Pacific Magazine > Magazine > June 29, 2007

Papua New Guinea

The Big One

Papua New Guinea Goes To The Polls

By Ben Bohane, Port Vila

Supporters of candidate Janet Sape gather in Port Moresby.   PHOTO: ALEX RHEENEY

Elvis Presley is alive and living in the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea. So is Tom Jones. And members of the British Royal Family, according to PNG election officials who had a busy time sorting the dead from the undead and the merely bogus on national election rolls in the lead-up to July’s election.

Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen had expressed concern that common rolls in at least five highlands provinces have been stacked, ghost names and double entries are rife, and that voter registrations are up 33 percent above the estimated number of eligible voters. Then there is the issue of new voting cards, which some claim will disadvantage illiterate people and require polling booth officials to “help” voters select their candidate’s name and number. There are 2,726 candidates registered to contest the polls.

PNG’s national election, scheduled to begin June 30 with results known late July, is likely to be a rocky road in terms of legitimacy, security and outcome.

Certainly there is a sense that PNG is at a geopolitical crossroads—if the government of incumbent Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare is returned, PNG will further entrench its “look north” policy towards Asia, away from Australia and the Pacific, and continue its “guided democracy” approach to governance, a legacy of its ever closer relationship with Malaysia and China in particular.

Says Foreign Minister Paul Tiensten: “Trade is at the heart of our new policy direction. We want to trade our way to prosperity and that means taking advantage of opportunities everywhere. But this doesn’t necessarily mean we are moving away from our friends in Australia and the Pacific.”

While PNG under the Somare government has overseen a marked improvement in its economic fundamentals, a lot of this has stemmed from high global commodity prices for copper, gold and other resources, which PNG exports. Its Treasurer Bart Philemon was also credited with having a steady hand on the finance tiller–until Somare sacked him last year, partly because Philemon apparently tried to prevent the fleecing of government funds to build an election war chest.

Philemon has since set up his own New Generation Party. It is proving to be a popular choice among some in PNG wanting change and hoping for better delivery of services, such as Tom Kaipo, a fisherman on the Fly River.

“We should be a rich country, but look around, there’s no hospitals, our teachers have gone on strike because they haven’t been paid and there’s so many Asians coming in here taking our timber and fish illegally,” says Kaipo.

Others say that the Chief has brought much needed stability and that the country is better off trading its way to economic prosperity rather than relying on Australian aid and an uncritical acceptance of IMF and World Bank advice.

Given the Australian government’s unwillingness to accept seasonal labor or help facilitate PNG exports (other than minerals) into the Australian market, and Canberra’s on-going finger-pointing about corruption and poor governance, Somare appeals mostly to an urbanized populace who sense of nationalism is being provoked by Canberra’s heavy-handed
approach to the region.

PNG elections, like elsewhere in Melanesia, are usually exercises in “Big Man” politics and so far there is little in the way of discernable policy coming from either Somare, Bart Philemon or the Leader of the Opposition Peter O’Neil.

In terms of security for the elections, the main concern will center on the troubled Southern Highlands region, which was put under a State of Emergency decree last year.

The provisional government was suspended following widespread abuse of powers, corruption and poor service delivery in the resource-rich province. In March the Supreme Court rules that the State of Emergency decree was invalid and unconstitutional.

Fears remain in the province since security forces have estimated up to 15,000 illegal firearms are in the hands of gangs and warlords there. At the last election, polling was suspended for several months due to violence and six out of nine polls were declared invalid, forcing a recount. This time the Electoral Commission will apply due diligence before accepting figures from eligible voters, according to Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen.

As the election looms, fear of election violence has prompted at least one Southern Highlands community leader to call for international peacekeepers to come and flush out the warlords in the run-up to elections.

“If our own police and army manpower is exhausted during the elections, then we definitely need Australia to play a vital role in assisting us by means of sending support troops to help our own security forces,” says Margarima leader Eno Tanda.    

For an Australian Defense Force already stretched in its overseas deployments, there is a recognition that PNG remains “the big one” in its neighborhood to potentially deal with, yet a rising tide of hostility to Australian influence throughout Melanesia will give Canberra pause for thought.