Opinion & Commentary
Nose cut off to spite the face
The withdrawal of the Australian police, following the Papua New Guinean Supreme Court ruling that the immunity essential to their operations was unconstitutional, is a disaster for the people of Papua New Guinea.
One hundred and twenty of the 210 police who were to be deployed under the Australian Government's $1 billion, five-year Enhanced Co-operation Program had only been in place for a few months, but they were already having an impact on the raskols in Port Moresby and on security in Bougainville . Hence the vigorous opposition to their presence.
For police supplementing their inadequate pay by consorting with the raskols, the presence of Australian officers meant a cut in income. More than 300 police, protesting against their low wages, demanded that the Australians leave.
More importantly, for senior police officers (allegedly paid by Chinese triads to turn their eyes away from illegal gambling, drugs, arms and people smuggling) the Australians were even less welcome.
But the future of the ECP already was in doubt before the Supreme Court ruling. Deployments of Australian officials were put on hold after the PNG Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare suspended the program because he was asked to take his shoes off during a security check at Brisbane airport in April. Somare auctioned the shoes for 11,000 kina ($4900) at a charity fundraiser on the weekend.
Somare's reluctance to accept the ECP was shared by Luther Wenge, an MP and governor of Morobe Province . Last year he accused the Australian Government of trying to "invade" PNG and instructed a rally of some 2000 people to "chase away" Australian police from Lae, the provincial capital the Lae Chamber of Commerce has described as "sinking into a state of disorder never seen before".
Wenge instigated the successful Supreme Court challenge to the immunity granted to Australian police. His action has no doubt been welcomed by the politicians, public servants and their "big men" associates who fear exposure of corruption in the courts.
But for the ordinary "grassroots" Papua New Guineans, whose living standards have not just stalled but deteriorated in the face of rising crime and violence, it is a disaster.
The ECP could be a catalyst for change. But it can only succeed if it is accompanied by growth policies that address the deep economic malaise that is both a cause and effect of the chronic breakdown in law and order that consistently rates as the number one concern for investors, business people and citizens alike.
A handful of concerned PNG parliamentarians and other public commentators recognise that PNG needs to grow by at least 7 per cent a year to repair the social and economic damage of the past 30 years.
Only with such rates of growth will sufficient numbers of jobs be created to enable crime to be reduced. With the growth of incomes in villages there would be some hope of reducing civil conflicts as well as raising health and education standards.
But although Treasurer Bart Philemon has managed to halt decline so that economic growth has at last been positive -- at 2.3 per cent in 2003 and 2.6 per cent in 2004 -- with population growth at nearly 2.5 per cent, per capita incomes barely rose.
These population and growth figures mean living standards stagnated for the 10th consecutive year. Despite high mineral and commodity prices, and despite Australia 's increased aid of up to $500 million a year, the Somare Government is failing to deliver even a minimal improvement to its citizens.
Only the PNG Parliament can make the choices for growth without which campaigns against crime and corruption can not succeed. The ECP was intended to support the beleaguered minority of reformers in Parliament committed to change. Restoring some semblance of law and order is essential to the process of economic reform. But PNG must meet the program halfway.
Worldwide experience demonstrates that declines in corruption and improved governance do not normally precede, but follow, growth. This has not only been the experience in East Asia but also in other developing countries as disparate as Botswana and Chile .
Worldwide experience also demonstrates that aid can only be effective in countries with strong growth policies. Only if PNG abandons the policies that have resulted in 30 years of population growth ahead of economic growth can Australian aid be effective and will the lives of Papua New Guineans improve.
Emeritus Professor Helen Hughes is a Senior Fellow and Susan Windybank is the Foreign Policy Research Director at The Centre for Independent Studies. Their report, Papua New Guinea 's Choice: A Tale of Two Nations, is released today and is available at www.cis.org.au.
