Comments

Thank you for this article. Five years ago, La'o Hamutuk wrote a brief report on street vendors in Timor-Leste. Although we didn't look into those who mainly sell pulsa, some of the information may be of interest: https://www.laohamutuk.org/misc/vendors/16StreetVendors.htm

Ron May, a towering figure whose intellect many of us have benefited from and many more will into the future. Thank you for your distinguished service to PNG and the Pacific at large.

Loved reading this Ron. A story better than fiction, and what a privilege to having known you and Patricia for the past two decades. Hope you continue to research and write about PNG and Australia.

Thanks Amanda. Very excited to dive into your research. Thanks Roy for your comments!

It's brought heartbreak for the Pacific and Timor-Leste.

Fabulous and fascinating insights. Thank you Aashna for sharing. Also Amanda for the above link.

Thank you for this fascinating insight into the life of a mobile phone credit salesperson in Timor-Leste. You may be interested in the experiences of similar informal economy actors in nearby Papua New Guinea. The film 'Mobail Goroka' is about the informal economy related to mobile phones in a highlands town and it is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYuPxueHGoU Amanda

Good to see some research on this - resonates strongly with a short piece I wrote in 2015 on exactly this: https://www.dailypost.vu/news/working-together-to-make-work-better/article_cd676da4-43e6-5126-94e8-ff52742b5007.html

Very helpful and interesting.

I think culture is the main influence behind the less or no women representatives in the Parliament. It is in our cultural system that men are the leaders in everything, from the family to the political environment. With this thought, or I should say a norm in our society, it also has a strong influence on the voters choices which is manifested in the elections results. Of course women have the same opportunities, rights and freedom, but its the strong culture that acts as a blockage to what should be done. Therefore, the people should be educated on this as they are the power to put women representatives in the parliament.

Thanks Michael. I know the revised OLIPPAC was a stretch, but at least it highlights the need for more female candidates. And you're right, the Party Registry has failed, particularly with reimbursing 10% of female campaign finances. If the quota is introduced, the party registry will have more of a load.

Hi Maho, another great piece. The unfortunate thing with the revised OLIPPAC is, it also seeks to force smaller parties (with less than 5 MPs I think) to merge. The problem is, there are many parties with less than 5 MPs, including one man parties like Bryan Kramer and Garry Juffa. And they love their one-man parties. So even the coalition of MPs who are supporting the reversed seats like Gary Juffa may not support the revised OLIPPAC because it will work against them. To get the 20% female endorsement by parties, they will have to remove the merger provisions for smaller parties. In its current form, I don’t think it’s getting through parliament. Second, PNG political parties usually recruit and endorse candidates with great chances of winning, including the few female candidates that they endorse. So the question will be: if they don’t find 20% female candidates with a winning chance to endorse, and therefore endorse less than 20%, how will these parties be held to account? Will there be penalties for parties that fail to endorse at least 20% female candidates? Past experiences show parties were never held to account, eg. MPs not voting together with their party resolutions (which were not allowed under OLIPPAC before these provisions were ruled unconstitutional in 2010). We are just complicating simple things. The 22 reserved seats are already provided for in the constitution, all they need is to pass an enabling legislation and implement it. It’s a temporary special measure.