Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE

PNG investment conference: dealing with the tough questions?

PAUL FLANAGAN | PNG Economics | Edited extract

CANBERRA - Let me start with this graph, a 25 year history of Australian investment in Papua New Guinea.

Its striking features are how flat the investment pattern was from 1991 to 2008; the extraordinary increase around the PNG LNG project; and how flat it has been since.

Indeed, it was hoped the transformative PNG LNG project may encourage ongoing investment in PNG – but actually money has started flowing the other way. Australians are currently disinvesting in PNG. It’s an issue that goes to the heart of investor and business confidence.

It would be good for participants at the Papua New Guinea investment conference in Sydney today and tomorrow to talk to some of the long-term operators in PNG as to why funds are being withdrawn and the possibilities for turning it around.

Profiting from sickness in PNG: The dark economy of public health

STAFF REPORTERS | PNGi Central | Extract

Read Part 1 of the complete and detailed PNGi investigation here

BORNEO Pacific Pharmaceuticals Ltd is yet again the subject of controversy, after the company was contracted this year, at a premium price, to supply medical kits to health centres and aid posts.

Media reports indicate that Borneo Pacific has been given a one year contract worth, K57,738,982.91, to provide medical supplies to health centres and aid posts throughout the country. The alleged value of the contract is substantially higher than the three-year, K71 million contract awarded to Borneo in 2013.

Oro Governor, Gary Juffa, has questioned the award, describing it as “controversial and suspicious”.

It ought to be kept in mind that in addition to being a member of the Public Accounts Committee, Juffa was deputy chair of the parliamentary committee which recently conducted a review of health sector management, which uncovered worrying evidence on Borneo Pacific’s merchandise.

Is PNG really one of the most corrupt countries in the world?

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - Is PNG really one of the most corrupt countries in the world? Many people would think this a silly question, especially Papua New Guineans.

“Of course it is!” they would respond and point to the latest index of corrupt countries in the world compiled by the United Nations and other ratings agencies. “See, it’s the 29th most corrupt country.”

I’ve always been a bit wary of statistics. You really have to know the criteria on which they are based and the method by which they are collected.

I’d be inclined to think that statistics from any country as dysfunctional as Papua New Guinea are bound to be suspect. I’d prefer to trust what ordinary Papua New Guineans say.

KTF's ‘teach for tomorrow’ project expands to New Ireland

KOKODA TRACK FOUNDATION

PORT MORESBY - On Monday, the Kokoda Track Foundation (KTF), a non-government organisation that has been working in Papua New Guinea for over a decade, expanded its Teach for Tomorrow program to 400 trainee teachers from New Ireland Province.

Generously funded by Newcrest Mining, the James Family Foundation and the New Ireland Provincial Department of Education, the training program enables partially-trained elementary teachers to complete their certificates of elementary teaching and become certified as fully-fledged elementary teachers.

Over the next six weeks, the trainee teachers will participate in lectures, practice teaching, workshops and assessments that will give them the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to deliver education of the highest quality to elementary-aged children in remote schools across the province.

You say what you say, I see what I see

MICHAEL DOM

You say the law of the jungle is wrong
I see a girl whose vagina was torn
You say it's inhuman taking their balls.
I see five men fucked a girl like a doll
You say vigilantism is not right
I see how at first she had tried to fight
You say this is evil and terrible
I see her legs, semen and blood dribble
You say taking balls will not stop the rape
I see that two of the five have escaped
You say that good does not come from bad
I see that those men may one day be dads
You say we must be civil and Christian
I see men will not stop raping children.

Julie Bishop walks back from talk of “successful” PNG election

KEITH JACKSON

“The Australian government congratulates PNG, one of our closest friends and partners, on its successful election and we looking forward to continuing to work with prime minister O’Neill and PNG’s new government” – press statement by Australia’s foreign affairs minister, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, c 5 August 2017

NOOSA – Nothing astounded close observers of Papua New Guinea’s recent shambolic general election than a public statement by Australia’s foreign affairs minister calling it “successful”.

The reaction from the commentariat to this profoundly inaccurate remark – made all the worse because it was clearly deliberate, not a throwaway line – was savage.

Even the think tanks which receive Australian government funding, and in their supplication are mostly reluctant to be harsh, seemed somewhat taken aback.

But there are actors as well as commentators, walkers as well as talkers, and this is where Queensland-based ex-kiap Paul Oates and some of his colleagues entered the arena – communicating directly with the Hon Eric Abetz, Senator for Tasmania and erstwhile senior minister in a number of Australian governments, but not (to his chagrin) in Malcolm Turnbull’s.

The slow death of integrity in Papua New Guinean politics

PHIL FITZPATRICK

A Remarkable Journey by Dame Carol Kidu, Longman, 2002, 161pp, ISBN-10: 0733932274, hard to get but available from Amazon Books Canada, $CAN11.01

TUMBY BAY - Notwithstanding the impotent hiatus in Australia's own federal parliament, I’ve been pondering the dysfunctional state of politics in Papua New Guinea.

In seeking explanations of how and why it has reached such abysmal levels I decided to re-read Carol Kidu’s 2002 book, A Remarkable Journey in the hope of gaining some insights and maybe seeing what the future might hold.

The reason I chose Carol’s book was because of her remarkable husband, Buri Kidu. If you want to know about integrity in Papua New Guinea he is the logical starting point.

If you read the publisher’s gushing blurb on the back of the book you could be led to believe it is about “an Australian teenager (in the days of the White Australia Policy) who dared to fall in love with a Papua New Guinean and join his struggle”.

Opinions about aid: public versus aid providers

Volume of Australian aid

TERENCE WOOD & CAMILLA BURKOT | Dev Policy Blog | Edited extracts

Read the full article, together with all links, graphs and citations, here

CANBERRA - Have you ever wondered just how strange the Australian aid community is?

Do we development types think about development issues in the same way as the average Australian does, or are we outliers?

In recent years the Development Policy Centre has been studying the Australian public’s views about aid.

As part of this work, in collaboration with the Campaign for Australian Aid, we placed eight questions in the 2016 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes, a large, representative survey of Australian adults.

Criticism has good intentions but by gosh it hurts sometimes

BAKA BINA

PORT MORESBY - Any criticism coming from another person is hard to digest.  We all have blind spots about our own work and find it hard to accept challenges from other people.

Our argument tends to run along the lines of “what does this person know about my experiences and the recollections of these experiences in my writing”.

I have written on other occasions that sometimes I don’t like what Phil Fitzpatrick writes. He can deliver general aspersions about our Papua New Guinean attitudes - and it hurts.

I have felt offended by some of his comments. Even his review of my novel, ‘Man of Calibre’ and ‘Sweet Garaiina Apo’, struck deep within me. Phil can be very dispiriting.

But then, in retrospect, that is the very thing in the literary world that writers strive for and live off.

Publishing is many things (& don’t forget the power of promotion)

PHIL FITZPATRICK

Want to buy your own MWTE tee-shirt? You can do that here

TUMBY BAY - Pukpuk Publication’s highest circulating book by a longshot has been My Walk to Equality, edited by Rashmii Amoah Bell.

I emphasise ’circulating’ because the bulk of MWTE’s distribution has been not through over the counter sales but through free circulation.

This was made possible through the generosity of many sponsors, especially the Australian High Commission in Papua New Guinea which alone provided funding for 5,000 books to be distributed free of charge.

But lining up sponsors for this book – which now has distributed about 7,000 copies - was never going to be enough to make it successful.

My Walk to Equality also required solid, well edited content – and energetic promotion.

Marvellous line-up of performers for Melanesian music festival

MARK SCHUBERT

BRISBANE - On Sunday 17 September, people from Brisbane's Melanesian communities together with many Australians will celebrate PNG’s anniversary of independence in a music festival at Redlands Performing Arts Centre, about 30 minutes from the centre of Brisbane.

Topping the bill is the brilliant PNG singer and poet George Telek who will perform with Ben Hakalitz (PNG), Charles Maimarosia (Solomons) and Tio (Vanuatu).

On the weekend of the 42nd anniversary of PNG independence, this showcase brings together the most outstanding contemporary and traditional Melanesian music.

George Telek, who has performed in the UK, the US and Germany as well as in our part of the world, headlines the concert, bringing his signature blend of modern and traditional Melanesian rhythms.

The cost of our democracy

JOHN M GLYNN OL | Transparency International PNG

PORT MORESBY - Sometimes in warfare innocent people are killed. This is called collateral damage.

When it happens everyone is very upset and sorry. Apologies are made by those who admit accountability, and hopefully compensation is paid to those who have lost their homes and family members.

Who is accountable for the collateral damage resulting from our national elections of 2017?

Who will give us an explanation and an apology for all that happened? Who will compensate those individuals, families and businesses who were so terribly hurt by the murder and mayhem that accompanied the election process?

Some 30 people have been murdered, including the police officers who were ambushed and assassinated; many mobile phone towers were destroyed, and the cost of their replacement will eventually be paid for by us, the users of mobile services; families dispersed by the fighting have fled to the cities and even now parents are trudging from school to school in Port Moresby looking for places where their children can continue their education; homes and businesses have been destroyed ... incomes lost ... bribery, lying and cheating ... hatred and envy stirred up ...

16 years on: Looking back on Bougainville’s peace agreement

FABIAN HAKALITS | Asia Pacific Report

ARAWA - It was 16 years ago last week since the signing of an important blueprint that put an end to Bougainville’s civil war in Papua New Guinea.

The Bougainville Peace Agreement paved the way for lasting peace on the war-torn island following the 10-year conflict which erupted as a result of disputes over the giant Panguna copper mine.

On 30 August 2001, the Bougainville Peace Agreement was signed in Arawa, Central Bougainville.

The agreement between the government of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) was intended to further the objectives of the Burnham Truce, Lincoln and other agreements brokered with New Zealand help.

Ex Nihilo

WARDLEY BARRY

Upon the epitaph a candle burns,
beneath the grave a centurion turns;

on the portals of immortality
he savours a fling with depravity.

Across the wooden fence a mongrel howls
as through the cemetery a ghoul prowls.

A gush of wind laboured through the crosses,
a field of white, like abandoned churches,

each of which are placed to honour the dead;
the people we love, the past-times we dread,

The commercial orientation of Australia’s aid programs

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - In 2015 when the newly elected Abbott government announced it was abolishing AusAID and merging its functions with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, ostensibly to cut down on red tape and to achieve financial efficiencies, I wondered where our foreign aid program was headed.

A short while later they announced a shift in focus. The aid program was no longer to be about helping people in developing countries or people in distress but about “promoting Australia’s national interests by contributing to sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction” by “driving private sector and human development”.

This new focus was to concentrate on “the private sector, aid for trade, economic infrastructure, education, gender equality and women’s empowerment, humanitarian assistance and social protection”.

To my mind this was a reversal of the priorities of what I thought should the aims of Australia’s aid program.

But I wasn’t especially surprised at these developments, coming as they did from a conservative and decidedly right-wing government. Abbott had lots of other shocks for us in 2014.

PNG government accused of lies & deceit over land grab

EDDIE TANAGO | Act Now!

PORT MORESBY - The Papua New Guinean government has lied to the nation over the SABL land grab and people across the country will be angry and disappointed.

The land grab, affecting over 50,000 square kilometres of customary land, was one of the biggest national issues over the lifetime of the last parliament.

In the lead-up to the national election both the prime minister and lands minister made clear statements that gave the impression all the SABL leases were deemed illegal and had been cancelled. 

Those statements have now been contradicted by new lands minister Justin Tkatchenko, who has told the media he is setting up a special committee to look at the leases and decide which ones are illegal and which should be cancelled.

Forum leaders urged to continue support of W Papua human rights

PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH

AUCKLAND - The Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) has urged leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum to continue their support of West Papua.

In an open letter, AWPA called on the Forum’s 18 members to keep raising the issue of human rights abuses with Indonesia’s government and continue applying pressure on Jakarta to allow a fact-finding mission to the Indonesian-ruled territory.

AWPA also urged that the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression be allowed to visit West Papua, with the Pacific Islands Forum driving this call.

“West Papua should also be given an official voice within the Forum itself, under the umbrella organisation of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua,” AWPA said.

Solar lamp project lighting up Hanuabada & many other villages

TESS GIZORIA | Kokoda Track Foundation

PORT MORESBY - Two weeks after fires destroyed the homes of over 200 families in Hanuabada, two Australian NGOs have distributed over 800 solar lights to children and their families.

The Kokoda Track Foundation (KTF) and Australian charity, SolarBuddy worked alongside Hanuabada relief coordinators Dadi Toka and Lohia Samual to deliver life-changing solar lights to the community.

SolarBuddy and KTF have been partnering for the past 12 months to light up the lives of children and families in remote areas across PNG.

Together they have distributed over 3,000 solar lights to communities in Oro, East Sepik and New Ireland provinces and in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

Hard yards for writers in PNG – but some redeeming features

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY -  After some years working with Papua New Guinean writers I have come to the view that the only way forward is for them to become as individually independent as possible.

These years involved me and others trying to maintain a viable national literary competition by squeezing funds out of sponsors and banging our heads against the apathy of established publishers and governments.

It also involved attempts to help organise writers into sustainable collectives dedicated to literature.

It is not a career choice I would recommend to anyone.

I should have perhaps known from my days as a kiap that organising autonomous bodies in Papua New Guinea is like herding cats. It just doesn’t work.

The great electoral commission gadget white elephant

JON FRAENKEL | Dev Policy Blog

WELLINGTON - The Papua New Guinea electoral commission gadget (pictured) has all the hallmarks of a misconceived donor project gone wrong, and left abandoned.

Neatly laid out on an interactive colour-coded map of Papua New Guinea, the commission’s gadget depicts each province in orange, green, grey, beige or blue to designate progress in counting ballot papers at the June-August 2017 polls.

The website was updated so slowly during the critical late July vote-counting days that it was way behind what was being reported on national TV or radio or in the daily newspapers.

Since the prime ministerial election on 2 August, it has languished in a multi-coloured state of semi-completion, full of errors and omissions.

Development goals, peace & getting PNG women into parliament

RASHMII BELL

BRISBANE - In September 2015, the international aid community met in New York to acknowledge and adopt a follow up to the United Nations millennium development goals (MDGs) under the new badge of sustainable development goals (SDGs).

There was much talk about the over-ambitious imposition on developing nations to achieve the 17 millennium goals over the previous 15 years.

Certainly this might have been Papua New Guinea’s view after its dismal attempt to achieve these goals – none out of 17.

One thing that struck me about the new SDGs was the emphasis that ‘peace’ within a nation is the binding factor if any of them is to be achieved.

So, between 2015 and 2030, that’s a major challenge.

The 100 day plan – positives tempered by old policies & spin

PAUL FLANAGAN | PNG Economics

You can read Paul's full and more detailed analysis here

CANBERRA – Papua New Guinea’s new treasurer and deputy prime minister, Charles Abel (pictured), has released the promised 100-day economic stimulus plan (read it here).

Overall, there are some positives in the plan. But politics is already circumscribing necessary actions to get PNG back onto the right economic path.

Starting with the positives, even having a 25-point plan is a useful statement that the new government recognises PNG’s economic challenges.

The five elements of the plan are appropriate: fiscal discipline; revenue growth; strengthening the economic base; improving governance; and acting strategically.

Australia should not coerce vulnerable people to return to harm

UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES | UNHCR

CANBERRA - The Australian government’s announced change in legal status and withdrawal of support to refugees and asylum-seekers is a blatant attempt to coerce the most vulnerable to return to Papua New Guinea, Nauru, or their countries of origin.

Removing accommodation and financial support leaves people at serious risk of destitution in Australia.

Equally, the withdrawal of access to basic services such as trauma and torture counselling will exacerbate their already precarious situation.

Approximately 400 refugees and asylum-seekers remain in community detention in Australia, having been transferred from Papua New Guinea and Nauru due to both serious medical and protection concerns.

Devil we know: Australia would rather invest in PNG than China

MICHAEL HEATH & ENDA CURRAN | Bloomberg | Extracts

NEW YORK - Australia, the world’s most China-dependent developed economy, invests more in the obscure South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea than it does in its biggest trading partner.

Part of the reason for such an imbalance is corporate Australia’s long history of failure abroad, which deters boards from venturing beyond their often cosy oligopolies at home. Yet when it comes to China, there’s also reason to be circumspect.

“It’s a high-risk area,” said Alan Oxley, a former Australian trade negotiator, citing problems with corruption and difficulties maintaining business relationships in China. “Those that do go in frequently find themselves pressured to share patents.”

Juffa’s advice for fellow parliamentarians – ‘don’t be fooled’

GARY JUFFA | Asia Pacific Report

ORO - My advice for Papua New Guinea’s new MPs and their staff, minions, hangers on and supporters. Some words about the middle bench. It’s a myth.

I should know. I was there believing that myth for the first two years of the last term of parliament.

The middle bench is government.

I attended government caucus from time to time and made critical reviews of government decisions. If you are allowed to attend government caucus, you are government.

Why did I not choose the opposition at that time?

Because I believed the myth of the middle bench.

And I saw little difference in either side at that time, with the government seeming to be a slightly better option.

Two new & enjoyable collections of poetry from PNG

PHIL FITZPATRICK

Moments in a Lifetime: Short Poems by Julie Mota, JTD Desktop Publishing, 2016, 28 pages, Available from Amazon Books for US$3.60 plus postage.

Silent Thoughts: Exploring Poetry by Jordan Dean, JTD Desktop Publishing, 2017, 96 pages, Available from Amazon Books for US$3.75 plus postage.

ONE of the ways of judging the success of the Crocodile Prize in its early days was to look at the number of entries coming from Papua New Guinea’s 22 provinces.

We knew that there were variables involved, not least the uneven penetration of digital services in the country, but we assumed that if a province was well represented word would spread about the competition.

Just as Simbu was one of the most highly represented provinces, West New Britain was one of the most under-represented. Sometimes there were no contributions at all from there.

Gender equality – you could end up with Peta O’Neill

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY – Here is something to consider in the current debate about gender equality and reserved seats for women in the Papua New Guinean parliament.

Having women in parliament, whether in reserved seats or on merit, will not necessarily provide a panacea for the way it operates.

They will not necessarily be Papua New Guinea’s political saviours.

Women are just as prone as men to the evils that make governments dysfunctional, including corruption, mismanagement, stupidity and the promotion of bizarre ideas.

I think a perusal of the activities of the few women who have broken through the barrier in Papua New Guinea speaks for itself. Not to put too fine a point on it, most of them were disappointing.

The challenge of the novel (& a comment from a hardened novelist)

JORDAN DEAN

PORT MORESBY - Recently, I challenged myself to write a novel. I’ve written poetry and short stories, why not give it a try. Whether it’ll end up a good book, I don’t know.

This is something I’ve been contemplating a long time but the thought of writing a story with twists and turns for over 100 pages put me off.

Up to this point, I’ve written a paragraph here, a page there and a chapter somewhere else.

For the novel, I plan to write at least 500 words every day so that in three months I should have a novel of about 45,000 words.

The word count of a novel is debatable because each genre and narrative has different requirements. That said, most novels are no shorter than 40,000 words.

Currently, my word count is just above 9,000. Technically, it’s already a novella.

Minister must ensure police ban in SABL areas is enforced

EDDIE TANAGO

PORT MORESBY - Community advocacy group Act Now! has praised new police minister Jelta Wong, for his commitment to stop the intimidation and harassment of customary landowners by police officers in SABL [special agricultural and business lease] areas.

But Act Now! remains concerned that the minister’s instructions may not be followed in all SABL areas.

Mr Wong has said he will ensure the government’s decision cancelling all SABL leases will be supported:

The Post-Courier newspaper has quoted him as saying that “No members of the police force should be interfering and intimidating affected landowners in SABL areas.

Minister’s directive an act of intimidation says leading clinician

SCOTT WAIDE | EMTV

PORT MORESBY - A ministerial circular gagging health professionals and hospital managements around Papua New Guinea from making public statements has drawn the ire of the national secretary of the Doctor’s Association.

Dr Sam Yockopua (pictured) has described the circular as a dictatorial attempt to intimidate and suppress health workers.

“This is political propaganda meant to mislead and shut people who are speaking out about a bureaucracy that is not working,” he said.

The circular - issued by health minister Sir Puka Temu on 15 August - said that recent information relating to health functions had been distorted and disseminated and that this “created fear and confusion in the community.”

The history gap: Who will remember PNG’s saints and sinners?

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - Five years ago I worked closely with Kela Kapkora Sil Bolkin when he was finalising the chapters of his landmark book about one of the tribal diaspora in Simbu, The Flight of Galkope.

Sil (pictured) had trekked throughout his ancestral lands speaking to all sorts of people, especially those in the men’s houses, about their history and writing it down.

He then contrasted and correlated those recorded oral histories with the short and incomplete written histories of the modern era to produce a marvellous book.

It contained what Dr Bill Standish called stories that “link Galkope clans to those from Gembogl to Gumine and Kup to Koge and show Chimbu men’s thinking from ancestral times to troubled life in the 21st century”.

What Sil was doing during his arduous treks was recording what is known in the trade as ‘oral history’.

Girl with a Bagi

JORDAN DEAN

Girl with a bagi
I am mesmerised with your beauty
You shine brightly like the midnight sun
Your reflection is like the moon shadows  

Your figure sparkles like the eastern star
You walk elegantly like a pacific princess
Your hair is curly like the ocean waves

Around your neck,
Is a pearl necklace from
Our native home, Milne Bay
Where the sun rises

Daughter of the ocean
My goddess Aphrodite
And the choice of my parents
I worship you with my eyes.

Gender equality in PNG: What a dispiriting conversation

ELVINA OGIL

THE conversation around the reservation of seats for women in PNG and gender equality more broadly has been most dispiriting.

Men – and, equally disappointingly, women - have been vehement in their opposition to the proposed reservation of seats, instead calling for election on merit.

Meritorious election presumes an equal playing field. It is glaringly obvious that the playing field is not equal in Papua New Guinea, both in parliament and outside it.

Even more disappointing is this prevailing view espoused by Jordan Dean and others that women "don't need equality - they need self-recognition”.

Unpacking such statements is almost a waste of our time and effort: at best, it is a vacuous throwaway line and, at worst, a subliminal statement of misogyny.

The fragile men of PNG who cannot tolerate women’s success

PHIL FITZPATRICK

When Keith Jackson and I set up the Crocodile Prize in 2010, we thought it was necessary to have a special category for women's writing.

It didn’t take long for us to abandon this idea when it became abundantly clear that Papua New Guinea had many talented female writers.

In subsequent years, plenty of awards were carried off by women - it was close to a 50-50 split between male and female writers.

We believed this was a matter to be celebrated. And we understood that this success opened up a significant avenue to promote the cause of gender equality.

It was this kind of thinking that eventually led to the publication of the first anthology of PNG women's writing, 'My Walk to Equality', under the astute editorship of Rashmii Amoah Bell.

Time to declare state of emergency in Enga says businessman

DANIEL KUMBON

WABAG - Businessman and councillor Paul Kurai has appealed to the O’Neill-Abel government to immediately declare a state of emergency in the troubled highlands province of Enga to prevent a politically motivated tribal war from spreading to other towns and villages.

The Wabag businessman (centre right) said the state of emergency must continue as long as necessary to bring hope and normalcy to the people.

Cr Kurai warned that if leaders Don Polye, Alfred Manasseh and Governor Peter Ipatas do not intervene to urge their people to stop fighting many more people will die and more property will be destroyed.

“They must not wait for the fight to stop on its own,” he said. “This is the wrong attitude.

Remembering this week: the RAAF’s worst peacetime air disaster

IAN LOFTUS | Ian Loftus History & Travel Blog

PERTH - This week marks the 45th anniversary of the RAAF’s worst peacetime air disaster, the crash of a Caribou transport aircraft from 38 Squadron in Papua New Guinea’s Morobe province on 28 August 1972.

With 29 on board (three RAAF crew and 26 passengers) the aircraft disappeared en-route from Lae to Port Moresby. Only four of those on board survived, all cadets.

Most of the passengers were PNG high school cadets from the 35th Cadet Battalion returning home from their annual cadet camp in Lae. They were accompanied by an Australian Army officer and a cadet officer, also from Australia.

Despite an intensive search by RAAF, Army and civilian aircraft, the Caribou remain undiscovered for several days due to its remote location and extensive tree canopy.

A searching Army Sioux helicopter located several survivors who had walked from the crash site. RAAF Iroquois were called, and the survivors were able to lead crew to the crash site, which was near the crest of a ridge.

Wars of words over Panguna as Bougainville moves to new era

LEONARD FONG ROKA

PANGUNA - With Bougainville less than a year away from a referendum on its political future, the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and a local Panguna group known as the Meekamui Government of Unity are in a war of words over the re-opening of the Panguna copper and gold mine.

The ABG wants the now reformed Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) to operate the mine which it believes will finance the redevelopment of Bougainville.

But the Meekamui and the Osikaiyang Landowners Association are keen to see the mine opened by an Australian company they have aligned with called RTG.

Bougainville’s president John Momis has said the ABG will not allow a company with no track record to mine at Panguna.

PNG needs to stop the talk & start acting to heighten security

NAITH LATI

HONOLULU - It is believed that North Korea’s missile program is moving close to achieving the range to hit targets as far away as the United States and Papua New Guinea.

But it is premature for vulnerable countries like PNG to openly condemn North Korea’s intentions and possibly provoke the hermit kingdom to see PNG as a target to attack or be threatened, especially as APEC convenes in Port Moresby next year.

PNG has military support from Australia and other allies but not having significant military assets and capability leaves it in a vulnerable state.

The hostile words to North Korea expressed by the PNG's foreign affairs minister in local newspapers recently were childish and regrettable but are too late to recall.

Why corporate social responsibility fails to promote peace in PNG

KYLIE McKENNA | Dev Policy Blog | Extract

Read the full article here

SYDNEY - Papua New Guinea has long been a site of analysis for exploring the links between natural resources and conflict, having been used as an example in prominent studies of the natural resource curse and as a source of learning in international debates on corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The forced closure of the Panguna mine in Bougainville in 1989 due to conflict was a major catalyst for the adoption of CSR in PNG.

Despite this 28-year history, company-community conflict remains a significant and ongoing challenge across the country.

A possible explanation is that CSR counterintuitively fosters discontent due to a predominant focus on the distribution of material benefits.

Is PNG’s inability to learn smothering our young democracy?

BUSA JEREMIAH WENOGO

PORT MORESBY - I consider myself fortunate. And it is not because I come from a wealthy family or enjoy the privileges of living in a developed nation.

In fact, I live in a developing country that happens to be one of the most corrupt in the world and where there is a general sense of disregard and disrespect for the rule of law.

Police are a law unto themselves. The national procurement system is a cash cow for corrupt politicians. Taxpayers’ money is wasted on unproductive official inquires that never see the light of day.

And we have a dysfunctional public service that is a hallmark of our nation's backwardness.

In saying all that, I acknowledge that we do have hard-working and honest public servants, law enforcers and politicians. But they are like specks in the sand. So few of them make any significant contribution to our nation's future.

Could the roiling disaster of PNG stomach a woman’s touch?

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - I’m back in my quiet little corner of South Australia after spending a couple of weeks meandering through the hustle and bustle of Queensland’s south-east coast.

There was a burst of unseasonal hot weather up there, so stepping off the plane in Adelaide on the way home was a bit like jumping into a freezer. But I think I’ll survive.

In Queensland I attended the successful Papua New Guinean women writer’s event at Coolum Beach and learned a lot about the travails of being a woman in PNG, especially those women who produce ground-breaking anthologies of women’s writing. (Some of those women are on stage with me in the accompanying photograph.)

To say that the anthology My Walk to Equality has been both a great success and a tremendous burden for the women involved is an understatement.

Bougainville has many revenue sources; we don’t need a mine

LEONARD FONG ROKA

PANGUNA - Since the formation of the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) in 2005, a chronic shortage of revenue has been the norm.

The Kabui government experienced it; the Tanis regime had a big taste of it, and now the Momis government screams about it.

This is not because we are poor but because we are caught up in a neo-colonial system that controls and tries to keep developing states as its slave.

Thus in the Pacific, every state - including Bougainville that wants to be a state - will always have big brother Australia looking over us.

In every ABG government department, there is some Australian advisor and monitor.

Disputes & unfinished business as election wrangles continue

JOHNNY BLADES | Radio New Zealand International

RESULTS are still pending in two seats in Papua New Guinea's election, three weeks since the overall return of writs.

The Electoral Commission has confirmed that declarations are not finalised in two Highlands electorates that experienced deadly election-related violence in the past month.

The vote count for the Southern Highlands regional seat remains suspended due to clashes between supporters of rival candidates in the provincial capital Mendi which resulted in several deaths. Electoral Commission has ruled out failing the election as a number of parties in the province are calling for it to do.

Having been moved to neighbouring Western Highlands province, the Southern Highlands regional vote count was expected to resume this week. Yet the delayed result in the Southern Highlands seat has tested the patience of voters in a volatile region.

Everywhere & nowhere: forensically analysing grand corruption

KRISTIAN LASSLETT | The Tokaut Blog | Extract

You can link to Professor Lasslett’s complete article here

THE problem with corruption in PNG, at its most grand levels, is that it is everywhere and nowhere.

Its morbid symptoms are apparent for all to see, but the particular mechanisms through which the disease of corruption infects governments and markets, and disables the body of the nation, proves difficult to observe, owing to its secretive nature.

Yet in order to fight corruption effectively, we need to answer elementary questions relating to its core characteristics.

For example, what type of corrupt transactions are most common and damaging in PNG, who are the participants, what motivates them, how do they make their illicit gains, what do they spend it on, and which institutional structures permit these illegal activities to take place?

Dysfunction & waste allegations against AFP ‘colonial masters’

RORY CALLINAN | The Australian | Extracts

ALLEGATIONS of dysfunction, harassment and waste have been levelled at the multi-million dollar Australian Federal Police (AFP) mission overseeing the 2018 APEC summit in Papua New Guinea.

The claims which have raised questions about the capability of PNG to host the forum, range from a breakdown in relations with top level local police and the purchase of unnecessary equipment and futile training to bullying and vicious internal feuding amongst the AFP.

Among the bullying and harassment claims are that an AFP civilian was flying a camera drone around windows of a female AFP member’s high rise apartment in Port Moresby, that a pornographic movie was aired during a function and an AFP officer physically assaulted another colleague.

Gunshots all around as election violence resumes in Wabag

DANIEL KUMBON

WABAG, Wednesday afternoon - Election violence has resumed here and gunshots are ringing out over the small township after a ceasefire imposed last week broke down yesterday and a death was reported this morning.

Wabag is experiencing its most violent time since Enga Province severed ties with the Western Highlands to assume its own political and administrative responsibilities in 1974.

Maters were made worse by the unrelated death of a young pilot Sano Peter Mendai (pictured), who was to graduate from a flying school in New Zealand this month.

Sano Mendai had come to Port Moresby to witness the graduation of his wife, Jane Kipok, from the University of Papua New Guinea’s.

Papua New Guinea: Let’s be honest about the debt

KERENGA KUA

IN the face of foreign media reports indicating a lack of liquidity in government coffers, I urge the prime minister to come clean about the country's debt situation.

Why is it that we continue to hear stories of government workers facing lockouts because rental payments are not being made, both here in PNG and abroad in places like Washington DC and Singapore?

We also hear of unpaid United Nations fees and electric power being cut to government departments.

Papua New Guinea expresses gratitude for Australian support

MEDIA STATEMENT | Office of the Prime Minister

PRIME minister Peter O’Neill has welcomed partnership activities between Papua New Guinea and Australia that are building capacity in healthcare, and providing support for the hosting of APEC in 2108.

Following a courtesy call by Bruce Davis, Australia’s high commissioner to Papua New Guinea (seen here with deputy high commissioner Bronte Moules), Mr O’Neill said the bilateral relationship with Australia continues to strengthen.

“The ongoing co-operation between our two governments is very strong which is also enhancing business links, and delivering capacity building support,” he said.

“Australia’s commitment to improving healthcare in Papua New Guinea is delivering tangible results, particularly in dealing with diseases such as HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis.

True greatness is not edifices but the welfare of the people

CHRIS OVERLAND

MATHIAS Kin commented in PNG Attitude: “That we need eye-catching buildings to get recognition is not the direction our mostly rural-based people need. Let the world do it their way, we can achieve greatness from what's around us.”

I support Mathias's comments. To my mind he is absolutely right. PNG's leadership need to focus on the basics, not upon building vast edifices.

The edifice complex is a well understood condition that appears to afflict otherwise perfectly rational people who enter politics.

Those afflicted seem to believe that the erection of huge stadia, monuments or sky scrapers is necessary to proclaim their and their nation's greatness.

The personal & professional struggles of Dr Kevin Pondikou

SCOTT WAIDE | EMTV

WHEN Dr Kevin Pondikou arrived at Rumginae Rural Hospital in the Western Province he was quite happy to have found a job.

But the challenges that confronted him quickly brought to the fore the reality of rural medical service provision. Within a few days, he knew it wasn’t going to be an easy journey.

“The people live a very tough life even though we have a mine in the province,” he says. “Food is a problem. Cash is a problem. Many people live a very impoverished life.”

Rumginae is located in the North Fly District. Apart from the hospital, the former mission station has an airstrip and a training school for community health workers and a primary school.