Comments

Indeed the government needs to make tough decisions. It really needs to consult the senior bureaucrats and the advisers to obtain valuable higher level advice and be willing to work within the parameter of the advice they provide. If it has been paying no attention to their advice in the previous years decisions then it's time now that they rethink this strategy and capture the advice and comments to make better decisions for the nation.

Ok. If bribery and bullying are the way to go in demonstrating political mastery. Then I guess you’re right. It is well known that the price of Political Mastery is K10-K15 million in DSIP and related funds per year, per pollie and … yes … if you sit in the opposition your chances are somewhat diminished in getting anything at all with which to help along your re-election. So, yes again, not a popular seat. Politics without Principle was one of the deadly sins leading to downfall for a nation according to Ghandi. Not to mention Wealth without Work and Commerce without Ethics. I guess things have changed and now these outcomes are worthy of respect in PNG, even by academia. Bribing the pollies with the parallel govt. system of DSIP and the populous with handouts and confusing and badly thought out free education and health policies is not too hard if you have your hands on the public purse and feel like throwing out lollies. No-one (who counts) will argue. Ensuring the political appointment of heads of the public service, I guess, is another recent stroke of mastery. That potential source of free and fair advice and leadership is now also no threat to political agendas. Disbanding Task Force Sweep and the steady weakening of the “justice” system also brilliant, I suppose. There are very few checks and balances left. Rumours in the media suggest the existence of the Ombudsman Commission is even threatened. Unbelievable. I wonder how the economic and social dynamics of seeds that have being planted in recent years will pan out in future years. Cartels and cronyism are the name of the game and will be a bigger problem than blatant corruption. It would be an interesting social exercise to trace the connections between the “successful” businesses around the country, the boards of statutory bodies (from the Bank of PNG down) and their relationships to political personalities. Businesses are not thriving through innovation, competitiveness, quality and value for money. They are growing through political patronage, being in the in-crowd and their growing wealth and emerging family dynasties a la Indonesia and the Philippines are funded through public funds. Even through overseas development funds in many instances. Projects to award, materials for schools and health facilities, scholarships for higher education students … the funds for these are now often in the hands or under the influence of the pollies and their “executive officers” instead of strong public systems. So those who care about social justice are not only challenged to ensure the “poor” have the same opportunity as “the rich” … we have the added complication of the politically marginalised. Happy days for the cronies, their families and employees - but not a recipe for a healthy economy or society. At least, not when I went to school. One thing observers, commentators and even the politicians themselves seem to forget is that this current government is not a new government. The faces around the table making the decisions are mostly those that were in past governments. It’s just a game of musical chairs. I guess I’ll go now and start teaching my kids how to really get ahead in this world. Thanks for the lesson.

Thanks Tess, that's a good point. And, to be clear, I'm not being critical of established NGOs or donors, but rather what appears to be an influx of well-intended new arrivals who are making everyone else's job more difficult.

Thanks Marianne, there is indeed a big job ahead but I am advised that the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. If and when I get 10 uninterrupted minutes I will try to put down on paper some further thinking on the issue of resilience as it manifests itself in many forms.

Thanks for this Terence, it raises an important point. The government of Vanuatu has subsequently made it clear that Mr Shing's comments were indeed aimed at the influx of donor agencies, NGOs, etc who had commenced work without coordinating their efforts through the Vanuatu Humanitarian Team (VHT), which is a network of NGOs and other agencies who have invested in supporting the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) for more than 3 years. They are working to support the government (via the NDMO) including by providing coordination of those agencies who do not have the benefit of the established networks and access to local knowledge that the VHT draws on.

Dear Tess, thank you for this wonderful representation of local resilience. The research repeatedly shows local responses as critical and usually overlooked post-disaster. The question for international responders is: "how can we support local capacity, how can we build on what they know, how can we learn from them". As a small child growing up in Vanuatu and enduring many cyclones, I saw this again and again - communities rebuild, even from apparently nothing. You sound chipper, and I know there is a lot of more to be done and to process yet. A big hug. xx

Thanks Bob and Joel, The 'tyranny of the measurable' is indeed a dilemma for someone such as myself who also applauds the virtues of evidence-based policy decision making. Good public policy and governance should be driven by evidence, and hard numbers tend to drive out "soft" information. Joel highlights how this may affect education sector funding relative to health funding. This is even more the case for governance activities. These are very difficult to measure - although the World Bank at least makes an effort through its support for worldwide governance indicators. Time scales are very long - well beyond a usual election cycle, especially if trying to measure sustainable reform. In addition, there are real differences as to what is regarded as a success in the governance sector (for example, whether creating statutory authorities in PNG for immigration and taxation is a positive governance outcome or not). A third issue in the 'tyranny of the measurable' is that even when there is information on "measurable wins", it often cannot be released in public. Some of the best contributions from advisers working in the governance sector cannot be revealed as they could break the secrecy provisions of another sovereign country (this would be the same issue for any foreign adviser working in Australia on issues that went to the Australian Cabinet). I will do a blog on these issues in the context of PNG and the governance sector in coming weeks.

O'Neill has mastered the art of diverting attention all the time. When he is allegation against him/his government for being corruption he quickly comes up with some mega development strategy or major changes in government or policy shift to quickly divert attention. O'Neill is also very luck the PNG politics is heavily based on personality and tribalism. People vote you because of personality and because the tribe is satisfied that you are the best person to represent them, No emphasis is placed on your person integrity, morals, or honesty. That is for PNG to worry about, not your tribe. On a national scale, he can't be removed as a leader because he has the power of influence over his tribe/clansman as the best person to represent them. The only way to get rid of this controversial politician is by the laws of this country. We have to enforce the laws without fear or favour to ensure O'Neill is removed from Parliament and PNG politics for good. It would take a selfless Chief Ombudsman, Public Prosecutor, Police Commissioner and the rest of PNG to apply enough pressure on O'Neill to make him succumb.

Dear Bob, Thanks so much for this piece. Wonderful to hear. I have long wondered how and why education aid funding paled in comparison to global health funding. And I think you are right about the measurability aspect. I would also argue that the elements of global health that people like to fund are acute and finite - "people diagnosed", "treatments provided". While good, quality education is a multi-year, multi-faceted endeavour. I was discussing this with students in class last week - in education, we like to measure enrolment (ie. see the MDG report which reports on enrolments rates) but we don't measure completion or, even more importantly, quality nearly as much. On a slight tangent, I think this is part of the reason why health systems are often seen as too hard to support. We like supporting polio eradication or malaria elimination because they are finite. But supporting a health system is a long-term complex endeavour with uncertain outcomes. All the more reason for long-term predictable aid - something that seems to be eluding us at present. All the best, Joel

Satish, I drink kava pretty much every evening and agree with you about its importance - but it tastes foul, even after 18 years - come visit us soon and we will have a shell!

Any discussion that blatantly glosses over O'Neill's corruption, as this one does, is a worthless discussion. This is a gross insult to all those individuals, institutions and organisations that are fighting the overwhelming evil of corruption in PNG.

Tess, thanks for this update. We have many friends and relatives in Vanuatu and our thoughts and prayers are with them. The ni-Vans will bounce back: wait just six months to see the return of the food, the festivities, and the lush bush that you miss now. My lone qualm with your story is the claim that kava is "the most foul tasting substance you would ever voluntarily put in your mouth". I drink kava every week, Vanuatu kava is the best around (hard for a Fijian to admit though), and I pay good money for the product. And the drink is desperately needed to soothe the pains of Pam right now - taki!