University of PNG student, Nou Vada, examines the roots of the Jasmine revolution that is sweeping across Africa and the Middle East and ponders what it might mean for Papua New Guinea where many of the same frustrations and discontent are clearly visable.

By Nou Vada

When Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 year old Tunisian vegetable seller, set himself on fire outside a Government hall out of frustration at his country’s oppressive system of Government (a government that at the culmination of Bouazizi’s disdain toward it had by its authoritarian authority – the same that had suppressed political aggravators and radical-minded revolutionaries alike for over three decades past – taken the poor man’s wooden vegetable cart) no one in the world – least of all Bouazizi, who I think acted in a state of mind more personally frustrated than political or revolutionary  – expected this self-immolation would spark the downfall off the Tunisian Government and then the Egyptian Government.

As I write, the Governments of Yemen, Iran, Jordan, Libya and the wider brotherhood of authoritarian Middle-Eastern Governments and even the freedom suppressor extraordinaire, the People’s Republic of China are bracing themselves for a stubborn uprising of the masses as was seen in the 3 week popular siege of Egypt that saw the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s 30 year reign. Indeed in some of the countries I’ve named the push for revolution is well underway. The question I ponder now and justifiably so given the conditions many of us, the ordinary tax-paying citizens of Papua New Guinea have found ourselves in is this: What if Mohamed Bouazizi was a buai seller at 4 mile bus stop?

It’s an interesting thought. Bouazizi would probably be living in a squatter settlement. He’d probably wear ‘cut jeans’. Probably ‘Loose bum’ and a rugby league jersey with a pair of slippers on. The cosmetics, as unimportant as they are to this discussion are easy stereotype projections of ‘batamahn Mohamed’ or ‘Momex’ – that is, the hypothetical Papua New Guinean Mohamed Bouazizi.

Papua New Guinea has its own share of horror movie occurrences daily. Just last week there was an article about a man who had eaten a baby alive. But as desensitized to stories of inhuman human suffering as we have found ourselves to be in contemporary Papua New Guinea (many thanks of course to our daily newspapers’ dedicated attention to graphic descriptive detail but not necessarily basic grammar and spelling), the image of a simple Papua New Guinean man, bullied out of his income and his dignity, setting himself on fire at Tabari Place, or outside Lagatoi Haus where the NCDC City Rangers who like to beat on buai sellers are based, or even at the steps of our magnificent House of Parliament at Waigani should surely strike a chord or a raw nerve to anyone reading this and seeing the image of the man on fire as it does with me.

It’s not the gore of the image that strikes. No image of an act of self-immolation can be brashly termed as a metaphor but the reason why the idea of the image is moving is because in some real way it is exactly that – a metaphor. Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire out of anger at the absence of good civics and ethics in his own government and how he had suffered and humiliated enough. It struck a chord with everyday Tunisians. It moved them into action. It toppled the country’s repressive regime. There was a higher meaning to his singular act of frustration. This higher meaning resonated with Tunisians everywhere.

It has become almost clichéd to call Papua New Guinea a land of contradictions. But I think this is true nevertheless. We claim to be something but turn around and do something else. It is said we have one of the most beautifully written constitutions in the world. Our constitution is also one of the longest (according to Associate Professor Eric Kwa at the UPNG School of Law, we’ve got the longest in the world since the inclusion of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville Constitution) and the most descriptive. But with all its bells and whistles and attention to detail it has been reduced to an expandable little book by our Parliamentarians, some of whom were the ones who wrote the constitution and others who once zealously guarded its power as Justices in the courts of this country.

It’s amazing that in the affair of the Governor-General election of 2010, Parliament voted to discard the parliamentary voting system established by the constitution. It is interesting further that the Justice Minister, a decorated legalist who was at one time the Chief-Justice of Papua New Guinea failed to advice government on basic constitutional principles like ‘Don’t Mess with the Constitution’. The Parliament, and in particular the Speaker had breached Section 88(2) of the Constitution which requires that every decision of the Parliament to nominate a person for appointment as Governor-General be made by a simple majority vote, in an exhaustive secret ballot conducted in accordance with an Organic Law, including where a person proposed for nomination has been approved for appointment for a second term. Parliament did not have an exhaustive secret ballot. In fact, no one else besides the host of EMTV’s Chit Chat was considered for the vote.

Were these events a preview to the future governance of Papua New Guinea? This has apparently been the norm in Tunisia and Egypt under the regimes of Sidi Bouzid and Hosni Mubarak. The absurdity here is that Papua New Guinea is a constitutional democracy. One of the key hallmarks of the Jasmine Revolution is the call for Constitutional reform. Obviously the constitutions of these countries under the Jasmine Revolution (Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Iran) are made in a way to ensure the success and continuity of the repressive regimes in power. Papua New Guinea’s constitution on the other hand guarantees that all power rests in the People through elected leaders. It further sets out the rules of election of these leaders in the constitution and in Organic Laws of the country. Everything seems to work in favour of the people. But then exactly because of this, as seen in the matter of the Governor-General, nothing ever works out for the People.

I discussed the prospects of prolonged strikes by the masses against the Government of the day with one of my friends, a third year Business Management student from Nipa in the Southern Highlands over a drink of Coffee Punch. He had an interesting take on the idea of the Jasmine Revolution in Papua New Guinea. He said there was something called Papua New Guinean nature – this is basically the same as saying the Melanesian way. The ability of Papua New Guineans to see beyond their own potential progress, beyond the everyday injustices they experience, beyond the sad state of affairs they experience out of some generic ‘big man’ respect for our National Leaders. My friend reasoned that there were just too many ethnicity barriers to unite the masses against the government. A foul word against Sir Michael, he explained was a foul word against the tens of thousands of People from his ethnic group living in Port Moresby.

I have to admit, there was great truth in my friend’s rationale. Maybe Papua New Guinean nature is what we need to be emancipated from or this just a Mission Impossible. The next day my sober mind pondered again about this. At the end I think Papua New Guinean nature is real. Nevertheless the human condition and human experience dictates that it can only go so far. We are living in the new Golden Age of Papua New Guinea at a crossroad. The big LNG bomb is already proving some of the social theories we have of ourselves. Imagine my amazement last year when I heard there was a tribal conflict – not in the Highlands – but in the motuan coastline between Boera and porebada villagers; so much for the cliché of Motuans as a peace loving and submissive race of people.

The fighting between the villagers resulted in the death of a couple of youths and an almost month long temporary extinction of Boera Village. The cause of the conflict was ‘gardening rights’ to a piece of land. Of course that particular garden land is a part of the LNG project’s development area. As strange as that whole motuan tribal war saga was, I think it put things in perspective for me with the whole issue of Papua New Guinean nature. Papua New Guinea nature, as coined by my friend from Nipa is real. But when there is so much at stake for everyday people, Human nature sets in. The God-given instinct for emancipation surfaces very visibly. We saw this in Tunisia. We saw this in Egypt. We’re seeing it across the Arab World and the developing world. At some point in time the level of corruption in Papua New Guinea’s government will become unbearable. Is this point yet to be reached or have we gone past that point already. One thing’s for sure; that fateful point is a point of no return. All we need now is an image that defines our frustration. It doesn’t have to be a burning man as it was for the Tunisians. It doesn’t have to be Wikileaks’ leaked US diplomatic cables that speak of corruption as was the case in Egypt. It doesn’t have to be elaborately set out Facebook pages and blogs. It just has to be an image that defines our disdain. The Jasmine Revolution in Papua New Guinea will be a test of our will as the People who own all the power of governance and who have entrusted this power to an established Government and who have been violated by the government we created. Papua New Guinea is a young country. Its citizens deserve better than what they’ve got right now. The Jasmine Revolution is closer than we think. It might take great political will. It might take thousands of Kina in logistics and personnel. It might just take the actions of a simple Buai Seller.

Rest in Peace Mohamed Bouazizi March 29, 1984 – January 4, 2011

“From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.”- Edward Munch