Why should white people have culture?

Published on August 5, 2008 in Melanesian Philosophy. 8 Comments

“IF THESE WHITE PEOPLE HAVE A CULTURE, THEY WILL UNDERSTAND OURS”. These are the words of a strong willed and deeply courageous Motuan girl called Gabi who hails (most likely) from Poreporena village which was once located at the base of the Tuoguba Hill that overlooks the city of Port Moresby and the Fairfax Harbour. Poreporena is now incorporated into the great Hanuabada village and is just a stone throw from the western foothills of Tuogoba and Port Moresby. It might be accurate to guess that Gabi uttered these words in the period immediately after the second world war in the 1940s when Papua and New Guinea was still under colonial rule.

Gabi was in her teens and only a few hours prior, she witnessed a bloody execution where a young Motuan boy from Kori village was hung on a rope at Ela, the beach front located on the eastern slope of Tuoguba Hill. The boy was charged of commiting a particular crime that might be labelled as visual rape. Allegedly, he was caught staring at a particular expatriate subject, namely Ms Collie Damont, who happened to have fixated herself in the direction of the boy’s gaze. In those days, staring at a white woman was tantamount to sexual harrassment or visual rape to be exact. Such an offence carried the penalty of an execution which was organised as a public spectacle that serves both to punish and deter such a form of harrassment as well as to intimidate and assert the power of colonial administration over the natives. More details about this particular story of Gabi and the execution is recounted in The National’s Writer’s Forum by Melinda Kanamon and is entitled as “The Freedom of Culture”.

After witnessing the execution Gabi returned home with her younger sister, Tama. They reported the day’s incident to their parents and cried out their hearts over what they have seen.The incident installed a stubborn spirit of resistance into the hearts of these two young Motuan women. While the village slept quietly in shock and bereavement that night, the two girls left the comfort of their homes and sought out their male relatives who have taken refuge in the mangroves located in a delta further afar from the village.

Their male relatives must have been avoiding captivity and ultimately execution for similar or other nuisances defined as criminal by the then colonial masters. Gabi and Tama had some food with them which they gave to their male relatives. But Gabi was not content to be a mother or a sister only that night. Her heart was burdened with the affliction of the day and she had to deliver this particular spirited message:

“How long are you going to keep on hiding? Ah? This is our land. We belong here. They don’t. And now you are still trying to flee your land. Where will you go? Where will your sons and daughters grow up and call home? Where will you go? Today a young boy was hanged at Ela. He was only 17. Tomorrow more will be hanged as they defy their laws. Take up your places and make a difference for your people. If these white people had a culture they would understand ours. You men sitting here are the only educated natives in Port who can one day run our government. Now is the time to make a difference, now”.

All was not lost. Gabi’s words penetrated the hearts and minds of her male relatives and some of them eventually teamed up with other Papua and New Guineans of the time to campaign for Papua New Guinea’s independence from colonial rule. Gabi might therefore be regarded as one of the women who laid the foundation stones that helped created Papua New Guinea.

What is equally attractive about Gabi is her particular deployment of analogical reasoning which assumed the view of culture as a universal similarity based on analogy. “If these white people had culture they would understand ours”. This is not a proposition framed to deliver the negative impression that “white people do not have culture  and therefore they do not have the moral and cognitive capacity to understand us”. Gabi’s premise is that understanding is gained through an exchange of similarity and culture is the symbolic currency of this exchange. It therefore follows that if similarity is already assumed, what needs to be created is difference in itself because only difference and difference alone can make a difference. Gabi makes no hesitation to summon our attention to an imminent and an enduring call of all times : “Now is the time to make a difference, now“…….Thank you Gabi!

The lawyer’s briefcase and the robber’s gun: a tale of justice

Published on August 4, 2008 in Politics. 0 Comments

TWO SYSTEMS OF LAW is a phrase that carries a familiar ring of echoes. This catch phrase points to the perception of a particular kind of negative discrimination that privileges some people over others when matters of law, justice and fairness are caught up in a trial of moral evaluation. For those with power and influence, it appears as though they could excuse themselves from the rule of law. For others who are less privileged, law is expensive to afford if they were to defend or protect themselves. Jerry Tendawai recently wrote an article in the Post Courier which is entitled “Where is PNG heading with two sets of laws?” Tendawai makes the following observations.

“In Papua New Guinea it seems the lawmakers and bureaucracts with their cronies are higher than the laws of this country but we ordinary citizens cannot resist but can face the full strength of the law when we happen to break it. This highlights the recent use of tough police tactics on the bank robbery suspects that were seen through the media that has now opened up many windows of the law enforcement sector, than had definitely alerted the corridors of power telling every citizen, where Papua New Guinea is heading to with its two sets of laws….”

Tendawai complaints that people who have been appointed to positions of trust and responsibility “have literally defrauded the state millions of kina. The law enforcing body is like a dog without being let of its leash barking orders to shoot to kill the monkeys stelling plantation bananas while the big fish escape the hook with large sums of money beloning to mor than six million population of Papua New Guinea. This defines the two sets of people here in Papua new Guinea and have dared to defy justice through deceitful actions and partner corruption at the highest level”.

Tendawai’s letter is cast against a particular background of fraud cases in Papua New Guinea where huge amounts of public money have been squandered by those who were charged with responsibilities of trust and authority. Often this involves the collusion of several lawyers and some accountants or other bureaucrats who come up with some fishy deals and then dress up the books after monies have been diverted. One of the ongoing cases involves monies belonging to the National Provident Fund which involved the collaboration of several lawyers and politicians. People who have been charged for these cases are still on trial and perhaps they may even evade prosecution at all largely because of the access they have to lawyers and their political sympathesisers.

In the recent cases of organised bank robberies, we see a commendable response from the Police to arrest and charge some of the main suspects of these crimes. While full details about these robberies are only beginning to emerge, anecdotal accounts from the streets of Moresby indicate that there could be some people of power and influence who are involved at some level somewhere in these spate of daring armed robberies. Some suspected accomplishes were caught while having high powered guns in their possessions.

Without overburdening this account, an immediate moral to this tale lies in the contrast between a lawyer’s briefcase and the robber’s gun. Armed with a briefcase, a lawyer can more readily defend and protect himself from the press of prosecution than an armed robber stealing from a bank. The recent cases of robberies illustrate this well. This tale however changes its depth and complexity once criminal elements and people of influence find ways to enrich themselves against the saftey and interest of the public at large. This raises anew the issue of two laws: one law looks after the sanity and wellbeing of commoners and the other is applied to the management of privileges and monopolies of the powerful. But if access to political and economic power becomes a measure of delineating the operations of these two systems of law, what is law if it were not an instrument of access and expediency?

Indonesian incursions: accident or design?

Published on August 3, 2008 in West Papua. 1 Comment

INDONESIAN MILITARY PERSONNEL have been giving themselves an undeserved freedom and authority to walk through the border between PNG and West Papua over the last several months.  Papua New Guinea villagers who live in the border areas have reported that there have been frequent incursions undertaken by Indonesian military personnel. This has gone on without any regard for the border between the two nations. In one of the many such incursions, the soldiers burnt down houses and physically abused Papua New Guinean citizens in the Papua New Guinea side of the border. These actions by the Indonesian military are in complete disregard for the territorial integrity of Papua New Guinea and much more for the human rights of its citizens. For their part, PNG soldiers and policemen have exhibited a remarkable and commendable restraint to not engage Indonesian soldiers when they encountered them in PNGs territory.

The recent incursion brought to light the fact that the Papua New Guinea Government has neglected the border and its people’s rights for some years now. In its management, the border issue has been postponed to the status of an afterthought which attracts government attention only if it appears as a disaster. The PNG Government should do more to step up the security and ability of the soldiers and policemen to keep up a vigilance over the border. Although it demanded an explanation and an apology from Indonesia, no apology has been forthcoming from Jakarta as yet. Instead what we are given is a pathetic reason that the incursions were perpetrated by recently trained soldiers who were ignorant of the border relations between Papua New Guineans and West Papuans who inhabit the border areas.

Reports of Indonesian military infiltration into PNG has been in circulation for atleast some two years now. I am beginning to wonder if the recent incursions is much more than a mistake by some ignorant Indonesian soldiers. Could it be that the soldiers are testing the waters, could it be that the incursions are more deliberate, based on a colonialist design then we are led to believe? Mightn’t it be that the incursions portend a more subtle yet gradual an expansionist agenda that Indonesia is pursuing in the region?

Still Seeking Shelter and Freedom!

Published on July 14, 2008 in West Papua. 0 Comments

IT IS NOW MORE THAN 20 YEARS since the Papua New Guinea Government aceded to the UN Convention relating to the status of refugees. Since then it has yet to enact a domestic legislation that would provide the framework to enforce and administer the rights of refugees who are seeking shelter and freedom in PNG. This was revealed yet once again when the Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, Sam Abal, reveal that government doesnt have a clear policy on how to deal with the West Papuan people who have been living as refugees in the country. Mr Abal was responding to a question put to him by the Governor of National Capital District, Powes Pakop, a long time advocate and campaigner of a Free West Papua!

Whilst PNG aceded to that UN Convention in 1986, it did so with reservations over issues concerning employment, housing, education, freedom of movment and the associated issues of expulsion and naturalisation. In 1996, it endorsed a policy on “limited integration” that allowed West Papuan refugees to be granted to the status of permissive residency. The status gave West Papuans conditional freedom of movement, the right to engage in business and the right of access to health and education facilities. They are, however, not allowed to become members of political associations and to vote in the country’s elections. When the issue of refugees emerged in 2002 with the arrival of Iraqi asylum seekers, PNG received support from organisations such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to develop its own national legislation on refugee and asylum-seekers but the Government decided to adopt a simpler model of law proposed by the Pacific Immigration Director’s Conference. However, none of this has translated into a domestic law on refugee and asylum-seekers as yet and neither do we have a fully fledged constitutionally established human rights organisation.

Since their eviction of the West Papuan refugees from the 8mile settlement in Port Moresby, the quest for a resettlement in a different country away from PNG has been an unceasing request. The refugees first gathered outside the UNHCR office in downtown Port Moresby. Complications developed following the death of a prominent magistrate who was attacked within the camp when he drove in there after a night of intoxication. The case has been solved and the people who attacked the magistrate were not West Papuan youths. In fear of their lives the West Papuans took refugee outside the police station in Boroko. From the Boroko station, they have been moved away to the Apex oval and presently attempts are being made to move them to the premises of PNG Trusts in Gerehu.

PNG Eco-Forestry Forum joins call to investigate allegations into $40 million scam

Published on July 4, 2008 in Logging. 0 Comments

Following a report that initially broke in the Post-Courier on Wednesday the 2nd of July, the PNG Eco-Forestry Forum has joined a host of others, including the PNG opposition (The National, 3 July), Greenpeace and Transparency International (PNG) (Post-Courier, 4 July), in demanding a full investigation into allegations that an unnamed government minister skimmed more than $US40 million (K145 million) from logging deals and funneled the money into an offshore bank account in Singapore.

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Forum joins call to investigate allegations into $40 million scam

The PNG Eco-Forestry Forum has joined the call for a proper investigation into allegations of US$40 million scam involving a senior government Minister.

In what it described as “Just a tip of the Iceberg,” the Forum says if the allegations are true then there is every reason for people in PNG not to trust the government any more in its management of the forestry sector. It is also an international embarrassment as it seriously questions the credibility of the government in so far as good governance is concerned.

The Forum is concerned that this is not the first time allegations of corrupt practices involving forestry has surfaced as similar allegations continue to happen when the government finds it fit to do nothing.

Numerous Government sanctioned reports, including the Barnett Inquiry of 1998, reveal allegations of massive corruption involving bribery, illegal logging, and human rights abuses within the industry. Recommendations made in these various reports have never been formally tabled in Parliament or has any action been taken against those implicated, creating a situation where there seems to be two sets of laws, one for the politicians and the other for the common people.
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Concerns over deep sea mining escalate

Published on July 3, 2008 in Mining. 1 Comment

Concerns over deep sea mining proposals are escalating across the Pacific region where exploration is moving at a fast pace. Australian national research organisation, the CSIRO has given further authority to the requests of indigenous peoples in the Bismark Ramu sea to halt these operations until more is known and the communities rights to exercise their rights over developments impacted their resources are recognised. Concerned peoples from across five provinces of PNG came together to discuss their concerns and declare their opposition to the current mode of development in late June 2008.

Indigenous People of Bismark and Solomon Seas Petition PNG Government to suspend sea bed mining in their territorial seas

Bismark Solomon Seas Indigenous People’s Council: Media release July 1st 2008

Indigenous peoples from around the Bismark and Solomon Seas gathered at Karkum village, Madang last week and signed a statement seeking to halt the current fast tracking of deep sea mining in their territorial seas.

More than 80 participants attended the meeting organised by the Madang People’s Forum and attended by community representatives from Manus, Kairiru island, New Ireland, Bagabag Island, Karkar Island, Riwo, Gildiasi, Rai Coast, and the statement was also endorsed by representatives of the Ramu River Authority, Simil Hondulwa Evangelical Alliance of PNG, New Ireland Students Association of University of Technology, Sea Turtle Restoration Project, Alemewo Foundation, the Catholic Church, Madang Rehabilitation and presented from Vanuatu, Porgera, plus observers from surrounding community based organisations, school teachers and students.

The participants established a council to guide their ongoing coordination and participation in the resource management of the shared marine resources and to seek resolution of their concerns at the local, national and international level.

Wenceslaus Magun, the newly elected interim chair of the Council stated, “We are calling upon the relevant bodies to halt activities that pose risks to our marine resources until steps have been taken to engage local people and address our concerns. Our livelihood and culture is based around these oceans and our people are dependent upon it for survival.”

Rick Steiner, Professor of Marine Biology from Alaska University who attended the forum to stated, “citizen oversight and monitoring of any proposed developments is essential to address the significant risks and threats to the marine environment that deep sea mining represent. Coastal resource owners need to assess these proposals to ensure they are in best interest of the communities whose resources at are risk and this meeting represents an important first step.”

Wence Magun: +675 3232632, +675 6825671, or +675 71959665; magun.wence@gmail.com

Professor Rick Steiner: arfgs@uaa.alaska.edu

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West Papuan refugees appealing for resettlement

Published on July 2, 2008 in West Papua. 2 Comments

WEST PAPUA REFUGEES APPEAL FOR RESETTLEMENT IN THIRD COUNTRY

On this day the 1st day of July 2008, the representatives of the West Papua Refugees camped at Apex Park – Boroko, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea – wish to raise the following concerns regarding the continued displacement of their families in Port Moresby.

1. Our status as refugees in PNG:

(i) While the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Papua New Guinean Government, and others concerned with the plight of all West Papua Refugees in PNG, continue to deny us refugee status and therefore those rights accorded to refuges under international conventions and treaties, we reassert our claim to refugee status and all it’s implications and meanings. In other words, in the absence of a piece of paper to confirm or attest to our refugee status, our mere existence and treatment since arriving on PNG soil is blinding proof of our right to claim refugee status.

(ii) On this day 37 years ago a West Papua Government in exile was established to lead an independent State of West Papua. This remains the single most important event in West Papuan history that brought on the systematic onslaught by Indonesia to annihilate the aspirations of West Papuan peoples right to Self Determination. We the West Papua Refugees at Apex Park in Port Moresby are a direct consequence of this event 37 years ago and we will never forget or let our children forget, the relentless efforts of Indonesia to render us Stateless, Landless, voiceless and powerless. This (Indonesian) response reverberates across the border and continues to affect our existence and attempts to bring us to our knees, in Papua New Guinea.

We are refugees in every meaning of the word.

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Frieda River Mine

Published on June 27, 2008 in Frieda mine and Mining. 3 Comments Tags: .

The Frieda River Mine is expected to come into full operation in 2012 and it shall have a lifespan of 23 years. The mine is located near the headwaters of the Sepik River in the border between East and West Sepik provinces. The Mine will be operated by Highlands Pacific Limited, a company incorporated in Papua New Guinea. According to geological reports provided by Highlands Pacific Limited, the ore potential found in the Frieda River area outsizes the neighbouring Ok Tedi Mine with a heavy presence of gold and copper accompanied by a rich concentration of other metals as well. This mineral wealth carries an attractive financial projection that runs into billions of kina. The newspaper articles below carry the reports and some of the issues relating to the Frieda River Mine.

This is the original article which appeared in the business section of The National on 25 April 2008

I wrote a response to this report which appeared in The National on 5 May 2008

Greg Anderson, from the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, responded to my concerns with a letter that appeared in The National on 30 May 2008

A prominent Papua New Guinea lawyer, John Gawi, who is himself from the Sepik River has written a letter of response to the above letter by Greg Anderson. Mr Gawi demands that environmental plans for the Frieda River Mine must be put in place before the government and the developers rush into the production phase. Mr. Gawi’s letter could be found in The National of 27th June 2008. Concerns about this particular mine is continuing.

Is there such a thing as an “environmentally friendly mine”?

Published on June 24, 2008 in Frieda mine and Mining. 7 Comments Tags: .

The letter entitled “Frieda will not be an ecological disaster” penned by Greg Anderson of the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum (The National 30/05/08) must not go unchallenged. This letter is written with a self-approving moral corrective that seeks to rectify what Mr Anderson perceives as the incorrect assumptions of the letter I wrote about the Frieda River Mine (The National 05/05/08). Anderson’s letter is swayed by an admirable intent to paint a positive image of the mining industry in PNG. It carries the message that mining and mineral wealth plays an important role in digging out PNG from its persistent confinement in the bottomless pit of economic miseries.

People in isolated locales in PNG need mines because mines provide necessary services and infrastructure development that the PNG Government is not able to provide. Thus geographic isolation and economic marginalism provide an attractive rationale for mines to be opened. It is a geographical fact that all the mining that has ever gone on in PNG takes place in very isolated environs in the country. However, in the same breath isolationism and marginalism have contributed towards isolating environmental issues from the extractive agenda of mining companies. The Fly River experience is more than a case in point. The government and company are interested mainly in the landowners around the mining area, but the majority of the people who shall bear the ultimate brunt of this mine are marginalised from the radar of environmental concerns.

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Frivolous filings and vexatious litigation

Published on May 26, 2008 in Politics. 1 Comment

“PEOPLE OF POWER AND AUTHORITY must not use the Courts and the system to delay justice. People of power and wealth must not use the Courts as a means to hide behind the letters of the law and pretend that s/he can run away from the truth”. These words of admonition come from a self-described “Nationalist” who wrote into The National newspaper (24/10/08) from the Kagua-Erave area in the Southern Highlands Province of PNG.

The “Nationalist” was commenting on three theories of conspiracy that gained currency in Hagen recently following the burning of the famous Kapal Haus which houses the provincial government headquarters of the Western Highlands Province. The Kapal Haus was burnt down on the night of Tuesday (21/10/08). The cause of the fire is yet unknown and experts are seeking to establish the cause while security guards are being questioned for possible clues. Further details about this inferno can be found on The National (21/10/08). The belief that arsonists were at work to destroy this architectural landmark has fueled various theories of malicious intent and ill motivation which meant that the rumour mill in Hagen underwent an overload in the production and circulation of conspiracies.

What is captivating about the editorial letter is the theoretical connection the “Nationalist” of Kagua-Erave left implicit about the fire and the abuse of Court process. It seem as though the Court system could become clogged with frivolous filings and vexatious litigation so that it could go up in flames much like the Kapal Haus. This is not an overdrawn analogy. The two men who have been seeking the province’s highest political office have been battling an extended court case which ensue from a previous court of disputed returns after the last election in 2007 which saw the current incumbent Governor, Tom Olga’s election nullified. Governor Olga had defeated his renown predecessor, Paias Wingti, who contested the election in Court leading to the extended litigation process. One of the theories behind the Kapal inferno is that elements aligned with either of these two leaders could have been responsible for setting fire on the building. This is said here to only explain the analogy and not the relative merits of the extended court case let alone the suspicions or the true cause of the fire.

The “Nationalist” used the conspiracy theories as a pretext to comment on a trend in Papua New Guinea where people of power and wealth are using the Court system to avoid prosecution. No doubt every person has the right to access the Court to seek address and get redress, to secure defence and find protection, to prosecute the guilty or liberate the innocent; to obtain remedy or to harness restoration; to sanction truth or to enforce justice etc. Whatever it is, possessing or bearing the very right to elicit the attention and time of the Court introduces a moral dillema because of the fact that this very right can also help to deny and delay justice through the technique of prolonged and excessive litigation. The point is that possessing such a right does not mean it automatically sanctions a moral imperative for instituting legal action. 

The Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, for instance, has been going at lengths now to avoid being investigated by the Ombudsman Commission for allegations of breaching the leadership code. That case is currently in the Court and the Ombudsman Commission has been seeking to strike out the case on grounds that the weight of repetitive litigation is now amounting to an abuse of Court process and privilege. When the Julian Moti saga was investigated by a Commission of Inquiry, various court proceedings were instituted to either prolong and illegalise the establishment of the inquiry and even to annul the findings and conclusions of the inquiry. In the current Commission of Inquiry into allegations of mismanagement in the Finance Department, several legal hiccups have now been engineered to achieve similar objectives.

Frivolous filings and vexatious litigation is proving burdensome and will clog the capacity of the Court system to administer and deliver legal decisions in a timely manner. Ultimately it means that any move that works to delay justice is committed also to the object of denying justice. At the same time law firms are making a lot of money from people of power and wealth who could afford to bring their cases to the Court under such circumstances. Receiving hefty legal fees from the wealthy and powerful cannot mean that the right to seek legal address override the merits of a case at end. Lawyers and vexatious litigants should not routinely and habitually abuse the Court system for the sake of personal gain. The overload of cases the Court has been experiencing means that it is high time now that stringent legislative measures are enacted to curb vexatious litigation and frivolous conduct by litigants and law years alike.