Comments

Well translated, we are very concerned that corporate social responsibility failures in PNG, like those experienced in Porgera, is where the corporate company dictates the Government of PNG. We are eager to have closer dialogue.

Thankyou Bryant for your comments. You may have misunderstood the issue of a Minister’s determination of landowner identity under the Oil & Gas Act (OGA). The Minister’s discretionary scope in this matter is in most respects tightly fettered. Especially so in regard to the identification of PDL entitled beneficiary landowners, but arguably less so in respect of representation of landowners for the purposes of a development forum (O&GA S 49 (b)). Under OGA S 176 (2) PDL benefits (royalty and equity) are payable to an MRDC created trust. Under OGA S 3 (f) the beneficiaries of the trust are (unless otherwise agreed to by the State) incorporated land groups. In this context the question of determining Huli clan membership becomes irrelevant. The relevant question is whether a Huli person is or is not a member of an ILG. This is quite easy to answer. The issue of tracing land ownership back to a long-dead apical person and basing current ownership on genealogical ‘truth’ has long been considered by the PNG courts as implausible (on evidentiary grounds) and improper on grounds that to do so is inconsistent with the PNG Constitution and Organic Laws, etc. In 2008 the Law Reform Commission re-visited this issue and strongly affirmed that - ‘The recommendations presented above to amend Section 5(2) of the Land Groups Incorporated Act are intended to inject integrity and enable the incorporation of the actual and genuine customary land owning social unit (clans, sub-clans etc) firmly planted on actual customary land which such a group owns and taking full account of actual warm bodies who are living as human beings with sufficient genealogical grounding through the requirements that one must meet before obtaining a birth certificate under the Civil Registration Act.’ (Review of Incorporated Land Groups and Design of a System of Voluntary Customary Land Registration, Final Report 5 [2008] PGCLRC 1 (1 May 2008). With regard to the issue of the Ministerial determination of entitled PDL beneficiaries the Minister must recognise those ILGs whose landownership has been determined in one way or another under the provisions of the Land Disputes Settlement Act and/or under the Land Titles Commission Act or other Court. These relevant Acts presume that ‘actual warm bodies’ who are occupying the land are the landowners. However, the issues became very murky in Hides in the 1990s as the view was put about that a ‘genealogical footprint’ would get you a project benefit. Some of this murkiness is reflected in Goldman’s 2005 account which you refer to. Here we meet ‘Zone ILGs’, a concept which was strongly repudiated by the DPE, partly because it has no basis in PNG law or policy. A mutation of this concept can be found in the idea of ‘Umbrella Groups’. These concepts and Goldman’s metaphors had the effect of boosting high-level political contestation into the arena of the PDL landownership ‘agon’ in Hela Province. Anthropologists have an unfortunate tendency to decribe land tenure in terms of social organisation (land tenure reflects social organisation and social organisation reflects land tenure, see Thomas G Harding, Encyclopedia of Papua New Guinea, 1972 pp604-610). From a pragmatic legal point of view such ideological descriptions do not deliver up the ‘warm bodies’ who actually live on the land and give their testimonies to the Land Court. Following an OGA based Minsterial determination of PDL beneficiary landowners based on SMLIS reports it remains open for any person or group to register a dispute as to customary landownership with a Land Court. Should such a dispute be registered with the Land Court (or LTC) any agreement between ILGs as to how the royalty and equity benefits accruing to PDL landowners should be shared amongst these parties is set aside until the dispute is resolved by one means or another. Broadly speaking the sharing of benefits follows from the adoption of PDL and/or Project reservoir exploitation unitisation rules which determine the quantum of benefits in relation to location. The Minister has some discretion to vary the sharing arrangements from that agreed to by the landowner ILGs. The Minister, in making a PDL landownership determination, is more or less bound to follow the advice of the public servants who administer the OGA and where the exercise of Ministerial discretion is based on policy considerations to follow any relevant decisions of the NEC. Otherwise the Minister is generally bound to make decisions that are consonant with and cognizant of the laws of PNG, including the Land Disputes Settlement Act S 67. 67. PRESUMPTION AS TO VESTING OF INTERESTS. (1) Notwithstanding any other law, proof that a party to a dispute has exercised an interest over the land the subject of the dispute for not less than 12 years without the permission, agreement or approval of any other person sets up a presumption that that interest is vested in the first-mentioned party. (2) Where a presumption is set up under Subsection (1), it may be rebutted only by evidence leading to clear proof that the interest is vested in some other person. The task of Social Mapping & Landowner Identification Studies is then quite simple, as Justice Kandakasi explained in the 2016 P’nyang Case. It’s appropriate to conclude with the words of Mr Andy Hamaga, Chairman of the Hides Development Authority as reported recently by RNZ - Mr Hamaga says deals were drawn up in 2009 with landowners for Umbrella Benefit Sharing Agreements and Licensed Area Benefit Sharing Agreements. But he said the rightful landowners were not identified at that time and now fraudulent landowners have emerged. "Unfortunately the previous government and the current government have failed to identify the landowners. So when that happened anybody from Hides and anybody from Hela and neighbouring provinces and districts, they claimed to be a landowner." For more information of the procedures, practice and jurisprudence of the Land Courts I suggest the following two case reports - Application of Tomba Emba; Re an Order dated 5 November 1985 made by The Mendi District Land Court in its Appellate Jurisdiction [1985] PGNC 4; N549 (5 November 1985) The State v Richard James Giddings, Magistrate of the District Land Court at Laiagam; Ex Parte Tiakon Koan for the Ambai Clan of Laiagam PNGLR 263 (4 June 1981) For discussion of the ‘framing of the agon’ please see - Mark Hickford "Framing and Reframing the Agōn: Contesting Narratives and Counter-Narratives on Māori Property Rights and Political Constitutionalism, 1840-1861" in Saliha Belmessous (ed) Native Claims: Indigenous Law against Empire, 1500-1920 (Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2012. Mark Hickford Lords of the Land: Indigenous Property Rights and the Jurisprudence of Empire (Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2011/2012) I find the constant reiteration of the anthropological ideology of Huli land tenure somewhat disturbing for two reasons. Firstly, I read it as in some ways an abusive attack on the legal rights of the PDL landowners who occupy, live on and use their land as the source of their life and livelihood. Secondly, I find the usual expression of this anthropological ideology to be gender biased. It seems to ignore the rights of women who work the land and produce a usufruct from this land. The idea that women are not recognised as having a customary interest in land is unlikely to attract the support of a PNG Land Court or any other tribunal. Vailala

When you fight corruption by revealing the truth you will be a victim of good things you do. Very sad day for PNG. Politicians and bureaucrats win and people lose.

Certainly an attention-grabbing title. My understanding of the author's answer is a qualified "no" - because the borders of Hela and Enga identities do not approximate the borders of an island... which makes some sense to me. (Have I understood this correctly?) However, I'd be interested in the author's perspective on whether something like an 'island' exists or could exist in many areas of the PNG mainland.. given the very limited infrastructure, it seems that access could be cut off, and isolation achieved, relatively easily. I'd also be interested in the author's perspective on how his analysis would be applied if a different answer were assumed. In other words, if major armed conflict in an area of mainland PNG emerged, what would the author's analysis say about the likely spread, scales, and boundaries of the conflict? This is an important topic to be exploring for PNG.

Thank you Kaluwin. This is a critical perspective and indeed a strong message received from those we spoke to was that there is a need for research on the perspectives of men. Apart from husbands, many people also spoke about the need to work with sons. A collective response is needed to address these issues. From a research ethics and methods perspective, this is a very sensitive issue to discuss within families and communities and care needs to be taken to minimize any potential harm, including trauma, that participants, researchers, and others might face as a result of participating in the research. In this regard, our research method was such that we focused on women. It is important to include men and this should be designed with a research method that would enable this.

Bougainville deserves to be independent for the Bougainville War is a recent issue when our demand to be independent was not addressed in the 1960's. Further, be informed the war is a just a recent issue because of the uneven distribution of wealth. You must know that Bougainville are dark skin people, by right geographically we are different. It was colonial masters the Germans who had traded our birth right. Don't compare us with the Hela people who are different people with their issues. Bougainville independence is economic independence for PNG. Please note that Bougainville lead PNG into independence. Now we want to be at peace, yes respecting our Melanesian culture.

Very interesting Tobias - and I found the background paper a useful summary of much of the literature. I have two concerns. First is that the suggested approach could be interpreted as "stability at all costs" - a very convenient refrain for tyrants. The alternative has never been just about "efficiency" and “clearer price signals and more efficient markets” - the good governance agenda was appropriately much broader and included equity and rights issues. A second concern is how to operationalise the idea given the dynamics of ‘local’ and ‘expat’ elites and even “rents” -affected by commodity price cycles, weather, health or other outside changes. The current “doing good governance politically” framework provides some guidance for engaging with these dynamics with a vision of securing peace as well as moves towards a stronger rights focus in a more equitable and wealthier community. I’m worried the new approach could just lose the vision, and without that vision, just accept a status quo. Saying that, I agree entirely that if the focus previously was just about eliminating economic rents, then that would be the wrong way to approach issues, especially in fragile states.

The former Director of Development Studies, the late Helen Hughes had a different view about increasing aid in the Pacific islands. She said that aid is bad for the Pacific. A Harvard economist Dambisa Moyo also shared similar views in terms of giving aid to Africa. Aid in PICs needs new thinking and approach. Where do we capture the voices/views of those carrying the burden and the problem? Do they also participate (and or trained to meaningfully contribute) in needs assessment and consultations.

Excellent comments and anecdotes, Sam. Cheers Rob Hickson

Thank you Matthew for the blog I hope to read more into the ethno cultural politics aspects of PNG highlands- LNG project site to understand some of your findings. The chaos and disorder in Hela is indeed related to the extractive industry and the frustration developed because of non-delivery or less than expected benefits to the landowners in various forms directly from the developer or the PNG government. With your analysis, if you dissect how ethnic group value their motherland and its resources and their generational uptake of the pros and cons, will eventually arrive at a possible conclusion of tensions as seen in Hela, Bougainville and in Guadalcanal. It is none of an individual party creation or provocation; it is all parties that perpetrate these tensions- the project developer, the host government and the landowners. As elites in PNG came to realized now, the brewing tensions in Hela and parts of neighboring Provinces is a time boom that will flare up anytime. One catalyst that likely to cause a blow up is the miseries and damages that the recent earthquake imposed on the landowners. (Some quick to allegedly blame the developer for disturbing the earth crater under Hela). Recently, a project developer blamed PNG government for not dishing out royalties while the government blamed the developer for not mapping out the landowners at the project site as per the Oil and Gas Act at the first place. However, why the government approve the license to develop the project at the first place if social mapping is a requirement by law. Let us wait and see, interesting times ahead to make a remarkable conclusion to your book…fingers crossed.

Interesting!

As Prof Howes notes: "Schram’s tenure at Unitech ended earlier this year after a falling out with the current Council. One of the disputed claims was that, according to the Council, Schram failed to provide his “verified credentials” to the University. According to Schram, he did. In any case, this allegation is quite different from the current charge of “obtaining employment by false pretence.” More generally, the Council’s statement of disassociation is consistent with the broader view that Schram’s departure from Unitech in no way provides a basis for the arrest last week."