TAKE BACK PNG FROM NEO-COLONIZATION

Papua New Guinea over the years has been on the international media spotlight for the wrong reasons. From illusory cannibalism stories to high level millions of dollars money laundering schemes involving bureaucrats and politicians and the gross harvesting of timber and mining activities in the country by foreign corporations PNG was said to be the safe haven for people wanting to profit from dirty money.

Foreign media outlets have tainted a very bad image of PNG, and that has forced some reputable investors to shy away from investing in this nation. Corrupt practices have become a norm in every government organizations in PNG, it is accepted by almost every regime that promises to bring change to this under-develop nation.

Crime and domestic violence have become tolerant in some homes and societies in this nation and law enforcers are seemingly reactive other than being proactive.

In rural PNG where 80% of the total population thrive, the evidences of basic services delivery are scarce. Most parts of mainland PNG are not connected by road and local villagers spend several days to get to the nearest government school, health facility or market etc. Existing road infrastructures, bridges, aid posts, police stations etc. are in appalling conditions.

Mothers are giving birth in makeshift shelters while their children attend classes under shade trees. The government’s free education and health policies haven’t reached the rural population since independence.

Abundance of cocoa and coffee beans, copra and agricultural food crops are left to rot in the villages because of no markets and no road access. Almost 40% of rural PNG is accessible by air and its too costly given the high cost of airfreight and physical geography of these locations.

Politicians only show up during general elections and disappear for five years. If only basic services follow the same way ballot papers are delivered during election periods.

Since 1982, the Ok Tedi Gold and Copper Mine has been a man-made another disaster for the people of Western province. Several decades of gold and silver mining have passed, but their (locals) equity are yet to translate into reality.

The attempts by certain influences and a small section of the media to justify a continued role for BHP Billiton in the operation of the Ok Tedi Gold and Copper Mine and the PNG Sustainable Development Fund (PNGSDF) have sunk to a new low in desperation and credibility.

The history of the Ok Tedi mine is simply one no Papua New Guinea government since the mine began operations in the early 1980s can be proud of. And nor can BHP be proud of its majority ownership and managerial control prior to 2002 when it divested itself of its majority shareholding.

The establishment of the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program (PNGSDP) was designed by BHP to keep control of the mine and the direction of its profits, principally through the PNGSDF, over which it clearly exercised effective control.

Closing the mine down, regardless of what that would cost the local workforce, and small business, and the national budget given that the mine was the largest source of revenue presented a challenge for the PNG Government at that time. The response of the then Morauta Government was to give legislative approval to the future structure BHP insisted on, a structure which would allow BHP to exercise effective control over the mine’s revenue flows for as long as the mine continued operating.

The entire Western province depends heavily on the river systems for survival. Now it’s plagued with malaria and tuberculosis and holds a steady high record of infant mortality rate in the country.

The main Fly River system (the biggest in PNG) is dying. Pollution from mining wastes, ships that carry supplies and other human activities have disturbed and destroyed life along the river system.

Mining wastes from the Canadian company-owned Barrick Porgera Gold Mine in the Enga province have been discharged using the Strickland river system into the North and South Fly regions in the Western Province. The environmental damages are extensive and massive and no government has been able to hold the developers accountable.

At the Hidden Valley Gold mine in Morobe province, landowners are fighting a battle that has dragged on for almost a decade. The mining Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) has not been reviewed as yet by the government’s Mineral Resource Authority (MRA) for the past eight years.

Several agreements under the MoA have not been met and the developers are getting away from it.

Another similar project in Wafi-Golpu is emerging and the tussle between the government and landowners is deferring its commencement. Now the government is negotiating a fair deal between the affected landowners and the provincial and national governments and the developers.

Wafi-Golpu’s lifespan for the next 60-years is projected to help PNG’s economy but the lessons from previous mining arrangements leaves a lot to be questioned. Environmental impacts, resettlement and equity for landowners are key areas which the government basing its argument to delay the mining operation.

In November 2009, China’s Exim Bank provided a US$74milliom concessional loan to PNG for the construction of the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) in Vidar, Madang Province. The total cost of the project was $95million and PNG paid for the remaining $21million.

The contract stipulates that 70 percent of the project (worth US$35 million) must go exclusively to a Chinese developer using Chinese technology, labour and equipment.

The people of PNG paid for a Chinese company to come and build the PMIZ using Chinese equipment, labor and supplies.

In September 2009, Shenyang International Economic and Technical Cooperation company was chosen to be the contractor. The project included the construction of a wharf and pier, a water and waste treatment plant, roads, and other key infrastructures. Constructions began in 2011 and was completed by 2013, but the zone was not put into operation until November 2015.

The locals have totally lost control over their traditional fishing grounds without any tangible benefits.

Bigger fishing boats have blocked off their lagoons and fishing sites and wastes from these boats have polluted their mangroves and lakes. The locals who are employed by the Filipino tuna cannery RD Tuna Canners are paid well below the minimum wage without superannuation savings.

Similar fishery businesses are being operated in Lae and Wewak where locals are being treated as general laborers with minimum benefits to take home.

The then Somare-government’s promise to make PNG the tuna capital in the Pacific is a long way to reality and traditional owners are left to suffer as the government allows these foreign companies to play second fiddle to the locals.

After everything I’ve wrote, the very people that will be at the forefront to expose and dispose corruption in PNG are each and everyone of us people of this great nation.

We need to educate our children, our families, relatives and our communities to be open minded and have clear conscience about corrupt practices and tactics. Educate our people not to sell their land, sea and forests to investors offering millions of kinas.

PNG Government must be affirmative with locals in their stance against neocolonialism from investors who are only here to fill up their pockets and leave.

If we are serious about taking back PNG, then let’s start with Porgera and continue to all resource sectors. Revisit the Hidden Valley MoA, stop the proposed Frieda Mine in the Sepik, stop illegal logging activities in Oro and Western provinces and remove the Chinese from Basamuk.

No matter how hard it takes, I am willing to stand with my government to educate my people and send corrupt multi-corporations packing to their country. We got to stop neo-colonization.

Photo & Artwork credit: Sepik Wara Ban Frieda Mine https://www.facebook.com/pg/Sepik-Wara-Ban-Frieda-Mine

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