Freshwater lagoon of the Aramia River at Balimo

PHIL FITZPATRICK

Brown Girl by the Shore

Dirty old hulk caught in the tide
Sun beating down on her battered side
Remember the days when she ran free
Out through the reef and into the sea

I’ve been up and I’ve been down
Round and round the village and town
Rum in my coffee and sugar in my tea
Or cool, cool water from the coconut tree

Under a wide and green clad bough
Soft deep shade for then and now
Whispering waves lapping the sand
And sleek red fish so easy to hand

Brown girl lazing by the shore
Go to the reef and catch me a fish
A dollar or two, whatever you wish
And we’ll be one for ever more.

TUMBY BAY - The years between the two world wars was their heyday, but it was still possible in the 1960s and 70s to come across people who could be loosely defined as drifters, dreamers and beachcombers in Papua New Guinea.

Of late they are harder to find but their children and grandchildren still pop up in unexpected and out of the way places.

As a sub-class of western society the drifters have always been difficult to define.

The allure of a life in the sun, away from the stresses and strains of modern life matched a disdain for money.

These were distinguishing features but not the whole story.

In most cases, however, the romanticised version of them as heedless sojourners on picturesque South Sea islands very seldom applied.

Anthropologists, in their cumbersome way, refer to them as ‘transculturites’.

Transculturites - people who have largely abandoned their original culture to enter the network of roles in another culture, adopting its customs, behaviour, ideas and values.

What interests anthropologists is the impact and influence these people have on their adopted cultures.

In most cases what they find is that the impact is largely positive.

My interest in the subject was piqued when I read about the death of an old Englishman called Rodney who had been living in a village near Port Moresby and whose funeral and burial was organised by the Korobosea Seventh Day Adventist Church.

I know very little about Rodney beyond the fact that he had once been a public servant and that his wife and children had been killed in a car accident.

Balimo town

However his death reminded me of a bloke I knew in Balimo.

He came from New Zealand and was a sometime crocodile hunter.

He came into the sub-district office one day and asked me to help him write his will.

As far as I could work out he owned nothing more than a very small and leaky boat and a shotgun.

Occasionally I dropped by to have a yarn with him and he’d offer me a jam jar of cheap claret.

When I asked about next of kin he referred to an aunt living ‘somewhere’ around Rotorua.

As for what he wanted done if he died, he said he should be buried on the nearest patch of dry ground to Balimo.

The last I heard of him he was living at Wawoi Falls much further up the Middle Fly teaching the locals how to play soccer.

In a strange way I think I envied him.

Since then I’ve come across a few more South Sea sojourners, most notably in the Cook Islands and the remoter islands of Vanuatu. They are invariably men.

They range from lazy literary types to others running useful but shoestring public services like medical clinics. Most of them have happily married into local families.

I’ve got friends who chide me about my occasional anti-materialistic rhetoric and explain that it is impossible to live in the modern world disconnected from capitalism and all it involves.

My retort is a kind of agreement but with the caveat that, be that as it may, one doesn’t have to like it.

I suspect I’m not alone in that regard.

Unfortunately I haven’t got the courage to be a beachcomber but, then again, I wouldn’t really object to being buried on the nearest patch of dry ground.

Are we about to see a second face-off between James Marape and Peter O'Neill?

TONY CHARLES WATTZ KEROWA
| PNG News | Edited

PORT MORESBY – Why are so many people supporting prime minister James Marape?

It’s because he has revolutionary ideas that will propel this country into economic independence in years to come.

Let me highlight some achievements so far.

1. The change in resources laws giving greater benefit to the country, host provinces and landowners. These laws will reap greater rewards for our country’s resources including, mining, oil and gas, timber, oil palm, nickel and others.
   
   
2. Injecting funds into agriculture, which is always the backbone of the country. Marape appointed three vice ministers, covering fisheries, agriculture and livestock.
   
   
3. Public service reforms by cutting out unnecessary red tape.
   
   
4. Law and order has been given attention and for the first time serious discussion. Real laws have been passed to combat corruption.
   
   
5. District and provincial services improvement funds SIP rightfully belonging to PNG’s 89 districts and are not being tampered with unlike the O’Neill regime.
   
   
6. For the first time, the small to medium enterprises (SME) sector is being supported through making money available at BSP and NDB banks for small business to use. The SME sector’s contribution to employment by creating jobs is welcome.
   
   
7. The passing of the law to establish ICAC, the Whistle Blowers Act and allowing freedom for the judiciary.
   
   
8. Freedom of the press as it should be after being suppressed for so long.
   
   
9. Open and transparent negotiation of national projects in the resource sector.
   
   
10. Open communication and listening to local MPs and governors and to the entire country’s opinions, concerns and ideas – something the country lacked for so long.
    
    
11. Fighting for fair share of the benefits for landowners and the government from resource projects.
    
    
12. Refinancing previously high interest loans with low to zero interest loans for better debt management.

There are more but believe me this has been done in only 18 months. Why can’t we give Marape more time like the previous regime had?

The changes are huge and over time the future generations will reap the benefits from such decisions.

BERNARD CORDEN
| Edited

BRISBANE - No one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it and the sinister objective of every tyrant is to curtail free speech, crush rebellion and disenfranchise dissidents.

The vision or mission statement of most corporations, which even includes some not for profit organisations, mirrors shareholder theory and it is incongruous with the primary object of preventive occupational health and safety legislation.

Most corporate brigands and their socially autistic executives remain unconcerned or even apathetic about the devastating consequences resulting from its plundering escapades because they are unlikely to experience any pain and are often rewarded with a golden parachute.

The ultimate objective is to accrue satisfactory returns for its shareholders, which is typically accomplished by whatever it takes.

This was quite evident following the Upper Big Branch and Deepwater Horizon disasters in the United States and Rio Tinto’s desecration of cultural heritage rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia.

Other significant events include the BHP Billiton and Vale mining disasters at Samarco and Corrego do Feijao in Brazil, the Boeing 737 Max airline disasters and the catastrophic explosion at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon.

Much of this destruction and desolation is nonchalantly categorised as a cost of doing business or collateral damage and ‘all it takes for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing’.

The disruption and subsequent crisis generated via the COVID-1984 pandemic will be transformed into an opportunity and a more intense and dystopian version of capitalism beckons.

Much of the creative destruction is evident and the replacement infrastructure and processes are already established, which include artificial intelligence, remote learning, supra-surveillance, big data, algorithms, predictive analytics and a cashless society.

It will be supplemented by genome editing technology with a return of eugenics, the rattling skeleton in the closet of Fabian socialists.

Back in 1785 at Warwick Assizes in England, one of my early ancestors was sentenced to death for burglary and the theft of a gown and other minor items.

The sentence was subsequently commuted to seven years transportation, which included a brief internment on a prison hulk in the River Thames.

In January 1788, he arrived at Port Jackson in Sydney harbour aboard the merchant ship Alexander, which was outsourced by the UK government to transport convicts to Australia and became part of the First Fleet.

A rebellious streak and several bouts of recidivism eventually saw him relocated to Port Arthur in Van Diemen’s Land, where he subsequently died and was buried in a pauper’s grave at a convict cemetery near Richmond, about 10 kilometres north of Hobart airport.

It probably accounts for my seditious traits with a total disdain towards Pecksniffian lickspittles and an abhorrent distrust of authority, although it provides me with an alternative and often iconoclastic worldview.

This enables me to challenge any skerrick of injustice through immigrant eyes and undauntedly expose many far worse white collar crimes, corruption or corporate malfeasance.

Indeed, Australia’s peak safety body and its cohorts of Cimmerian crusaders should reflect on the following maxim from the American Baptist minister and civil rights campaigner, the late Martin Luther King Jr: ‘In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends’.

This reflects and aligns with infamous elegy from Martin Niemöller about the cowardice of German intellectuals under the totalitarian Nazi regime during the late 1930s:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.

A new book arrives. Man Bilong Buk unravelled the life and work of author Francis Nii (Michael Dom)

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - The Man Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world and is conferred annually to the best novel of the year written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

Speaking at the 2020 Man Booker Prize ceremony in England, former USA president Barack Obama related how he had “always turned to writing to try and make sense of our world, both as a young man trying to navigate the different parts of my life, and as an elected official trying to bridge our divides and find a way for all of us to move forward.”

He also said that good books “remind me of fiction’s power to help us put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and understand their struggles and imagine new ways to tackle complex problems and effect change.”

This week Barack Obama’s third book, his presidential memoir, A Promised Land, was released.

Writing as a way to explore and order one’s thoughts has always been recognised as a useful personal tool. This is so even when there is no intention of publishing what is written.

In this sense writing can simply provide the experience of “seeing into one’s true nature”, otherwise known as kenshō in the Zen Buddhist tradition.

This need is perhaps why writing can be a compulsion for many people.

Writing, of course, is not something confined to books.

Even if one never reads a book and just watches films and television or follows social media it is impossible to avoid the fact that all those mediums begin with a writer sitting down and taking up a pen or a keyboard.

Very often the enlightenment that comes through writing is so strong that it must be shared through publication and dissemination.

Seeking, as opposed to simply experiencing, enlightenment through the process of writing works in similar ways. It is a kind of higher-plane problem solving process.

Taken to its highest degree writing, both fiction and non-fiction, has the ability to change the world. To cite a couple of random examples think about the impact of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species or George Orwell’s 1984.

Writing and reading go hand in hand. To achieve enlightenment one can write but to acquire enlightenment one must also read.

Notwithstanding past cultural practises such as oral literatures, it follows that a society in the modern world that is literate and where its citizens both write and read is very probably an enlightened society.

One should therefore be very suspicious of any attempt to restrain, impede or otherwise adversely affect the ability of a society to read or write and thus not experience the benefits of enlightenment.

This sort of attempt might also include a demonstrated apathy towards enabling, promoting or facilitating the ability of a society to freely indulge in the practises of reading and writing.

It is a charge that can be justly levelled against both past and present governments in Papua New Guinea.

In doing so one must ask the obvious question. Why?

Are they consciously suppressing the desire of their citizens to experience the enlightenment that reading and writing brings, just like some sort of oppressive autocratic dictatorship, or are they just being insensitive, uncaring and stupid?

Exotic red bananas found only in PNG (Sebastien Carpentier)

JON DALY
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation

DARWIN - Scientists are racing to find and save the living ancestors of modern-day, cultivated bananas that grow in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea.

These wild bananas have genes capable of protecting one of the world's most popular fruits from climate change, pests and diseases.

However, deforestation and fires are destroying tropical forests across the South Pacific, and scientists say there is a risk of losing both the ancestors and the possible future of commercial bananas.

Bananas are second only to tomatoes in popularity as a fruit, with the global industry worth more than $US31 billion last year.

The Australian Banana Growers Council says the industry is worth $1.3 billion a year to the national economy.

Belgium-based scientist Sebastien Carpentier led an expedition to Papua New Guinea last year to collect and conserve the genetics of these wild bananas.

"Papua New Guinea contains very unique species that only occur on the island of Papua, and it is one of the main ancestors of the commercial bananas we have now," he said.

Dr Carpentier is the team leader of banana characterisation and evaluation with the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).

His job is to save these unique bananas before they disappear from the natural world.

"We see that a lot of forests are disappearing," Dr Carpentier said.

"Times start to change when people start doing commercial agriculture or mining and start destroying whole areas of forest, then, of course, the species cannot survive and will disappear."

Dr Carpentier said the most recent expedition uncovered some unusual varieties, such as endangered plants that grow 15 metres tall and bear fruit with hard seeds, instead of the typical soft, yellow flesh of commercial bananas.

Genetic diversity is key to protecting cultivated varieties, such as cavendish and ladyfinger, from the adverse effects of climate change and pests and diseases, according to Dr Carpentier.

For example, the variety Musa balbisiana has superior water use efficiency and was found persevering in open land recovering from fires, so its genetics could help breeders adapt bananas to resist future droughts.

"The reason why we have nice, delicious bananas is because farmers protect them — they would be quite vulnerable if you left them," Dr Carpentier said.

"[Wild bananas] contain unique genes, since they are exposed to the natural threats of the environment and only the fittest survives."

Dr Carpentier said one of the greatest threats to worldwide banana production, the Panama disease, has devastated industries in some countries.

"If forests disappear and you cannot go back to individual plants that contain unique traits, in the long term you might lose the crop, because the bananas we have now are very vulnerable," he said.

The specimens collected from the wild are stored in the world's largest banana gene bank in Leuven, Belgium.

Chinese-flagged fishing boat ( Artyom Ivanov, Tass)

AARON SMITH
| The Guardian | Judith Nielson Institute
| Extract

Link to the full story here

SYDNEY - A $204 million (K527 million) Chinese-built fishery plant planned for a Papua New Guinean island could allow Chinese-backed commercial vessels to fish legally in the Torres Strait.

The plan has raised concerns about unregulated fishing in the same waters, potentially threatening the Australian industry and local PNG fishers.

China’s ministry of commerce this month announced a deal to establish a “comprehensive multi-functional fishery industrial park” project on Daru Island in Western Province.

The memorandum of understanding, which offered little detail, was signed by the Fujian Zhonghong Fishery Company, PNG fisheries minister, Lino Tom, and the governor of Western Province, Taboi Yoto.

The plant is expected to serve as a hub for fishing vessels coming into the region, and to process catches taken from the Torres Strait.

Under the Torres Strait Treaty, Australia and PNG are allowed to fish a shared area of the waters known as the protected zone, which straddles the fishing zones of the two countries.

Inside Australia’s zone, PNG boats may take 25% of the permitted tropical lobster catch and 40% of Spanish mackerel.

To date PNG has not had the capacity to commercially fish its share of these quotas, but the deal could attract Chinese funding for PNG-flagged vessels.

Warren Entsch, the MP for the north Queensland electorate of Leichhardt, said: “It’s certainly going to impact on our side of the fishery … but at the end of the day there is a treaty arrangement there.

“The biggest losers are going to be the treaty villages [of PNG’s Western Province]. They have no welfare system and bugger-all support from the PNG government.

“When they go out to fish to feed their families, there’s going to be nothing left.”

The Fuzhou-based Fujian Zhonghong Fishery Company, established in 2011, has a long involvement with PNG, mainly in fishing and seafood processing.

But Entsch said he held concerns over China’s track record in the region.

“You only have to look at what China has done in other places in the Pacific to ask the question of whose best interest it is in,” he said. “Is it in the best interest of the broader PNG community? I suspect not.”

Balimo lagoon

JAIVE
| My Amazing Paradise | Edited extract

ON THE ROAD - Balimo is beautiful. The sun rises and sets on the most beautiful lagoon in Papua New Guinea.

It’s created by the floodwaters of the dark, freshwater Aramia River that winds its way down from the highlands of Western Province.

Along the Balimo shores white, pink and purple water lilies blossom as canoes cross the dark fresh water and moor along the vivid green grass and water reeds.

Pelicans, pigeons, doves, hornbills, kingfishers, ducks live and die here and above eagles soar high to gracefully dive the waters like brown and white arrows, talons extended at the last minute to catch fish.

Jaive

Balimo is located in the Middle Fly District of Western Province. I flew in here on a two hour flight from Port Moresby. The Airlines PNG flight first touched down in Daru, an island just a stone’s throw from the Australia-PNG border.

From Daru, we headed back over the mainland of Western Province, following the giant Fly River and then turning away from it crossing over the Bamu River up to Balimo.

Below us, the waters of the vast flood plains reflected the sunlight so brightly as if the sun was shining from under the water calling us to visit the mysterious riverland below that curved with the earth.

We landed at grassy Balimo airport. Despite its appearance, the landing was pretty good.

There’s no shade here. Later I found out there was shelter once, but a bolt of lightning tore through it and killed a man. They didn’t rebuild after that.

Arriving in Balimo was just an Indian missionary and I. The Indian looked like a Papua New Guinean. It was only when he asked me, “Is this Balimo?” that I realised he was from another country. “No idea,” I said, “But I hope it is.”

Gogodala carvings ready for sale

We asked the guy opening the door of the plane. Yes it is, he said. Great.

There was a crowd of people at the airport, mainly people waiting to get on the flight.

I jumped off and stood there a bit lost. I knew no one here. No one at all — I was in the middle of Western Province, with my cameras and backpack surrounded by perfect strangers.

I walked over to a gentleman who looked like he was in his late forties. “Mate,” I asked, “Is there a guest house or something here in Balimo?”

He asked if I was working with a contract company or something. “Local tourist,” I replied. “You want to see Balimo?” He asked. Yes.

He was a great chap. He put me on a truck that he explained would take me to workers’ accommodation in town. Less than a minute later we were in town and I was at the Beamaya donga, a shed of about eight units with single beds in each one.

From there, I tried to plan my adventure. I had set my mind on getting to the giant Wawoi Falls from Balimo. There is such a lack of information I was just operating on pure guesswork.

I thought I could get there and back in a day and then wander around Balimo.

On the Aramia River

I found out later, after travelling a whole day by boat to the nearby Kamusi logging camp, I was broke with only enough money to make the trip back to Balimo.

I had failed to get to the Wawoi falls. I had totally messed up my estimations.

The Balimo people’s hospitality is something I can never repay. I was really down cash wise which meant I wouldn’t be able to stay at the local guesthouse.

The boys on the boat I hired spoke to me when we were returning. They said kaks don’t worry, you can stay with us.’ (Kaks means big brother).

The boy who owned the boat, 20 year old John Kiwa and his in-law, Tibini Kemeda of the Wabadala clan, said they had helped many others who set out for a great adventure in Western Province and got stranded.

I stayed with them for three nights and enjoyed it. During the days and nights I was surrounded by young guys who told me stories after stories of their lives and the legends of Balimo and the Gogodala people.

John and the Lightning Boys

They had formed a band called ‘Lightning Boys’ and let me record some of their songs on my digital camera to play back.

It was through them that I got to see a Balimo that many people don’t see.

I met many people who were interested in why this perfect stranger was hanging with these kids who wore torn jeans with colorful designs.

They told me stories about the Gogodala people everywhere I went. It was great for them too as they learnt more of their own culture through my conversations with others.

Many of the older boys would offer me soft drinks and smokes, would wave at me and come just to chat and treat me like one of them.

The boys are very interested in tourism and want people to be part of it. When I left I gave them my camera and told them to take pictures of birds. There are so many birds here, so many types.

Birdwatchers would love to come to a place like this. John was keenly interested. He wanted people to see his world and stay with him. At 20 years of age, he was cool, calm and showed a sense of maturity that attracted a large group of boys to him.

His father was a policeman who had passed away and with his mother’s permission, he had used his pension to purchase the 50hp motor and boat that I used to travel to Kamusi.

They are great people. How I was treated really illustrated the idea of Melanesian hospitality — you can easily make friends for a lifetime.

As I write this, I wonder what they are doing. Probably sitting under John’s house, strumming on two old guitars that are missing three strings each and singing their songs.

BEN JACKSON

NOOSA – The local newspaper where we're staying, Noosa Today, last week ran a piece from someone pushing anachronistic, sexist, mansplaining propaganda which I could not let pass.

In a published response in the same newspaper, I pointed out that we can all agree that no one – man, woman or other – should face discrimination, emotional abuse or physical violence.

However attempts to portray men as a victimised, marginalised and vulnerable group are a total nonsense.

Here are some real and alarming numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare comparing the impacts of family, domestic and sexual violence on women and men:

1 in 4 women have experienced emotional abuse by a current or previous partner. The comparative figure for men is 1 in 6.

1 in 6 women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a current or previous partner, nearly three times the rate of men.

1 in 10 women have been sexually assaulted and/or threatened. Four times the rate for men.

The data for Papua New Guinea is harder to find but various surveys indicate that about two-thirds of women experience physical and emotional abuse in their relationships. Data for the abuse of men does not seem to exist.

In Australia, inequality also pervades the workplace. Australia’s gender pay gap is 14%. In May this year average full-time earnings for women were nearly $300 less a week than for men.

These facts are not, and should not be taken as, an attack on individual men. Nor do they mean we should categorise people using overly simplistic measures of goodness and badness.

However, there are structural inequalities and flaws in society which fail women more often than men, and which need to be addressed.

Instead of being defensive, men must partner with women to work towards greater equity for all.

That's an ambition I believe most people agree with and it’s a goal we are progressing towards.

In Noosa, 2020 saw the re-election of a woman to State parliament and the number of women on the local seven-person council increased from one to three, including the position of mayor.

These are welcome indicators that the Noosa community wants gender equality and more women in leadership positions.

My article has been well received in Noosa, with only a couple of men taking exception to it.

Gender inequality and violence against women are challenges Australians and Papua New Guineans must face up to and address. And if a few men's egos are dented along the way, so be it.

Ben Jackson is communications manager for a major international development program strengthening governance, education and health outcomes in Papua New Guinea. It includes an emphasis on gender equity and social inclusion

Boat harbour, Daru (The Guardian)

JOHN GREENSHIELDS

ADELAIDE – I’m reading the fascinating, ‘Too Close to Ignore: Australia’s Borderland with PNG and Indonesia’, by Mark Moran and Jodie Curth-Bibb, recently reviewed by Stephen Howes for DevPolicy Blog.

This whole subject of borderland relations is of increasing importance to both Papua New Guinea and Australia and Howes’ review was republished in PNG Attitude.

The South Fly region of PNG is growing as an area of geo-strategic importance: Indonesia is next door and, in recent days, we read of China seeking to establish a presence in Torres Strait, with a proposal for a fisheries plant in Daru.

But the South Fly remains very much underdeveloped by all the important measurable, including education, health, employment, income and life expectancy.

Just four kilometers away in Australia’s Torres Strait Island villages, the conditions are first world.

The average wage in South Fly is about K500 a month compared with K7,400 a month earned by Australian Torres Strait Islands residents.

Therefore, it is perhaps no surprise that we see increasing cross-border restrictions imposed by Australia on traditional cultural exchanges between the South Fly and Torres Strait people as well as trade opportunities and health support from the Australian side.

‘Too Close to Ignore’ suggests in its concise and elegant Conclusion:

“The increasingly strict interpretation of the treaty by Australia is neglecting the local socioeconomic dynamics in the borderland, and the declining level of human development on the PNG side.

“Australia’s stance has been to harden the border between the two countries, which has had the effect of alienating and disempowering South Fly communities, restricting their livelihood opportunities and access to cash-earning activities. 

“Rapid change is evident in the borderland region, exhibited by escalating poverty, rapidly growing demand for marine products in the Asian economy, and resultant over-fishing and economic collapse.

“In parallel, traditional kinship and trading relationships have been evolving across the PNG-Indonesian border, and consequently fishing and trading practices among PNG traditional inhabitants have changed significantly since the ratification of the treaty. 

“To address this mismatch, solutions based on systems understanding are proposed that address the root causes and symptoms of this problem.

“New forms of adaptive governance of shared marine resources and their exploitation and trade should be explored in combination with innovations aimed at empowering people in the villages, who experience and understand the issues first-hand.

“Solutions should aim to improve the sustainability of livelihoods in the South Fly and decrease their dependence on exploitative relationships, especially with the end-buyers/financiers in Asia.

“Ideas should be co-developed with people of the South Fly. Options that should be explored include the alternative livelihood activities based on less exploited natural resources, alternative enterprise models and implementation of agreements that would permit free trade across the broader region, such as integrated economic zones or free trade zones.”

When reading Howes’ review I was initially concerned about his pessimistic, but probably correct, response to the book’s core findings.

He predicted that Canberra would have little real interest in addressing the concerns and advice advocated in the book. Why? It would create expectations and highlight shortcomings on the PNG side, which are usually addressed with Band-aid project support.

In addition the Australian Torres Strait Islands villagers would have little enthusiasm for less restricted borders, as the people flow would be one-way - south - sailing past their islands. I also doubt the traffic would just be ‘fishing vessels’, and this would also be true for foreign vessels.

So, it seemed there would be few real results in reviewing the Torres Strait Islands Treaty.

But, even as I was contemplating this, news came through of a proposed Chinese fish cannery in Daru!

In covering this issue, The Guardian reported:

“Inside Australia’s zone, PNG boats may take 25% of the permitted tropical lobster catch and 40% of Spanish mackerel. To date PNG has not had the capacity to commercially fish its share of these quotas, but the deal could attract Chinese funding for PNG-flagged vessels.”

I thought the local PNG folk will get nothing out of this….maybe a fish-gutting job in a majority Chinese-owned fish factory.

This province is so poor, the locals will agree to any cash generating enterprise. One might say, ‘Welcome your new mastas’.

So China is entering with a message of helping out poor PNG folk living under terrible conditions.

This should focus Canberra’s limited vision. I can almost hear Scott Morrison musing, ‘Hmm, a Torres Strait step up’.

Australia’s commercial fishermen will be vociferous in expressing their concern, and the Canberra brigade will be wringing their hands, leading from behind.

Some deal with PNG will probably be inked - special project funds to upgrade health, water, sanitation, housing and serviced land in Daru. But there’s no assurance that real jobs can be generated in the short term.

Meanwhile, China will march on.

Mark my words. The treaty will come under serious pressure very soon.

In contrast to this dismal prospect, you have admire but feel sorry for the hard-working folk of PNG’s Western Province.

These people sure know about hard work. Slave labour rates, getting paid $1.50/kg for rubber!

The South Fly Rubber co-operative could present a timely and relevant idea for the fishing industry in the Torres Strait which would benefit both PNG and Australia.

After all, if a cooperative can work in rubber, maybe it could work in fishing.

Finally, the more I read ‘Too Close to Ignore’, the more profound and clear its facts, statistics and implications for Australian policy in the Torres Strait.

The research findings should be like gold to Canberra. They remind me of the acuity and deep local knowledge of Bill Brown’s ‘Kiap Chronicles’.

This book should be compulsory reading for all who have an interest in border security, caused by endemic poverty, neglect and grievance on Australia’s doorstep.

A looming failed state is staring us in the face.

Tighter border security is not going to solve this festering mess.

Many ex-kiaps maintain a close relationship with PNG. Here Bob Cleland looks out over the Asaro Valley from the Daulo Pass. Bob was instrumental in building this challenging stretch of the Highlands Highway in the early 1950s

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - It began about 10 years ago when a group of ex-kiaps sought to have their services in pre-independent Papua New Guinea formally recognised.

The end result was a reluctant awarding of a Police Overseas Service Medal by the Australian government for those interested in applying for it. It was a fancy piece of tin to keep the old chaps quiet.

The award failed to recognise the kiaps’ primary function of the as change and development agents and concentrated solely on their police role, which in many cases was minimal.

The result: not a lot of kiaps bothered to apply for the medal.

As the years have gone by the need for formal recognition has morphed into a concern about their legacy - how history will remember them.

This concern flares up every now and again. There is currently a debate in progress on the Ex-kiap website.

One of the driving factors behind the kiaps’ concern about their legacy is what has happened in Papua New Guinea since independence.

This period is seen as a slow degradation of civil society and a collapse in national infrastructure because of corruption and exploitation from both inside and outside the country.

The establishment of civil society and construction of infrastructure were both elements in which kiaps played a major role prior to independence.

Of late, emerging historical research and publication by a number of Papua New Guinean writers, particularly as it concerns the first contact period, has been of concern because of its possible impact on the reputations of some kiaps and their legacy.

As the ranks of the kiaps rapidly diminish under the siege of time, their concern about their legacy grows.

They worry that not only will history be unkind to them but that they might be used as scapegoats for the decline of Papua New Guinea since independence.

They don’t want to be seen as the precursors of what transpired in Papua New Guinea after independence.

They want to be recognised for their efforts in building a new nation, not as responsible for why it didn’t turn out as they envisaged. They want a happy ending, not a sad one.

At an individual level their concern is deeply personal. Every time a disaster befalls Papua New Guinea, be it a corrupt politician stealing money or a major public service failing, it is felt as an affront to their integrity as past administrators.

Legacy is a curious beast. It can simply be about what you leave behind for your children or what a leader might leave behind for their nation.

At a crude level, legacy is about material things but, more than that, it is about truth, values, capability and morality.

These aspects are ones the kiaps find hard to rationalise.

Looking at the current corruption in Papua New Guinea, they wonder about how this could have happened. Was it something they did to cause such an unholy development?

Most of them are mystified about where the bloated and repugnant creatures, who seem intent upon bleeding their fellow citizens to death, came from. ‘Surely we kiaps had nothing to do with creating them,’ they think.

Will the legacy of these uncaring and repulsive creatures, who seem to have no regard for how history will see them, be conflated with the legacy of the kiaps?

That idea might seem far-fetched but one only needs to remember the years just after independence when academics and others in Australia lined up the kiaps in their sights as causative agents of much that was wrong with the colonial experience and what sprung from it.

Kiaps were by no means perfect but they tried hard against the odds of an unsupportive and fiscally mean Australian government to do the best possible job in bringing Papua New Guinea to independence and a successful future.

The last thing they need to be told is that they failed.

They didn’t fail. It was the people who came after them that failed, both in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Hopefully history will share that view.

Joseph Nobetau - "The case always meant more than a job to me"

JOSEPH NOBETAU

BUKA - Today in the Papua New Guinea national court, Justice Nicholas Miviri ruled that my termination as chief secretary of the Autonomous Bougainville Government was unconstitutional

I stand vindicated.

It has taken a long time to reach this point: more than 12 months since initiating legal proceedings against the Bougainville executive council and government, who dragged the matter out and delayed proceedings at every opportunity.

This case always meant more than just a job to me.

As a proud Bougainvillean, I stand by the work that I did and the reforms that I put in place.

I was asked to take a stand against corruption and rid the rot from the public service. 

That is what I did.

I have been the subject of character assassination by a man I once regarded as a friend, former Bougainville president John Momis.

To hear him make wild accusations in the media claiming I was deliberately undermining a democratically elected government was grossly unfair and unwarranted.

It defamed me and I intend to pursue legal damages against him personally to the very end.  There must be consequences.

This case has once again demonstrates that in PNG as a whole, the rule of law prevails.

All of us have an obligation to stand up for our constitutions, the highest laws in PNG and Bougainville.

I look forward to finally resolving this matter and repairing the financial ruin it placed on my family and myself and, just as importantly, restoring my reputation as a man of principle.

I will never be intimidated or knocked down by those who seek to undermine our laws, betray good governance and take benefit for their own personal gain.

I thank my legal counsel, Ms Gloria Salika, and her team for their steadfast support and judicial expertise.

And I thank my wife Rose and my four children for always being by my side, during what has been a very difficult time.

Hon Simon Pentanu is speaker of the Bougainville parliament and a former chief ombudsman of PNG

SIMON PENTANU
| Bougainville News

BUKA - Panguna and its landowners had a mix of these feelings during the time of mining but have not felt this way since the mine was forcibly shut at the end of 1989. That is 31 years ago now.

The ordinary folk up there still wake up to an altered landscape with their women – mothers of the land –still asking what they did to deserve this as they eke out their livelihood from their usable plots of land, mostly on hillsides.

Their biggest local hero, the late Francis Ona, came to prominence when he took a stand against his own extended family members and Bougainville Copper Ltd for what he saw as an unfair and unjust payment and distribution of royalty, lease, inconvenience and other payments.

Ona was incensed by what he saw as the vanguard of executives of the Road Mining Tailings Lease Trust Fund (RMTL) supported by BCL against the mounting dissatisfaction of younger landowners, who felt their grievances and fair share of the pie were not being given due consideration.

Their growing frustration culminated in an attempt to out-vote and replace the elderly and duly elected Panguna Land Owners Association (PLOA) whose numbers comprised the majority of the RMTL executive.

Rather defiantly, if not boisterously, a general meeting was convoked by Ona with this specific aim in mind.

Let us say the rest is a sad history in which BCL and the rest of Bougainville became embroiled.

Without any indication or warning, menace, armed conflict and mass exodus followed.

It is a history intertwined with irreverent behaviour, bloodletting and a descent into the abyss that we must never repeat.

The fallout from the voluntary withdrawal and disbursement of BCL shares by Rio Tinto has developed into arguments and differences between some of those same people that Ona took a hard line stance against.

Despite some progress, if time does heal, then up in Panguna the healing has been slow.

The reverberations are still audible and the fractures still visible. In the meantime everyone else is still trying to figure out what Panguna means now Rio has pulled the plug and cartwheeled out of Bougainville.

Rio was left in both an unenviable and untenable position that left it little choice but to make the commercial decision it made.

The pros and cons, the timing and implications of Rio’s decision will long be argued, possibly in the court rooms as well. What is most certain is Rio will never find any favour in Bougainville by landowners. Not in any obvious way anyway.

In the beginning everyone rushed into Panguna like honey bees taking to a new beehive.

To the mining investor at the time it was seen as a cash cow ideally located in the largely virgin Crown Prince Range.

The forest was dense green, the creeks and flowing rivers and estuaries pristine and bird life and marsupials adorning their habitat in plentiful numbers.

For everyone, including the often bewildered, sometimes excited and expectant, landowners this was probably the best opportunity to catapult Bougainville from the backwaters to unimaginable affluence.

No one foresaw or imagined the effluence that everyone from miner to landowner, hardliner to politician, as well as the environmentalists, would be mired in.

When the decision was made to mine in the late 1960s, the timing was ideal.

To the colonial administering authority, Panguna provided the perfect investment to finance the Territory of Papua and New Guinea which was emerging into political independence.

To Australia’s then prime minister John Gorton, his minister at the time Charles Barnes, and to those in Konedobu like David Hay, APJ (Tony) Newman and Tom Ellis, and many others, Panguna looked a very promising prospect for PNG’s economy when independence came.

It was not so long before the turnstile of history rotated. In 1972 that Gough Whitlam and his new Labor government gave the inevitable nod to independence.

The die was cast both for Panguna to go ahead as a realised mining proposition and for the political process and transition to independence for Papua and New Guinea as a single entity and as one country.

I’m not sure whether Panguna today is lying flat on its face or lying down on its belly. Perhaps not either.

With the landscape defaced and the booty and loot gone (for the moment at least), there isn’t much of the old Panguna face that is recognisable.

But for an insatiable world, hungry for minerals, there is not an iota of doubt that Panguna and its surroundings still hold copper, gold and silver worth many billions of kina below the people’s customary land.

So what else is left of Panguna? The land owners they are pitted at different ends of the same table - seeking the same outcomes but in different ways with different foreign interests.

The remnants of the old may not be visible but some of the land owners who bore much of the brunt of Ona’s spite and antagonism continue to differ in their demands and approach.

They disagree even on the modus operandi of how the last of the spoils from the damage might be shared or divided and how the mine might be regurgitated in the future.

What has never been more uncertain or more confusing in the land owning family and extended family are their differing arguments and claims about who has the greater right to entice investors or negotiate with the Bougainville government or deal with anybody for that matter.

The alliances and dalliances landowners have formed with foreign interests has added to the divisions and doubts as to who has more rights and claims to the special mining lease and other leases in those mountains.

In this regard, Bougainville mining law is being tested to determine whether it adequately covers the interests of land owners as espoused and intended in the preamble and opening provisions of the Bougainville constitution.

If we have all learnt anything from Panguna, it is this. We have not learnt enough.

Opposition leader Belden Namah - lost a bid to overturn James Marape's prime ministership

BRYAN KRAMER MP
| The Kramer Report

PORT MORESBY – Last Friday, a bench of five judges of Papua New Guinea’s supreme court handed down a unanimous decision dismissing opposition leader Belden Namah’s challenge to the election of James Marape as prime minister on 30 May 2019.

Namah claimed Marape’s election was unconstitutional because the speaker failed to comply with section 114 of the constitution and section 7A of the parliamentary standing orders.

Section 114 of the constitution states that, unless provided by constitutional law or the standing orders, all questions before a meeting of parliament shall be decided in accordance with the majority of votes of the members present at the meeting and voting.

Namah was essentially arguing that, because there is no procedure in the standing orders for a candidate to withdraw his nomination for prime minister, the speaker breached section 114 of the constitution when he made the decision to allow O’Neill to withdraw his nomination.

Instead, it was argued, the speaker should have put the question to parliament to decide by majority vote, consistent with section 114 of the constitution.

Namah also argued that the speaker breached section 7a of the standing orders by allowing the prime minister to be nominated by a member of parliament and not by political party.

Standing order 7A relates to the procedures to elect a prime minister, and states that the speaker shall call for and accept nominations duly moved and seconded by a party or a member that may nominate a member of parliament as a candidate for prime minister.

After hearing all arguments, the supreme court held that section 134 of the constitution states the court does not have powers to question whether or not procedures of the standing orders have been complied with, unless the procedure is provided by constitutional law.

The court also ruled that Namah failed to satisfy the court that there had been any breach of the standing orders in the election of James Marape.

Bryan Kramer makes fun of the opposition leader's misery in an empty room

On the issue of whether the speaker failed to comply with section 114 of constitution, the court ruled that a member of parliament ought to have raised it at the time by putting the question to the speaker and asking whether O’Neill could withdraw his nomination.

Because no question was put to the speaker, section 114 was not breached.

The chief justice also made reference to standing order 284, which states that, in any matter not provided for in the standing orders, the speaker shall decide.

On the issue of breaching standing order 7a, the court held that the order states that a party may nominate a candidate but did not state that only a party may nominate a candidate for prime minister.

They held that any other member of parliament could also nominate a candidate.

Following the decision, opposition leader Belden Namah staged a press conference in Vanimo.

He deceptively stated he welcomed the decision of the supreme court.

“Perusing this case and coming to a finality of it, it’s a great relief. I want to thank the judiciary for a very good decision that has come out today, it is a precedent decision, a unanimous decision by the court,” Namah said.

He then went on to make a misleading and mischievous statement that the supreme court had set a precedent to say that parliament reigns supreme, and that the majority on the floor of parliament reigns supreme in as far as separation of powers are concerned.

Nowhere in the 58-page judgement did the supreme court say that parliament or the majority of members of parliament reign supreme.

The court did not hand down a precedent decision. It simply explained to Namah that section 134 of the constitution prohibits the court from questioning any procedure of parliament unless it breaches constitutional law or procedures provided in the constitution.

It also said that Namah had failed to prove any breach of standing orders or constitutional law.

The court dismissed his case and ordered him to pay costs.

Interestingly enough, another current matter before the court filed by Peter O’Neill raises similar constitutional procedures on whether the deputy speaker, by entertaining Namah’s motion to adjourn Parliament to 1 December 2020 was in breach of constitutional law.

Section 2 of the organic law states that only a minister may set a date and time of the meeting of parliament. And Namah is not a minister.

There lies the problem for opposition. Particularly when you have a fool as opposition leader and spokesperson.

It’s my respectful view that Namah’s case was a nothing but a waste of money and the court’s time.

Will O’Neill’s case fare differently?

The only real winners in these cases are the lawyers.

Exploring the high hills in the early 1950s. The late Harry West OAM,  war veteran and kiap

CHIPS MACKELLAR

They're all old now, their hair turned white as the years went rolling by,
And with every year that passes now, we see more kiaps die.
Their children scattered far and wide, grand-children further still,
And who will care when the last kiap dies, whose memory will he fill?

We'll remember all those lilting songs the mission children sang,
But who'll remember Maurie Brown, Jack Worcester or Mal Lang,
Ron Galloway or Preston White, Des Ashton or Bob Bell.
Jim Kent, Bob Fayle, or Brian Dodds, and Jack Emanuel?

We'll forget about Dan Duggan, Harry Redmond and Rick Hill.
But we'll remember Ela Beach, and the view from Paga Hill.
We'll forget about Tom Ellis, Des Martin and John Land,
And we won't remember Bill McGrath, Denys Faithful or Bill Brand.

We'll remember snow-capped Giluwe, and the islands of Milne Bay,
But not Keith Dyer nor Freddie Kaad nor Christopher Gordon Day,
Vin Smith and Graham Pople, and old Jack Battersby,
Peter Salmon and Des Fanning, and Bill Brown MBE.

And hundreds more we can recall, but too many here to name,
They all deserve our praise and thanks, they've earned eternal fame.
Heroes all of the jungle tracks, road builders of renown,
Across the country north to south, they helped build every town.

We'll remember all events now past, which developed PNG,
But the names of those who built this land, will fade from memory.
From stone age depths of PNG they helped this nation rise,
But who will morn his passing, when the last old kiap dies?

Anthony Uechtritz and Augustine Mano, managing director of the Mineral Resources Development Corporation

PETER KARL UECHTRITZ

CAIRNS - I've read the book, ‘Too Close to Ignore: Australia’s Borderland with PNG and Indonesia’, by Mark Moran and Jodie Curth-Bibb, and while I agree with its general drift I can't help thinking that the authors are being a little optimistic with their possible solutions.

I worked in the neighbouring Gulf Province in 2015-16. My younger brother Anthony has worked in Gulf (upper Purari) for nine years.

We have seen the topography, geography and major vegetation groups which have resulted in both the Gulf and Western Provinces having the lowest population densities and poorest socio-economic indicators within Papua New Guinea.

We saw the collapsed provisions of health, education, policing and the almost complete lack of government service delivery everywhere outside the major towns.

Even in the towns, those services were poorly administered or delivered.

We wondered what could provide a catalyst: a driver of change of economic opportunity and activity.

We pondered this as we travelled by dinghy and chopper throughout the Purari, Pieh and Kikori river deltas and their tributaries (similar in all respects to the Fly River delta).

We saw the poverty, poor health, lack of schools, inoperative aid posts. We were amazed at the vast expanses of water bodies and swamps.

And then it clicked - hundreds of thousands of hectares of sago palm and nipa palm - both providing food and building materials. Natural, sustainable, renewable resources.

In 2018, Anthony and I embarked on research into the mechanised production of sago. This took us to a study tour of Malaysia, Indonesia and West Papua.

Here we witnessed the production of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sago flour for domestic and export consumption.

Every conceivable scale of mechanisation from micro through medium to industrial was evident. Early 2019 we brought a container-load of small scale Indonesian equipment to Port Moresby, set it up and processed sago from Kerema.

Our Papua New Guinean helpers were ecstatic at the possibilities and the low capital expense of owning and operating these machines.

We delivered a presentation (facilitated by IFC, the International Finance Corporation). Representatives of Sepik, Gulf, Western and the national governments attended.

So were people from the Oil Search, Total and Exxon community development teams and Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade.

We had post presentation meetings with the Gulf Province executive. Everyone was positive.

Anthony finally managed to get support from Total and our first pilot project was built and commissioned near Wabo on the Purari River.

We hope that with support from oil and gas majors, non-government organisations and the likes of DFAT, European Union, Food and Agriculture Organisation, IFC and national and provincial governments that we can roll out similar micro-scale processing factories in Gulf and Western.

These small scale and appropriate facilities are a sure way to monetise an incredible resource in those mud and water dominated landscapes.

They are a way to include and embrace the poorest families, villages and communities in a real local economy where they own and have intellectual property in the resource but can share it, with monetary gain, with the rest of the better off sections of the PNG nation.

We believe that utilisation of sago in a sustainable way fits the suggestion of "options that should be explored include the alternative livelihood activities based on less exploited natural resources, alternative enterprise models" as defined in in ‘Too Close to Ignore’.

YAMIN KOGOYA

CANBERRA – Yesterday, 1 December, was the day of West Papuan statehood, remembrance, and mourning

Each year on this day, Papuans commemorate the conception of a new Papuan state. This was West Papua’s original Independence Day.

The Morning Star flag was first raised in 1961 as the Dutch prepared West Papua for independence. Unfortunately, its statehood was short-lived. A few months later the Indonesian military invaded the independent sovereign nation.

Since that time, the Indonesian government has endeavoured to eradicate any attempt to revive the dream of statehood through a sequence of military campaigns. All Papuan lives have, in one way or another, been shaped by these wars.

Jakarta’s fear of an independent Papuan state is exemplified by its ruthless response to leaders calling for an end to Indonesian rule.

For example, the assassination of the Papuan tribal chief Theys Eluay and the killing of the senior commander of Organisasi Papua Merdeka (Free Papua Movement), Kelly Kwalik, in 2009 sent a clear message of Indonesia’s attitude towards the raising of the Morning Star.

This idea of statehood is written in the hearts, mind and blood of hundreds of thousands of Papuans. In remembrance of their sacrifices, the leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), Benny Wenda, called for a national day of prayer yesterday.

This year marks the fifty-ninth anniversary of the day that West Papuans first raised their flag. It is nearly 60 years since statehood was removed by Indonesia’s Western-endorsed military government with the complicity of the United Nations.

Since the Indonesian invasion, West Papua has been turned into a killing field. As Benny Wenda stated on SBS News on 28 October, “West Papua is becoming a hunting ground by special forces.”

Wenda was responding to the killing of pastor Jeremiah Zanambani at his village in Intan Jaya in September and the severe beating of 13 Papuan students on 27 October.

The entirety of West Papua has been turned into a killing field in which Indonesian security forces have operated with impunity against Papuans for a half a century. These killings continue, but it seems the world doesn’t hear about them.

The UK-based Free West Papua Campaign has reported that on 21 November four West Papuan school students and a 34-year-old man were shot by the Indonesian security forces in Puncak Belantara Limbaga.

We need to reflect on these killings with a fresh perspective. They are not isolated incidents. This violence has its roots in the myth of colonialism’s ‘civilising mission’ that was  carried out in many parts of the world.

The colonial mindset is predicated around the idea that colonised land was more or less uninhabited, any inhabitants without values, norms or rules. Therefore, the task of a ‘civilised’ man was to go into this unoccupied territory and stamp out anything that posed a threat to this mission.

In their minds, the mission was to bring order, good values and civilisation while exploiting the resources of the colonised land. The killing of original inhabitants was often considered inconsequential because, according to this, logic, they were not committing any crime against humanity. They were merely eliminating threats.

In the institutionalised psyche of the colonial mindset, the torture and killing of original inhabitants of the ‘newly discovered uninhabited land’ was justifiable. Original inhabitants were often projected as monsters and savages who posed a threat to moral and civilised men.

This Western fantasy was predicated on the idea that man (specifically white man) was destined to lead the world into a better future.

Peoples considered stupid, savage and primitive had to be enlightened by Western ideas. It was the white man’s duty to civilise the cavemen, monkey men and savage men, saving humanity from ignorance and paganism.

The description of a ‘dark lost world’ with racist undertones was narrated in colonial textbooks such as Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1899), White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling (1899), and Minutes of Education by Mathew Arnold (1852). Such writing reflected the deeply patronising views held by colonialists.

The spirit of the frontier wars between European settlers and the original inhabitants of Australia, Canada, America and New Zealand still haunt the psyche of the Indigenous people of these countries.

Restoring a permanent trust has become challenging as governments continue to regard Indigenous people as a burden to the national story.

The colonial project was based on grossly distorted information and misconstrued ideas of the colonised subjects.

Edward Said shed light on this issue in his ground-breaking book Orientalism (1978). Said argues that the West constructs imagery of a mythical Other – ‘The East’.

The West portrays the Other as mysterious, exotic and somewhat demonic in its savagery, lacking the light of morality and civilisation.

We now know that the idea of civilising the dark planet, concocted during the heyday of European enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, was cataclysmic for sovereign Indigenous peoples around the globe.

Enlightenment ideas decimated the First Nations peoples of America, Canada and Australia, and commodified millions of Africans and sold them into slavery. Hardly a person on the planet escaped the plague of the civilising influence of the West.

The oppression of native Indonesians during Dutch colonial rule was portrayed in Pramoedya’s 1980 novel Bumi Manusia (The Earth of Mankind).

Pramoedya recounted the colonial plague that ran through the blood of a highly stratified society based on race and colour. This plague later fuelled the fire of Indonesian nationalism against Dutch occupation, leading to the declaration of independence in 1945.

In Indonesia, Papuans are called bodoh (stupid), kotor (dirty) and terbelakang (backward).

The war starts here – at the level of mind, language and conception. How can Indonesians and Papuans relate to each other on an equal footing when the Indonesian state has clearly been influenced by the colonialist mentality inherited from the Dutch?

Recognition of this is crucial to establishing engagement between Papua and the Indonesian state.

Indonesians view West Papua as a Garden of Eden. However, the Papuans are seen as a problem. To address this problem, Jakarta has adopted a policy of ‘securisation’ of West Papua.

The process of doing that has been disruptive for the Papuans themselves, but also for the Indonesians in contradicting their own anti-colonisation rhetoric that preceded the 1945 independence declaration.

However, the plight of the Papuan peoples is diminished in the eyes of the world as Indonesia continues to court the West using the ‘legitimacy’ of democracy.

Papuan genocide at the hands of Indonesia, and the unprecedented destruction of their ancestral homeland, originated in European racism.

Indonesians are merely imitating the demonisation of their humanity practiced by the institutionalised racism of the Dutch colonial system in its pursuit of securing resources beyond the borders of the Netherlands.

The myth of the so-called ‘civilised human’ provided a mandate to ‘rehumanise’ others whom they considered lesser or improper humans.

This is the crux of the colonial plague that has reverberated across the planet over the past 500 years. We are still suffering from this plague.

This myth has become one of the most dangerous ever concocted. Indonesians still believe and practice this idea in West Papua

They want to love Papua, but they can’t because the problem starts in the myth that regulates the Indonesian colonial mindset

The failed project of Special Autonomy - imposed upon Papuans in 2001 as a compromise for the growing demand for independence after Suharto’s new order collapsed - has largely been rejected by Papuans.

Despite this, Jakarta still insists that Papuan elites re-evaluate why the project failed, despite the fact Papuans repeatedly informed Jakarta that Special Autonomy has failed.

Papuans rejected this idea by portraying it as a coffin containing many Papuan bodies. They buried this coffin, signifying that any ideas and policies introduced by Jakarta regarding the fate of West Papua would mean death for Papuans.

If Jakarta is sincere about a solution to West Papua’s problems, it needs not re-evaluate Special Autonomy. Instead, it must start by re-evaluating how Indonesia thinks about West Papua.

Rumginae's twin arrival

NDRANOU KAMANAKU

RUGHAZ, WESTERN PROVINCE – Yesterday was my day off from Rumginae rural hospital but I had determined not to sleep in, which is my norm.

I had administrative issues to attend to with my resident Dr Polycarp. That being the case we planned to get the ward work done early and then travel to Kiunga to attend to these.

I woke up refreshed at my interpretation of the crack of dawn and went to work, greeting Polycarp in my office with the usual, "Good morning Polycarp! Isn't it a beautiful day!"

Unbeknownst to me, Polycarp had been up since 2.30 am handling the case of a woman with twins.

Ward round done, we got the safety sticker for the ambulance to Kiuna and completed our administration tasks before heading back to Rughaz where we split and Polycarp attended to Mid Ward whilst I sat in a meeting.

Once that was concluded I reviewed the woman with twins and got specialist advice from two obstetricians who both advised a caesarian section due to both twin's being in breech with a prolonged second stage.

I called together my emergency response team and with the help of the community health students managed to rally all staff, standby emergency blood products and, once all the usual instructions and checks were done, we commenced the caesarian section.

This resulted in a bouncing baby girl weighing 2.3kg born via breech extraction and a second twin weighing 2.03kg born the same way.

Prior to the operation we had said a prayer and, as if the prayer was answered, the operation was smooth and respectful maternal care was maintained throughout.

And so was delivered another vital service for the women of North Fly District.

When it comes to safe delivery options in this area, Rughaz plays an important role in supporting women who need a safe supervised delivery which can be formidable even in the best of circumstances.

The narrative of remote pregnant women's problems being the jurisdiction of others has changed since the inception and establishment of Rughaz.

When it comes to the plight of pregnant women in North Fly, with faith I can rest assured knowing that, in the warriors code, there is no surrender.

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

FICTION -The man has a battered metal bowl in his hands. His left eye is opaque but he stares at me with his right eye.

I look down at him and he extends the bowl towards me with both of his hands and holds it there smiling hopefully.

I’m not sure what he wants me to put into it. I have a bilum of groceries from the supermarket over my shoulder and money in my pocket.

He keeps the bowl outstretched and I ask him what he wants but he doesn’t seem to hear me.

I lean closer and notice the crude wooden crutches lying on the concrete behind him.

Then I see his misshapen right leg. His right foot seems to be twisted and pointing the wrong way.

I pull a loaf of bread out of my bilum and drop it on the ground beside him. Then I add a tin of mackerel pike.

His smile flickers and he begins to withdraw the bowl. When it is sitting back on his lap I drop a 20 kina note into it.

He looks at the note and then back at my face. Then he quickly looks around and snatches the note and tucks it into his trouser pocket. He nods his head rapidly up and down and his smile turns into a gummy grin.

He extends his right hand towards the people passing by and the two curious boys on the other side of the road who have been intently watching us. He moves his hand in a circular motion and sadly shakes his head. I look across at the boys and they quickly scamper away.

“Where does he live?” I ask a lady sitting on footpath a few metres away.

She has a cloth spread out in front of her with betel nut, cigarettes, Tang in Coca-Cola bottles and two pairs of second hand men’s shoes arranged neatly in line.

She shrugs and points towards the beach. 

“How much are the shoes?” I ask pointing at the nearest pair. She looks at me shrewdly and names a price. I hand over the money and put the shoes in my bilum.

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” she smiles as I begin to walk away.

I walk further along the footpath towards Koki and when I am far enough away I take the shoes out of my bilum and leave them sitting on the low wall separating the path from the beach where someone can find them.

Then I cross the road and begin the long haul up Lawes Road to the house where I am staying.

I put the bilum on the kitchen table and pour cold water from the refrigerator into a glass. When the cook comes in I tell him I forgot the bread and the tin fish for the cat.

He gives me a strange look because he is certain he told me to buy both items. “Where’s Toby?” I ask. He points towards the garden. His son is sitting under one of the mango trees playing with his mobile phone.

I go outside and hand him some money. “If you nip down to Steamies and get some bread and a tin fish for the cat you can keep the change,” I tell him.

He does a quick calculation in his head, grins happily, and heads for the gate. The security guard gives me a puzzled look and I frown and tap my head.

The next day when I go for my morning walk I can’t see the man and his bowl anywhere. A younger lady is selling betel nut on the spot where the lady with the shoes was yesterday.

I glance over the road but there are no curious boys there. When I pass the low wall where I left the shoes there is no sign of them.

I hope whoever found them had the right sized feet. I head up Lawes Road. I have to pack ready to fly out in the afternoon.

Mungo MacCallum, 1979 (Sydney Morning Herald)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - Under the headline ‘That’s all she wrote’, one of my favourite journalists, Mungo MacCallum, announced today his inability to keep writing for the press. Very sad news.

“I never thought I’d say it,” Mungo wrote, “but I can no longer go on working. It takes all my effort to breathe and I’m not managing that too well. And now my mind is getting wobbly – hard to think, let alone concentrate.

“So I am afraid there is not much point in continuing to push the rock up the hill. I shall retire to my Lazy Boy recliner and doze over the television watching (or not) old sporting replays, propped up by drugs, oxygen, and the occasional iced coffee. I am rapidly winding down.”

I've been reading Mungo’s always well-informed, often sceptical and sometimes hilarious pieces since he first wrote for The Australian in the early 1970s, later working as the chief political commentator for, amongst many publications, Nation Review, the late and lamented weekly for which I freelanced for some years in the 1970s.

I think it was in 1972 that I first met Mungo when he visited Kieta where I was managing Radio Bougainville. He was one of a group of journalists sussing out the operations of the new copper and gold mine high in the mountains at Panguna. But they were staying at a luxurious little resort parked just off the mainland on the small but perfectly formed Arovo Island.

Hearing he was in town, I made my way to the island and made it my business to meet him and compare notes on, well, a lot. New Guinea and forthcoming independence, the impact of the copper company on the Indigenous people, John Gorton and Australian politics, expat life in the middle of nowhere….

But our most intense discussion, which extended over many beers, was about whether Pidgin English (Tok Pisin) is a real language or not. Me arguing for the proposition. The debate remains unresolved.

A few years later I again bumped into Mungo. It was 1977 and in the intervening years I’d continued to freelance for Nation Review from assignments in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. But now I was managing radio station 2ARM-FM in Armidale and had taken myself south to Canberra to lobby on behalf of public broadcasting. I made sure I looked up Mungo who occupied what seemed to be a small cell perched in the roof of the Old Parliament House.

He recalled me, took me under his wing (Mungo’s three years older than I) and ran me through various corridors, passages and gangways to ensure that during my day in Canberra I was able to buttonhole as many MPs as possible.

It was a good day’s work and we finished with a couple of hours at the non-members bar where he introduced to me to a number of his peer press gallery journalists. In a single day I had developed an instant political and media network.

It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that I encountered Mungo again. By then I was a frequent visitor to Canberra in my role running the ABC’s government and media relations department. During those visits I didn’t get to sit down with him a lot, but I always knew where to find him – at a small table in the courtyard adjacent to the non-members bar.

It couldn’t have been too long after that, probably about 1990, when he and his wife, Jenny Garrett, took themselves off to a sort of writing retirement on the beach near Brunswick Heads in northern NSW.

But the last few years have been tough. Very tough. He wrote earlier this year, “I am 78, with a compromised immune system and chronic issues over heart and lungs.”

That and the rest. An operation for throat cancer in April 2014 reconstructed his throat from a flab of his arm and a stripped out artery. He’s also had two significant brushes with melanoma, two heart attacks, advanced emphysema and now prostate cancer which has spread through the bloodstream and into lymph nodes and a hip bone. It’s incurable. And finally it’s brought Mungo to a standstill.

Throughout these debilitating illnesses until yesterday, he had continued to write for publication. “I am sorry to cut and run,” he wrote in his final column. “It has sometimes been a hairy career, but I hope a productive one and always fun.”

And so this man, once described by Gough Whitlam as a "tall, bearded descendant of lunatic aristocrats", who for so long had brought to me and to others an insider’s view of politics with much of the humour and without any of the arrogance these days associated with the press gallery, takes his leave.

And he did so with a final irreverent piece of doggerel:

Christmas is coming and Australia is flat
Kindly tell us ScoMo where the bloody hell we’re at.
And when we’re certain that you know that you don’t haven’t got a clue
Then join in our Yuletide chorus as we sing: FUCK YOU!

JOSEPH NOBETAU

PORT MORESBY - In his judgement on Monday, Justice Nicholas Miviri of the national court held that my termination as chief secretary of the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) failed to adhere to the process prescribed in the Bougainville Constitution.

In doing so, His Honour provided a damning assessment of the actions of the defendant, in this case the Bougainville Executive Council, in failing to abide by the very laws they were elected to uphold.

Of course, none of this takes into account the personal impact that the actions and behaviour of the defendant had on me personally.

My name was dragged through the mud. I was accused by the former president, John Momis, of actions akin to subversion.

My reputation was harmed. My family suffered. And for more than 12 months I was deprived of my rightful income as the matter played out through the court.

All of this could have been avoided.

As Justice Miviri noted in his judgement, the matter was “unnecessarily dragged into [the] court”. And that is true.

The ABG by its own admission, in seeking to pay out the value of my contract, conceded that what it did was wrong.

I could have taken the money and walked away.

But this was never about financial compensation for me. Yes, that is important, as I have a family to support and bills to pay.

But for me, the issue at play had far higher stakes: defence of the Constitution and the prescribed laws of Bougainville.

Had I taken the money and simply walked away I would have been no better than the defendants themselves.

Such an action would have been an admission that the Constitution does not count.

I could not allow that to happen.

Justice Miviri in his judgement clearly outlined the provisions under the Constitution that should have been followed. These are not in doubt.

Yet, the Bougainville Executive Council, chaired by the former president, the very man charged with upholding the relevant provisions of the Constitution, made a conscious decision to ignore the law. 

As His Honour noted in his ruling, this is a “very significant fact”.

The office I held was a constitutional office. I was not, as his Honour so eloquently put it “a casual employed on a weekly oral contract”.

I was the holder of an office established under the Constitution, and for which very clear procedures applied with respect to both my appointment, and removal.

It is for these provisions that I fought. Not for me, but for those that will follow.

For how can Bougainville aspire to statehood when its duly elected leaders give just scant attention to the very foundation of law that will guide its future?

All of us have an obligation to defend our Constitution and our laws. It is my hope that the actions I have taken will serve as a valuable lesson to our young and the generations to come.

In my own David and Goliath battle I have shown the power of the law.

I am thankful for our democratic and judicial institutions.  And I take comfort in the fact that my own case has demonstrated that the authority of our Constitution can never be diminished.

May that long continue to be the case.

Joseph Nobetau was chief secretary of the Autonomous Bougainville Government from October 2016 to 23 August 2019 when he was unlawfully removed by the Bougainville Government