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I had never imagined my career as university executive would have brought me into contact with some many criminals, small and large. Here it the article in the Guardian about Rex Paki, who was undoubtedly the biggest thief and crook https://bit.ly/rexpaki

Let's hope so and we continue to believe in miracles.

Hi Terence and Okole, Thank you for writing these comments. As to the shooting of the UPNG students on 8 June 2016 with live ammunition, this was an outrage. It is a miracle nobody died, though many students were wounded by ricochet bullets. At the time I was Vice Chancellor at the PNG University of Technology, where the students were very hard to control. Thanks to the courageous visit to the campus of MetSup Wagambi Jr., we were able to contain the unrest and assure the students stayed on campus. I personally made sure the MetSup would not be attacked by the most hot headed students http://bit.ly/laetensedralbert. This is not normally part of a Vice-Chancellor's duties. In the aftermath, PM Peter O'Neill shamelessly demanded an inquiry into the student movement, while the real question of course was who had ordered the special police down to Waigani and ordered them to shoot live ammunition. Later on 25 October 2018, I was interviewed by ABC and again demanded justice for the students though an independent inquiry https://ab.co/3f3bSxB. In any normal democracy this would not be ignored. I am happy I am no longer a lonely voice in the desert. What a pity that I never received as much as a thank you for putting up with all this nonsense.

What a hoary old, facile comparison and no better than the Biman Prasad and Satish Chand efforts. A bit like Helen Hughes comparing PNG with Botswana and South Korea.

Hi Michael, Thank you for those comments. Yes I agree with you, though NEC have the prerogative to appoint Police Commissioner (and the Departmental heads). However, most of the appointees as you have pointed out in those cases clearly portray that the appointments are purposely to serve political interests and yes Political interference begins at the top.

Thank you Dr. Anouk Ride and others for the insights into the issue of GBV. I like to comment on the concept of payment of bride price vis-a-vis GBV made by Dr. Ride. I like to stress that in the traditional cultural context of Lengo society on Guadalcanal, in Solomon Islands, the payment of bride wealth by a groom's party to a bride's party not only symbolizes a bond between the groom's and bride's parties per se but also extends to assert and exert a bond between a couple requiring fidelity and obedience by wives to the authority of the husband. That is exactly the culture in Lengo society of Guadalcanal where I am from. So it's not ownership of wives as such but it's based on gendered role expecting wives to be obedient to instructions by husbands for carrying out daily activities or chores aimed at sustaining the nuclear and extended family network. The point I am making here is that, payment of bride wealth does not bind 2 parties per se but the couple for mutual understanding and support for sustainable livelihoods. Communal culture of caring and sharing (wantok system) is complimented through this practice. And I believe there is similarity across the Solomon of this cultural practice. Wives are expected to fend for extended family members of both the wife and the husband. For instance, there was a couple I know, who are not from Guadalcanal who got separated due to disobedience by the wife of this gendered expected role of caring for extended family members of the husband. As Tom (pseudo name) puts it: "My wife Anna (pseudo name) did not accept members of my family to our Honiara home claiming they are dirty and uncivilized in using modern facilities like showers and toilets." They are now separated.

An update since this article was published: Parliament was adjourned from April to August 2021, so there was no vote of no confidence. However, the opposition’s case against the adjournment, which, if ruled in their favour would cause parliament to meet again to deal with the vote of no confidence, is set for May 11. But that seems unlikely now. The Electoral Commission set the date for the issue of writs for the 2022 election as 21 April 2022. This makes April 2021 the beginning of the last 12 months before elections. The original date for the issue of writs was expected to be in July 2022, making July 2021 the first month of the last 12 months. A vote of no confidence is not possible within the last 12 months. Implication: The opposition has a case before the courts, hoping for the courts to rule the parliament adjournment in December 2020 to avoid a vote of no confidence as unconstitutional (parliament was adjourned from December 2020 to April 2021 to avoid a VONC, and again adjourned to August 2021 to avoid a VONC). The hearing for this case was set for 12 May 2021. IF the court rules in favour of the opposition, the opposition would then have moved a VONC before July 2021. But now that April 2021 is the first of last 12 months, we are already into the last 12 months, making a VONC impractical. The Electoral Commission should have left the expected schedule as it was. It does give the impression that this was done to avoid a vote of no confidence (even if that is not what triggered the change of dates). The last thing we want is for the people to lose trust in our institutions.

Congratulations to you both. Apart from police alleged to be acting on politicians’ directives, appointments to police hierarchy has been political as well: O’Neill removed Tom Kulunga for signing the warrant for his arrest. O’Neill then put Geoffrey Vaki in Kulunga’s place. Vaki prevented O’Neill’s arrest. When Vaki was embroiled in a contempt of court order (for preventing O’Neill’s arrest), O’Neill replaced him with Gary Baki. Baki then started vetting high profile cases, including warrant for O’Neill’s arrest. When O’Neill was replaced in 2019, Baki’s contract was not renewed (he was notified via WhatsApp). Manning’s appointment has been challenged in court. Police Commissioner is equivalent to Secretary for government departments. Up until this week, the requirement for such position was a tertiary qualification, which Manning didn’t have. This was successfully challenged by candidates who met the requirements but were not given the position. The government responded by abolishing the Department of Police, and the position for the Secretary for Police. Now that the position for the Secretary is removed, Manning doesn’t need a tertiary qualification to be the Police Commissioner. The NEC claimed to have acted consistently with the court’s opinion. But what the court stated was, the Department of Police was not created by law, but a 1976 gazette. So the court said if you don’t want someone with tertiary qualifications abolish the Department of Police and the Secretary’s position. At its current form, a police commissioner requires a tertiary qualification. The NEC then acted on it. Bryan Kramer argued on Facebook that the decision to abolish the Department of Police and Secretary for Police were not illegal. He’s right. But so was O’Neill's removal of police commissioners, and replacing them at will. O’Neill’s decision were not illegal. Both O’Neill and Marape have been political in their appointments of Police Commissioners. So our problem begins right at top.

Fiji needs to implement a systematic way to deal with social polarisation, including education and awareness campaigns starting from the school level. While social polarisation is only one of the reasons for Fiji’s backwardness compared to Mauritius, it’s a major reason, perhaps/arguably ‘the’ major reason. The ruling FijiFirst government has tried social cohesion through some bold initiatives, such as a common identity, ‘Fijian’ (which was not universally popular, especially among ethnic Fijians), and through electoral reforms to remove ethnic-based voting. But social polarisation based on political tensions may have increased even more in the social media era, so much needs to done to address this vexing problem wholeheartedly, in a sustained manner, given that it remains a major threat to development.

Thank you for this piece. The comparisons between Mauritius and Fiji are super interesting, not least because both countries shifted from sugar, through clothing exports, to tourism and a more diversified services sector. Both Fiji and Mauritius benefitted from preferential access to metropolitan markets for apparel exports - in Fiji's case for exports to Australia and New Zealand in the 80s and 90s and Mauritius for exports to UK and Europe. For two decades this preferential market access was a key factor in economic growth and employment in Mauritius (91,000 people were employed in the apparel/textile export industry in 1999). This no doubt contributed to domestic savings and economic diversification subsequently. Textile exports are still significant for the Mauritius economy. Of course all of the issues around governance in Fiji are extremely important, but I think a lesson here is that preferential market access can be important for small states that struggle to compete on price and volume with other states. Not advocating protectionism, but Australia can help Pacific states by offering innovative support to export industries and where possible preferential access to the Australian market. This is something we see with regard to recent labour mobility schemes for example, where 'preferential access' to Australia and NZ labour markets is increasingly important for a number of Pacific island countries. No doubt this 'preferential access' will be all the more important for island states in the COVID era.

HI Susan, I would love to discuss this with you in more detail. We have a company in Timor Leste and have lots of challenges at the moment with mobilisation

Thanks Dr Schram, ADB has offered US$100 million to reform SOEs. Let's hope this can make these companies profitable, free of political interference, and reduce the over K15 billion debt incurred, which Government has guaranteed half.