By Effrey Dademo
The red, black and gold, with a touch of the bird of paradise flew for the first time on Independence Hill, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on 16th September 1975. I was 6 months old, and, I had no idea what had just happened!
Papua New Guinea will celebrate 35 years of Nationhood today - 16th September 2010.
As reflections on how we’ve faired as a nation in various sections of society are the order of discussions at this time of the year, I pause and join the queue in an attempt to do some reflection of my own. I ask questions shared by many in my generation – a new generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals and citizens, of this beautiful country, I call my island home.
Exactly 5 years before 16th September 1975, 16 Papua New Guinean members of the then, House of Assembly, developed a vision for a new nation. At that time Papua New Guinea, was not a nation, as yet! Neither was I anywhere in sight!
The Constitutional Planning Committee (CPC) summarized certain underlying principles to form the basis of the development of the National Goals and Directive Principles in our Constitution.
These underlying principles were Nation Building, Development of People, Participation and Decentralization, Consultation and Consensus, Rights and Freedoms, and Quality of Leadership.
It was from these Principles that the vision of this nation was born. It was a vision to ensure integral human development, equality and participation, national sovereignty and self reliance, wise use of our natural resources, and all these through the use of Papua New Guinean ways, with the aim of achieving a free and just society.
On the eve of self-government, it is written, the CPC declared:
…Our Constitution should look towards the future and act as an accelerator in the process of development. It should be related to the national goals that we leaders of this country are enunciating. A clear definition of Papua New Guinea's most fundamental national goals, and a statement setting out the implications of their acceptance for the ways in which the Government seeks to achieve those goals, is of great importance to the welfare of our people and to the effectiveness of the Constitution in promoting it…
It is interesting to note that the very first Goal of our Constitution was for integral human development, a process they described as, of “freeing” oneself from every form of domination or oppression so as to have the opportunity to develop as a whole person in relationship with others.
When I ponder on this goal a little further, it almost seems obvious the CPC intended people to be the focus of development of the nation. Have we freed ourselves from all forms of domination and discrimination? Have we adequately recognized and put in place statutory mechanisms to uphold the basic social rights of every citizen?
After 35 years of independence, PNG still faces significant development challenges. There is evidence of extreme hardships facing households. Our living standard is on the decline. The rural population remains at a disadvantage. There are insufficient employment opportunities accorded to the population in the youth category, worsening of law and order issues and disturbing health issues reflected in the rise of HIV /AIDS.
There is no shortage of statistics that show this. Our country is ranked 148 out of 182 countries on what’s known as the UN Human Development Index. Life expectancy for an average Papua New Guinean is 50 and 60 in rural and urban areas respectively. Other statistics show that about 30 % of all our people over the age of 15 years do not have any cash income earning activities and between 33 and 40 infants die each day from diseases that could be prevented. We have only managed to educate half of our women over the age of 15. While half our population does not have excess to clean drinking water and we battle with drastically high HIV/AIDS infection rates. (Source: GoPNG, 2003; UNDP, 2003; Baxter, 2001; AusAID, 2004)
In light of these challenges, I ask have we given our men and women equal opportunity to develop, participate and benefit from the development of PNG?
Has there been an equalization of services across the country or are benefits from project-rich provinces concentrated in one part of the country, such that only a certain portion of the population benefit from the income generated?
Article 25 of the Convention on Civil and Political Rghts promotes the right to participate in “public affairs”. Rights-based approach should be a means to achieving development. Are all citizens in this country able to equally participate in political, economic, social and religious activities?
Do we recognize and respect the rights of every citizen to have equal excess to legal processes and all services both governmental and non-governmental that each citizen requires to fulfill his or her needs and aspirations?
In consideration of any matter affecting citizens and their communities, is every citizen of this country able to participate in ensuring their voices are heard?
When our forefathers declared our 3rd National Goal to be that of National Sovereignty and Self-Reliance, I am pretty sure they had in mind that development for Papua New Guineans would conflict with the western definition; they foresaw the difficulties that the cash economy would bring such as the new phenomena of poverty, social disorientation, environmental degradation and basically disturbance of the Papua New Guinean or Melanesian ways.
Our challenge has been to blend our traditional PNG ways with modernity. It hasn’t been easy. Our land has been at the centre of controversy, with differing views of development. Should communal ownership be forgone in favor of individual title? What impact would that have on the communities that depend on their land for their livelihood?
One thing is for certain, that we have failed to adopt a bottom- up, participatory planning approach, involving the very people whose interests we should be serving? Is there truly national sovereignty in planning and decision-making?
Self-Reliance is declared to be a means to an end in National Goal number 3. Have we been self-reliant in pursuing, negotiating and developing our resource projects, or are we too dependent on foreign advice especially from multi-national corporations?
Our environmental sustainability record is one of the worst in the world despite having the best laws in the world also. With logging concessions in operation without a proper National Forest Inventory and National Forest Plan for years, we don’t even fall close to achieving the International Tropical Timber Organization’s (ITTO) sustainable yield definitions and targets. The focus of the CPC was that our natural resources be wisely used for present and future generations of this nation. How can we plan how much to take out and how much to save, when we don’t have a current National Forest Inventory and Plan?
What are our “Papua New Guinean ways”, and have we tried to achieve development primarily through the use of our own social, political and economic institutions?
This is the ideal moment in history to put on our brakes.
We should ask ourselves whether the Spirit of our Constitution and its Goals and Directive Principles, has indeed been our guardian angel.
As a truly resource rich country, have we achieved true economic independence? Are our gold, copper and oil processed onshore? Is the cost of petroleum products in this country reflective of, an oil-producing nation?
This country is so rich in resources, that in the words of one senior statesman, we are an “island of gold floating on a sea of oil”.
Our institutions of government, our institutions of education and commerce, our institutions of religion, and most importantly our attitudes need a complete re-orientation in order that these are responsive to the needs and aspirations of citizens of this country.
While we celebrate and feel a sense of pride today, of an island nation, rich and diverse in cultures, with unique traditional systems, I call on every professional young man and woman of this generation and the next to join me in asking these questions. As my daughter turns 2 years, on 16th September 2010, I ask these questions on behalf of her generation as well.
Martin Luther King Jnr, so famously stated
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…
Although, he was referring to the Emancipation Proclamation signed to end slavery, we also this day, in this nation, have an obligation to ourselves and our children, and their children etc to put an end to a certain “form of slavery”.
We have to free ourselves from oppression and suppression!
We have been slaves to ignorance, greed, self-centeredness, cynicism, complacency, corruption and tyranny.
Lets STAND UP and acknowledge that TODAY we dream, that TODAY, this nation will rise up and give meaning to it’s National Goals and Directive Principles. That tomorrow, we the people of this land will take charge of our destiny. Only then, will there be true Independence!
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