slang used by people caught up in the modern drug culture to refer to the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary.

From my observation, some of the people in the entourage were public servants working for this department, while others were obviously his political cronies providing security for the departmental head.

These casual security officers also offered other services - like being his errand boy.

Political cronies in Papua New Guinea can be divided into two separate groups. Both operate in different domains: one in the political arena, the other in the bureaucratic arena. Regardless of the domain, their jobs overlap.

The first group is known as ‘boi blo minister’ or ‘boi blo member’, also ‘wokman blo member’.

This group consists of those who work with a member of parliament or a cabinet minister. Some are employed formally, meaning they are public servants, executive officers, first secretaries or administrative officers.

Others are outside the formal. Failed politicians with close connections ot friends and relatives who have a patron-client relationship with the ‘big man’.

The second group is made up of people known as ‘boi blo secretary’ or ‘wok man blo secretary’.

People in this category are either public servants working in the department or support staff or casuals with close affiliations with the departmental head. They exist solely to entertain their political patron because of kinship ties or close friendship.

As political cronies they must no doubt be very good at talking. These are talented speakers with good knowledge of who is who in the bureaucracy and the political arena due to their high level of interaction with major players.

In 2009 I met a person at the Shady Rest night club in Port Moresby, a ‘boi blo minister’. I was surprised by how well he knew the internal politics of one particular department. He was quick to figure out who was going to get what position and why.

Also he was able to tell me who was in the minister’s good books and who was on the marching list.

Here you have a man with no political science or psychology degree but who can explain the internal politics and power plays because of his close association with the minister. Not only explain, but profile all the actors.

These people in the corridors of power know so much they use it for their own benefit. Some use the information to sweet talk those who are on the verge of climbing up the departmental hierarchy.

This has the intention of receiving gifts in the form of money or beer. Some pass on the sensitive information with the aim of forming a new alliance.

A few months prior to the entourage case, I was privileged to observe another departmental head. This one travelled without an entourage. He drove around Madang town in his Toyota Hilux double cab, obviously a hire car, and flew back to Port Moresby.

When profiling that person, I realised he was a man who rarely socialised with his own tribal group. He was not a night walker (someone who frequents nightclubs).

During my trip to Port Moresby to attend the PNG Society of Writers, Editors and Publishers meeting, I was able to observe a provincial administrator. He was having lunch and walking around Vision City Shopping Mall by himself.

I saw him again in the departure lounge at the Jackson’s Airport waiting to board a flight back to his province.

However, that does not rule out the possibility of him having his own political cronies who bludge off him as their political patron.

These people are like dogs waiting at the side of the table. If you trick them by faking a feeding motion they quickly react. They are like that scruffy short guy standing at the busy bus stop watching the pockets of every passerby, waiting for some unguarded person to walk past so he can pick a pocket.

In their quests for political survival, politicians and top bureaucrats need their political cronies to negotiate for jobs and ensure their public profile is positive.

Aspiring politicians and top bureaucrats need them. This interdependent relationship between political patrons and their client operates on money.  This, unfortunately, is a growing trend.

Bernard has this week joined Jackson PR Associates and will work with company as part of its Papua New Guinea public relations team

Comments

[Bernard Yegiora]

Joe and Sioni, thank you for the comments.

PNG is a growing nation thus it is of utter most importance that we who are literate write about these changes not only to enlighten others but to make sure there is a written record intended for the future generation.

Hope they can see and make better laws to govern our society.

[Joe Wasia]

Thanks Bernard, you have observed very closely. This is really true and that is exactly happening here in Papua New Guinea.

[Sioni Ruma]

Boi blo Minister’ or ‘boi blo Secretary’ is a very good observation by Bernard Yegiora - well observed.

Guess it’s who each suck up too, and the type of leadership they (boi blo Minister or boi blo Secretary) want to be termed under and the policy direction they head.

I had the privilege to attend the recent Provincial Performance Improvement Initiative PPII Workshop held in Lae two weeks ago.

It is like the Governor’s conference, made up of all the Provincial Administrators, line agencies like Planning, Finance, DPM, Department of Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs and the Chief Secretary to GovPNG.

You can now already imagine the number of government officials both in the national level and the provincial level who attended this workshop.

The discussions were dominated around the Impacts of Capacity Development on Service Delivery.

More fascinating, the cooperate governance as discussed has now emerged to be dominant policy issue during our transitions, if you like from a developing economy to a middle economy.

We are actually competing to produce to produce corporate governance guidelines; more government officials claim that its effects are no longer second-order.

For instance, more provinces are coming up with their cooperate plans and more significant aligning them to the priorities of the GoPNG say Vision 2050.

These differences in opinion may reflect the fact that people mean different things when they use the concept.

Another explanation could be that corporate governance is not always important, but that it matters very much when it matters; it certainly seems to be more important in some phases of a firm’s life cycle than in others.

Corporate governance is also likely to matter more in certain contexts or certain phases of economic development than in others.

Ultimately, of course, when and how much corporate governance matters is an empirical question.

[Mrs Barbara Short]

I pity the poor police.
There need to be special detectives trained in "white collar" crime to catch all these tricksters.

I'm amazed to hear that Noah Musingku is still allowed to get away with ripping off people.
We know there are many people in African countries who send out fraudulent spam email letters and even catch out gullible Australians with their tricks. I guess these PNGian tricksters are no different.

[Bernard Yegiora]

Barbara you are welcome.

With the much talked about economic growth, shown by the rapid rate of infrastructure growth in Port Moresby alone, this practice is increasing.

On yesterday's news a top white collar con artist from Simbu Province was arrested by the police.

Working with insiders in the National Planning and Monitoring Department, he was able to print cheques and pretend that he was an associate of the Secretary.

Using this tactic he has conned many people into funding his lifestyle.

His case reminds me of that American TV series 'White Collar'. He is PNG's very own version of Neal Caffrey.

[Samuel Roth]

These cases happen the world over, but are different in the way they happen and the degree in PNG. It becomes part of the socio-political culture.

Everybody talks politics and participates in it. Likewise, everybody wants to get-rich-quicker.

Thus, politics is a fast-money-scheme for the poor and vulnerable, I should rather say the opportunists.

However, that is at the whim of our weak financial regulations and legal loopholes.

Take the Public Finance Management Act or the Public Service Management Act - both denote high levels of corruption and misuse.

The discretionary components (that is 50%) of the DSIP funds and DSG funds give the liberty and creates a tolerable environment for more misuse and more fast-money-making.

The question is, who says there should be a 50% discretionary component when, in PNG, the word 'discretionary' could be misinterpreted as "fri moni"?

When and until we fix these loopholes, we can walk with our heads up calling ourselves proud Papua New Guineans.

[Mrs Barbara Short]

Thanks Bernard for this "inside observation" of how the political system works in PNG.

My husband, having working for the government most of his life, is enjoying watching a re-run of the British TV series "Yes Minister" which pokes fun at the way the public servants and the ministers play for power. He gets a great laugh out of it.

I'm sure the people of PNG need to see the funny side of all the scheming taking place in the PNG government of 2012. Also a bit of poking fun at these bigheads would do them all the world of good.