LEONARD FONG ROKA
PANGUNA - The 1974 book, ‘Bougainville Nationalism: Aspects of Unity and Discord’, tells of Bougainville’s first taste of a referendum in 1969 and anticipates similar political trends as we march into the window of November’s referendum on our political future.
The book, written by Alexander Mamak and Richard Bedford with support from Bougainvillean leaders the late Leo Hannet and the late Moses Havini, describes how the earlier referendum was the direct result of a 1968 meeting in Port Moresby of some 23 Bougainvillean students attending tertiary institutions in Papua New Guinea.
Following this meeting in 1969, there were two significant outcomes in Kieta. First was the meeting of some 2,000 people chaired by the late Sir Paul Lapun to discuss the acquisition of land by Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) in the coastal areas of Kieta.
This meeting resulted in the threat of secession unless the PNG colonial Administration revised its rules in alienating traditional land for mining interests and led to bitter protest marches by Bougainvilleans who faced police tear gas and batons.
A few literate Bougainville leaders like Sir Paul Lapun came up with the idea of establishing Napidakoe Navitu, an association which would advocate for the interests of the people of central Bougainville.
This secession-oriented group succeeded in uniting most of the people of central Bougainville, who pushed for a referendum in 1970.
But other Bougainville leaders from north and south Bougainville feared their influence was being weakened by this group and attacked the move for a referendum.
In Buin, for example, 7,000 ballots were confiscated by the president of the local government council who said his council did not consent to it. In the north, the president of the local government council attacked the referendum’s sponsors for trying to act as the voice of his area while he was not respected.
Moreover the north was concerned that secession would stop the cheap labour from New Guinea from coming to Bougainville to work its cocoa and copra plantations.
The discord evident in 1969 was the foundation from which the Bougainville civil war erupted 20 years later resulting in the loss of up to 20,000 lives and many millions of kina worth of property and public assets.
Observing our current political dynamics, I see problems garnered by mistrust and the lack of faith in our economic ability to build a nation out of nothing as East Timor did after the United Nations eventually intervened and Timor Leste gained independence in 2002.
From zero and after a hard struggle it is now on the road to gaining billions of dollars from its resources while PNG and Bougainville with hundreds of mining and petroleum projects are burdened by debt now spiralling into many billions of kina.