By
KEITH JACKSON
 |
Keith
Jackson...bad governance a risk for PNG
|
Earlier this year Laura Bailey, the World
Bank’s country manager for Papua New Guinea, nailed it.
At a Port Moresby
workshop organised by the Institute
of National Affairs she
stated forthrightly that corruption and bad governance in PNG are feeding off
the mining sector.
Of course it’s not only PNG’s abundance
of exploitable resources which is responsible for the country’s governance woes
– sheer incompetence makes a noteworthy contribution, as it does at present in
Australian national politics.
But the enormous scale of PNG’s future
wealth has the capacity to make a big difference: properly managed, it will
provide an opportunity to create a prosperous nation; poorly managed, it will
greatly enrich a few people and send the bulk of the population to hell in a
handcart.
The pivotal point is governance, pithily
defined by the World Bank as “the exercise of political authority and the use
of institutional resources to manage society's problems and affairs”.
The burning question is how PNG’s
national governance will deal with corruption’s deliberate intent to advantage
the few at the expense of the many with resources that are the rightful
property of the people.
Let’s not mince words, in simple terms
poor governance manifested through corruption is complicity in theft.
“Because of corruption, we cannot expect
the police to protect us, nor the courts to punish the criminals,” a frustrated
Dr Thomas Webster, Director of the National Research Institute, said a few
months back.
“If you or any of your family members are
sick … you may find that the drugs needed to cure the illness (are) not
available because of corruption.
“This cancer is now threatening the very
essence of good governance and how we make decisions at the highest levels.
“The administrative framework for good
governance in managing and using resources for the benefit of all Papua New
Guineans are not being adhered to.”
Succinctly and accurately phrased.
The Australian government’s response to
this situation – given that it provides PNG with upwards of half a billion
dollars a year in development funds – is bland.
The official position is that “the basic
responsibility for improving governance and addressing corruption in PNG
resides with the government of PNG,” as parliamentary secretary Richard Marles
has put it in an article for PNG Attitude.
“That said,” he added, “Australia is
strongly committed to supporting our closest neighbour to address these
challenges.”
In other words, it’s none of our business
but we’ll deal with it under the covers.
Sure, no nation likes megaphone diplomacy but
when it comes to serious moral issues like poor governance and corruption,
surely at least a Chimbu yodel would be in order.
In fact, more assertive Australian
support might encourage leaders like new Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to take a
more forthright stand for good governance and to start rooting out corruption.
While O’Neill has a reputation as being a
clever deal maker and a hard-headed businessman, he now needs to step up to the
plate and apply that inside knowledge and those undoubted creative skills in
the broader interests of the people of Papua New Guinea.
Together with colleagues like former
prime minister Sir Mekere Morauta and younger leaders like Belden Namah, Sam
Basil and Powes Parkop, all of whom have a keen understanding and a clear
commitment to good governance, O’Neill has a golden opportunity to guide PNG in
the right direction – where the nation’s wealth will be applied to the benefit
of all its people.
To achieve this, he will need to apply
every grain of his reputed toughness and, in the words of Paul Barker, Director
of the Institute of National Affairs, “(take) governance issues … much more
seriously than now”.
Elder statesman Sir Mekere Morauta has
long been a stout proponent and, in office, an effective practitioner of good
governance.
Earlier this year, he told a seminar on corruption
at Divine Word University: “A culture of corruption is now entrenched, and has
permeated nearly all aspects of the public sector and, to some degree,
business.
“Corruption and patronage have become
institutionalised.
“They have even been legalised.
“Every day we hear about corruption.
“Every day we talk about it.
“Every day we see and hear of leaders and
businesses getting away with it.
“We could fill a whole prison with people
recommended for prosecution in the various Commissions of Inquiry over the last
20 years, but which of those people has actually been prosecuted, let alone
gone to jail?
“A few politicians have been thrown out
of office for breaches of the Leadership Code, but that’s basically it.”
Morauta offered a long list of sins
against the people of PNG: “Commissions and bribes, whether millions on government
road contracts or a hundred kina to sell your stationery to a purchasing
officer in a government department” … “politicians, public servants, board
members or company executives failing to declare their personal interests in
contracts or deals being decided on or in appointments being made” ... “interference
in decision-making, in neglect of due process and lack of prosecution for
breaches of the law” … “running to the courts to prevent institutions like the
Ombudsman Commission from carrying out its constitutional role” …
No nation can operate with stability and
fairness – and success - if it does not take urgent steps to stamp out this
kind of misbehaviour.
To the perpetrators, corruption might
seem victimless (“it’s only money”), rationalised by self-justificatory
thinking (“I’m really owed this anyway”) and excused by generalisation
(“everyone’s doing it”).
In PNG today not only are there are not
enough voices railing against poor governance, there are not enough important
voices, the voices are not loud enough and they are not being reinforced by
concrete and, where required, draconian action.
As for Australia’s conduct of its
development assistance programme, especially the ‘boomerang aid’ that ends up
back in Australia and the rapacious fees paid to consultants and contractors,
surely there is someone in Canberra who understands that this is contributing
to a climate in which at least some PNG politicians and senior bureaucrats feel
justified in behaving as avariciously as they do.
The perpetuation of poor governance in
PNG, and public tolerance of it by Australia, may appear to be a soft
option but it seems set to yield some pretty awful outcomes.
I believe both countries are on notice.
Keith Jackson AM is publisher and
editor of the PNG Attitude website
and magazine, and chairman of leading Australian public relations company,
Jackson Wells Pty Ltd
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