Joe in Venice during his studies in Europe (Albert Schram)

ALBERT SCHRAM
| Albert Schram Blogspot

VERONA, ITALY - On the night of Monday 14 February, a wonderful friend, servant-leader, educator, and colleague Joe Kaowai passed away in Angau Hospital, Lae, aged only 39.

Joe is survived by his wife Joy, son Alberto and daughter Paulina. As a sign of our special bond and true friendship, he kindly named his son and his daughter after me and my wife.

I met Joe on 7 February 2012 when I gave my first speech as vice-chancellor of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (Unitech).

The former chancellor has just spoken gloomily in a mixture of Pidgin - which I did not understand at the time - and English about how we had to try to keep the Unitech ship afloat.

I thought this was not a proper way to address incoming, enthusiastic and hopeful students.

Instead, I told the students they had to take their studies seriously because their hard-working, studious peers in India, Europe and elsewhere would compete with them in the job market.

Next, I explained my vision for the future of the university – a vision in which graduate employment, industry support and bringing Unitech into the 21st century by providing access to fast, campus-wide internet would be the focus of my vice-chancellorship.

The students understood that I had come to serve them and not myself or the forever university staff and selfish former university Council and management team members.

At the end of my speech, I said, "Together we can make Unitech fly!"

Joe, who was Students Representative Council president liked this so much he repeated it several times, and got great applause from the student body.

And I became known, of course, as the Flying Dutchman.

Physically, Joe was not imposing, but his exceptional spirit gave him a great presence and he was a natural leader.

He had a tremendous smile which looked as if a volcano had erupted inside, and he laughed loud and often.

He was a true servant leader. His curriculum vitae stated, ‘solving problems for others,’ as his main goal.

I remember a number of episodes that clearly demonstrated his leadership, his tireless efforts to modernise education and his ability to bring people together as a peacemaker.

The student protests in April 2012 aimed to bring about transparent and accountable governance at Unitech.

In Port Moresby, at the University of Papua New Guinea, students were protesting against the anti-democratic Judicial Conduct Act, the first of many attempts by the O'Neill government to destroy democracy in the country.

The protests at UPNG were led by Students Representative Council president Emmanuel Isaac and were successful.

With support from AusAID, I had encouraged both groups of students to coordinate their actions, strategise and assure non-violent behaviour.

In my view, a strong SRC leadership would help end a wild boycott culture and prevent things from spiralling out of control.

As SRC president in 2012, Joe showed exceptional leadership and strong commitment to non-violence.

After several weeks of dithering and evasion by the O'Neill government, hotheads among the Lae students hatched a plan to set fire to the city’s port.

I had been warned by Joe through a series of text messages and was asked to talk with them.

Unfortunately, I was new to the university and unwisely took the advice from unintelligent colleagues that I should not engage physically with the hotheads, who proceeded with their plans.

They loaded three vehicles with barrels of diesel fuel. And only by physically preventing them from exiting through the university gate was Joe able to prevent them from achieving their goal.

Imagine what would have happened - the material damage, the violence unleashed by police on the students. On his own, Joe did what I should have done.

Later Joe had a major role in preventing a worse outcome when Peter O'Neill ordered the shooting of peacefully demonstrating students on the UPNG campus in Port Moresby on 8 June 2016.

Unitech students had also been protesting on the same issue, to convince O'Neill to submit himself to an inquiry into serious accusations of corruption.

Instead, O’Neill abused the Higher Education Act of 2014 and took political control of the universities and silenced the voice of the students by suspending the SRCs indefinitely.

After the shooting in Port Moresby, the rumour spread that a student had been killed. Again PNG was briefly world news for all the wrong reasons.

I had seen on Twitter that a body had not been found in the Port Moresby General Hospital and accepted the offer of Lae Metropolitan Police Superintendent Anthony Wagambie Jr who wanted to talk to Unitech students on campus.

Fearing for the Wagambie’s safety, I went with him, telling the students that this was a good policeman, not the same police who had shot their fellow students in Port Moresby.

Only my office assistant and driver accompanied me, none of my colleagues.

We tried to hold a forum outdoors, but there was too much unrest. Then Joe appeared out of nowhere and decided the meeting would be moved to the university Council room.

This allowed us to hold a productive meeting and the students were somewhat reassured and asked not to take their demonstrations outside the campus. Again in a time of crisis, Joe played a major role.

The thick-headed and illegitimate O'Neill government (2012-19) never understood that people like Joe and myself were important elements in order that PNG’s universities be modernised, which would do much to end the culture of student boycotts which was born out of frustration with lack of progress.

When Joe and his siblings were children, Enga Province was suffering from constant tribal warfare. In order to lower the intensity of fighting, most bridges across the many rivers were destroyed.

In Joe's village children simply miss out on school. But Joe's father decided his children should be schooled.

Although he had no formal education, in those days Engan boys would receive a wonderful informal education in the hausman [men’s house] where values of honesty and respect for others and wisdom were firmly instilled.

Joe's father’s persistence in getting his children a modern education meant a two-hour walk to the nearest school. He carried his children across the rivers on his shoulders.

Several years later, I met Joe's father, who only spoke Engan. Despite the language barrier we had an evening of simple fun at a Chinese restaurant in Lae. We got to know him and his family well.

Joe managed to finish Grade 10 in Enga, but had to do Grades 11 and 12 through distance learning. When eventually he came to Unitech he was 30 years old.

Nevertheless, he proved to be a good student and graduated in the allotted time. After graduation, we became good friends.

I thought him eminently suited for studies in Europe, which had become possible after I signed an Erasmus Mundus program agreement with the European Commission.

Study abroad had also been necessitated because spiteful former university Council members had made it impossible for Joe to find a job in Lae.

This was after the Council had been sacked in its entirety by the then Higher Education Minister because of the extensive fraud and mismanagement of funds.

Joe was accepted for an MBA program in Madrid, Spain, and passed almost all his exams.

Sadly, because of backward Spanish laws, one subject was offered only in Spanish and, though Joe learned to speak some Spanish, he was unable to pass this exam.

As often happens with Papua New Guineans studying abroad, he became part of a group of Christian African students who learned much from each other.

While still studying in Spain, in September 2014 he visited us in Italy, where we were enjoying annual leave while at the same time negotiating a beneficial agreement for Unitech with European universities.

My wife and I will always remember the days spent with Joe at our home, showing him the historical sites of the region, talking about the future of PNG and enjoying the local food.

In September, it is the time of the grape harvest and Joe had developed a great liking for this fruit.

On 14 September 2014, we visited Venice together. It was just a fun day but we also discussed the wisdom and governance of the Roman Empire and the Venetian Republic, being able to see and touch for ourselves what remained of these great civilisations that produced what would become the modern university.

We spoke much about how to bring about a better future for PNG after the obvious leadership failure following independence.

Over the last few years Joe enjoyed a stable and loving family life and relished his job as a trainer with DATEC Learning Centres. This year he started an MBA at Unitech to complete his graduate studies.

He was frustrated that the O'Neill government had rolled back all the positive changes at PNG’s universities and again installed politically connected do-nothings to the Councils and management of Unitech.

However, the torch that Joe lit has been passed on. The younger generations understand that a fake, corrupt university education is worth nothing and does not contribute to nation building.

The final victory will not be for those who try to pervert the democratic constitution of Papua New Guinea and violate the constitutional rights of its citizens.

The country cannot afford to lose clear-headed, servant leaders like Joe Kaowai so young.

He will live on in our memory and we will celebrate his life dedicated to family, education and peacemaking.

As a Christian, he had no fear of death, and his last words were for his family.

The embassy of the People's Republic of China in Kiribati (Rimon Rimon,  Stuff)

LUCY CRAYMER
| STUFF NZ
| With Joanne Holden (Cook Islands), Dorothy Wickham (Solomon Islands), Lisa Monovo (Fiji) & Talaia Mika (Samoa)

WELLINGTON, NZ - Drive from the airport to Nuku'alofa, Tonga, and on the side of the road, you’ll see a ‘China Aid’ sign erected outside a school.

Take the road between Nadi and Suva, and you’ll spot a recently-built hospital made with Chinese money. There is a sign etched into the peach wall to remind passers-by: China funded it.

And in Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, there is a plaque complete with a China Aid sign, reminders that the government sought Chinese money and labour to build the road ahead of the 2018 APEC conference.

Tonga, Samoa, and Vanuatu are among those most heavily indebted to China anywhere in the world. Tonga owes over 50% of its public debt to the superpower.

Papua New Guinea has high levels of hidden Chinese debt, according to AidData, a US-based research project into government debt.

And this is a worry. China has no real history of forgiving debt if countries find themselves unable to repay, raising questions about what happens if governments default on their loans.

This has led to accusations that Beijing is partaking in debt trap diplomacy – lending in part to increase its political leverage.

Where is the money going and what sort of money are we talking about?

A key driver for the increased Chinese aid and grants is the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative.

Officially aimed at building infrastructure across the globe and improving economic development, Belt and Road is widely seen as a way of China building its influence.

China’s annual international development finance commitments hover around $127 billion (K445 billion) a year, which outstrips the US and other major powers by about two-to-one or more, according to AidData.

Roughly $3 billion (K10.5 billion) of Chinese aid – grants and loans – has gone into building new hospitals, wharves, roads, government buildings, sports stadiums and schools in the Pacific since 2006.

While China’s aid to the region fell in 2019, the value of loans went up.

“These nations are small, and they have limited debt windows, and they have a lot of Chinese projects,” says Jonathan Pryke, Director of the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program.

“You could question the quality of them and the cost of them – they have been expensive, and they have often been poor in quality.”

He adds that, while there are concerns about the level of Chinese debt in the region, he feels these are somewhat overblown.

Largely, the terms are not predatory, and Pacific governments are wary about taking on new debt, he says.

So what is the problem with the money?

In short, government debt, like all debt, has to be repaid. These governments don’t have a lot of ways of doing that.

In 2018, the then-Tongan prime minister Akilisi Pōhiva raised concerns that China could seize buildings and assets in the Pacific.

Its loans were about to come due, and it was unable to meet them. Days later, his tune changed: Pōhiva said he was grateful for China’s help.

China had granted Tonga a reprieve. Even so, they are going to have to borrow even more to meet their loan repayments, according to the International Monetary Fund.

US officials and some academics have criticised China for, they say, trapping countries in debt that they struggle with – or are unable – to pay off.

In one well-known example, the Sri Lankan government was struggling to pay back loans for infrastructure projects including a port in Hambantota that China had helped build.

To settle this particular loan, it awarded a Chinese state-owned company a 99-year lease for the port and surrounding land.

This was controversial given the location – it is near the coast of China’s rival India and provides the country with a foothold in a critical waterway.

Pryke adds, given the size of Chinese lending around the globe, Beijing does not want to forgive debt because if it did for a Pacific country, it would have to do so for other countries like Malaysia or Pakistan, where the size of the debt is much greater.

The coronavirus pandemic adds to the Pacific’s debt story.

The International Monetary Fund estimates public debt in the Pacific rose to roughly 39% of the region’s GDP in 2021, up from 33% in 2019.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, China's rival to the World Bank, is becoming a key vehicle for the cash. Both Fiji and the Cook Islands have taken on new AIIB loans in the past two years.

Zong Bin, head of the political section of the Chinese Embassy in Wellington, says in an email the debt problem in the Pacific is essentially a problem of underdevelopment and the fundamental solution is to enhance development capabilities.

“China has been committed to creating a favourable international environment for developing countries,” she says.

China never attaches any political conditions to its cooperation with island countries and never imposes its will on them, she says.

Navua Hospital in Fiji was built with Chinese money

However, in exchange for aid, Beijing does often ask that contracts favour Chinese companies to build the funded projects. This has caused problems.

In 2014, a refurnished $90 million (K315 million) national medical centre opened in the Samoan capital of Apia.

Built by Shanghai Construction Engineering Group, a building firm owned by the municipal government, the hospital was billed as lifting health services in the country to another level.

Then issues started appearing. Tiles were falling off the walls, the elevators consistently didn’t work, the air conditioning had broken down, the restrooms smelt, and the toilets were constantly out of use.

The hospital maintenance staff were left to fix the restrooms. But just one of the five lifts continues to operate.

“There’s a joke in Samoa where if you see a breakable product or anything that doesn’t last long, they call it a ‘Made in China’ product,” says Apiseta Samuelu, a 54-year-old from Magiagi.

That doesn’t mean people don’t buy Chinese products. “They’re cheaper.”

The other problem with Chinese projects is they largely use their own labour, so they do not provide jobs or opportunities for local businesses.

It also often leaves no one able to fix the problems when the Chinese workers head home. While it’s a criticism regularly levelled at China, they are not alone in this.

In the Solomon Islands, Chinese companies have taken on a bigger role. A Chinese company is building the Pacific Games Stadium project in Honiara, funded by a Chinese grant.

While the government declared that work had created over 100 construction jobs for locals, at least 120 workers were flown in ahead of the $74 million (K260 million) build from China.

Peter Iroga, owner of a local construction company Best Builders, says that everything has changed since Chinese companies started operating in the Solomon Islands.

“Chinese companies have the resources (material) to work, they have the company to manipulate the system and cheaper labourers to do the work. We locals can’t compete,” Peter says.

He says that this is going to have long-term effects as local firms are going to find it harder to keep businesses running, and more qualified builders will become unemployed.

Only those with money and connections to those in power will benefit, he believes.

Recent protests and riots in the capital of Honiara were in part blamed on preferential treatment of foreign companies and a sense of frustration, alienation and disenfranchisement with the government.

While China has traditionally financed infrastructure projects, countries like New Zealand have looked to spend money on programs such as those to prevent family violence and encourage education, with the idea that these have a longer term impact on development than a new stadium.

Japan has long been a significant donor to the region but many of its programs – such as paying to stop oil leaking from wartime wrecks in Palau and the Marshall Islands – just don’t garner the same publicity.

Koichi Ito, Japanese ambassador to New Zealand, says Japan faces a dilemma in that it wants to be a responsible donor, meaning its projects are assessed before any money is handed over.

That is not the case for “other countries,” he says – carefully avoiding naming those countries.

Japan has started a series of infrastructure projects in the region, including upgrades of airports in Palau and the Solomon Islands.

Between 2009 and 2019, just 14% of Japan's aid to the region came in the way of loans, according to data from the Lowy Institute.

But with concerns about debt growing, there has been a shift in how money is given out.

New Zealand, for example, has boosted budget support to the Cook Islands and Fiji government to allow them to fund their Covid response and keep afloat.

New Zealand’s support for Pacific budgets has increased during Covid, says Jonathan Kings, Deputy Secretary of the Pacific and Development Group at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

“A lot of the countries have high debt burdens, so they can’t borrow and in fact you don’t want them to borrow because that increases their long term dependency,” Kings says.

New Zealand’s work in the Pacific tends to come through grants with projects that tend to be more aimed at upskilling and improving the quality of life, rather than the more headline-grabbing infrastructure projects, such as sports stadiums.

Kings adds that because of this, New Zealand doesn’t often find itself competing with China on who can give something.

But he says there “is always an element of competition.”

At the same time, there is more need than ever for infrastructure, not least to counteract the impact of climate change in the region.

New Zealand has set aside millions for climate change finance much of which is earmarked for the Pacific region.

In 2019, Australia launched an infrastructure financing facility for the Pacific – it was made up of around $540 million (K1.4 billion) in grants and $1.6 billion (K4 billion) in loan financing that would support infrastructure development in Pacific and Timor-Leste over seven years.

The Australian infrastructure loan program is sold as preferential as it focused on sustainability – loaning at levels that governments’ are able to service and repay.

Patricia Forsythe, the Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand, says they’re working with countries to look at how to build new strategic infrastructure such as ports, airports and telecommunications networks.

“We don’t want to see countries laden with debt. We do want to find ways that they can grow their infrastructure and modernise their infrastructure,” she says.

A hauskrai at Divine Word University in Madang

SARAH KUMAN
| Twitter @KumanSarah | Edited

PORT MORESBY - At customary events like a hauskrai [mourning] everyone knows their place.

There are the aunts who married and returned, and who lead the crying and the tokples [vernacular] funeral chanting.

They even chew buai [betel nut] and smoke while the pastor is praying. No one would dare challenge them.

There are the men and women who sing and welcome new arrivals with singing and chanting.

They are not the chief mourners - they are there for support.

There are various nieces and nephews, fixing and distributing food and sharp-eyed tambu meris [female in-laws] keeping the food and drink going.

There are always ‘leaders’ -almost without exception men - who are responsible for the talking.

They make the welcoming speeches, expressions of sorrow and condolence, responses, reassurances, consoling and placating.

At the hauskrai a one-hour speech is prefaced with ‘mi nogat planti tok lo mekim’ [I don’t have a lot to say].

An editorial conference in the EMTV newsroom in Port Moresby taken before the dispute occurred

REBECCA KUKU
| The Guardian
| The Pacific Project is supported by the Judith Nielson Institute

PORT MORESBY - Nineteen journalists from Papua New Guinea’s leading television media company, EMTV, have been suspended following a walk-off protest by staff.

The staff walked off the job last week in support of their head of news and current affairs, Sincha Dimara, who was suspended earlier in February for ‘insubordination’.

According to reports the ‘insubordination’ consisted of running stories about the arrest of Australian businessman Jamie Pang which included criticism of police and criminal procedure in the case.

The walk-off meant that last Thursday no news was produced by the station, which was forced to air a rerun of Wednesday’s 6pm news bulletin.

The drama centres around the coverage of Pang, who was arrested in 2021 after illegal firearms and an alleged meth lab were found in the Sanctuary Hotel Resort and Spa in Port Moresby, where Pang was group operations manager.

Pang pleaded guilty and was convicted of the firearms charges. He is currently held at the detention centre in Bomana.

But he was not charged with any drug offences, with police saying that outdated drug laws in the country left them unable to pursue further prosecution.

PNG has no laws prohibiting the production, sale or use of methamphetamine.

On 5 February, a memo from the interim CEO of EMTV, Lesieli Vete, was sent to the EMTV newsroom regarding the Pang stories.

“You are hereby directed to drop all stories from EMTV on air and online on Jamie Pang, and any other related stories concerning Jamie Pang’s gym and sporting events,” Vete’s memo said.

“I will be working with you closely today until further notice to review EMTV’s news stories so as to ensure that we are broadcasting stories in the best interest of the public.”

Sincha Dimara

Dimara, who was head of news and current affairs at the time, told the Guardian she had been asked by Vete over email to explain why EMTV was reporting on Pang and his supporters.

But Dimara said she stood by the decision to cover the story, particularly in light of recent parliamentary debates of drug laws.

“Jamie Pang is an Australian citizen, a businessman and a sports personality. He was charged for been in possession of firearms and ammunition,” she said.

“He is been detained at Bomana and we are aware that he will be deported. If or when it happens or not is still news.”

Dimara said Pang was not awaiting trial – which can limit news coverage – and she saw no reason as to why stories related to him should not run.

“We are not breaking any laws and I cannot see how we will be held in contempt,” she said.

Vete later issued a statement saying the leaked memo “was taken out of context”.

“At no time were EMTV’s journalists restricted nor stopped from reporting unfolding stories on the detained resident,” the statement read.

It said the memo was intended to get journalists to “drop stories sympathising with Pang”.

“EMTV journalists have been cautioned to be sensitive when conducting interviews and to follow reporting guidelines.

“The memo did not in any way restrict the journalists’ freedom of press, rather the memo was circulated to staff with the view to properly scrutinise the content of news stories before they were aired that day.”

Two days after the memo regarding coverage of Pang was sent to EMTV, Dimara was suspended.

A press statement released on social media by EMTV staff stated they were “dismayed at the extreme harsh treatment of our head of news” and what they alleged was “the continuous interferences from outside”.

“The news team strongly believes that the stories that ran on the nightly news relating to Jamie Pang were unbiased and reported with facts and did not impede on any of the current laws, nor did it implicate anyone,” said Jack Lapauve Jr, EMTV’s deputy head of news.

On Friday, journalists from EMTV were barred from entering the newsroom in their Port Moresby, Mount Hagen and Lae offices.

Concerned that EMTV management may attempt to replace suspended journalists with new recruits, Gregory Moses, vice-president of PNG’s media council, made a call out to all journalists in the country not to accept job offers from EMTV and to stand united with fellow journalists from EMTV.

“Respect our colleagues who are currently affected by the decisions of the management and do not join the mass recruitment done by EMTVs management,” he said.

Vete did not respond to requests for comment.

This is the third time in the past five years that a news manager at EMTV has been suspended.

Scott Waide was reinstated after being briefly suspended in 2018 over a story that was aired during the 2018 APEC meeting, and in 2019 Neville Choi was terminated on grounds of alleged insubordination in a move that reportedly caused outrage in the EMTV newsroom which saw Choi also reinstated.

James Marape (left) and Kerenga Kua (seated left) watch while ExxonMobil,   Santos and Noex Japan partners sign the near K40 billion P'nyang LNG agreement

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – Yesterday, as it closed its most beneficial deal yet, it looked like Papua New Guinea had come of age in negotiating agreements with global resource developers.

In what will be a huge boost to PNG’s struggling revenue flow, the P’nyang liquefied natural gas agreement was signed with ExxonMobil and its partners Santos and NOEX of Japan.

Amongst many other benefits, PNG has secured equity of 34.5%, much higher than the previous deals for 19.6% in PNG LNG (19.6%) and Papua LNG (22.5%).

P’nyang, which took three years to negotiate amid disruption caused by the world’s outlook for fossil fuels constantly declining.

It will be PNG’s third biggest LNG project after the PNG LNG and Papua LNG ventures and will cost the three partners K36.7 billion to develop, K1.7 billion of which has been chewed up reaching this point.

“Together, these projects will deliver production and tax revenue for PNG well beyond 2050,” said prime minister James Marape, who added that the royalties, levies and dividends will continue beyond 2050 and 2060.

A statement by Santos said the agreement marked a major milestone for the Western Province-based project, which will deliver LNG through new facilities in the province linked to the existing PNG LNG plant near Port Moresby.

Upon completion, up to 5% of gas that is produced will be made available to support the government’s electrification efforts in Western Province or another agreed location.

Construction of P’nyang development will start in 2028 around the time Papua LNG completes construction and moves into production.

“This provides a firm and stable economic base to the country for years to come,” Marape said.

“Construction activity from 2024 to 2032, (eight years non-stop, and a revenue stream for 30 plus years thereafter. Early works will generate another K150 million.”

“This is in sharp contrast to the stop-start of the past and it will provide continuity to businesses, employees, educational institutions and will serve multiple generations of Papua New Guineans.

“It makes me very proud as a Papua New Guinean.”

Marape said P’nyang would be the first time PNG had negotiated a 3% production levy (compared to 0% for PNG LNG and 2% for Papua LNG).

It had also obtained a better formula for the payment of royalties and development levies to affected landowners and provincial governments.

State equity will be about 34.5%, much higher than the 19.6% in PNG LNG (19.6%) and Papua LNG (22.5%).

Kerenga Kua and James Marape farewell Javier Rielo, outgoing executive of TotalEnergies. Marape said he is pushing for Papua New Guinean school leavers to be trained as welders and tradesmen for the construction industry

An official government statement said that “the state negotiating team, under direct oversight of petroleum minister [Kerenga] Kua and Marape achieved a government take of 63% compared to 49% in PNG LNG and 51% in Papua.

“This is a massive win! This also sets a new benchmark for future negotiations,” the statement said, adding that the government has formed a partnership with ExxonMobil which should foster new exploration activity.

“Successful exploration and commercialisation of discovered resources requires large risk capital,” Marape said.

“The project partners have already spent more than US$480 million (K1.7 billion) on P’nyang and will spend a further US$10 billion (K35 billion) in developing it.

“It needs credibility, track record, a balance sheet and appetite for risk.

“My meetings in Houston with ExxonMobil president Liam Mallon left me in no doubt that they have all capabilities to make it happen.”

My Idea of Heaven (Unsplash)

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - Like many small country towns in Australia, our Tumby Bay Community Library is a shared resource with the local primary and high schools.

Our township has a population of 2,700 but has all the resources of a capital city library.

There are hardcopy, digital and auditory books, of course, and we have access to movies on DVD, magazines, journals and free internet.

And anything that isn’t in the library can be ordered from other libraries free of charge.

The library staff are convivial and supportive of the small clique of local writers.

The ‘community’ part in the library’s name is well deserved.

“In public libraries across the country, from grand inner-city buildings to those in small regional towns, Australians are given free access to more than 37.5 million items,” says an article, 'The remarkable history of our public libraries', on the ABC website.

The authors explain how the historical evolution of libraries beginning with ancient Mesopotamia in the Middle East.

In more recent times governments and philanthropists  recognised the great value of libraries.

The Scottish-born American steel baron, Andrew Carnegie, funded 2,500 libraries in the USA, Canada and the UK between 1883 and 1929.

"I will give your local community $10,000 to build yourself a library. But in return, you have to commit the annual sum of $1,000 to maintain it and provide books and staff," he stated as the condition.

The first public library in Australia was established in 1854 in Melbourne. It was one of the first free public libraries in the world. Today it is known as the State Library Victoria.

The ABC article, which I have linked to below, says its founders “believed that access to knowledge was critical for the development of a civil and prosperous community, and created the library as ‘the people's university’.”

In 1975 the Whitlam government set up an inquiry into public libraries. In his report the eminent librarian Allan Horton recommended that libraries should become community hubs.

While Horton's other recommendations were largely ignored by the incoming Fraser government, his suggestion that libraries become community hubs thankfully survived.

There are more than 1,600 public libraries in Australia, which includes mobile libraries and other types of library.

Australians love libraries. There are more than 9.3 million registered library members, representing over 36% of the Australian population.

Compare these statistics to Papua New Guinea, where there are currently 23 underfunded and struggling libraries.

For PNG Attitude readers this raises the interesting question of what Papua New Guinea might have been like if its government had recognised the value of libraries and books, not only as sources of knowledge and entertainment but as focal points for communities.

A small but growing library system had been established by the Australian Administration before independence with facilities available in most provincial capitals and many major towns.

Indeed, Australia saw libraries as so important, one of its gifts to the new nation in 1978 was a fully functional national library in Port Moresby.

We often rue the lack of foresight in government but the situation in PNG, especially compared to the Australian experience, is nothing short of a tragedy.

You can link here to the ABC article

JOHN KURI

PORT MORESBY - The signing of the Papua LNG and P’nyang gas agreements signals, amongst other things, increased revenue for government coffers.

The big figures involved are impressive and have been well-publicised. Well done to prime minister James Marape and your team.

From an employment perspective, the billions of kina in revenue should translate into sustainable income generation and employment. This should sit right at the top of the government’s priority list.

It comes at a time when the government needs to step up its game in terms of creating more jobs, sustainable jobs.

Unemployment is soaring in PNG and in my view it’s the technical and vocational education sector that offers the greatest opportunities.

The strength of the sector lies in its ability to absorb youth cast out for some reason: not meeting educational requirements for further education; inability to pay fees and social disasters like tribal fighting.

There are 145 Vocational Training (TVET) Centres spread across the country.

These have the mandate to provide trade training to students leaving Grades 8, 10 and 12.

If every school takes in 100 students a year, that provides opportunities to 14,500 young people.

According to the National Qualifications Framework, they should graduate from these centres with an NC1 or NC2 certificate, giving them the opportunity to find employment or enter a national institution and obtain an NC3, NC4 or even diploma qualification.

Lack of available places is a significant current stress on tertiary institutions, and TVET could release this pressure on the system. But that’s not the primary reason.

TVET is a vital component of development because it provides the technical and skilled labour to construct and maintain the infrastructure and utilities upon which development depends.

A country with a strong technical sector will always have the upper hand in moving from developing to developed nation status. So if PNG wants to get there, it must get the basics right by strengthening its technical sector.

The number of unemployed youth moving to towns and cities in the hope of finding a better life increases each year.

There is also increasing crime in rural areas previously known to be peaceful. There is concern that youths are forming gangs and creating law and order problems in these areas where policing is often negligible.

It is my view that this trend will continue and become more intense if these issues are not addressed.

This is where TVET has the potential to harness the energy of youth – around 60% of our population is aged under 25.

PNG has untapped agricultural and marine resources that could provide more than enough jobs for everyone.

The coming of the P'nyang and Papua LNG is the best time for the government to invest in technical and vocational education.

The immediate benefits of such investment would be the provision of skilled labour for the two projects.

However, a good policy maker would envision that highly skilled trades people would be mobilised and PNG will move to train them if it is serious about reducing the number of unemployed youth on the streets.

There were 21,220 workers employed on the first PNG LNG project but only 8,500 were from PNG.

If we continue as we are, this is a scenario likely to be repeated. We just don’t have the capacity at the moment to supply the skilled labour that will be demanded by the projects.

So what needs to be done now to maximise the opportunities for our local labour market to meet the demand in three or four years’ time?

First, the government should increase the number of places in all technical colleges. Places in technical colleges should increase to 10,000 annually, which is estimated to absorb most school leavers and place them in a trade where they can find employment.

This is equivalent to the number of places at universities.

The more we wait, the more unemployed youth will turn to crime.

I strongly encourage the government and its relevant state entities to take affirmative action and put measures in place to create more employment in the technical sector.

Is there the institutional capacity and political will to do this?

Now the Papua LNG and P’nyang gas agreements have been signed, a training and employment strategy needs to be put in place.

PNG's parliament in session - it is one of the world's most fragmented parliaments

MAHOLOPA LAVEIL
| DevPolicy Blog

PORT MORESBY - Papua New Guinea has many parties in parliament, which makes for both a fragmented parliament and a fragmented government.

PNG has one of the most fragmented parliaments in the world. In a previous article, I calculated parliamentary fragmentation using an index known as the effective number of parties (ENP).

The ENP weights the number of parties according to the total number of seats won, thus giving a higher weight to larger parties.

Parliaments that are fragmented across many, small parties will have higher ENPs than parliaments with a few parties or parliaments with many parties but which are dominated by a smaller subset.

Using the ENP, the parliament’s fragmentation after the 2017 elections was high: 6.9 if calculated with independents excluded, or 9.1 with independents included and treated as separate ‘parties’.

This puts PNG among a very small group of countries globally with highly fragmented parliaments: Belgium (9.7), Bosnia and Herzegovina (8.7), Brazil (16.5), Indonesia (7.5) and the Netherlands (8.1).

However, PNG’s ENP hasn’t stayed static throughout the political cycle of this parliament.

The number of parties in parliament began at 21 in 2017 and has grown since. and ministries

The ENP, however, has fluctuated and is now actually lower than it was in 2017.

(My calculations here and in the rest of this article are made including independents as if they were individual parties. Trends do not change much if independents are excluded.)

What is interesting about the chart below is that the ENP fluctuated, first as government was formed following the 2017 elections, and then around the two votes of no confidence: the first, which saw James Marape replace Peter O’Neill as prime minister in May 2019; the second, an unsuccessful attempt against Marape, in December 2020.

Effective number of political parties (ENP) in Papua New Guinea's tenth parliament.
VONC = vote of no confidence

The ENP has fluctuated because many members of parliament change parties during the turbulent times of government formation and votes of no confidence.

One blog noted that 76 MPs had switched parties at least once since 2017.

When O’Neill formed government in August 2017, the ENP fell from 9.1 to 4.2 as his party, People’s National Congress (PNC), grew in number from 29 to 48 MPs.

The ENP increased to 7.29 during the first vote of no confidence, then rose slightly to 7.34 during the second.

The ENP increased again to 8.2 in 2021, reflecting the aftermath of the second vote of no confidence, before falling to 7.1.

The PNG MP Database also, for the first time, enables fragmentation within government coalitions to be measured.

https://devpolicy.org/pngmps/

The effective number of parties index includes MPs in government that belonged to parties split between government and opposition.

O’Neill formed government with an ENP of 3, reflecting a coalition including the three largest parties - PNC (48 MPs), PANGU (13 MPs), United Resources Party (11 MPs).

The ENP then rose to 6.5 during the first effective number of parties vote of no confidence when O’Neill was ousted by Marape, before falling to 3.5 during the second.

After the first vote of no confidence, Marape’s PANGU party remained the largest, averaging 29.5 MPs till present.

However, his government is more fragmented compared to O’Neill’s, thanks in part to the inclusion of several relatively large parties: National Alliance, URP, United Labor Party and People’s Party.

The government’s ENP rose to 5 in 2021 after Marape’s coalition survived the second vote of no confidence, and has maintained that level until now.

A further measure of fragmentation of government coalitions that can be calculated is the policy coherence index (PCI).

The PCI measures the amount of political influence each coalition party wields by calculating the probability that ministries will be awarded to different parties.

The index ranges from 0 to 1, a PCI approaching 1 indicates that cabinet (the ministry) is more fragmented across parties.

As the chart below shows, the PCI and the number of parties that were awarded ministries trend together.

In 2017, with less fragmentation within government (PCI = 0.48), O’Neill was able to appoint his cabinet from only five parties (despite having 14 parties in government).

The PCI then increased to a high of 0.82 during the first vote of no confidence, reflecting ministries awarded to 11 parties in Marape’s government.

The PCI then fell to 0.76 as Marape warded off the second VoNC, reflecting eight parties awarded ministries in a cabinet reshuffle.

Since February 2021, the PCI has been 0.77 with 11 parties awarded ministries.

Calculating the fragmentation of parliament and government is instructive, as PNG’s political history is replete with votes of no confidence.

In the past, three prime ministers have been replaced by a vote of no confidence: Somare in 1980, Somare in 1986 and Wingti in 1988,

Three others have resigned to avoid a vote of no confidence (Wingti 1993, Skate 1998, and O’Neill 2019).

During PNG’s tenth parliament, forming government after the election led to a less fragmented parliament and government while both votes of no confidence led to greater fragmentation of parliament and government.

The 2022 elections will likely see many parties elected, making parliament highly fragmented once more.

Government, when formed, is likely to be less fragmented as MPs switch parties to join the largest party.

However, once the 18-month grace period ends, and another vote of no confidence ensues, fragmentation within parliament and government may once again change.

This research was undertaken with the support of the ANU-UPNG Partnership, an initiative of the PNG-Australia Partnership, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The views are those of the author only

Putin-web (New Statesman)

COMPILED BY KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – I always have more reading around me than I’m able to accomplish in the course of one typical lifespan. But I’d rather have too much than have too little.

So today I thought I’d dip into a range of some publications I subscribe to, and get a feel for their first take on Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine.

My own thinking is that there will be no winner from this tragic turn of events (and I include Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union in that heavily populated group).

However, I make two exceptions, China and international arms dealers.

A range of extracts follow. And, as a surprise ending, excerpts from a prescient speech delivered by Australia’s former prime minister Paul Keating in August 2008.

(And if you're wanting to follow what's happening as the Russians try to bring Ukraine to heel, I've found DW television (the international TV and streaming channel of the German broadcasting network Deutsche Welle - and one of their anchors is an Australian, who does us proud).

Jeremy Cliffe, New Statesman (UK)

We are in a different world now. The full effects of Russia’s attack on Ukraine will play out not just over years but over decades — and in ways that no-one, including Putin, can predict with any confidence. The war will almost certainly be the biggest conflict in Europe since 1989, perhaps 1945. It will be transformative.

It is no exaggeration to say that we are probably at some form of turning point in history. Yet it would also be a major error to mistake Putin for the master of that turning point.

Yes, he is the one who has made the misguided, unjustifiable and ultimately self-sabotaging move to attack Ukraine, but he does not get to dictate how that plays out in the long term unless the West lets him.

To take command of that turning point, and decide to where it leads, is the task to which its leaders must now rise. History will be unsparing on those who fall short.

Ian Hislop (editor), Private Eye (UK)

Andrew Ross Sorkin, Deal Book, New York Times (USA)

What’s next? Though Western leaders are threatening harsher punishments if Russia persists, it’s unclear how much bite those will have.

Experts say that Putin has insulated Russia’s economy from sanctions to some degree, and previous punishments didn’t deter Russian aggression. Meanwhile, the Kremlin warned that Americans would face economic blowback as well. It’s also unclear how far the U.S. will go, with Congress struggling to reach consensus.

And Putin appears determined to push ahead at nearly any cost: President Emmanuel Macron of France, during a visit with the Russian leader, reportedly “found that Putin was more rigid, more isolated, and had basically gone into a sort of ideological and security-minded drift.”

Rachel Withers, The Monthly (Australia)

The local response to the horrors unfolding on the other side of the world continues to develop, with Australia planning to send medical supplies and military equipment – but not weapons – to Ukraine.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a new round of sanctions against Russian oligarchs, with sanctions also extended to members of the Russian parliament who voted to authorise the invasion of Ukraine, while many Australians have gathered in Sydney’s Martin Place in a show of support.

The Coalition has been eager to make this as much about China as possible, with almost every government minister using today’s media appearances to lash Beijing as well as Moscow, leaping on what it has claimed is a lacklustre response to the invasion (you’d be forgiven for thinking that China was the nation currently invading its neighbour).

Tom McTague, The Atlantic (USA)

If the past few days of Russia’s choreographed brutality are anything to go by, Putin must look around him and see a world of strength and weakness—of his strength and the pathetic weakness of the sycophants doing his bidding.

Is he really scared of our strength, as we often like to reassure ourselves? Or does he look to the West and see the weakness of human character that is on display among all of his stooges, only multiplied and institutionalised in our democracy?

He sees us fighting among ourselves, grasping for petty domestic advantage, taking his gas and propaganda, corrupting ourselves in the process. The most important question among all of these is whether he is right to see us in this way. The challenge has been set. Much of the 21st century will depend on the answer we give now and in the future

Errol Parker, The Betoota Advocate (Outback Australia)

In other news around town, the expected has happened in Ukraine and Putin has lost the plot. I'm sure I don't need to tell you. If you subscribe to this newspaper, I hope to Christ in heaven that you also consume other news.

The people who write to us and say, "I only get my news from Betoota", need to get their head read. Journalism is like your diet. It needs to be varied and in moderation. Imagine the state of your health if all you ate was pumpkin soup or red Starbursts? You'd have gut pain. But yeah, it's not good and I hope it resolves itself quickly like what happened with Georgia in 2008.

Editorial Board, Washington Post (USA)

Thousands of them courageously took to the streets to protest Mr. Putin’s war, an astonishing sign that his propaganda has not conquered all Russian hearts and minds.

In the three decades that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the transatlantic community may have taken peace and freedom for granted. Now comes Mr Putin, a former mid-level intelligence official of that vanished empire, who still bitterly laments its passing, to explode Western complacency.

In his characteristic manner, he claims, grotesquely, that Russia must make war on Ukraine because it threatens Russia, when his real ambition is imperial restoration and his real fear is that a neighbour’s exemplary democratic success would undermine his own kleptocratic rule. He must not get away with it. If the United States — firmly, calmly and in concert with like-minded nations — stands with Ukraine, there is a chance he won’t.

Image by Gorkie (Crikey)

Bernard Kean, Crikey (Australia)

As the late Christian Kerr pointed out a decade ago, when the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1980, Malcolm Fraser was savage in his condemnation — and (unsuccessfully) demanded Australian athletes boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

But when it came to blocking wool exports to the Soviets — including from his own property — Fraser was less enthusiastic. And he refused to follow the Carter administration’s block on wheat exports to the USSR, too. At the time, Paul Keating labelled it opportunism. Maybe the same analysis applies right now.

Paul Keating, Speech to Melbourne Writers Festival (Australia)

Extracts from an article by Tom Hyland, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August 2008: ‘Western leaders blew the chance for peace: Keating’

Paul Keating has accused Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and George Bush of squandering the chance for peace and co-operation created by the Soviet Union's collapse. Instead, he said the West had ‘ring-fenced’ Russia, treating it as a virtual enemy at a time when the risk of Moscow launching nuclear war by mistake was greater than during the Cold War.

World leaders needed a strategy based on "the progress of human existence and not simply the propagation of democracy", he said. Western leaders had failed to grasp a potential "new era of peace and co-operation" created by the end of the Soviet Union in 1990, and failed to find a place for Russia in the global "strategic fabric".

"(Former US president) George H Bush talked about a New World Order, then lost to Bill Clinton. And what happened then? Well, nothing happened then! The Americans cried victory and walked off the field." The Clinton administration "rashly decided to ring-fence Russia" by inviting former Soviet-dominated states to join NATO. "By doing so, the US failed to learn one of the lessons of history - that the victor should be magnanimous with the vanquished," he said.

Instead, they had left the world with a template forged at the end of World War II, "where Germany and Japan were left on the outside, and still are 60 years later, and in which China and India are tolerated and palely humoured".

He said the world was witnessing the eclipse of American power but recent US presidents had done nothing "to better shape the institutions of world governance". Nor did "old powers" like Britain or France offer any help. Former British Labour prime minister Tony Blair had offered nothing new or free-thinking - "he thought being an American acolyte was all that was required".

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – Australia’s Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) has condemned the suspension of 24 Papua New Guinean journalists by EMTV, PNG’s largest television station.

The MEAA is Australia’s largest and most established union and industry advocate for creative professionals.

The EMTV journalists walked off the job last week in support of their head of news and current affairs, Sincha Dimara, who was suspended early in February for ‘insubordination’.

The journalists said there had been political interference and accused EMTV management of intimidation. They may now lose their jobs.

The ‘insubordination’ consisted of running stories about the arrest of Australian businessman Jamie Pang.

On 5 February, the CEO of EMTV, Lesieli Vete, directed the EMTV newsroom “to drop all stories from EMTV on air and online on Jamie Pang, and any other related stories concerning Jamie Pang’s gym and sporting events.

“I will be working with you closely today until further notice to review EMTV’s news stories so as to ensure that we are broadcasting stories in the best interest of the public.”

Dimara said she stood by the decision to cover the story, particularly in light of recent parliamentary debates of drug laws.

Gregory Moses, vice-president of PNG’s media council, asked all journalists in PNG not to accept job offers from EMTV and to stand united with fellow journalists.

“Respect our colleagues who are currently affected by the decisions of the management and do not join the mass recruitment done by EMTVs management,” he said.

The incident is the third time in five years that senior journalists have been suspended for reporting public interest news stories.

“MEAA stands in solidarity with the journalists of EMTV and condemns the suspension without pay of news manager Sincha Dimara,” the union executive said in a statement.

It also noted that 24 journalists face dismissal for walking off in support of her:

“This is an assault not only on workers’ rights but also media freedom in PNG.

“No journalist should be economically sanctioned for alleged ‘insubordination’ involving a dispute over editorial balance or be terminated for taking industrial action in support of a colleague in this circumstance.

“This dramatic escalation by EMTV comes as MEAA continues to hold on-going concerns about allegations of political interference in the editorial decision making at PNG’s only national commercial broadcaster.

“Ms Dimara’s case, alongside those of former EMTV Head of News and Current Affairs Neville Choi and former Lae Bureau Chief Scott Waide, is the third in five years of senior journalists being suspended for reporting on matters of public interest.

“MEAA calls on EMTV executive management to reinstate Ms Dimara and her staff on full pay and guaranteed journalists’ editorial independence.”

Keith Jackson has been a member of the MEAA (formerly Australian Journalists Association) for 50 years

Sir John Kerr - former governor-general, ASOPA lecturer and Old Fortian

HARRY TOPHAM

BUDERIM, QLD - In earlier days, when secondary education was not a viable option for boys and girls from poor working class backgrounds, Fort Street Boys and Fort Street Girls in Sydney were selective high schools run by the New South Wales state government.

Fort Street Boys (later amalgamated with Fort Street Girls) was established in 1849 and is the oldest government high school in NSW and many famous Australians passed through its portals.

Many disadvantaged children, especially the intellectually gifted, were thus able to gain a good secondary education, providing the further opportunity of being awarded a university or a teachers college scholarship.

Unfortunately, for reasons peculiar to young teenage boys, I never took full advantage of winning a place at Fort Street which I came to regret as in later years when I had to get my tertiary qualifications the hard way - by correspondence.

Many a lot of my former school mates had put their heads down and got a relative easy ride by gaining scholarships to university.

Selective high schools were not ‘select’ in a snobbish sense; the selected were students who had high scholastic rankings in their primary school years.

Fort Street had fine teachers and an interesting range of subjects. In my time, Japanese was offered as a subject. The head French language teacher had learned Japanese when he was in the Army during World War II.

We nicknamed him ‘Stinky Wells’ as he always smoked a pipe, even in the classroom.

Stinky had obviously learned a few lessons in management during his time as an Army interrogator. Any student, especially those sitting in the back row, who was not paying attention was a target of an accurately-delivered piece of chalk, blackboard duster and sometimes the three-foot ruler that would spin through the air like well-aimed darts.

Former kiaps, teachers and others who attended the Australian School of Pacific Administration and made their way to colonial Papua New Guinea might remember geography lecturer Edgar Ford who, in his teaching days at Fort Street wrote the whole geography syllabus for NSW high schools and published a popular geography text book used in NSW and beyond.

Fort Street, which still offers an education to bright students, appealed to my somewhat socialist tendencies and sense of egalitarianism by allowing bright, disadvantaged youngsters the chance of obtaining a good start in life.

Amongst them are too many senior politicians, lawyers, entrepreneurs, sports champions, writers and prominent Australian citizens to list here.

Fort Street Public School, 1871

But here’s a sampling: ASOPA lecturer and poet James McAuley, ASOPA lecturer and later governor-general Sir John Kerr, Olympic champions Marlene Mathews and Jon Henricks, NSW director of education Dr Harold Wyndham, actor Jacki Weaver, prime minister Edmund Barton, high court justices Dr HV Evatt, Sir Garfield Barwick and Michael Kirby, NSW premier Neville Wran, Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson, cricketers Fred Spofforth and Charlie Macartney, poet AD Hope, Sydney crime figure Abe ‘Mr Big’ Saffron, ad man John Singleton, and diplomat Sir Percy Spender.

All Old Fortians.

'Nice place you've got here. Would be a shame if anything were to happen to it (Wilcox)

CHRIS OVERLAND

TUMBY BAY - The unfolding disaster in Ukraine has been met by a blizzard of meaningless drivel from Western elites.

They are shocked, confused and afraid: all of their fine words unable to disguise the pathos of their collective response to Vladimir Putin's naked aggression.

Now there are reports of a Russian foreign affairs spokesperson threatening Sweden and Finland with grave military and political consequences if they dare to apply to join NATO.

Thus Putin seizes the moment to threaten countries that are long term neutral states and by no plausible stretch of the imagination capable of threatening the security of Russia.

European leaders in particular have proved to be hopelessly incapable of putting together any response other than a limp-wristed slap with an economic lettuce leaf.

They wrongly describe this in their rhetoric as 'tough sanctions'. I think ‘bullshit’ is a more accurate descriptor.

It is clear that US president Biden proposed more serious actions, notably Russia's exclusion from SWIFT, the system used by banks across the world to facilitate fund exchanges.

Exclusion would effectively cripple the Russian financial system by cutting it off from any contact with the wider world.

The Europeans, especially Germany and Italy, shrank from doing this because they know it will damage them too, although to nothing like the extent it will Russia.

More happily this morning I hear on the news that they may have changed their mind.

John Shakespeare's portrayal of the colossuses' contentment as child Australia naively believes it is playing in the big league

The truth is that for 30 years or more Europe has lived in a state of delusion and denial.

Its existential dread of rampant and malignant ultra-nationalism has closed European eyes and ears to the awful truth that the monstrous force that gave birth to Nazism is still alive and well.

Not dead, but dormant.

And late last week it roared again and Europe (and we others of the West) are pathetically ill prepared to deal with it.

Europe’s much-vaunted military might is a facsimile of the force required to stop Putin. It is fragmented, run down and poorly coordinated.

Only France and Britain have credibly 'war-ready' military establishments: the rest are toy soldiers in the main.

Not that NATO’s ‘rules’ allow its members to enjoin anyway, unless one of them is attacked. Ukraine is not one of them.

Nor is Australia exempt from this lack of readiness. We lack sufficient long, medium and short range missiles to pose a credible threat to any aggressor.

The military knows this and has been desperately trying to play catch-up for a while now.

But politicians prefer to announce big things, like acquiring nuclear submarines or more tanks rather than focus on the quick and practical (although, to his credit, more recently Peter Dutton appears to have tried to do this).

Events in Ukraine serve as an ominous warning of events to come.

Our leaders must galvanise themselves into action to dramatically increase the size and power of our military, as both Russia and China have done.

Europe is the special laggard but trying to get it to act collectively will require leadership of an order never previously seen in the European Union, notably on the part of Germany.

Germany must put aside its fear of itself as a military power and once again take up its traditional role as the most militarily powerful country in Europe.

Happily, the Chinese government has realised that Putin's actions amount to serious over-reach.

China has been conspicuously unwilling to endorse them.

In fact, China has indirectly criticised Russia by insisting that the integrity of national borders should be respected.

In the United Nations Security Council yesterday, it did not vote for a motion condemning Russia’s actions. But, along with India and (strangely) the United Arab Emirates, it abstained, leaving Russia effectively isolated.

Australia’s inept prime minister Scott Morrison would be well-advised to cease his xenophobic ranting about the supposedly perfidious Chinese and focus his limited intellect on the real problems before him that are much more significant and threatening than anything China has said or done so far.

A languid Scott Morrison oblivious to war, bushfire, climate change and pandemic, unless there's ;political capital to be made (M David)

To politicise the national interest in his relentless search for votes might please the idiot fringe of politics but makes Australia more vulnerable.

As for Papua New Guinea, it should be very concerned by the implications of the developments in Europe.

When great powers clash, countries like PNG become pawns in the Great Game.

As PNG found during World War II, this is not a comfortable role, especially for nations unable to defend themselves.

Crew of Coast Guard Cutter 'Stratton' on patrol in Fiji's exclusive economic zone, February 2022

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - When the US Coast Guard sailed into Fairfax Harbour, Port Moresby, last Thursday morning to be welcomed by Papua New Guinea’s defence minister Win Daki, there was at least one person feeling disgruntled.

“We are getting ourselves into a serious blunder of a lifetime,” said business leader and national affairs commentator, Corney Alone.

Coast Guard Cutter Stratton has spent two months in the Pacific combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, which has replaced piracy as the leading global maritime security threat.

Stratton and its crew were in PNG, according to statement from US Coast Guard District 14 based in Hawaii, as representatives of the Coast Guard and United States.

“Both the US and PNG are interested in signing a bilateral agreement to codify the two states' strategic partnership in the Pacific,” the statement said.

The partnership will “enable the Coast Guard to better assist PNG in protecting the island nation’s sovereignty over its EEZ [exclusive economic zone] against IUU fishing.”

But Corney Alone is far from impressed. “Why do we have to sign away our sovereign rights to known bandits and terrorists in the guise of maritime surveillance?” he said to PNG Attitude.

He was referring to a 2017 incident in which the crew of the 32-foot fishing vessel, Josette, was caught in the Caribbean Sea in an effort by the US to stop drug smuggling.

The four Jamaican fishermen were detained for nearly a month aboard US Coast Guard vessels after the crew claimed to have seen them toss packages of marijuana into the water and to have subsequently recovered a large quantity of the drug.

The men spent much of their time in custody chained to the deck of vessels while their families believed they were dead.

“There are no human rights out there,” one of the fishermen, Luther Patterson told Associated Press. “They treat you like animals. You are like an animal ... chained to the deck on your foot.”

When the men finally reached a US courtroom, they were not convicted of a drug crime because no drugs had in fact been found on the boat; which the Coast Guard had torched and sunk.

Instead they were charged with lying to investigators, pleading guilty because their lawyer told them it was the fastest way to get home. They then served a year in a US gaol.

“This case was not an isolated incident,” Steven Watt, a senior lawyer with the American Council for Civil Liberties, told The Atlantic magazine.

A New York Times investigation in 2018 alleged another case of detainees held in similar conditions, likening the detentions to “floating Guantánamos.”

So while the Coast Guard said its visit to PNG is about “promoting security, safety, sovereignty and economic prosperity in Oceania while strengthening relationships between partner nations in the Pacific”, Corney Alone is not convinced.

“Our brothers and sisters from the Caribbean Islands have been subjected to horrendous abuses and ill-treatment by the American Coast Guard,” he said.

“Other violations in Haiti, Cuba and rest of the Caribbean islands where [there is] outright abuse of human rights by the Americans should give us sufficient reason not to engage these terrorists and destructive forces in our maritime zones.

“America's destructive interventions in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and the rest of the world should give us sufficient reasons to pause, think and assess critically before considering these types of so-called agreements.”

Meanwhile the Operation Blue Pacific Patrol spokesman, Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew West, said the Coast Guard’s visit to PNG was part of its “mission to combat IUU fishing is essential in protecting maritime governance and a rules-based international order to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.

“The fisheries industry is a significant source of food and income throughout the Pacific.

“Protecting this renewable resource is a priority for the United States and Pacific Island Countries,” West said.

Meanwhile the ACLU’s Steven Watt told The Atlantic: “The Coast Guard’s current practices have echoes of its Prohibition-era efforts against rumrunners at sea, which involved taking aggressive enforcement measures.”

Sources:

Associated Press, ‘4 Jamaican fishermen detained on Coast Guard ships’ by Colleen Long, 13 June 2019. https://apnews.com/article/500e6c2272d34298b5503c26fd5ae688

The Atlantic, ‘ACLU alleges Coast Guard detained and abused fishermen’ by Kathy Gilsinan, 13 June 2019

US Indo-Pacific Command, US Coast Guard District 14 Hawaii Pacific, ‘Coast Guard Cutter Stratton on Operation Blue Pacific patrol’ by Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew West, 16 February 2022. https://www.pacom.mil/Media/News/News-Article-View/Article/2937603/coast-guard-cutter-stratton-visits-fiji-during-operation-blue-pacific-patrol/

PNG Post-Courier, ‘US Coast Guard to patrol PNG waters’ by Margaret Finkeo, 25 February. https://postcourier.com.pg/us-coast-guard-to-patrol-png-waters/

Statement, ‘PNG maritime coastline disaster in the making’ by Corney Alone, 26 February.

Corney Alone

Also by Corney Alone:

PNG Attitude, ‘Warning to Oz: Don’t underestimate PNG’, 5 November 2020. https://www.pngattitude.com/2020/11/warning-to-australia-dont-underestimate-png.html

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – The American offer to evacuate Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky from Kyiv was not one he wanted, like throwing a no-fly zone across Ukraine air space or blockading the Bosphorus to prevent Russian passage to the Black Sea.

But it did yield the best quote of the Ukraine War so far, Zelensky earning the admiration of most of the world outside the Kremlin with his spirited response, “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.”

This reminded me of the lyrics of ‘Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition’, the popular American patriotic song composed by Frank Loesser and published as sheet music in 1942.

It was a response to the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941 that drew the United States’ into World War II.

Down went the gunner, a bullet was his fate
Down went the gunner, and then the gunner's mate
Up jumped the sky pilot, gave the boys a look
And manned the gun himself as he laid aside The Book,
shouting....
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we'll all stay free

Praise the Lord and swing into position
Can't afford to be a politician
Praise the Lord, we're all between perdition
And the deep blue sea
Yes the sky pilot said it
Ya gotta give him credit
For a sonofagun of a gunner was he
Shouting Praise the Lord, we're on a mighty mission
All aboard, we ain't a-goin' fishin'
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we'll all stay free

(Source: Musixmatch)

Manila and Justin Kundalin with Justin Jr

JUSTIN KUNDALIN

PORT MORESBY - One of the most deceptive acts for a member of parliament in Papua New Guinea is to use taxpayers or government money to win back their seats at an election.

But for any person to use money to bribe people to vote for a particular candidate is wrong and it is illegal.

It is also something we are likely to see a lot of during this year’s national election which kicks off in June.

I’m already hearing rumours about how candidates will use money in this election as a political ploy for their own advantage and not for the benefit of the people.

As a Papua New Guinean who wants to see transparency and honesty, I want to make known through PNG Attitude these deceptive plans for politicians to distort the people’s will.

I’d like readers to disseminate the message that people should use their knowledge to vote for the right candidates who will peacefully lead this great nation and contribute to the prosperity of all the people.

Money is not itself deceptive; it’s how people use money that can be very wrong.

PNG is getting ready and looking forward to the coming election which will appoint new leaders of this nation for the next five years.

Current members of parliament are also preparing. I’m writing this article from the perspective of a Highlander because I don’t know how coastal people choose to vote. I hope bribery is not widespread.

I believe a leader who uses money to win back his seat is not a true leader; he is a crooked leader.

Leadership is not about using money to bribe people and take away their true freedom of choice.

PNG is a free nation and leaders need to respect the power of choice for all citizens.

People must understand when a leader uses money to con people. They must watch out for liars who will not lead but surely mislead the people they represent in parliament.

I know for sure that certain MPs are preparing to do this. They are budgeting money to bribe people to cast votes for them with money that doesn’t belong to them.

I’m not happy that this money rightfully belongs to people and the politicians kept it without providing the services and the assets the money was allocated for.

The money has been withheld until the election to bribe people to cast their votes for them.

As a concern citizen of this nation, I want to remind my PNG Attitude readers to share this concern in their respective areas.

Members of parliament or candidates planning to use money, especially government money, to bribe people in this election are not good leaders.

I call this practice the ‘Politician’s Deceptive Plan’ because you should never get on the leadership ladder through deceptive means, you must get their because you are honest, listen to the people and make sure you are looking after them.

This is the only right way.

Justin Kundalin

Also by Justin Kundalin:

‘The power of persistence’

‘Lessons I Have Learned’

‘I am Time’ (poem)

The pilot tried to take off from a rough strip of land. The empty plane got down OK, but with 500 kg of cocaine on board it was journey over  (Russell Saigomi)

MICHAEL KABUNI
| Academia Nomad

PORT MORESBY - There may be more, but going by media reports since 2020, three Australians have broken the laws of Papua New Guinea and walked free.

They have been helped by a combination of outdated laws and police negligence.

The first case involved an Australian pilot who, in July 2020, crashed an aeroplane on the outskirts of Port Moresby attempting to fly 500kg of cocaine out of the city.

The PNG Drug Act 1952 doesn’t list cocaine as illicit or illegal so the pilot was charged only for entering PNG without a passport.

Later that same month, the Australian Federal Police reported that a 36-year-old New South Wales man had been arrested at Atherton in Queensland for drug trafficking and providing material support to a criminal organisation.

If convicted, he faced a penalty of up to life imprisonment. He would likely have escaped prosecution in PNG.

The 'methamphetamine laboratory' in a guest room at Port Moresby's Sanctuary Hotel (RPNGC)

In November 2021, police discovered a methamphetamine (meth) laboratory at the Sanctuary Hotel in Port Moresby.

However, the man they apprehended was not charged with drug offences because the Drug Act made no mention of meth. So instead he was charged with illegal possession of weapons.

At the time, police described the outdated drug laws as a “slap in the face” given the resources and time they had put into their investigation, “yet we cannot take it to the court process”.

According to Section 37 (2) of the PNG Constitution, a person cannot be charged for an offence not provided by law.

This has been interpreted by the Supreme Court of PNG as “the fundamental proposition [that] nobody may be convicted of an offence that is not defined by, and the penalty for which is not prescribed by, written law.”

So who should be blamed that criminal cartels operate freely in PNG?

The answer may surprise some of you because it lies squarely at the feet of PNG’s politicians.

According to sections 99 and 100 of the Constitution, only MPs can repeal, amend or make laws. If the MPs don’t do their jobs, no one else can.

People have been led to believe that MPs are many things: project managers; service deliverers; in some cases walking ATMs. But one of their key jobs is making laws.

The third case was a result of police negligence or ignorance. Whether they were not educated in the matter is anyone’s guess.

Sean Honey, an Australian, was arrested on six counts of weapons possession and one count of cannabis possession.

The court found that police used the wrong form to search his premises.

The Search Act 1977 and Search Regulations 1977 decree that Form 3 shall be used for such searches.

The police had used Form 4.

According to the secretary of the Law Reform Commission, about 370 PNG laws are outdated by at 50 years and are of no practical use in the modern age.

But instead of debating, repealing and amending these laws, MPs are busy delivering services in their respective provinces.

Instead of performing law-making duties, they adjourn parliament to avoid votes of no confidence.

After elections, they descend into two camps and hope their side wins government so they can get their hands on the state coffers.

Before the forthcoming national election, ask your local MP what is his main role as a representative of the electorate.

If he says “service delivery”, chase him out of your village. He doesn’t know his job.

President Ishmael Toroama - Bougainville constitution must put 'rights before resources'

NEWS DESK
| Radio New Zealand

AUCKLAND - Bougainville president Ishmael Toroama has said the autonomous province needs a strong constitution guaranteeing the civil rights of its people.

Bougainville’s Constitution Planning Commission, comprising people representing different walks of life from throughout Bougainville, is about to begin work.

They will travel around the province asking for the people's views on what should be in the constitution for the new independent Bougainville that Toroama expects to emerge from current negotiations with Papua New Guinea.

He told the first meeting of the commission that the document must promote democracy, the rule of law, social justice, equality and respect.

He said it must also protect the rights of the people of Bougainville, its resources, its cultural heritage and the rights of indigenous owners to their land and resources.

Toroama said the commissioners should take a 'Rights Before Resources' approach to development and this must be enshrined in the constitution to protect the natural resources and people's rights.

He said the constitution also needs to take into account the natural environment as it remains a very important source of people's livelihoods.

HMAS Labuan approaching Lombrun naval base at dusk. The landing craft made many visits to PNG between 1973 and 2005. She was retired in 2014 after a remarkable 43 years in service

BEN JACKSON

SUNSHINE BEACH, QLD - Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island states can expect more attention from the good old US of A as the Biden administration continues to push the ‘undo’ button on Trump era isolationism.

There has been a marked increase in US engagement in the region following the launch of its new Indo-Pacific strategy in mid-February.

This coincided with the visit of secretary of state Anthony Blinken to Fiji, the arrival of a US Coast Guard vessel in Port Moresby and the announcement to re-open the US embassy in Solomon Islands.

This return to the partnership approach of the Obama years, which was also a response to China, reveals a new urgency activated by the ascendant, boisterous president Xi and the existential threat of climate change.

The Indo-Pacific strategy aims to broaden and deepen US relationships with the region by bolstering security, building resilience to external political threat and emphasising economic growth.

It commits the US to open new embassies and consulates, upgrade development assistance, strengthen trade ties and boost economic engagement.

The closure of the original US embassy in Honiara in 1993 – just five years after it had opened – symbolised the beginning of an era in which the Pacific was very much an afterthought.

But over the last 10 years China’s influence has grown significantly in the Pacific islands through strenuous diplomacy, investment and aid.

The recent visit to Port Moresby by a US Coast Guard vessel was an outward indication of ongoing discussions between the US and PNG not only on illegal fishing but on building maritime capacity and ‘domain awareness’ – a euphemism for closer scrutiny of ‘undesirable’ naval and intelligence operations.

In 2018, the US said it would join an Australian effort to push back against China’s expanding presence in the Pacific by assisting in the modernisation of PNG’s main naval base at Lombrum on Manus Island.

But it was only last year that Australia awarded a $175 million contract to redevelop Lombrum, the delay attributed to the Covid pandemic.

The contract was awarded to Australian company Clough but it was announced that construction will involve US navy personnel.

At the time, PNG’s then defence force commander said the upgrade would significantly improve PNG's maritime security capabilities including enabling an increase in personnel from 200 to 400.

The US will also support improved access to digital technology to ensure cyber security and cohesion with its own platforms.

Resilience is a common theme through the Indo-Pacific strategy, being mentioned 14 times in the 19-page document, including in the context of climate change.

The US committed to promoting climate resilience through the Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility which it already supports along with Australia, Japan, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

While there will be many people in PNG and the Pacific pleased to see a more engaged US, climate resilient infrastructure is a consolation prize for nations which are among the world’s most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Then US vice president Mike Pence makes his way along the Poroporena Highway during the APEC summit in Port Moresby in 2018 (Pence FIFO'd the conference spending each night in Cairns) 

The US remains the world’s second largest carbon dioxide emitter but despite strong rhetorical commitments from the Biden administration there has been little meaningful progress.

It is also understood that climate change action and the new posture on Indo-Pacific engagement may be dependent on electoral outcomes in a politically-divided USA.

Congressional mid-term elections this year will be an important litmus test ahead of the 2024 presidential race which may see a return to ‘America first’ isolationism.

While the US is giving signs of positive engagement in the Pacific, its effectiveness requires a long-term commitment that is predictable and reliable.

The new Solomon Islands embassy and other initiatives need to endure, but for now it’s difficult to see beyond the US presidential election in 2024.

The Vanuatu government borrowed money from China to fund the Luganville Wharf (Slone Fred,  Stuff)

LUCY CRAYMER
| Stuff New Zealand | Edited extracts

WELLINGTON, NZ - When the media started reporting in 2018 that China might seek to use the Vanuatu wharf for military vessels, the foreign minister at the time, Ralph Regenvanu, denied this was a possibility.

“There was nothing in the contract around this idea that we would have to lose the wharf if we couldn’t pay back the loans.

“There was nothing at all like that in the contracts,” says Regenvanu, now the leader of Vanuatu’s opposition, in an interview with Stuff.

Instead, Vanuatu had pushed forward with the plan to borrow $130 million (K330 million) to build the 360-metre-long wharf in an effort to boost tourist numbers and improve logistics in Vanuatu’s second-largest city, Luganville. The wharf is thought to be one of the largest in the Pacific.

“We are interested in the sustainable development of our country and whoever can assist with that, we are friends to,” Regenvanu adds.

But as China’s Navy and Coast Guard continues to grow – it is now the largest in the world, according to a US Department of Defense report released late last year – expectations are increasing Beijing will want a base in the region.

The NZ Defence Assessment released last year listed this as a very real risk, without naming China.

If there was a war between the US and China, the island states are like stepping stones across the Pacific Ocean.

It is also important to note that Pacific governments are not bystanders and are strongly opposed to militarisation by any government in the region.

Regenvanu points out that while they are not interested in a Chinese military base in Vanuatu, they also don’t want increased US or Australian military presence.

“We are opposed to any militarisation of the Pacific and the militarisation of the Pacific continues,” he says, pointing the finger at the US, France and Australia.

He says it’s not in anyone's interest as it threatens sustainable development of Pacific countries.

Furthermore, most of the region, in part because of its history with nuclear testing, is vehemently opposed to nuclear weapons and has a treaty banning them in much of the South Pacific.

To date, plans in the Pacific centre around the upgrade of old infrastructure, which are aimed at benefiting development.

Plans are afoot to investigate an upgrade of the World War II-era runway and causeway on the tiny island of Kanton, Kiribati: population roughly 20 people.

Kanton is the furthest north of the islands in the Phoenix Islands and just 2,600 kilometres southwest of Hawaii, the headquarters of the US Navy’s Pacific fleet.

The fleet is made up of roughly 130,000 US Navy sailors and civilians; nearly 1,200 aircraft; 200 ships and submarines.

The Kiribati government says a new runway will facilitate high-end ecotourism on the island, and provide an alternative to the existing runways for both domestic and future international flights.

A gun emplacement in Kiribati is a reminder of battles fought through the country in World War II (Rimon Rimon,  Stuff)

The Chinese Embassy in Kiribati says the project was initiated by the Kiribati government, not Beijing. They’re committed to providing assistance within the country’s capacity and without any political conditions. It is currently just at the feasibility stage.

But it still has people worried. Tessie Lambourne, leader of the opposition in Kiribati, says she can’t understand why the government would be interested in an infrastructure project given there is no one there.

“China is involved in the tuna industry – so I believe that’s where China’s interest in Kiribati comes into factor.

“But it leads to something more important for China and that is their strategic military interest in Kanton,” says Lambourne, who was the former Kiribati ambassador to Taiwan.

One challenge for Chinese military operations in Kiribati is a decades-old treaty between Kiribati and the US that prohibits any other countries from using old military installations on a number of the country’s islands without talking to Washington first.

Much of the fear relates to whether a port or airfield that can’t be paid for could fall into Chinese hands and eventually end up being used by the military.

Zong Bin, head of the political section of the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand says the assertion that China intends to build military bases in island countries is mindless speculation and reveals a “Cold War mentality.”

China’s military presence in the region has been growing.

Alongside medical ships and friendly naval visits, it was reported last year that two Chinese spy ships were in the region, ahead of military exercises between Australia and the US. One reportedly entered New Zealand’s economic zone.

Zong Bin says these reports “groundless”.

There have also been visits designed to boost China’s profile and build relationships between militaries.

In 2019, for instance, the chief of staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army visited Fiji.

There is now a two-way exchange program between Fiji’s and China’s police. Fijian police are offered training there, and senior Chinese police personnel have been seconded to Fiji.

Most recently, China announced plans to send police to train Solomon Islands forces, following the recent riots.

Peter Kenilorea Jr, a Solomon Islands politician and former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade, says this is something he is really worried about.

The country should be partnering with Australia and New Zealand, not China, he says, because of our shared values.

To counter China’s growth, the US, Australia and friends are boosting their own military presence in the region.

Along with the headline-grabbing AUKUS –a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States that will see Australia receive nuclear submarine technology – there has been an increased military presence in the Pacific.

The US is stepping up military activity around Palau; building a back-up airbase and do military training in Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands; and will increase the US military's presence in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

Guam has long been referred to as the tip of the US spear, but the island chain of Micronesia is also part of that defence.

A bigger US presence here is supposed to stop China being able to easily move its military into the South Pacific, and at the same time allows US military to be stationed nearer potential tensions, for example, in the South China Sea or Taiwan.

Australia has also pushed ahead with the redevelopment of military infrastructure in the region – it has overhauled Blackrock Camp, a facility that supports Fiji’s security and military training requirements; is spending money improving barracks in Vanuatu and improving wharfs in Pacific countries so that the Guardian-class Patrol Boats can berth safely.

One of the bigger projects is the redevelopment and rehabilitation of the Lombrum Naval Base on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, that is expected to cost up to $188 million (K480 million).

Royal Australian Navy research describes the island as a “geostrategic gateway to the South Pacific” which is “ideally positioned to support offensive, defensive or humanitarian operations in the region.”

For locals the redevelopment is welcome – it means jobs and money.

“We understand that it’s a naval project, we understand there will be restrictions, in as far as working there is concerned, but we are hopeful that employment opportunities will be there,” says Bab Korup, a Manus Island local who runs the ‘Manus Issues’ Facebook group.

He says that by June, the project is expected to employ 600 locals, which will be a boost for the economy.

Many on Manus Island worked for the Australian government at the offshore detention centre, but these jobs disappeared when the centre was closed down.

As the world has changed, war is not just guns, tanks and ships. The flow of information and misinformation is important.

One of the biggest challenges is that the cables that connect New Zealand and Australia to the rest of the world flow through the Pacific.

This poses two risks: cables could be physically cut or, if an adversary wanted to, they could censor, intercept or just stop information from getting through.

Captain James Fanell, the former director of intelligence and information operations at US Pacific Fleet, says of particular concern is China’s presence in the region, which gives access to the vital submarine lines that feed information to New Zealand and Australia.

As a result, Australia and the US have both moved to try to prevent ownership – and technology – from being Chinese.

Australia, Japan and the US are funding a cable for Micronesia, Kiribati Nauru, and Palau.

Australia picked up most of the bill for a cable for Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Soldiers board HMAS Adelaide in Brisbane before leaving for Tonga after a volcanic eruption (Corporal Robert Whitmore)

In the process, Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei reportedly lost its contract to build the cable between the Solomon Islands and Australia.

“This area of the world – which is still largely dominated by the ocean – is still essentially the lifelines that connect Australia and New Zealand to the rest of the world,'' says Fanell.

Contributors: Rimon Rimon in Kiribati, Slone Fred in Vanuatu, Lucy Kopana in Papua New Guinea, Dorothy Wickman in the Solomon Islands

Funding: Asia New Zealand Foundation and the Pacific Cooperation Foundation. The money was used to pay journalists reporting in Kiribati, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands

The Vanuatu government borrowed money from China to fund the Luganville Wharf (Slone Fred,  Stuff)

LUCY CRAYMER
| Stuff New Zealand | Edited extracts

WELLINGTON, NZ - When the media started reporting in 2018 that China might seek to use the Vanuatu wharf for military vessels, the foreign minister at the time, Ralph Regenvanu, denied this was a possibility.

“There was nothing in the contract around this idea that we would have to lose the wharf if we couldn’t pay back the loans.

“There was nothing at all like that in the contracts,” says Regenvanu, now the leader of Vanuatu’s opposition, in an interview with Stuff.

Instead, Vanuatu had pushed forward with the plan to borrow $130 million (K330 million) to build the 360-metre-long wharf in an effort to boost tourist numbers and improve logistics in Vanuatu’s second-largest city, Luganville. The wharf is thought to be one of the largest in the Pacific.

“We are interested in the sustainable development of our country and whoever can assist with that, we are friends to,” Regenvanu adds.

But as China’s Navy and Coast Guard continues to grow – it is now the largest in the world, according to a US Department of Defense report released late last year – expectations are increasing Beijing will want a base in the region.

The NZ Defence Assessment released last year listed this as a very real risk, without naming China.

If there was a war between the US and China, the island states are like stepping stones across the Pacific Ocean.

It is also important to note that Pacific governments are not bystanders and are strongly opposed to militarisation by any government in the region.

Regenvanu points out that while they are not interested in a Chinese military base in Vanuatu, they also don’t want increased US or Australian military presence.

“We are opposed to any militarisation of the Pacific and the militarisation of the Pacific continues,” he says, pointing the finger at the US, France and Australia.

He says it’s not in anyone's interest as it threatens sustainable development of Pacific countries.

Furthermore, most of the region, in part because of its history with nuclear testing, is vehemently opposed to nuclear weapons and has a treaty banning them in much of the South Pacific.

To date, plans in the Pacific centre around the upgrade of old infrastructure, which are aimed at benefiting development.

Plans are afoot to investigate an upgrade of the World War II-era runway and causeway on the tiny island of Kanton, Kiribati: population roughly 20 people.

Kanton is the furthest north of the islands in the Phoenix Islands and just 2,600 kilometres southwest of Hawaii, the headquarters of the US Navy’s Pacific fleet.

The fleet is made up of roughly 130,000 US Navy sailors and civilians; nearly 1,200 aircraft; 200 ships and submarines.

The Kiribati government says a new runway will facilitate high-end ecotourism on the island, and provide an alternative to the existing runways for both domestic and future international flights.

A gun emplacement in Kiribati is a reminder of battles fought through the country in World War II (Rimon Rimon,  Stuff)

The Chinese Embassy in Kiribati says the project was initiated by the Kiribati government, not Beijing. They’re committed to providing assistance within the country’s capacity and without any political conditions. It is currently just at the feasibility stage.

But it still has people worried. Tessie Lambourne, leader of the opposition in Kiribati, says she can’t understand why the government would be interested in an infrastructure project given there is no one there.

“China is involved in the tuna industry – so I believe that’s where China’s interest in Kiribati comes into factor.

“But it leads to something more important for China and that is their strategic military interest in Kanton,” says Lambourne, who was the former Kiribati ambassador to Taiwan.

One challenge for Chinese military operations in Kiribati is a decades-old treaty between Kiribati and the US that prohibits any other countries from using old military installations on a number of the country’s islands without talking to Washington first.

Much of the fear relates to whether a port or airfield that can’t be paid for could fall into Chinese hands and eventually end up being used by the military.

Zong Bin, head of the political section of the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand says the assertion that China intends to build military bases in island countries is mindless speculation and reveals a “Cold War mentality.”

China’s military presence in the region has been growing.

Alongside medical ships and friendly naval visits, it was reported last year that two Chinese spy ships were in the region, ahead of military exercises between Australia and the US. One reportedly entered New Zealand’s economic zone.

Zong Bin says these reports “groundless”.

There have also been visits designed to boost China’s profile and build relationships between militaries.

In 2019, for instance, the chief of staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army visited Fiji.

There is now a two-way exchange program between Fiji’s and China’s police. Fijian police are offered training there, and senior Chinese police personnel have been seconded to Fiji.

Most recently, China announced plans to send police to train Solomon Islands forces, following the recent riots.

Peter Kenilorea Jr, a Solomon Islands politician and former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade, says this is something he is really worried about.

The country should be partnering with Australia and New Zealand, not China, he says, because of our shared values.

To counter China’s growth, the US, Australia and friends are boosting their own military presence in the region.

Along with the headline-grabbing AUKUS –a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States that will see Australia receive nuclear submarine technology – there has been an increased military presence in the Pacific.

The US is stepping up military activity around Palau; building a back-up airbase and do military training in Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands; and will increase the US military's presence in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

Guam has long been referred to as the tip of the US spear, but the island chain of Micronesia is also part of that defence.

A bigger US presence here is supposed to stop China being able to easily move its military into the South Pacific, and at the same time allows US military to be stationed nearer potential tensions, for example, in the South China Sea or Taiwan.

Australia has also pushed ahead with the redevelopment of military infrastructure in the region – it has overhauled Blackrock Camp, a facility that supports Fiji’s security and military training requirements; is spending money improving barracks in Vanuatu and improving wharfs in Pacific countries so that the Guardian-class Patrol Boats can berth safely.

One of the bigger projects is the redevelopment and rehabilitation of the Lombrum Naval Base on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, that is expected to cost up to $188 million (K480 million).

Royal Australian Navy research describes the island as a “geostrategic gateway to the South Pacific” which is “ideally positioned to support offensive, defensive or humanitarian operations in the region.”

For locals the redevelopment is welcome – it means jobs and money.

“We understand that it’s a naval project, we understand there will be restrictions, in as far as working there is concerned, but we are hopeful that employment opportunities will be there,” says Bab Korup, a Manus Island local who runs the ‘Manus Issues’ Facebook group.

He says that by June, the project is expected to employ 600 locals, which will be a boost for the economy.

Many on Manus Island worked for the Australian government at the offshore detention centre, but these jobs disappeared when the centre was closed down.

As the world has changed, war is not just guns, tanks and ships. The flow of information and misinformation is important.

One of the biggest challenges is that the cables that connect New Zealand and Australia to the rest of the world flow through the Pacific.

This poses two risks: cables could be physically cut or, if an adversary wanted to, they could censor, intercept or just stop information from getting through.

Captain James Fanell, the former director of intelligence and information operations at US Pacific Fleet, says of particular concern is China’s presence in the region, which gives access to the vital submarine lines that feed information to New Zealand and Australia.

As a result, Australia and the US have both moved to try to prevent ownership – and technology – from being Chinese.

Australia, Japan and the US are funding a cable for Micronesia, Kiribati Nauru, and Palau.

Australia picked up most of the bill for a cable for Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Soldiers board HMAS Adelaide in Brisbane before leaving for Tonga after a volcanic eruption (Corporal Robert Whitmore)

In the process, Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei reportedly lost its contract to build the cable between the Solomon Islands and Australia.

“This area of the world – which is still largely dominated by the ocean – is still essentially the lifelines that connect Australia and New Zealand to the rest of the world,'' says Fanell.

Contributors: Rimon Rimon in Kiribati, Slone Fred in Vanuatu, Lucy Kopana in Papua New Guinea, Dorothy Wickman in the Solomon Islands

Funding: Asia New Zealand Foundation and the Pacific Cooperation Foundation. The money was used to pay journalists reporting in Kiribati, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands