Last month, Global Integrity’s Raymond June & Jonathan Werve visited Papua New Guinea (PNG), where we talked with our local research team, as well grassroots advocates, journalists, government officials and academics about the dire state of governance in PNG. In the process, they identified several areas that urgently need to be addressed. This is what we learned.
“We assert by virtue of the constitution that all power belongs to the people – acting through their elected representatives…”
This inscription on the mosaic of the National Parliament building in PNG’s capital city, Port Moresby, seems to take on added poignancy in light of the country’s current governance crisis: the people want change. It’s the elected officials that need to get with it.
The story of PNG is familiar, but no less tragic for it. Newspapers describe a daily stream of scandal and public outrage. Street violence pervades the capital and countryside; many say the police are frequent perpetrators. Winning reelection is nearly unheard of; politicians appear to embrace the one-term nature of their posts as an excuse to steal while they can and deal their way into lucrative post-government employment.
So where do we go from here?
In June 2008, Global Integrity facilitated a one-day Global Integrity Dialogue workshop (pictures here) held in conjunction with the “Inclusive Approaches to Good Governance” symposium at the Divine Word University in Madang, PNG. There was a robust debate over the key governance and anti-corruption challenges facing PNG as well as a productive brainstorming session on opportunities for reform. Participants included a range of stakeholders from government, civil society, and the donor community. This is what they suggest:
1. Support good leadership. Participants agreed that effective leaders were important in strengthening good governance in PNG. While action at the grassroots level is important, higher authorities and institutions that promote good leadership play a key corresponding role in executing change and ensuring compliance with legal regulations.
2. Bolster capacity at the local, sub-national level in order to decentralize national power. Political economic power tends to be concentrated at the national rather than the local/provincial level in PNG. Although participants agreed that an increase in support of local capacity building would be important to disperse national power, local capacity such as developing civil society organizations and teaching literacy has not sprung up to a satisfactory level. Despite the relative weakness of civil society in PNG, churches play a significant role in promoting good governance.
3. Strengthen education and training. Lack of literacy and/or formal education is a significant impediment to social, legal, political, and economic reform in PNG. The high rate of illiteracy was seen by participants as damaging to reforms related to good governance as well as citizens’ right to know. Local PNG universities offer capacity building training programs and there was a suggestion that the PNGIPA (Institute of Public Administration) could partner with a local university to offer accredited training programs to public servants so as to build capacity at the provincial and local level.
4. Comply with and enforce existing laws, especially in the mining and logging industry. Despite the existence of several legal regulations, participants largely agreed that compliance and enforcement of these laws were weak at all levels of government. Effective training, incentives, and checks and balances were viewed as important for compliance and enforcement to take place (particularly in the logging and mining industry).
Official workshop results document.
Recommended Readings and Links:
About the Global Integrity Dialogues
Globalization and Governance in the Pacific Islands, edited by Stewart Firth
Governance Challenges for PNG and the Pacific Islands, edited by Nancy Sullivan
State, Society and Governance in Melanesia research group, Australian National University
— Raymond June
The 4 workshop recommendations are totally meaningless. Does one truly believe (with a straight face) that most government people can't figure out for themselves what would reign in corruption? Of course they know, but it's not in THEIR best interests to do anything about it. The only way corruption is going to be brought uder control in PNG is if the people as a whole rise up in mass and frighten government leaders enough into behaving. This happened during the Sandline crisis in the 1990's. The strategy works. It rests in the hands of all concerned Papua New Guineans to get off our rear ends to rise up and say enough in whatever way it takes to convince the leaders that we're serious.
BTW anyone who thinks PNG is a functioning democracy should think twice. Anyone who makes a serious attempt at speaking out and calling out leaders is quickly suppressed by threats or payoffs, whatever works best.
PNG is truly a failed state. The current Gov’t(reelected) talks highly about stability in government, investor confidence, economic boom and other boastful achievements in the last serveral years or so, BUT why is the crime rate at its record high, high profile figures get acquited for misusing millions while a local lass, gets locked up in jail, humilated and bashed and for what, for stealing a mere packet of rice to feed his starving children at home in this so called country rich with natural resources. Now where is the justice in that. How can this high profile figures (Ministers, CEO, MD, and the lot) justify the theft of millions against a K3 packet of rice. They travel overseas constantly on so-called businees trips not for a day but weeks, drive not one but several flashy cars, live in not one but several million kina houses whilst the same poor local lass employed with from within the govenement’s instition struggles year in year out for leave tickets, catches local PMV from a small hut he calls home in a settlement/ or village, goes to work only to bring home a pay packet of K200-300 kina to survive with for the next 2 weeks.
Can anyone please tell me if this what we should be expecting in an Economic Boom. My God, where are we heading to? The Health system is substandard if not very poorly managed at all levels, Education policies keep changing with the ever increasing graduate students siting idle without jobs and thinking of ways and means to find jobs or anything that can be done to get paid. The Justice, Police, and Defence machanism has also been comprised unfortunately, High profile scandals brushed aside, Police/Defence personal involved in robberies, crime rate increasing by the day nationwide to name a few. But the most worrying of them all is the ever increasing numbers of money hungry ill mannered so called leaders getting into parliament, top gov’t posts and agencies and wonder what the future holds for PNG and its innocent bystanding people?