Prime Minister tables new 20-year plan

PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare celebrated 42 years in politics yesterday by tabling the Papua New Guinea development strategic plan 2010-30 in Parliament, The National reports.
The 20-year plan is aimed at transforming the country from a low-income to a middle-income nation.
The Prime Minister said the plan provided the guide to a successful and prosperous future for all Papua New Guineans.
"On Sept 16, 1975, Papua New Guinea took a big step in entering unknown territory as an independent sovereign nation.
"Transition of a people of many languages and cultures to a global economy within three decades is in itself an achievement and testimony of resilience of the people of this great nation.
"PNG has progressed and is now at the crossroads of economic development," Sir Michael said.
He said three critical questions were asked when putting together the plan; Where are we now, as a nation? Where do we want to be in 2030? How do we get there?
"It, therefore, sets out the broad framework, targets, and strategies to achieve theGovernment's vision," Sir Michael said.
He said the plan was designed to quadruple the national income which should give all Papua New Guineans an improved quality of life by exploiting the available opportunities, enabling them to become key players in the overall socioeconomic development of the country.
"It is designed to strategically inform and guide Papua New Guineans in all walks of life to engage in the development process of our country.
"We have, for far too long, been swinging on the back of rhetoric and ad-hoc decision-making processes which do not reflect Government policy initiatives.
"This reflected badly on Papua New Guinea's development goals and priorities, thus, leaving the rural majority with minimal or no economic options to become key players in socioeconomic advancement.
"This plan is designed to change all these.
"This is homegrown document taking into account concerns and aspirations of the Government, non-governmental organisations, churches, private sector and people of this nation," Sir Michael said.

World Water Day falls next Monday

World Water Day celebrations will be held at Port Moresby Grammar School next Monday, March 22.

Department of Environment and Conservation Secretary Dr Warilea Iamo (pictured) has invited relevant State agencies and major water industries to participate in WWD celebrations spearheaded by DEC.

“I envisage coordination and collaboration among different stakeholders to inform policy makers and the general public about water quality challenges we face today and years to come, as PNG is undergoing rapid development accompanied by population growth and climate change, which poses significant threats on human lives and the environment,” he said.

“I understand that certain sectors use more water, while others use less water and yet generate more wastewater.

“I wish to stress that accusations over, whom, when and where these challenges occur should rather be avoided, as we maintain focus on preventing, or mitigating these challenges.

“I strongly believe it should be in our collective interest to coordinate among all stakeholders to address these challenges, in order for our vast water resources to be replenished for the benefit of all, including our future generations.

“As head of the Department of Environment and Conservation I wish to invite relevant stakeholders whose activities revolve around our water resources to participate in observing this year’s WWD.

“Each stakeholder has been given opportunity to showcase their efforts in addressing water quality challenges from their own perspective and interests.

“May I take this opportunity to thank those stakeholders who have expressed interest and made commitments by responding to my call in pledging their support to this cause.

“I wish you all successful WWD-2010 celebrations and a clean and healthy future for PNG.

WWD was declared under the auspiciousness of the United Nations in 1992 by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio De Janeiro, which is observed around the World on March 22 each year.

The Global Theme for this year’s WWD is “Communicating water quality challenges and opportunities”.

“The United Nation’s overall goal of WWD March 22, 2010 is to raise the profile of water quality at the political level, so that water quality considerations are made alongside those of water quantity,” Dr Iamo said.

“The DEC captured both the global and Pacific themes and adopted a national theme: ‘Communication Challenges and Opportunities-Safe Water for a Healthy Papua New Guinea’.”

Professional development of the defence force

By REGINALD RENAGI

As Papua New Guinea progresses further towards the next decade and beyond, the roles of our defence force in developing and maintaining a credible defence capability will no doubt go through a significant change.

Since independence, the roles of the PNG Defence Force have seen little change in both its structure and character.  Today, our military is at a crossroads.  Now is the time for the defence organisation to face up to some real issues, make long-term decisions and get on with those decisions. 

Defending our national security in the next decade calls for a complete re-appraisal of its outlook – not just the capabilities of the Force now, but on how defence conducts its future business from here on.

In future, the defence organisation must adapt to changes which affects military performance.

 Defence leaders must manage changes affecting the attitudes, motivations, “spirit” and moral values of those newly entering the military now to start new life-long careers as professional security practitioners.

The defence environment needs to change and the spectrum of change is both broad and dynamic.

 Defence executives must ensure the military can not continue in future by unduly straining old management maxims to new conditions.

 It is time our defence organisation must learn to live with rapid change, profit from it, thrive on it and not be absorbed with maintaining the status quo.

 The status quo is comfortable but it could get us killed.

A Defence organisation without an inherent built-in means of managing rapid change is without the means of its own preservation.

 Experience over the years has revealed that defence is not good at handling change quickly. 

We therefore, have some way to go before defence as an integrated Ministry can feel confident in its ability to successfully manage change.

Whilst the PNGDF has come a long way since independence, major events in recent times have now placed the whole professionalism of the force into some doubt.

For the future, the most important change needed in defence is to win.

 Winning on the battlefield tomorrow depends on how defence recognises its people and process today. 

Some serious cracks have shown up in our defence organisation in terms of way it does its business (processes) and the way it handles its people.

 The pulse of endeavour in our military is wavering and things are not so good as we face an undeniably serious personnel wastage problem.

Consequently defence is confronted with the social engineering problem of revamping the whole organisation to meet the changing aspiration and expectations of the people it needs.

 Let us not kid ourselves here, the truth is that reduction in experience levels continues because good people now do not feel strongly enough committed to this once proud and professional state security agency.

So unless defence genuinely comes to grips with decentralisation and streamline its process so as to enhance commitment and reduce frustration, people will continue to defect and without stable experience levels defence will become a second rate, a loser in the new corporate environment.

The PNGDF is becoming uncompetitive not because it is doing the wrong things but because it is not doing things right.

 It is not placing its people in an environment where they feel like winners. 

There seems to be a growing feeling that the PNGDF is becoming a second-rate team. 

Today, many service personnel perceive that the military is increasingly misunderstood by an uninterested public and increasingly cowed by a government which fails to recognise the uniqueness of the military, and make allowance for it.  

Moreover, the real exciting future challenge now seen by the writer may not be obvious to the government.

 It is well overdue now and lies in managing change better in the defence environment. 

The first and foremost is therefore that of reshaping and refocusing the whole defence structure and processes to better serve the aspirations of the kind of people we need, the type of people who can save us and pass the test. 

But what sort of people are we looking at to make our defence force an efficient organisation?  A professional team of men and women – highly educated, trained, motivated elite force and endowed with social prestige, i.e. a professional defence force in every sense of the word.

The only way our defence force is going to ensure professional development of its people is through an increased participation in appropriate levels of education and training programs, both here and abroad.  Education for most of us should really start on the day of enlistment, attendance at various training and education courses, by observations, experience, and most importantly and through self-administered education.

 It does not stop the day we retire but starts anew in another changed environment: “Civy Street” (or civilian community).

Dividing the learning experience of an officer, or a servicemen and women into either education or training is difficult. 

A better course is to consider that every learning experience professional service personnel undergo is part of one’s education as a professional military officer.

Some of it contributes directly to the officer or service personnel’s ability to carry out technical and mechanical tasks such as conning (i.e. driving a ship under certain controlled conditions), piloting an aircraft, or firing a weapon. 

Most is not directly related to a professional competency requirement, but is instead, stored in memory through intense continuous training sessions under combat conditions of pressure learning for possible future use.

Professionalism among military officers is much broader. 

The defence force officer of the future must manage deep grounding in a chosen warfare specialty including a wide range of professional knowledgeability in other specialist areas as well. 

The young officer of today must be increasingly professional in many areas.

 In this way, they will be better prepared to perform a multitude of tasks on short notice at any time in their careers, if they have had a broad education, and are widely qualified professionally. 

Early advanced education and professional opportunities will produce such smart and competent officers. 

In essence, our defence organisation must now need to facilitate a range of enhanced opportunities open to all ranks for increasing their professionalism, and in the case of an officer – there is no limit to the professional broadening he (or she) can achieve. 

All that is needed are initiative, aggressiveness and hard work.

This discussion covers several facets of what professional development of service personnel in the defence force of the future means; but how do we go about it? 

This calls for an efficient human resource planning program, and good career management strategies to be adopted in future.

While today, we have the basic ingredients of what makes up a defence force, it is far from being complete as an effective fighting force. 

The future of our defence force hinges very much on the government and leaders in defence investing heavily now in developing defence professionalism.

Today’s defence human resource needs to take full advantage of these educational opportunities.

  The professionalism of today’s servicemen must be improved upon steadily. 

What is required is to produce effective servicemen is a combination of wide educational and professional opportunity, not limited by age or rank. 

Finally, I specially urge the new defence command to continue to develop military professionalism through integrated and creative programmes of education and training initiatives for its defence personnel

.  I am equally confident that this will be a top priority for our defence force as it gears itself under a new revised reform programme within the next decade or so. 

 The writer is a former defence chief, now a master trainer in a private training school, researcher and writes as a hobby.

Australia Week: Yumi Piksa to continue producing films at University of Goroka

Caption:Ms Stephanie Copus-Campbell (Head of AusAID in PNG), Mr Wep Kanawi, HE Mr Ian Kemish, Ms Stella Lukula, Ms Klinit Barry and Ms Verena Thomas at the Komuniti Tok Piksa launching.

A film screening of Australian and Papua New Guinean short films last week, as part of the Australia Week celebrations in Port Moresby, was deemed a success.

The Papua New Guinean short films shown at the screening were those produced by the Yumi Piksa team last year at the University of Goroka.

The films which have been shown in Tahiti, Australia and on CNN (America) were premiered at the University of Papua New Guinea to both students and the public for Australia Week.

Audiences were welcomed to the screening on the night by Australian High Commissioner His Excellency Ian Kemish.

Deputy Head of AusAID PNG Ms Margaret Calla also spoke on the night emphasising the importance of short films and the continued support given to filmmakers in PNG by AusAID.

Australia Network was also present on the night and presenter Tania Nugent invited Yumi Piksa members attending the event to share their experiences with the audience.

Verena Thomas, facilitator of the workshop, Klinit Barry and Stella Lukula participants and emerging filmmakers emphasised the importance of working with the communities when making films in the Highlands.

For Yumi Piksa, as Klinit Barry said: “It is important to speak the same language as the community and develop trusting relationships with the people in order to develop engaging and meaningful films.”

The other highlight of the evening was the launching of the Komuniti Tok Piksa project based at the University of Goroka.

Mr Wep Kanawi of the National Aids Council Secretariat (NACS) officially launched the project and explained that it would be about using filmmaking in communities as a way to create more dialogue in PNG about HIV and AIDS issues.

Mr Kanawi stated that: “The Yumi Piksa films are real stories, about real people in real situations in real PNG. Papua New Guineans love storytelling and conversations that last a long time in their minds and more so in their hearts.”

NACS is a supporting partner of Komuniti Tok Piksa in collaboration with AusAID for the next 18 months.

The Australia Network will also work with Komuniti Tok Piksa this week to feature the project in an episode of its television program Pacific Pulse.

The short film screening of Australian and Papua New Guinean productions demonstrated how the medium of film is able to connect people from different nations, and how it strengthens the ties between Australia and PNG through the sharing and understanding of our stories.

The Komuniti Tok Piksa project is a collaboration between the University of Goroka and the University of Technology (UTS) Sydney, Australia.

Lead investigator is Professor Rick Iedema from UTS who is experienced in video communication for health communication and social change.

As part of the project, student and staff researchers from UOG will be trained to use video cameras to undertake research and to record community stories about HIV and AIDS in an effort to reduce stigma and to better understand its impact on local communities.

A response to claims that Australia interfered in PNG law

From PAUL OATES

A response has been posed to the PNG PM and Governor Wenge about their claims that Australia interfered with internal PNG law.
Check the comments to this article.
http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2010/03/png-take-interfering-australia-to-world-court.html

Landless Papua New Guineans - Is this the future?

By SCOTT WAIDE

We came to  Benny Mangua's village at about   Midday. This trip was for  a story of  how a foreign company  allowed into the country by the government of Papua New Guinea was treating the local  people - the original owners of the land.

I had packed a camera and several tapes not expecting anything major apart from a few disgruntled landowners who had not been paid their dues.  As I was going to  discover, I'd come to Kurumbukari mine site quite unprepared mentally.

            Benny Mangua  an  elderly man of  in his mid sixties greeted  a teammate of mine, Steven Sukot -  quite warmly but then whilst I shot a few seconds of  footage, the old man  broke down   and wept.   Steven responded  as any Papua New Guinean would – embracing the old man  and tried to calm him down as best he could.

            "My tears keep falling. I've lost my land. I've lost my home."

He continued to weep as I brought the camcorder  around to him and clumsily adjusted the audio settings . In 10 years  of  television this, to me,  was  truly a rare moment.  I never dreamed that I would  live to see the day   when this happened.  This was a Papua New Guinean landowner  who    had been forced off  his land by a foreign company.  Benny Mangua of the Mauri Clan  was  born and raised on this land on which his ancestors  had settled many generations ago.   In a matter of months, he had become a landless  Papua New Guinean.

"I've become like a parasite. I have no place  to stay."

He wasn't exaggerating when he said it. For Benny Mangua's  entire clan's land  area   contains   some   the  richest nickel deposits  in the Southern Hemisphere.   It is here that the Chinese owned company – MCC  - will begin  the  controversial  US1.4 billion  dollar  nickel mining project. 

            About 50 of his clan members left  for a temporary resettlement area – a forbidden,  sacred site where Benny Mangua's   ancestral spirits  dwell.   It was a kilometer from  where we were.   But sacred as it was to the Mauri Clan of Kurumbukari,   the site has been designated  as a stockpile area for nickel ore. 

            Only two houses now stand on Mauri clan land. Both  belong to  Benny Mangua's two sons - Peter Kepma and his younger brother,  John.   They've refused to leave.

            "There is a permanent relocation area. But the land belongs to another person... another clan, says Peter Kepma.  "If we go and live on the blocks of land there, we won't be able to plant food gardens or hunt." 

            MCC  began issuing  food rations  to the Mauri clan  since the relocation began. But the clan members say the food rations   can only last them a few days. 

            " The company is annoyed that we  made gardens here," John Kepma says pointing to  cassava and taro growing on the stockpile area. "Even where the forest is… they don't allow us to plant food. 

"But we have to. If we don't we'll starve to death."

            John Kepma chuckles as he tells me about the company's attitude towards local people. 

            "If we have a problems and we  try to bring it to the company's attention, they treat it like a criminal matter."

            Police have came to  his elder brother's house  eight times already. Peter Kepma is the more serious type. Quiet undemanding yet stubborn. 

"They tried to intimidate me," he says. "They came well dressed in their uniforms and carrying their weapons. But I told them: "You're not from China. You all own land just like me… I'm here because of my land. This isn't State land. This is my land and I've still got it."

To say "the  Mauri clan faces   a difficult future"  is a gross understatement.   As I filmed  along the track  leading to   the temporary  settlement,   a  five year old girl,   walks ahead of me. She is in  the shot nimbly picking her way through the kunai grass.  I can see the audio levels on  my camcorder peaking to the patter of her tiny feet on the yellow  nickel rich earth.

I wondered  if she  understood why the old man had wept in front of total strangers  about  half an hour earlier. 

He understood very well that  She would not have  the pleasure of learning  the  ways of old  on her  grandfather's land nor gather eggs from the forest   like her mother's mother did many years ago.  The old man understood  that unlike other Papua New Guinean's she   was leaving behind  the land  that sustained her ancestors for generations. She was leaving behind her past and future.

 

 

- Scott Waide  was  as a senior Journalist for EMTV and Producer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He  currently works as a  documentary producer. 

Conspiracy theories

From PAUL OATES

It has been suggested that PNG's ruling leaders are really not that bad at all. That PNG's current ills are merely an external conspiracy to undermine the PNG government.

This could be a very convincing and convenient argument if it were true. Afterall, PNG has long been dependent on external assistance in order to function and an external conspiracy theory could be a breath of fresh air to the current government if it were found to be true. Were this suggested piece of misinformation to be accepted by the majority of PNGians as the cause of PNG's current political impasse, if would relieve the pressure on the Somare government to change direction. In a stiff credibility test however, it is difficult to imagine how external influences are responsible for poor government health services, run down education, non existent public works and any amount of PNG's reported internal problems. The PNG media is consistently full of complaints that the PNG government is not effectively looking after its own people and that some PNG leaders are increasing becoming obsessed with the sole intention of retaining political power at any cost..

The regrettable position of the Prime Minister, as head of the PNG government, is that he must accept responsibility for his government's action or inaction. Currently, the only reaction by the PM and his government seems to be to attack anyone who suggests the government is failing in its duties. Its as if, as has been suggested, the PM and his team believe they are now above the law. Now this suggestion may have some merit when one examines the recent claims by Somare that he is the reincarnation of a Sepik crocodile River god. Those that remember Somare from his early days as Chief Minister might recall his observed frustration with organised religion.

Now it appears Somare has effectively set his country on an undemocratic path with the dismissive treatment of the PNG Constitution and Parliament. That being so, the next logical step is to rule without Parliament, a course that seems inevitable if the PNG PM continues to govern without allowing the Constitutional and legal system of his country to operate properly.

To function as a head of state without following the Constitution and the law is tantamount to dictatorship. To repeat an old truism, 'Those that turn their back on history are doomed to repeat it'.

"Dealing with a dictatorship is like dealing with a snake. If you tread on its tail, it will bite you. You must deal with its head." said a German woman as was explaining about her first hand experience with the German dictatorship during World War 2.

Speaking about the how the German dictatorship rose to power in the 20th Century, the initial steps along the road were to gradually weaken the powers of Parliament and then to abolish it and any other the checks and balances altogether. The powers of the country's President (the equivalent of PNG's Governor General) was effectively removed and given to Chancellor Hitler (the equivalent of the role of PM), and any opposition was then effectively eliminated and silenced.

At every point throughout the build up of the German dictatorship, while they still have an effective opposition in their Parliament, the German people could have stood up and demanded the slippery slide into dictatorship stop. The problem was that most people were too concerned with finding a way of relieving their suffering and domestic worries to take notice of what was happening to their country. In addition, all it would have taken is for Germany's neighbours to have demanded a stop to the process yet no one who had a voice made any statement of dissent because they were afraid of creating another war. Yet that is what they ended up with anyway.

Upon attaining political power, Hitler then rapidly suppressed public comment to the point that many people came to believe the propaganda they were told by the government controlled media was true. Those who then stood up against the tyrant were either murdered or had to flee their country.

While its not suggested that PNG and her PM is quite at this stage yet, unless the law is allowed to take its course, this is where it can easily lead. Remember, you don't have to go too far from PNG to find a military dictatorship so it can and does happen very easily. Fiji's press is now effectively muzzled and her court system is now controlled by the unelected government. No one would surely suggest that the current Fiji dictatorship was the result of foreign involvement. The current suffering of the people of Zimbabwe is also another salient example. Both were home grown revolutions and dictators.

Forewarned is forearmed.