Australia dictates and controls the development path of Papua New Guinea

Christopher Papiali

By CHRISTOPHER PAPIALI

Australia has dictated and controlled the development path of PNG for the last 40 years. Through AusAID package that has run into billions of kina many of our people have been led to ‘believe’ that Australia is the ‘only’ country we could ‘depend’ on. 

Many Australians who worked in the colonial government such as the kiaps and policemen have written accounts or verbal recordings of how life was like in the past in PNG. Some have labeled Papua New Guineans as ‘kanakas’, ‘heathens’, ‘primitives’, ‘cannibals’ and so on. Even the British royal reading a book on New Guinea fronted up the PNG embassy in UK whether we do still practice cannibalism. 

AusAID is really a boomerang aid and many people have strongly reacted to this aid saying the beneficiaries are Australian consultants and Australian companies.

Many of our AusAID scholars, (in fact, I am one of them) were led to believe that life in Australia was best because things we do not have are in Australia. A lot of our scholars returned back and promoted Australia to many of our illiterates who had no opportunities to move out of their clustered communities.

In our education system, major reform took place largely spearheaded by those who gained education overseas and comparisons were made based on Australian standard. I still hold that our old education system was the best prior to the introduction and usage of Outcome Based Education (OBE).

English to our understanding was the international and business language and therefore everyone was obliged to learn it at the initial stages of schooling. OBE was really a foreign ill-conceived method of learning because there was no need to acquire vernaculars and tok pisin at the early stages of childhood schooling because those who promoted it failed to understand the role of speech domain and environment. Simply, children after school came to their homes and were conversing in tok pisin or vernacular and there was no need to learn that again.

My view was that language was power and for us to learn and speak English gave us that power, prestige and the courage to interact with people from all walks of life across the globe. Something was wrong in our efforts to learn and master the international language and those consultants were intending to make more money from our own stupidity and fallacy.

More to this, it has come to our attention the scrupulous decision of the successive governments to continue live on borrowed or loaned money instead of generating internal revenues to run the country. Many government officers and politicians were big time spenders and when everything ran out they were and or are running back for foreign government assistance.

I am led to believe that we can remove AusAID and replace with other source of funding. I am very optimistic about the potential this country has in making sure we repay our foreign debt and improve our GDP. We should not be saddened and anxious when we hear almost 90% of our economy dictated and controlled by foreign companies and more than half that are Australian owned companies. 

Friends, at the time when many of our young people are accessing internet and Facebook – this is indeed an information revolution that is spreading so fast so quick as never before. Everything we do and say are now accessed through the fingertips and my hope is for everyone to be educated enough to read and write and comprehend Basic English structures so that they can be able to make very informed decisions about the future of this country. Time for change, a real change awaits and that moment of change will be revealed.

When Prime Minister, Hon. Peter O’Neil made the decision to accept the quick fix solutions relating to settlement of refugees (boat people) in Manus and PNG, many of our senior ministers and government coalition partners went to sleep at the first week because most of them demonstrated their lack of understanding international treaties and agreements or foreign diplomacy. In fact this is a result of all ‘yes master’ politicians treating Prime Minister on red carpet. They are toffee nosed, lacked concrete comprehension on intelligence and diplomatic relations. 

I said to myself that becoming a politician means serving the interest of the constituents and the nation and not ‘self-interest’ as this can lead to corruption. Many people are asking whether or not a lot of our MPs who win elections do speak for the interest of the country or otherwise. 

For this reason, some people suggested we could assemble our former leaders like Sir Pita Lus, Sir Michael Somare, Sir John Kaputin and others to speak to the new generation of politicians on what it means to live and die for Papua New Guinea. As late Sir Bernard Narokobi said the ‘indigenous consciousness’ was very strong during the colonial and post-Independence governments and the ideals on nationalism and patriotism ought to be expounded to get a crystal glimpse on the evolution of robust and active economy in the region. 

This week we have heard and read Sir John Kaputin and Sir Michael Somare publicly announcing that what the Prime Minister did in accepting wholeheartedly the proposal of Kevin Rudd on refugees was wrong. A wrong is a wrong in philosophical ethics. A political wrong does not compel political expediency and therefore the legislative powers vested on parliament have been defeated. 

The argument continues. We cannot compromise the future of PNG for the benefit of the few and this would be against utilitarian principle. The simple rule is we act in the best interest for the benefit for the greater number of people and going against this idealism does not give you the legitimate choice and right to govern the population.

As I pen off, I want to challenge you to continue speaking for what is just and fair. If our elected government is led by the blind then do not be fooled by the blind. A blind leading the blind leads to confusion, misery and turmoil. As a very active citizen like yourself, cultivate a desire to be resilient, holy and participatory so that your existence is a true measure of citizenship.

You can contact the author of this article on 72111918, or email edwebconsultants@yahoo.com.au