Comments

Wondering what is the latest update on this? This is interesting to every Pacific Islanders.

Thanks Nemos, I'm not sure if I agree with every item on your list. But I think your broader point is very interesting, and an excellent starting point for discussion about how PNG might radically change democratic governance to fit the country's context. Thanks again Terence

Namos, I agree with your ideas. As you point out communities are the bedrock of PNG society, each with their own culture, governance, land and identity, but this is not taken into account by the existing system even if it claims to do so. The system as it stands sets out to tackle the big picture matters that concern integration with the international system. Think banking, trade, business, taxation, air traffic rules where everybody conforms to a westernised system. The focus upon domestic nation building for your communities, clans and tribes has been quite forgotten in the process. Their needs have simply been ignored with the result that a nation of predominantly young people under the age of 25 are clamouring for change by whatever means – fair or foul. I think that there is an urgent need to place a major focus on this demographic before law-and-order issues render parts of the nation ungovernable and threaten to fracture it. The sense of disempowerment, frustration and abandonment by the present system is palpable and at times overpowering. The system has failed communities and this cannot be permitted to continue. As you suggest the missing piece of the puzzle is a mechanism to ensure that communities, who are the key stakeholders in nation building are consulted on what they expect from their representatives by way of health, education, infrastructure, economic opportunity and employment. An appropriate system would by more equitable and enable communities to be active participants in discussing and creating the futures they want for themselves and their children. Presently it does neither. As you near your 50th independence anniversary, there is a need for young people to band together and lead a political conversation about what type of society has been created for them. Has it benefited them in the manner your founding fathers had hoped for as they expressed in your constitution. If not, what adjustments need to be made as you advance into the next 50 years that this generation will live through. Remember that you get the leaders you vote for. A conversation about what the future for the 85 percent who live on their traditional land should look like and what type of representatives might deliver that vision, might be a place to start.

Thanks Terrence You do have a valid point. I am just suggesting if the government can formulate a contextualization model of governance that can be adequate to our society or try to formulate ethical principles that contributes towards the simplicity of development in the cultural context. I think that most of the laws that governs the implication of service delivery is more western. However, if we carefully understand the principle of delivering service in relation towards Melanesian perspective for example; * The system of reciprocity * Hospitality * Usage of traditional remedy to cure illnesses * Traditional understanding of Manhood and Womanhood * Strict discipline and punishment to law breakers * Most importantly respect to others in the society There are more values to be added however the government is now focusing on major impact projects that develops more laws to protect its primary obligation without thinking of the basic systems that can produce transformative development in lives of the people holistically.

Hi, I am Tony Iroga, I am doing research on data unemployment at Solomon islands national university. Please if could give me data from 2010 to 2023 in Solomon islands.

Thanks Namos, Good comment. It is certainly worth thinking about how traditional systems could be used to foster better governance in PNG. The challenges that I think the country might face in doing this would be: (1) The diversity of traditional systems in the country. (2) Using traditional systems at a completely different level (the nation state, not the community). (3) Using traditional systems in a new more context with today's challenges. In raising these challenges, I am not arguing that traditional systems cannot help. But I think that it will be important to think about how they need to be adapted, if they are to be used. Thanks again for your comment. Terence

Thank you Adam, My preference would be an aid budget that funded spending for genuinely help people. This would be inline with most Australians' understandings of why Australia gives aid, and inline with most Australians' preferences for what aid should be focused on. The task of buying the loyalties of recalcitrant developing country politicians or whatever could be funded from the ever-growing military budget. Calling it soft power would be a great term (given that power is what the military is all about). The funding could be subject to genuine cost benefit analysis, and the traded off against more subs or whatever. Terence

Thanks for your reflections, and for the affirmation of Peter's contributions. I remember him as deeply interested in those around him, to help them maximise their potential, be they students in Java, staff at international institutions, or old friends who had long since retired. I was a beneficiary of this approach to life. I remember too the long-term commitment to building better institutions, to enable the building of a better world, where all could reach their potential. These two areas of focus were linked - he worked at the macro and micro level, in the interests of those whom he engaged with and of a more just world. Vale and thank you, Peter. RIP.

Hi' I think that our government needs to really consider the fact that we are Melanesians, hence our way of life is totally different from any other nations in the world we should be proud of our unique qualities and values that determine how we live. The point of why I am making this statement is that our values that upholds the society is not like before. We have been subjected to the influence of others who try to redirect our focus and formulate a different identity in us. We are Melanesian therefore our government system should be the product of our ethical values which have been governing our society for thousands of years. Therefore if we capture the essence of what actually governed our society in the past than we will be able to see improvement in service delivery otherwise we will still encounter problem in our government system in relation towards service delivery. For example; We had traditional political systems We had traditional economic systems We had traditional ethics that defines individual morality We had a policing system that was very effective Hence, we need to reconsider everything in relation to how we define governance in our society. By saying all this, I am not trying to bring us back to the stone age but just to give us some clear thought to consider who we really are. WE ARE MELANESIANS...

Hi MC & Alyssia Thanks for posting an interesting update from one of the most powerful entity in our nation that mainly deals with the regulatory and monitoring systems that governs the economic sector of our nation. However, the fact of the matter is that many of our people who are affected by this major booming extractive industries are not sure about that actual realities that are happening up there. My point is that such vital information must somehow reach the people so that they can understand what is going on. Main stream media such as post courier, nationals, and other agency do provide information do have its limitations. However, do the people in the remote part of this nation understand what is going on with the outcome of their resource in a bigger scale? What are some possible solutions to educate our people about this changes?

Yes, one instrument and multiple targets (some implicit) is a recipe for not knowing what to do (or what you achieved). Yet in voter's minds "aid" is still about directly helping poor people. Do we need a new nomenclature? What is an acceptable synonym for "soft power investments"?

Hi Priya, There have been some interesting developments and we'll post an update soon.