from PNG Exposed

Strong leaders emerge from mass movements, not vice versa. In times of corruption, virulent white-collar criminality, rising costs of living, expanding inequality, land grabs, resource manipulation, and the loss of sovereignty to shady foreigners of many colours and creeds, many citizens dream of a saviour who will cleanse PNG of the wrong-doers and bring about justice. This saviour exists – not in the form of any one man or woman, but in all men and women of PNG united. Only a mass movement of epic proportions can counteract a swindle of epic proportions.

At the moment there are no mass movements in PNG capable of securing the national interest. For instance, in the rural areas there is no peasant movement, uniting all clans, which seeks to conquer for the rural masses political power; to conquer political power in order to champion the interests of those who have access to land and labour, but who need vital support in terms of transport, technology, communications and marketing, if they are to get something remotely resembling a fair market price for their hard work. While in the cities, the labour-unions are small, poorly resourced, often mismanaged, and have yet to amplify the collective voice of working people either at an industrial level or a political level.

Without such mass movements, we still have leaders yes, but weak leaders that are greedy, self-interested and easily corruptible (with honourable exceptions). They are weak, greedy and corrupt because they are not held accountable by a mass of people unified through strong civil society organisations who can ensure that promises of sweeping reform and changes are kept. Instead, they are ‘accountable’ to a fragmented and atomised electorate, who are often disorganised and have no mechanisms or criteria with which to keep leaders in check. So when it comes to election time, our leaders arrive with beer, shirts and big promises. That votes are won through such superficial transactions is not an indictment on the people of PNG, it is a reflection of our demoralisation, disorganisation and disempowerment.

From there the weak leaders, unconnected to a mass movement, go to Waigani, where they are courted by foreign companies some of whom wish to command PNG’s natural resources, others are more brazen crooks just looking for a chunk of public revenues through petty frauds. Weak leaders listen to foreign companies and foreign advisers, because they have no mass movement keeping them to account, ensuring they are championing the interests of PNG people, not foreigners. Weak leaders fill their own pockets, because there is no consequence if they do.

The media is not going to be our saviour – lets face it, The National is owned by Rimbunan Hijau a company whose criminality is legendary, as the latest SABL Commission of Inquiry attests. Equally, the Post-Courier is owned by none other than the News Corporation, whose crooked deals are currently the subject of criminal prosecutions in the UK. News organisations run by the very types of venal companies coming to suck our fertile soils of every last ounce of wealth, are hardly going to act as spotlights.

For too long the people of this great nation have blamed their leaders for being weak. The truth is we are the ones who have made them weak. We have made them weak because we are fragmented and divided - there is no muscle on the bones of the nation! We have made them weak because there is no serious mass-resistance to those who steal our resources, and wreak havoc in the towns and rural areas.

It is time to unite, and fight, only then will strong leaders emerge who govern in the national interest rather than the interest of a rich and powerful minority who on the whole call foreign lands home.