Latest news with #IshmaelToroama
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Thomas Raivet on Bougainville's presidency: 'It's anybody's game'
Thomas Raivet has been an army colonel and was once the chief secretary in Bougainville. Photo: Facebook / Thomas Raivet RNZ Pacific has been speaking with the candidates lining up to become president of Bougainville when the autonomous region of Papua New Guinea holds its election on 4 September. Including the incumbent, Ishmael Toroama, there are seven candidates, substantially down from the 25 lining up in 2020. One candidate, Thomas Raivet, who has been an army colonel and was once the chief secretary in Bougainville, spoke with Don Wiseman, during a break from the eight week long election campaign. (This transcript haas ben edited for brevity and clarity.) Don Wiseman: You ran last time and you finished down the track, didn't you? What makes you think this time can be different? Thomas Raivet: I'm not thinking like that. It's anybody's game, as far as we are concerned here. But I'm with New Bougainville Party (NBP), and I'm running with two other running mates with me. They are senior people to me, so maybe I'm the underdog in the team. One is Joseph Lera former lecturer at the university, and the other one is Nick Peniai. We are running together on a New Bougainville Party ticket. DW: That's how the preferences would divide up between the three of you? TR: Well, the way I see it these two guys are much more senior than me, and probably it might end up with one of them. Maybe it would end up with me, but I'm not so sure about myself, but I'm running with this too. DW: Why should one of the three of you win? TR: Well, one of us, Nick, is right out from the history of the crisis. He's been there through thick and thin. And Joe Lera was the lecturer at the university. I was one of his students at one stage, and I guess I'm the younger one going with these three, so we see how it plays out. DW: But why should one of you three become president of Bougainville? What's special about you? TR: Well, the other two of my colleagues seem to have a lot in their background history, and I seem to be shallow in my history. Basically, I came from the military, and I'm trying to be part of them. DW: What would the NBP do differently in Bougainville from what has been done over the last five years? TR: Well the New Bougainville Party we believe that we can make a difference, because for the last five years, nothing has really happened here and and maybe five years ago, and maybe you go back 10 years, nothing has really happened for us. So I see this an opportunity just to be part of the development of new Bougainville, in a new way, and we hope that we can be the government in waiting. And once we take over the reins, we will progress Bougainville to some, at least to some states. DW: Yes. Well, how would you do that? TR: We think that we can redirect the vessel from here and seek a new path. DW: It's all very well to speak in those sorts of vague terms, but what are you going to do? What specifically will you do to do things differently? TR: Well, personally, I'm not in for the main thing. I'm in for agriculture and fisheries, and I want to exploit fisheries and agriculture. That's my intention of trying to get in here. I'm from an island. I'm not interested in mining, and that's why I'm interested in agriculture and fisheries. DW; Yes, well, just last week, the Chief Secretary talked about 20 exploration licences for mining on Bougainville have been lodged. So it certainly looks like there's going to be a hell of a lot of mining happening on Bougainville. TR: Probably, probably not. It depends on what government is in place. And we've learned a very good lesson from Panguna. I have just been to Panguna and came back. It is really a sore eye. We are thinking of diverting our attention to agriculture and fisheries only. That is our government in waiting. We do not know what the chief secretary told you. We have a lot of mines in Bougainville, but we have learned a good lesson from the Panguna story, the history of Panguna. Our intention as a government [is that] we do not want to get back to that kind of crisis and a lot of people in Bougainville, they support us as well. DW: You've spent quite a few weeks out there campaigning, and what have people been telling you? TR: Well, mining is not being mentioned in our campaign so far. But in South Bougainville, they are trying to go for agriculture, which is cocoa really. And in the islands, they want to go for fishery sector. It is a renewable resource where we can continue to make money without losing anything. When we get to mining, it is quite risky. We have learned a good lesson from Panguna itself, so we weighed the consequences of getting into mining and fisheries and agriculture. I think we can do better with fisheries and agriculture. So that's where this NBP is heading, and we do not know about the others. DW: Alright, so seven candidates for president, three of them from your party. How confident are you that one of you is going to become the new president? TR: I am very, very confident the way we are campaigning so far. My two senior colleagues, they have a lot behind them.
The Diplomat
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Diplomat
When Will PNG's Parliament Finally Decide Bougainville's Status?
PNG can only kick the can down the road so far. In late June, a Papua New Guinean newspaper reported the signing of a new agreement that represents 'A step closer to the Fate of Bougainville Independence.' The headline perfectly expressed what this new development signifies and what it doesn't: Bougainville is indeed one step closer to its fate, but no one knows with any certainty what that fate will be. Meanwhile, Bougainville's independence push is playing out against the backdrop of the same geopolitical competition that is gripping the rest of the Pacific, and this latest agreement was signed on the eve of Bougainville's presidential election in September. What Is the Context? Bougainville is an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea (PNG), lying to the east of the nation's mainland, and is comprised of one main island and several smaller outlying islands and atolls. It has a population of some 300,000 people, much smaller than Papua New Guinea's total population of 11 to 17 million. In 2019, Bougainville's independence referendum was a landslide in favor of new nationhood: 97 percent voted yes, with more than 85 percent turnout. The referendum was mandated by the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA), which ended a decade of civil war between PNG and Bougainville. The referendum result was no surprise. Bougainville's independence aspirations predate PNG's own independence from Australia, and over the intervening decades, Bougainvilleans have become tired of waiting. However, according to the BPA, the result of the vote must be ratified by PNG's national parliament to take effect. In 2020, former Bougainville Revolutionary Army commander Ishmael Toroama won the Bougainville presidency on the platform of delivering the region its independence. Since then, PNG and Bougainville have been involved in a series of negotiations over the referendum's outcome; the talks have often ground to a halt and have rarely produced consensus. Toroama and PNG Prime Minister James Marape concluded the latest round of negotiations at the end of June with the Melanesian Agreement. Among other things, it guarantees that PNG will bring the results of the referendum before the national parliament for a vote. The two leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to the peace process and to a continuing close relationship between PNG and Bougainville. However, the deal doesn't offer as much as it was expected to deliver or as much as it needed to deliver. PNG and Bougainville agreed last November that they wanted to reach a consensus on Bougainville's future political status before Bougainville's presidential election, and the Melanesian Agreement fell far short of that. What Happens Next? Until now, a parliamentary vote seemed like a possibility, but it was not something that Papua New Guinea had bound itself to. With this new agreement, the PNG government has formally pledged to bring the referendum result before the national parliament, yet no timeline has been announced. Other matters remain unresolved too, including whether the parliamentary vote needs a simple majority or a two-thirds majority. This has been a major point of contention between PNG and Bougainville in years past. A two-thirds threshold would make a vote in Bougainville's favor far more difficult to achieve. Meanwhile, efforts to explore compromises on Bougainville's future political status, like free association, have gone nowhere: neither side is willing to entertain them. In many ways, PNG and Bougainville remain as deadlocked as they were in 2019. The question that looms over all the others is whether PNG's parliament will ratify the referendum result and grant Bougainville its independence or not. If it does not, it raises the likelihood that Bougainville might declare independence unilaterally. The preference is 'to get independence through consensus,' said Ezekiel Massatt, Bougainville's minister for the implementation of the independence referendum, in an interview in early July. However, if PNG delays the process, Massatt said, Bougainville has 'other options' available. Bougainville's leaders, including Toroama, have been signaling for years that if PNG does not grant Bougainville its independence, the autonomous region will simply declare independence for a third time. The government has been drafting a new national constitution, which Toroama referred to last year as 'a platform that we will be using to declare Bougainville independence.' Bougainville's previous independence declarations occurred in 1975, before Papua New Guinea's own independence from Australia, and in 1990, during the civil war. Both declarations were disregarded by the international community, but that doesn't mean Bougainville won't make another attempt, especially if its avenue through the national parliament is closed for good. Toroama has set 2027 as the final deadline for Bougainville to gain independence, indicating a willingness to ignore PNG's authority if necessary. Is Bougainville Ready? Bougainville still relies on the Papua New Guinea government for the vast majority of its budget, but Massatt dismissed claims that Bougainville should meet a particular economic threshold before independence. While he believes that work on the economy must take some precedence, he does not see it as a precondition. 'We must obtain political independence in order to have some sovereign powers in order to make strategic economic decisions,' he said. 'Australia never demanded that Papua New Guinea be economically independent' before PNG's political independence in 1975, Massatt added. Wealth from the Panguna copper mine in central Bougainville bankrolled the PNG government in the early years of its independence, once making up 45 percent of national exports. Conflict over Panguna – not only the wealth that was taken from Bougainville, but also the environmental damage from the mine – would later spark the conflict that spiraled into civil war. Panguna is currently shuttered and would likely take years to reopen. Nevertheless, Toroama said in June that it is 'the key to our economic growth.' The mine is estimated to be worth more than $80 billion. Bougainville also has a large exclusive economic zone, making fisheries a potentially promising sector, although South Pacific tuna is under threat from climate change. Not everyone thinks Bougainville is prepared for independence. A senior Bougainville government official, speaking anonymously to the Guardian last month, said that independence was 'inevitable' but that Bougainville is 'nowhere near' ready. 'We want a sovereign nation that is healthy, that is viable,' said the official. The China Card As Bougainville attempts to ready itself for nationhood, the other question is foreign aid and investment. Last year, Toroama tried to garner support from the United States – unsuccessfully – and stated that he was willing to play 'the Chinese card' if other countries didn't give Bougainville the assistance it needed. China's interests in Bougainville are threefold: economic, diplomatic, and strategic. Bougainville's mineral wealth is well-established. If it becomes an independent nation, it will have another resource valuable to China: the ability to recognize Beijing over Taipei. And finally, China has a clear strategic interest in the region, including in Bougainville's neighbor, Solomon Islands. This year, a Chinese state-owned company began extending a runway not far from Panguna, while the United States has withdrawn much of its own regional engagement. Australia remains the Pacific's largest donor, and New Zealand remains an important partner, but it wouldn't be surprising if Bougainville's leaders find themselves increasingly courted by Beijing. China is unlikely to recognize Bougainville as an independent nation prematurely, but doing so also isn't necessary to pursuing its interests. All that Beijing needs to do is foster ties with Bougainville's potential future leaders. Presidential candidate Sam Kauona ran on a pro-China platform in 2020, and later insinuated that he had received campaign money from Chinese backers. Last year, he praised former Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sovagare, who signed a controversial security pact with Beijing in 2022; Kauona indicated that he would be open to a similar agreement for Bougainville if elected president. Kauona finished at an unimpressive sixth place in 2020, earning only about a third of the votes Toroama did. Thomas Raivet – a relative newcomer backed by former Bougainville president John Momis, who was well known for his openness to China – came in third place, still with just under half the votes Toroama did. Kauona, Raivet, and Toroama are once again running in the 2025 election, but so are many other candidates, and the result is anyone's guess. It remains to be seen whether incumbency will help Toroama win re-election, or hurt him. The election will occur the first week of September. Regardless of who wins, Bougainville's next president will face pressure from the electorate to deliver on the same 2027 deadline that Toroama has been promising. Whether Papua New Guinea's parliament will let that happen is another matter – as is China's potential approach to Bougainville's next leader.
RNZ News
22-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Veteran Bougainville politician wants new approach to independence and development
Joe Lera (file image) Photo: Bougainville Care Foundation A longtime Bougainville politician, Joe Lera, wants to see widespread changes in the way the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) is run. The Papua New Guinea region, which is seeking independence from Port Moresby, is holding elections in the first week of September. Seven candidates are running for president, including Lera. He held the regional seat in the PNG national parliament for ten years before resigning to contest the presidency in the 2020 election. This time around, Lera is campaigning on what he sees as faults in the approach of the Ishmael Toroama administration and told RNZ Pacific he is offering a different tack. (This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) Joe Lera: This time, people have seen that the current government is the most corrupt. They have addressed only one side of independence, which is the political side, the other two sides, They have not done it very well. Don Wiseman: What do we mean by that? We can't bandy around words like corruption. What do you mean by corruption? JL: What they have done is huge. They are putting public funds into personal members' accounts, like the constituency grant - 360,000 kina a year. DW: As someone who has operated in the national parliament, you know that that is done there as well. So it's not corrupt necessarily, is it? JL: Well, when they go into their personal account, they use it for their own family goods, and that development, it should be development funds. The people are not seeing the tangible outcomes in the number two side, which is the development side. All the roads are bad. The hospitals are now running out of drugs. Doctors are checking the patients, sending them to pharmaceutical shops to buy the medicine, because the hospitals have run out. DW: These are problems that are affecting the entire country, aren't they, and there's a shortage of money. So how would you solve it? What would you do differently? JL: We will try to make big changes in addressing sustainable development, in agriculture, fishing, forestry, so we can create jobs for the small people. Instead of talking about big, billion dollar mining projects, which will take a long time, we should start with what we already have, and develop and create opportunities for the people to be engaged in nation building through sustainable development first, then we progress into the higher billion dollar projects. Now we are going talking about mining when the people don't have opportunity and they are getting poorer and poorer. That's one area, the other area, to create change we will try to fix the government structure, from ABG to community governments to village assemblies, down to the chiefs. At the moment, the policies they have have fragmented the conduit of getting the services from the top government down to to the village people. DW: Okay, in the past, you've spoken out against the push for independence, suggesting I think, that Bougainville is not ready yet, and it should take its time. Where do you stand at the moment on the independence question? JL: The independence question? We are all for it. I'm not against it, but I'm against the process. How they are going about it. I think the answer has been already given in the Bougainville Peace Agreement, which is a joint creation between the PNG and ABG government, and the process is very clear. Now, what the current government is doing is they are going outside of the Peace Agreement, and they are trying to shortcut based on the [referendum] result. But the Peace Agreement doe not say independence will be given to us based on the result. What it says is, after we know the result, the two governments must continue to dialogue, consult each other and find ways of how to improve the economy, the law and order issues, the development issues. When we fix those, the nation building pillars, we can then apply for the ratification to take place. DW: All right, so you're talking about something that would be quite a way further down the line than what this current government is talking about? JL: The issue is timing. They are putting deadlines themselves, and they are trying to push the PNG government to swallow it. PNG government is a sovereign nation already. We should respect and honestly, in a family room situation, negotiate, talk with them, as the Peace Agreement says, and reach understanding on the timing and other related issues, but not to even take a confrontational approach, which is what they are doing now, but take a family room approach, where we sit and negotiate in the spirit of the Peace Agreement.
RNZ News
17-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Ex-rebel leader 'General' Kauona is brimming with confidence in Bougainville presidential race
The former leader of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, Sam Kauona. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Johnny Blades Sam Kauona, a former leader of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), wants to become president of the autonomous Papua New Guinea region. Bougainville is immersed in political campaigning as it prepares to choose 46 MPs from 404 candidates in elections shceduled for the first week of September. Seven people are contesting the presidency, including Kauona and his former BRA colleague, the incumbent President Ishmael Toroama. Kauona, who styles himself as 'General' Kauona, has in recent years been more focussed on developing a potential new gold mine, but now he wants the presidency. He ran unsuccessfully in 2020, but this time, he told RNZ Pacific, he is brimming with confidence. (This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) SAM KAUONA: This time, I'm going to do it. I'm going to get the seat. I'm going to win. I am confident. DON WISEMAN: Why? Given that you didn't do that well last time? SK: Because the government, for the last five years, did not achieve what Bougainvilleans, what we, wanted. They were concentrating on one option only. That's why it wasted the last five years, and we did not achieve anything. DW: And we're talking here about independence? SK: Oh yes. That's the only agenda for Bougainville - independence. There are many approaches that we can consider. One, there is an option in which we can work with Papua New Guinea, and there's an option that we negotiate. You know, it varies. So this government, they went for the option of negotiating for ratification [of the 2019 independence referendum]. They did not achieve what Bougainville wanted. DW: Well, what do you think they should have done? And what would you do? SK: Well, to me, I would go to exercising those powers and function that will make Bougainville realise its independent, meaning to say those powers and functions that concern sovereignty protection, sovereignty rights. Exercising those powers, Bougainville can be able to reach her destiny by exercising the powers of foreign affairs, currency, number two and number three, exercising the powers to protect ourselves - security, defence. In the Peace Process, those powers and functions were reserved for Papua New Guinea. We were not independent at that time, but after the referendum, people voted not for autonomy to be with Papua New Guinea, but they voted to become independent, on their own, exercising the sovereign right. It means that with the referendum achieving independence, the door to exercising those rights, sovereign rights, was open. It was open. It was closed during the peace process, when it was open, we should have put into policies necessary functions. For example, the defence. You see Bougainville is not protected. We are not protected at this point of time, there is fatal incidents happening south to north. We need to exercise the power of security - establishing defence, establishing police powers and functions, protecting our people, our natural resources, our sea boundaries. Of course, whatever we do, we have to consult with Papua New Guinea and establish those functions. Currency, [is] another function that we should be able to now establish our own banks [and] currency, so that we can be able to achieve the level of independence. DW: So you're not talking about making a unilateral declaration or anything like that. You're still talking about negotiating a solution with Port Moresby? SK: Not negotiating, but coming up with a plan, a strategy, that will accommodate Papua New Guinea to participate. When accommodating Papua New Guinea, we need to see Papua New Guinea we are on one side. There is still a common enemy out there: BCL, CRA, Rio Tinto using the system, and then they subjugated us with all their systems, the laws. And here, when we come up with a plan of exercising our rights, Papua New Guinea is part and parcel of that. We need to compensate Papua New Guinea. We need to support Papua New Guinea, also in the economy which, which was incurred during the crisis conflict. They borrowed so much funding, so we should be sharing. DW: What you're talking about, still, is negotiation, isn't it? Bougainville can't do these things you're talking about unless it reaches some sort of a deal with Papua New Guinea, and it's going to need the money. SK: Correct. We need money. Bougainville is full of resources. We are rich in natural resources. But how we manage our resources is a different dimension this time. Before, we were under all those colonial laws, and when we are free now we should be able to come up with the laws to protect our natural resources and use it wisely, together with whoever invests, that comes in. But here, I'm trying to say, not so much negotiation, but it's a plan that Bougainville needs to do. The plan is to be user friendly with Papua New Guinea. And of course, for us, we have won it. We have won the political battle. We need to set away. We need to have a compass that we need to navigate with, and that compass, we Bougainvilleans, we have it in our hands, and that has to be a user friendly direction that we close out. Papua New Guinea will have to be drawn in, we have to participate in that, yes, to a level, it is negotiating, but it is like, you know, we have to lead the way. We have to come up with a plan [that's] user friendly. Not just for Papua New Guinea, let me say that. It is friendly to our Pacific countries, our neighbours, Australia, New Zealand. In terms of security, we will have to make sure that we secure our region together, not just Bougainville, together with the countries that are around us. That's why we need a defence force that is not really big, but enough to protect its internal affairs, internal issues.
RNZ News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Bougainville election: More than 400 candidates vie for parliament
Voting is to start on 2 September, finishing a week later - depending on the weather. Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades More than 400 candidates have put their hands up to contest the Bougainville general election in September, hoping to enter parliament. Incumbent President Ishmael Toroama is among the 404 people lining up to win a seat. Bougainville is involved in the process of achieving independence from Papua New Guinea - an issue expected to dominate campaigning, which lasts until the beginning of September. Voting is scheduled to start on 2 September, finishing a week later, depending on the weather. Seven candidates - all men - are contesting the Bougainville presidency. This number is down from when 25 people stood, including two women. Photo: Supplied/ FB -Autonomous Bougainville Government Toroama is seeking a second term and is being challenged by his former colleague in the leadership of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, Sam Kauona. Kauona is one of several contesting a second time, along with Thomas Raivet and a former holder of the Bougainville Regional Seat in the PNG parliament, Joe Lera. There are 46 seats to be decided, including six new constituencies. Two seats will have 21 candidates: the northern seat of Peit and the Ex-Combatants constituency. Several other constituencies - Haku, Tsitalato, Taonita Tinputz, Taonita Teop, Rau, and Kokoda - also have high numbers of candidates.
