Latest news with #PapuaNewGuinean
Otago Daily Times
14-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Citizens embrace NZ, the cold
New New Zealand citizen Samyuktha Venkataraman flanked by her friends Fajar Zeeshan (left) and Siya Pathak at the citizenship ceremony in Dunedin yesterday. Photo: Gregor Richardson The Ganaii family are happy to accept Dunedin's cooler climate in exchange for the many opportunities the city has provided them. The Papua New Guinean family of three received their citizenship and made Dunedin their permanent home at a ceremony in the Fullword room of the town hall yesterday afternoon. Nembeka Ganaii said she missed the sweltering temperatures back home but was getting used to the cold southerlies in Dunedin. "When we're in jackets it's just normal." Her husband, Francis, moved to Dunedin in 2016 to work as an underground surveyor for OceanaGold. He had heard lots of good things about New Zealand and was looking forward to working here. "I really wanted to come over and took the opportunity when it was given to me." It took a little bit of adjustment to get used to the New Zealand lifestyle. "It's different from where I come from but I see that it's a friendly place to live and good for my family." Mr Ganaii wanted his son to grow up in Dunedin. It meant a lot for him and his family to receive citizenship. "It gives us a new perspective on life." Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich oversaw the ceremony. New citizens: Ibrahim Abdo Sayed (Sudan), Laila Hachchane (Morocco), Amber Huang Adams (Taiwan), Racha Ibrahim Aljomaa (Syria), Hans Almore (Saudi Arabia), Issa Alsharif (United Arab Emirates), Nikhil Mahindranath Ambalathankandy (India), Nipra Nitant Chavan (India), Mariya Joseph Arackathara (India), Digin Johnson (India), John Mathew Chakkiath (India), Leslie Jeyapalan Ayathuray (Singapore), Susanne Bernard-Kwak (Germany), Nemi Kelea Breitbarth (New Zealand), Eike Breitbarth (Germany), Linn Jutta Hoffmann (Germany), CL Claridge (Australia), Jonathan Michael Comben (United Kingdom), Claire Concannon (Ireland), Nedal Ebrahim (Syria), Ebtesam Saleh (Syria), Nembeka Mauri Ganaii (Papua New Guinea), Garthruth Ganaii (Papua New Guinea), Francis Douglas Ganaii (Papua New Guinea), Yoshi Senoran Geerlofs (Philippines), Karimeh Gholami (Afghanistan), Amir Hossain Rasoli (Iran), Sarah Daniela Helena Herridge (Germany), Markus Hilbring (Germany), Christine Verena Nock (Germany), Tanyapath Hongsuwankul (Thailand), Nicholas Horlacher (Germany), Chia-Tzu Hsu (Taiwan), Rebecca Hughes (UK), David Jason Kelbe (United States), Xabier Mikel Koskuba (Australia), Hannah Lucy Lane (UK), Jacob Morgan Lane (UK), Linto Lawrence (United Arab Emirates), Annon Linto (India), Josmy Linto (India), Emilie Germaine Nicole Lilley (France), Pamela Kristine Hoseña Mangila (Philippines), Amiel Manalo Mangila (Philippines), Dominique Ann Mans (South Africa), Nicholas Mans (South Africa), Michelle Gadi Montalban (Philippines), George Huelar Montalban (Philippines), George II Gadi Montalban (Philippines), Serenity Reign Gadi Montalban (Philippines), Christopher James Moore (UK), Nuntida Mungsan (Thailand), Daniel Lincoln Murphy (UK), Marilyn Palattao Pagaduan (Philippines), Thanongsak Panthasuep (Thailand), Siriporn Pattanasilaporn (Thailand), Shaynal Krishneel Prasad (Fiji), Pedro Ribaya Remoto (Philippines), Chawee Sammons (Thailand), Tristan Peter Sammons (UK), Lillian Louise Scott (US), Hardeep Singh (India), Myles William Hurst Smith (Australia), Tilly Harriet Surrey (England), Kerry Louise Taylor (Wales), Pasepa Veilofia (Tonga), Samyuktha Venkataraman (India), Ramon Ocampo Villanueva (Philippines), Alysse Hannah Vincent (US), Kyle Feng Xue (China).
ABC News
03-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
New security treaty expected to allow PNG soldiers to join the Australian Defence Force
The three years Papua New Guinean soldier Derek Levi spent seconded with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) were some of the best of his life. "Australia felt like a second home. I never got homesick and the standard of employment was the pinnacle of what I saw," he said. These days he's back in PNG commanding an engineer battalion in the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF). Derek Levy was seconded in Australia for three years between 2021-23 as an instructor at the School of Military Engineering in Sydney. ( Supplied: Derek Levy ) But like many in the PNGDF, he wonders if his next posting to Australia might be permanent, as Australia and PNG prepare to begin work on a new defence treaty, It follows the release of the ADF's workforce plan last year, which pledged to explore recruiting non-Australian citizens from the Pacific. Experts say opening the door to Pacific recruits would strengthen Australia's relationship with our closest neighbours, beef up security in the region, and potentially pave the way for a new Australian fighting force, similar to the Gurkha in the British Army. ADF recruitment woes PNG officials say Australia has indicated it needs thousands of Papua New Guineans to join the ADF. Australia aims to grow the number of ADF personnel to 80,000 by 2040, however it's not on track to meet that target. A Senate hearing last year was told the military was 7 per cent under strength, or about 4,000 personnel below where it needs to be. Mr Levi said there would be countless Papua New Guineans willing to serve Australia if given the chance. "They [Australia] would get overwhelming applicants," he said. "It would be an employment opportunity with the pride of wearing a uniform. "That's the opposite of the ADF right now, where the young generation (of Australians) don't want to join the army. For us it's different. We do it for the loyalty." Members of the Australian Army and Papua New Guinea Defence Force training together in Wewak on the north coast of PNG. ( Supplied: Australian Army/3rd Brigade ) It's often been reported that young Australians are turning away from the uniform due to cultural and moral reasons. However, Jennifer Parker, an expert associate at the Australian National University's National Security College, said this was a simplistic narrative. She said pinning the ADF's recruitment shortfall solely on young people's values was assumptive because the ADF doesn't release the number of yearly applicants it received. Jen Parker is a an expert associate at the Australian National University's National Security College. ( Supplied ) She said the bigger issue was the ADF's recruitment process, which "It is multifaceted, but we do have evidence from Veterans' Affairs Minister Matt Keogh himself saying it takes 300 days to get people through the door," she said. "That's too long, so I think that is the major issue Defence needs to address." Green light, just a matter of time As for whether PNG recruitment will get approved, she believed a green light was imminent, particularly if Labor was elected back into government. She supports the idea in theory, however she said drafting a recruitment policy would need to be done carefully to avoid issues around brain drain, citizenship and potential pay gaps between Australian and Pacific recruits. She said a hybrid system where Pacific soldiers operated in their own units but under an ADF banner might be the best bet. Papua New Guinea Defence Force members conduct assault exercises as part of Exercise Wantok in 2024. ( Supplied: Australian Army/3rd Brigade ) " I think the focus should be on recruiting units as opposed to individuals with a policy that if they serve in Australia, they return home after service," she said. "Taking highly educated people away from their country can have negative implications, and a difference in pay and standards between the ADF and PNGDF members could create a bad culture." Ultimately, Ms Parker said the initiative was more about strengthening security partnerships than filling holes in the ADF and did not foresee large numbers of PNG recruits being admitted. Photo shows An Australian Army major gives orders to his soldiers who are assembled outside in full combat gear The government says more personnel are needed to operate new military capability, including promised nuclear-powered submarines and missile systems. But defence insiders doubt the ADF will be able to attract the numbers needed. Constitutional amendments may be required to change rules that require foreign recruits to apply for Australian citizenship within 90 days of joining the ADF. However, PNG's Defence Minister Billy Joseph told the ABC last month the impetus to move forward with the plan was strong. "We have a huge youth bulge below the age of 25 and we see the need for us to find employment, jobs and to upskill them so they come back and serve our country later," he said. Back in Australia meanwhile, a detailed recruitment strategy has already been floated. The top 1 per cent Ross Thompson is the the chief executive of Australian labour hire firm PeopleIN. His firm recruits Pacific Islanders as part of the government's seasonal work program, known as the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme. In his younger years, he was a British Army officer in the Queen's Gurkha Engineers. Ross Thompson (left) was a former British Army officer. ( Supplied ) The brigade of Gurkha is made up of soldiers from Nepal and has been part of the British Army for 200 years. They are considered some of the finest and most fearsome soldiers in the world, and Mr Thompson said they offered a blueprint which could be used to recruit soldiers from PNG. "Around 25,000 people apply every year in Nepal for a position in the Gurkhas, and they only take 1 per cent," he said. Mr Thompson's firm presented a strategy based on the Gurkha model to government officials last year. The proposal offered a detailed selection process to fill areas of need for the ADF. "We have 6,000 workers on the (PALM) scheme, so part of this proposal is taking lessons we've learnt over the years, and the other element is my experience in the Queen's Gurkha Engineers, where I was exposed to the recruitment process," he said. "You would have an initial registration, then a selection process with the regions of PNG, and then cut that down to a final stage selection that would be in Port Moresby. "Each stage would have a fitness, medical and aptitude element, and the aptitude element would get tied back to the gaps in the ADF and the roles it needs to fill," he said. A Nepalese Gurkha on a training exercise in New Zealand's South Island's Buller and Tekapo regions. ( Supplied: New Zealand Army ) Mr Thompson said his firm's data suggested PNG had enough skilled individuals to meet the ADF's selection criteria. However, Ms Parker said training pathways would still need to be put in place to bridge education gaps. This is another area where the ADF has shown a reluctance to budge on. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute wrote in February the ADF needed to lower its recruitment standards, saying many Australians who fought and died in World War I and II would have been rejected by today's ADF. However Neil James, executive director at the Australia Defence Association, said there was a deeper question Australia needed to answer before it started recruiting Pacific Islanders into the ADF — why do we need the help of foreigners in the first place? The moral dilemma The idea of Pacific Islanders joining the ADF is not new, according to Mr James. In fact, two Pacific battalions served in the Australian armed forces up until 1975 when PNG gained independence from Australia. He said he can't foresee any model that would work legally without a path to citizenship, which the UK's Gurkha program provides. However a model similar to the Gurkha one raised ethical questions. "One of the arguments we've often heard is that these young, fit Pacific Islanders come from warrior cultures and it's natural to recruit them into our army," he said. " But we've always been very uncomfortable with that because it's a racial assumption. " He said the deeper question was why can't Australians do it? "If your own citizens won't join your own defence force, there's a moral question everyone needs to start asking as opposed to looking for a quick-fix solution to recruit South Pacific Islanders," he said. The ABC has approached the ADF for comment.
Scoop
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Bougainville Takes The Initiative In Independence Mediation
Article – RNZ While Papua New Guinea and Bougainville continue the mediation process over the region's desire for independence, Bougainville's leaders are separately laying down markers of what they are expecting. Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific Senior Journalist In recent weeks, Bougainville has taken the initiative, boldly stating that it expects to be independent by 1 September 2027. It also expects the PNG parliament to quickly ratify the 2019 referendum, in which an overwhelming majority of Bougainvilleans supported independence. In a third move, it established a Constitution Commission and included it within the region's autonomous parliament. To learn more, RNZ Pacific spoke with Australian National University academic Thiago Oppermann, who has spent many years in both Bougainville and PNG. (The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) Don Wiseman: We've had five-and-a-half years since the Bougainville referendum, but very suddenly in the last couple of months, it would seem that Bougainville is picking up pace and trying to really make some progress with this march towards independence, as they see it. Are they overplaying their hand? Thiago Oppermann: I do not believe that they are overplaying their hand. I think that the impression that is apparent of a sudden flurry of activity, arises partly because for the first two years after the referendum, there was a very slow pace. One of the shortcomings of the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) was that it did not set out a very clear post-referendum path. That part of the process was not as well designed as the parts leading to the referendum, and that left a great deal of uncertainty as to how to structure negotiations, how things should be conducted, and quite substantial differences in the views of the Papua New Guinean government and the ABG (Autonomous Bougainville Government), as to how the referendum result would be processed further. For instance, how it would it need to be tabled in parliament, what kind of vote would be required for it, would a negotiation between the parties lead to an agreement that then is presented to the parliament, and how would that negotiation work? All these areas, they were not prescriptive, in the BPA. That led to a period of a good two years in which there was very slow process and then attempts to get some some movement. I would say that in that period, the views of the Bougainvilleans and the Papua New Guineans became quite entrenched in quite different camps, and something I think would have to give eventually. Why the Bougainvilleans have moved towards this point now, I think that it bears pointing out that there has been a long process that has been unfolding, for more than two years now, of beginning the organic process of developing a Bougainvillean constitutional process with this constitutional development committees across the island doing a lot of work, and that has now borne fruit, is how I would describe it. It happens at a point where the process has been unblocked by the appointment of Sir Jerry Mataparae, which I think sets a new vigour into the process. It looks now like it's heading towards some form of outcome. And that being the case, the Bougainvilleans have made their position quite clear. DW: Well, Bougainville, in fact, is saying it will be independent by 1st September 2027. How likely do you think that is? TO: I think there's a question that comes before that. When Bougainville says that they will be independent by such a date, what we need to first consider is that the process of mediation is still unfolding. I think that the first thing to consider is, what would that independence look like, and what scope is there within the mediation for finding some compromise that still suits Papua New Guinea. I think that there's a much greater range of outcomes than people realise within this sort of umbrella of independence, the Bougainvilleans themselves, have moved to a position of understanding independence in much more nuanced terms than previously. You might imagine that in the aftermath of this fairly brutal and bitter civil conflict, the idea of independence at that time was quite a radical cut towards 'full bruk loose' as they say. But the reality is that for many post colonial and new states since World War Two, there are many different kinds of independence and the degree to which there remains a kind of attachment with or relationship with the so called parent colonial country is variable, I should add. I do not want to digress too much, but this concept of the parent colonial country is something that I heard quite a lot of when I was studying the referendum itself. Many people would say that the relationship that they had to Papua New Guinea was not one of enmity or of like running away, it was more a question of there being a parent and Bougainville having now grown up to the point where the child, Bougainville, is ready to go off and set up its own house. Many people thought of it in those terms. Now I think that in concrete terms that can be articulated in many different ways when we think about international law and the status of different sovereign nations around the world. DW: If we can just look at some of the possibilities in terms of the way in which this independence might be interpreted. My understanding is, for Bougainville it's vital that they have a degree of sovereignty that will allow them to join organisations like the United Nations, but they're not necessarily looking to be fully independent of PNG. TO: Yes, I think that there would be like a process underway in Bougainville for understanding what that would look like. There are certainly people who would have a view that is still more firmly towards full independence. And there will be others who understand some type of free association arrangements or something that still retains a closer relationship with Papua New Guinea. I do not think many people have illusions that Bougainville could, for instance, suddenly break loose of the very deep economic connections it has with Papua New Guinea, not only those of government funding, but the commercial connections which are very, very deep. So suddenly making that disappear is not something people believe it's possible. But there are many other options that are on the table. I think what Bougainville is doing by having the announcement of the Independence Day is setting for Papua New Guinea saying, like, 'here is the terms of the debate that we are prepared to consider'. But within that there is still a great deal of giving and taking. DW: Now within the parliament in PNG, I think Bougainville has felt for some time that there hasn't been a great deal of understanding of what Bougainville has been through, or what it is Bougainville is trying to achieve. There's a very different lineup of MPs to what they were at the turn of the century when the Bougainville Peace Agreement was finalised. So what are they thinking, the MPs from other parts of the country? Are they going to be supportive, or are they just thinking about the impact on their own patch? TO: I am not entirely sure what the MPs think, and they are a very diverse bunch of people. The sort of concern I think that many have, certainly more senior ones, that they do not want to be the people in charge when this large chunk of the country secedes. I think that is something that is important, and we do not want to be patronising the Papua New Guineans have a great deal of national pride, and it is not an event of celebration to see what is going on. For many, it is quite a tragic chain of events. I am not entirely sure what the bulk of MPs believes about this. We have conducted some research, which is non randomised, but it is quite large scale, probing attitudes towards Bougainvillean independence in 2022, around the time of the election. What we found, which is quite surprising, is that whilst of course, Bougainville has the highest support for independence of any place in Papua New Guinea, there are substantial numbers of people outside Bougainville that are sympathetic to Bougainvillean independence or sympathetic towards implementing the referendum. I think that would be the wording, I would choose, quite large numbers of people. So, as well as, many people who are very much undecided on the issues. From a Papua New Guinean perspective, the views are much more subtle than you might think are the case. By comparison, if you did a survey in Madrid of how many people support Catalan independence, you would not see figures similar to the ones that we find for Papua New Guinea. DW: Bougainville is due to go to elections later this year. The ABG has stated that it wants this matter sorted, I think, at the time that the election writs are issued sometime in June. Will it be able to do this do you think? TO: It's always difficult to predict anything, especially the future. That goes double in Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. I think the reality is that the nature of negotiations here and in Bougainville, there's a great deal of personal connections and toing and froing that will be taking place. It is very hard to fit that onto a clear timeline. I would describe that as perhaps aspirational, but it would be, it would be good. Whether this is, you know, a question of electoral politics within Bougainville, I think there would be, like, a more or less unanimous view in Bougainville that this needs to move forward as soon as possible. But I don't know that a timeline is realistic. The concerns that I would have about this, Don, would be not just about sort of questions of capacity and what happens in the negotiations in Bougainville, but we also need to think about what is happening in Papua New Guinea, and this goes for the entire process. But here, in this case, PNG has its hands full with many other issues as well. There is a set of like LLG [Local Level Government] elections about to happen, so there are a great deal of things for the government to attend to. I wonder how viable it is to come up with a solution in a short time, but they are certainly capable of surprising everybody. DW: The Prime Minister, James Marape, has said on a number of occasions that Bougainville is not economically ready or it hasn't got the security situation under control. And my understanding is that when this was raised at the last meeting, there was quite a lot of giggling going on, because people were comparing what's happened in Bougainville with what's happening around the rest of the country, including in Southern Highlanbds, the province of Mr Marape. TO: I think you know for me when I think about this, because I have worked with Bougainvilleans for a long time, and have worked with Papua New Guineans for a long time as well. The sense that I have is really one of quite sadness and a great missed opportunity. Because if we wind the clock back to 1975, Bougainville declared independence, trying to pre-empt [the establishment of] Papua New Guinea. And that set in train a set of events that drastically reformed the Papua New Guinean Political Constitution. Many of the sort of characteristic institutions we see now in Papua New Guinea, such as provinces, came about partly because of that. That crisis, that first independence crisis, the first secession crisis, was resolved through deep changes to Papua New Guinea and to Bougainville, in which the country was able to grow and move forward. What we see now, though, is this sort of view that Bougainville problems must all be solved in Bougainville, but in fact, many of the problems that are said to be Bougainville problems are Papua New Guinea problems, and that would include issues such as the economic difficulties that Bougainville finds itself in. I mean, there are many ironies with this kind of criticism that Bougainville is not economically viable. One of them being that when Papua New Guinea became independent, it was largely dependent on Bougainville at that time. So Bougainvilleans are aware of this, and don't really welcome that kind of idea. But I think that more deeply there were some really important lessons I believe that could have been learned from the peace process that might have been very useful in other areas of Papua New Guinea, and because Bougainville has been kind of seen as this place apart, virtually as a foreign nation, those lessons have not, unfortunately, filtered back to Papua New Guinea in a way that might have been very helpful for everybody.
Scoop
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Bougainville Takes The Initiative In Independence Mediation
While Papua New Guinea and Bougainville continue the mediation process over the region's desire for independence, Bougainville's leaders are separately laying down markers of what they are expecting. Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific Senior Journalist In recent weeks, Bougainville has taken the initiative, boldly stating that it expects to be independent by 1 September 2027. It also expects the PNG parliament to quickly ratify the 2019 referendum, in which an overwhelming majority of Bougainvilleans supported independence. In a third move, it established a Constitution Commission and included it within the region's autonomous parliament. To learn more, RNZ Pacific spoke with Australian National University academic Thiago Oppermann, who has spent many years in both Bougainville and PNG. (The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) Don Wiseman: We've had five-and-a-half years since the Bougainville referendum, but very suddenly in the last couple of months, it would seem that Bougainville is picking up pace and trying to really make some progress with this march towards independence, as they see it. Are they overplaying their hand? Thiago Oppermann: I do not believe that they are overplaying their hand. I think that the impression that is apparent of a sudden flurry of activity, arises partly because for the first two years after the referendum, there was a very slow pace. One of the shortcomings of the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) was that it did not set out a very clear post-referendum path. That part of the process was not as well designed as the parts leading to the referendum, and that left a great deal of uncertainty as to how to structure negotiations, how things should be conducted, and quite substantial differences in the views of the Papua New Guinean government and the ABG (Autonomous Bougainville Government), as to how the referendum result would be processed further. For instance, how it would it need to be tabled in parliament, what kind of vote would be required for it, would a negotiation between the parties lead to an agreement that then is presented to the parliament, and how would that negotiation work? All these areas, they were not prescriptive, in the BPA. That led to a period of a good two years in which there was very slow process and then attempts to get some some movement. I would say that in that period, the views of the Bougainvilleans and the Papua New Guineans became quite entrenched in quite different camps, and something I think would have to give eventually. Why the Bougainvilleans have moved towards this point now, I think that it bears pointing out that there has been a long process that has been unfolding, for more than two years now, of beginning the organic process of developing a Bougainvillean constitutional process with this constitutional development committees across the island doing a lot of work, and that has now borne fruit, is how I would describe it. It happens at a point where the process has been unblocked by the appointment of Sir Jerry Mataparae, which I think sets a new vigour into the process. It looks now like it's heading towards some form of outcome. And that being the case, the Bougainvilleans have made their position quite clear. DW: Well, Bougainville, in fact, is saying it will be independent by 1st September 2027. How likely do you think that is? TO: I think there's a question that comes before that. When Bougainville says that they will be independent by such a date, what we need to first consider is that the process of mediation is still unfolding. I think that the first thing to consider is, what would that independence look like, and what scope is there within the mediation for finding some compromise that still suits Papua New Guinea. I think that there's a much greater range of outcomes than people realise within this sort of umbrella of independence, the Bougainvilleans themselves, have moved to a position of understanding independence in much more nuanced terms than previously. You might imagine that in the aftermath of this fairly brutal and bitter civil conflict, the idea of independence at that time was quite a radical cut towards 'full bruk loose' as they say. But the reality is that for many post colonial and new states since World War Two, there are many different kinds of independence and the degree to which there remains a kind of attachment with or relationship with the so called parent colonial country is variable, I should add. I do not want to digress too much, but this concept of the parent colonial country is something that I heard quite a lot of when I was studying the referendum itself. Many people would say that the relationship that they had to Papua New Guinea was not one of enmity or of like running away, it was more a question of there being a parent and Bougainville having now grown up to the point where the child, Bougainville, is ready to go off and set up its own house. Many people thought of it in those terms. Now I think that in concrete terms that can be articulated in many different ways when we think about international law and the status of different sovereign nations around the world. DW: If we can just look at some of the possibilities in terms of the way in which this independence might be interpreted. My understanding is, for Bougainville it's vital that they have a degree of sovereignty that will allow them to join organisations like the United Nations, but they're not necessarily looking to be fully independent of PNG. TO: Yes, I think that there would be like a process underway in Bougainville for understanding what that would look like. There are certainly people who would have a view that is still more firmly towards full independence. And there will be others who understand some type of free association arrangements or something that still retains a closer relationship with Papua New Guinea. I do not think many people have illusions that Bougainville could, for instance, suddenly break loose of the very deep economic connections it has with Papua New Guinea, not only those of government funding, but the commercial connections which are very, very deep. So suddenly making that disappear is not something people believe it's possible. But there are many other options that are on the table. I think what Bougainville is doing by having the announcement of the Independence Day is setting for Papua New Guinea saying, like, 'here is the terms of the debate that we are prepared to consider'. But within that there is still a great deal of giving and taking. DW: Now within the parliament in PNG, I think Bougainville has felt for some time that there hasn't been a great deal of understanding of what Bougainville has been through, or what it is Bougainville is trying to achieve. There's a very different lineup of MPs to what they were at the turn of the century when the Bougainville Peace Agreement was finalised. So what are they thinking, the MPs from other parts of the country? Are they going to be supportive, or are they just thinking about the impact on their own patch? TO: I am not entirely sure what the MPs think, and they are a very diverse bunch of people. The sort of concern I think that many have, certainly more senior ones, that they do not want to be the people in charge when this large chunk of the country secedes. I think that is something that is important, and we do not want to be patronising the Papua New Guineans have a great deal of national pride, and it is not an event of celebration to see what is going on. For many, it is quite a tragic chain of events. I am not entirely sure what the bulk of MPs believes about this. We have conducted some research, which is non randomised, but it is quite large scale, probing attitudes towards Bougainvillean independence in 2022, around the time of the election. What we found, which is quite surprising, is that whilst of course, Bougainville has the highest support for independence of any place in Papua New Guinea, there are substantial numbers of people outside Bougainville that are sympathetic to Bougainvillean independence or sympathetic towards implementing the referendum. I think that would be the wording, I would choose, quite large numbers of people. So, as well as, many people who are very much undecided on the issues. From a Papua New Guinean perspective, the views are much more subtle than you might think are the case. By comparison, if you did a survey in Madrid of how many people support Catalan independence, you would not see figures similar to the ones that we find for Papua New Guinea. DW: Bougainville is due to go to elections later this year. The ABG has stated that it wants this matter sorted, I think, at the time that the election writs are issued sometime in June. Will it be able to do this do you think? TO: It's always difficult to predict anything, especially the future. That goes double in Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. I think the reality is that the nature of negotiations here and in Bougainville, there's a great deal of personal connections and toing and froing that will be taking place. It is very hard to fit that onto a clear timeline. I would describe that as perhaps aspirational, but it would be, it would be good. Whether this is, you know, a question of electoral politics within Bougainville, I think there would be, like, a more or less unanimous view in Bougainville that this needs to move forward as soon as possible. But I don't know that a timeline is realistic. The concerns that I would have about this, Don, would be not just about sort of questions of capacity and what happens in the negotiations in Bougainville, but we also need to think about what is happening in Papua New Guinea, and this goes for the entire process. But here, in this case, PNG has its hands full with many other issues as well. There is a set of like LLG [Local Level Government] elections about to happen, so there are a great deal of things for the government to attend to. I wonder how viable it is to come up with a solution in a short time, but they are certainly capable of surprising everybody. DW: The Prime Minister, James Marape, has said on a number of occasions that Bougainville is not economically ready or it hasn't got the security situation under control. And my understanding is that when this was raised at the last meeting, there was quite a lot of giggling going on, because people were comparing what's happened in Bougainville with what's happening around the rest of the country, including in Southern Highlanbds, the province of Mr Marape. TO: I think you know for me when I think about this, because I have worked with Bougainvilleans for a long time, and have worked with Papua New Guineans for a long time as well. The sense that I have is really one of quite sadness and a great missed opportunity. Because if we wind the clock back to 1975, Bougainville declared independence, trying to pre-empt [the establishment of] Papua New Guinea. And that set in train a set of events that drastically reformed the Papua New Guinean Political Constitution. Many of the sort of characteristic institutions we see now in Papua New Guinea, such as provinces, came about partly because of that. That crisis, that first independence crisis, the first secession crisis, was resolved through deep changes to Papua New Guinea and to Bougainville, in which the country was able to grow and move forward. What we see now, though, is this sort of view that Bougainville problems must all be solved in Bougainville, but in fact, many of the problems that are said to be Bougainville problems are Papua New Guinea problems, and that would include issues such as the economic difficulties that Bougainville finds itself in. I mean, there are many ironies with this kind of criticism that Bougainville is not economically viable. One of them being that when Papua New Guinea became independent, it was largely dependent on Bougainville at that time. So Bougainvilleans are aware of this, and don't really welcome that kind of idea. But I think that more deeply there were some really important lessons I believe that could have been learned from the peace process that might have been very useful in other areas of Papua New Guinea, and because Bougainville has been kind of seen as this place apart, virtually as a foreign nation, those lessons have not, unfortunately, filtered back to Papua New Guinea in a way that might have been very helpful for everybody.
Scoop
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Bougainville Takes The Initiative In Independence Mediation
, RNZ Pacific Senior Journalist In recent weeks, Bougainville has taken the initiative, boldly stating that it expects to be independent by 1 September 2027. It also expects the PNG parliament to quickly ratify the 2019 referendum, in which an overwhelming majority of Bougainvilleans supported independence. In a third move, it established a Constitution Commission and included it within the region's autonomous parliament. To learn more, RNZ Pacific spoke with Australian National University academic Thiago Oppermann, who has spent many years in both Bougainville and PNG. (The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) Don Wiseman: We've had five-and-a-half years since the Bougainville referendum, but very suddenly in the last couple of months, it would seem that Bougainville is picking up pace and trying to really make some progress with this march towards independence, as they see it. Are they overplaying their hand? Thiago Oppermann: I do not believe that they are overplaying their hand. I think that the impression that is apparent of a sudden flurry of activity, arises partly because for the first two years after the referendum, there was a very slow pace. One of the shortcomings of the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) was that it did not set out a very clear post-referendum path. That part of the process was not as well designed as the parts leading to the referendum, and that left a great deal of uncertainty as to how to structure negotiations, how things should be conducted, and quite substantial differences in the views of the Papua New Guinean government and the ABG (Autonomous Bougainville Government), as to how the referendum result would be processed further. For instance, how it would it need to be tabled in parliament, what kind of vote would be required for it, would a negotiation between the parties lead to an agreement that then is presented to the parliament, and how would that negotiation work? All these areas, they were not prescriptive, in the BPA. That led to a period of a good two years in which there was very slow process and then attempts to get some some movement. I would say that in that period, the views of the Bougainvilleans and the Papua New Guineans became quite entrenched in quite different camps, and something I think would have to give eventually. Why the Bougainvilleans have moved towards this point now, I think that it bears pointing out that there has been a long process that has been unfolding, for more than two years now, of beginning the organic process of developing a Bougainvillean constitutional process with this constitutional development committees across the island doing a lot of work, and that has now borne fruit, is how I would describe it. It happens at a point where the process has been unblocked by the appointment of Sir Jerry Mataparae, which I think sets a new vigour into the process. It looks now like it's heading towards some form of outcome. And that being the case, the Bougainvilleans have made their position quite clear. DW: Well, Bougainville, in fact, is saying it will be independent by 1st September 2027. How likely do you think that is? TO: I think there's a question that comes before that. When Bougainville says that they will be independent by such a date, what we need to first consider is that the process of mediation is still unfolding. I think that the first thing to consider is, what would that independence look like, and what scope is there within the mediation for finding some compromise that still suits Papua New Guinea. I think that there's a much greater range of outcomes than people realise within this sort of umbrella of independence, the Bougainvilleans themselves, have moved to a position of understanding independence in much more nuanced terms than previously. You might imagine that in the aftermath of this fairly brutal and bitter civil conflict, the idea of independence at that time was quite a radical cut towards 'full bruk loose' as they say. But the reality is that for many post colonial and new states since World War Two, there are many different kinds of independence and the degree to which there remains a kind of attachment with or relationship with the so called parent colonial country is variable, I should add. I do not want to digress too much, but this concept of the parent colonial country is something that I heard quite a lot of when I was studying the referendum itself. Many people would say that the relationship that they had to Papua New Guinea was not one of enmity or of like running away, it was more a question of there being a parent and Bougainville having now grown up to the point where the child, Bougainville, is ready to go off and set up its own house. Many people thought of it in those terms. Now I think that in concrete terms that can be articulated in many different ways when we think about international law and the status of different sovereign nations around the world. DW: If we can just look at some of the possibilities in terms of the way in which this independence might be interpreted. My understanding is, for Bougainville it's vital that they have a degree of sovereignty that will allow them to join organisations like the United Nations, but they're not necessarily looking to be fully independent of PNG. TO: Yes, I think that there would be like a process underway in Bougainville for understanding what that would look like. There are certainly people who would have a view that is still more firmly towards full independence. And there will be others who understand some type of free association arrangements or something that still retains a closer relationship with Papua New Guinea. I do not think many people have illusions that Bougainville could, for instance, suddenly break loose of the very deep economic connections it has with Papua New Guinea, not only those of government funding, but the commercial connections which are very, very deep. So suddenly making that disappear is not something people believe it's possible. But there are many other options that are on the table. I think what Bougainville is doing by having the announcement of the Independence Day is setting for Papua New Guinea saying, like, 'here is the terms of the debate that we are prepared to consider'. But within that there is still a great deal of giving and taking. DW: Now within the parliament in PNG, I think Bougainville has felt for some time that there hasn't been a great deal of understanding of what Bougainville has been through, or what it is Bougainville is trying to achieve. There's a very different lineup of MPs to what they were at the turn of the century when the Bougainville Peace Agreement was finalised. So what are they thinking, the MPs from other parts of the country? Are they going to be supportive, or are they just thinking about the impact on their own patch? TO: I am not entirely sure what the MPs think, and they are a very diverse bunch of people. The sort of concern I think that many have, certainly more senior ones, that they do not want to be the people in charge when this large chunk of the country secedes. I think that is something that is important, and we do not want to be patronising the Papua New Guineans have a great deal of national pride, and it is not an event of celebration to see what is going on. For many, it is quite a tragic chain of events. I am not entirely sure what the bulk of MPs believes about this. We have conducted some research, which is non randomised, but it is quite large scale, probing attitudes towards Bougainvillean independence in 2022, around the time of the election. What we found, which is quite surprising, is that whilst of course, Bougainville has the highest support for independence of any place in Papua New Guinea, there are substantial numbers of people outside Bougainville that are sympathetic to Bougainvillean independence or sympathetic towards implementing the referendum. I think that would be the wording, I would choose, quite large numbers of people. So, as well as, many people who are very much undecided on the issues. From a Papua New Guinean perspective, the views are much more subtle than you might think are the case. By comparison, if you did a survey in Madrid of how many people support Catalan independence, you would not see figures similar to the ones that we find for Papua New Guinea. DW: Bougainville is due to go to elections later this year. The ABG has stated that it wants this matter sorted, I think, at the time that the election writs are issued sometime in June. Will it be able to do this do you think? TO: It's always difficult to predict anything, especially the future. That goes double in Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. I think the reality is that the nature of negotiations here and in Bougainville, there's a great deal of personal connections and toing and froing that will be taking place. It is very hard to fit that onto a clear timeline. I would describe that as perhaps aspirational, but it would be, it would be good. Whether this is, you know, a question of electoral politics within Bougainville, I think there would be, like, a more or less unanimous view in Bougainville that this needs to move forward as soon as possible. But I don't know that a timeline is realistic. The concerns that I would have about this, Don, would be not just about sort of questions of capacity and what happens in the negotiations in Bougainville, but we also need to think about what is happening in Papua New Guinea, and this goes for the entire process. But here, in this case, PNG has its hands full with many other issues as well. There is a set of like LLG [Local Level Government] elections about to happen, so there are a great deal of things for the government to attend to. I wonder how viable it is to come up with a solution in a short time, but they are certainly capable of surprising everybody. DW: The Prime Minister, James Marape, has said on a number of occasions that Bougainville is not economically ready or it hasn't got the security situation under control. And my understanding is that when this was raised at the last meeting, there was quite a lot of giggling going on, because people were comparing what's happened in Bougainville with what's happening around the rest of the country, including in Southern Highlanbds, the province of Mr Marape. TO: I think you know for me when I think about this, because I have worked with Bougainvilleans for a long time, and have worked with Papua New Guineans for a long time as well. The sense that I have is really one of quite sadness and a great missed opportunity. Because if we wind the clock back to 1975, Bougainville declared independence, trying to pre-empt [the establishment of] Papua New Guinea. And that set in train a set of events that drastically reformed the Papua New Guinean Political Constitution. Many of the sort of characteristic institutions we see now in Papua New Guinea, such as provinces, came about partly because of that. That crisis, that first independence crisis, the first secession crisis, was resolved through deep changes to Papua New Guinea and to Bougainville, in which the country was able to grow and move forward. What we see now, though, is this sort of view that Bougainville problems must all be solved in Bougainville, but in fact, many of the problems that are said to be Bougainville problems are Papua New Guinea problems, and that would include issues such as the economic difficulties that Bougainville finds itself in. I mean, there are many ironies with this kind of criticism that Bougainville is not economically viable. One of them being that when Papua New Guinea became independent, it was largely dependent on Bougainville at that time. So Bougainvilleans are aware of this, and don't really welcome that kind of idea. But I think that more deeply there were some really important lessons I believe that could have been learned from the peace process that might have been very useful in other areas of Papua New Guinea, and because Bougainville has been kind of seen as this place apart, virtually as a foreign nation, those lessons have not, unfortunately, filtered back to Papua New Guinea in a way that might have been very helpful for everybody.
