Whilst the contemporary Papua New Guinea politics seem to rotate around fame and publicity stunts, Madang has had its fair share of political crisis that only the public can adjudicate and conclude independent of other inferences. The issues in contention that must be raised and argued are the determinants of power politics that are culturally infested or influenced in arms length by the constant courtship of carpetbaggers. It is a relationship developed under the auspices of extended invitation for purpose of alliance and greater participation. It is known as “putim mat” which is setting the mutual foundation for greater unity and incorporating it with “maror” a value system whereby leaders ceremoniously convene to demonstrate their cultural prowess and set new standards or honor traditional commitments. Unfortunately the proponents of such traditional concepts are now ridiculed because the equation has since not favor high returns and the result being constant disaster and anguish.
With a tranquil, calm and peaceful atmosphere becoming the major depiction of this famous “Beautiful Madang Province” one must now demarcate between the fourth estate outlook and the realities of development and where power politics can best be scrutinized. Quite interestingly, such a fancy description is too shallow and is a gainful image serving only a particular segment of the society. Although such illustration maybe driven by capitalistic modes, the general population of the province are jammed on the opposite of such speculative euphoria. It is a pity that the disproportion in such an equation maybe beneficial to the economic prosperity of the province, but at some stage the capitalist monopoly must be diversified by way of deregulation to allow increased local participation and control, perhaps on a more socialistic dimension.
Madang sits on a prophecy that one day it will be truly free to govern itself but 2007 will be a special year for Our Good Lord the Creator, because of his special symbol 7. This will be quite absurd to the mindset of many younger generation but the time has come for a radical diversion from semi active participation towards a rejuvenation but credible injection of right blood and energy that emerges within the meaning of self-reliance and self control. It must be nothing compared to “Glasnost” and “Perestroika” as strongly pursued by Mikhail Gorbachev, the former President of Soviet Union. The elders of Madang are tormented in the argument of right leadership and local blend and have aggressively opted for cultural and traditional interpretations. Many of them do not understand that the authority was transferred from the colonial era to the people of Madang by way of reluctance and that has thrown the blanket of “curse” over the political leadership because it carried some element of deceit, jealousy and deterrence. This curse is evident today through a domino effect whereby the traditional government of the land has claimed casualties without their realization.
For those that dwell in the circle of power and culture, there are only few who knows it better than all and the rest. But if they reckon that they are the linchpin then they will be bringing the nuisance unto themselves because the roadmap has been written out delineating their annexation through the process of reconciliation. This process needs guidance and require proper authority to vigilantly orchestrate this intrinsic course of action. It must be pacified by the anointed blessing that is somewhat drowned in the crest of an aging balance of power not only stuck on the coastline of “Godawan” to “Iduwan” or from "Yomba" to "Gogol" but spherical in dimension to the mountains of the Gods.
The philosophy of “maror” and “matau” is meaningless if consensus is not reached within the given calendar period. It is evidently clear that power struggle will not be the way forward if people are not able to swallow their pride and understand the wish of this nature conserved government. Perhaps the avid experiences from the last years depriving the people’s power may be a fluke but an appraisal will point to the supremacy of a reigning force that is not with the realm of the mass.
Other provinces may have their own disparities and it is in their own interest to appraise and expose certain trends for the general public and the government to take note. However, Madang is caught in a very awkward development impasse due to the lack of effective local participation and one of the most distinguished element of analysis is the power politics. A closer look will see power politics having a reciprocal relationship to determine the degree of progression and digression at a speed much to the cognitive ability and determination of a particular decision maker. There is hardly any strong rationale for long term interests and focus on paradigm shift. This can be classified in two modern day political contexts as seen from the ongoing observation.
The first context is the “Situational Power Politics” which means that in order to achieve a particular objective the actors unnecessarily guarantees to reward or threaten to coerce a particular group. If the group surrenders, it will do so not because it is persuaded that the particular actor is right, but due to the fact that the group feels compelled to do so. This literally means that the target reluctantly obeys such because failure to do so will mean harming its present state of affairs.
The second context is the “Legitimate Power Politics” which is generated by persuading others on policy importance by getting the target to accept a particular objective voluntarily. However, all of these exercises entail costs and in so far more damages have transpired to the future of the province. This is because most circumstances are driven by situational power politics pursued by pure greed and lust. This then is setting the benchmark for the delivery of goods and services.
In most instances the people are geared towards achieving a very vague objective within a destructive pathway that only leads to fragmentation and disillusion. It is really a terrible anticlimax as the process accumulates into all hosts of economic, social and political complexities, whereby solutions cannot be found overtime. A direct impact of such entrenchment is reflected by the inabilities of the local population to take advantage of the limited economic opportunities. This then creates the cycle of poverty automatically reinforcing itself leading to low level of savings, low level of investment in physical and human capital resulting in low productivity, high unemployment, low income per capita and rapid population growth.
The development vision of the province is not based on comparative advantage in favor of the local communities. This is an important agenda for purpose of unity and consistency to counter the ever-increasing escalation of unequal distribution of wealth, and promoting equitable participation and community empowerment. The principle of free market economy cannot instantly work for the local population, although it is becoming the norm of the modern day economics, until the country’s major indicators are equivalent to those of the developed world. Hence, the government is momentarily obliged under this context to patronize and sanction development trend in the order of equitable participation and distribution of wealth.
The country is already divided into 20 provinces, and after 35 years of independence all provinces must take stock by way of due diligence in measuring development achievements and addressing their ongoing failures. For Madang, perhaps the people seem to be very occupied or sightless to notice what goes on around them. But in terms of development planning, it is really an indication of strong leadership void not only in parliament but also at the community level resulting in the cultural deficiency in paving the way for reconciliation for the future of the province, especially the Madang District.
This is a timely discussion in preparation for the much talked about autonomy and more devolution of powers. History has shown that Bougainville was the first to ask for Provincial Government, thus decentralization. And now with the Bougainville Autonomous Government, more provinces are probing the same benefit. However, in Madang the leadership impetus and planning process lacks terribly in the foresight to accommodate such changes and needs an absolute overhaul, as the more advantaged seems to play hide and seek at the expense of the disadvantaged. Unfortunately, the people of Madang are blind in fixing their backyard. If any truth must prevail then the organizational structure and the historical significance of the people have been downplayed too fast for the choice of bread and butter with a quick departure to appreciate secondary justifications that are only applicable to poorly cultivated societal norms and values.
Furthermore, the moral obligation to educate the people about certain impending dangers and new opportunities are fastly disappearing as if the people are operating out of New York or London. As a result, the ability to make decisions can easily be influenced by the smell of money or mob rule and not based on proper intrinsic deliberations. The youths for instance have always been disillusioned and trapped by their instant fun of excitement and entertainment without the power to decide their future realistically. The recent cargo cult activities engineered by Black Jesus are clear indications of a curse, abuse of the sacred culture, underdevelopment and poor political leadership.
The government services are not adequately reaching the population in rural areas with all development infrastructures totally collapsing, despite the high commodity price windfall. This is becoming a bit strange as some time ago the impact of government services can be felt! Hence, there are two reasons to such shortfalls. The first is the bureaucratic incompetency and the second is the deficiency in political representation in addressing the development obstacles that stand to be removed in order to attract the desired blessing on our fortunes. For instance, many may academically deduce that if there is a provincial budget shortfall then it is only right to aggressively justify and ask for more, because the state has an obligation to sustain its periphery. Well, why is it that the motivation is not there – perhaps the answer is simple, there is no common will to prosper to that altitude.
Perhaps the power politics may have had its own answers but there appears to be more major problems. Apart from all hosts of development setbacks the Madang leaders and National Government have failed in not securing adequate equity package for the Madang province in the K3 Billion Ramu Nickel and Cobalt mining project. It is something that only time will tell whether it was deliberately done by outside forces on competitive terms or dictated by gross incompetency. The province has lost out immensely by not having the Madang Provincial Government secure an adequate equity stake in the World Class Ramu Nickel and Cobalt Mining. Perhaps the new Marine Park (Pacific Marine Industrial Zone) will meet the same fate as it is unclear who will be benefiting apart from the Papua New Guinea Government.
Yes, we all know Nickel and Cobalt mining is the first of its kind in the country but the equity break up is cumbersome on one side and any stakeholder analysis will expose certain disadvantages. Unlike all mining provinces Madang will loose out on possible returns to supplement its annual budget and that is a disgrace! Take a look at the 2007 Provincial Budget allocated by the National Government for Madang as K41, 838,00.00 of which K 40, 088,00.00 is recurrent, which means almost 90 percent will go towards paying wages and salaries, bills, fuel etc, and a lousy K 1, 750,000.00 will be for the Development Budget. Yes we all know that Members of Parliament are bringing in the District Support Improvement Program but perhaps they need to publish their well audited implementation reports to justify the use of the funds. In any case this is a slap in the face and totally unfair. Madang 's input into the national economy is considerably above average and is destined to triple in the near future and do not deserve such a laughable development appropriation. It is a joke and will require a right feedback at the right time.
How many development programmes and projects can possibly be done with this peanut money of K1, 750,000.00 for the 300,000 people? There are some provinces, which have sudden hefty increases in their Development Budget but how much contribution they make to the national economy remains a major concern! There is a real bias in the appropriation of financial resources and the people will become useless in effectively participating in the nation building process. The government has not been fair and it is now clear to all the citizens that development progress cannot be maintained across the board on an equitable basis, because balancing figures on paper is becoming the norm of this armchair government planners who are not able to equitably measure their own performances. The government boasts about the Medium Term Development Strategies but it is a blueprint of bias driven development with no clear output evaluation and impact assessment.
Today New Ireland, Southern Highlands and Enga Provinces are investing on human resources, property investment and all other infrastructure development without strong input from the national government budget and bulk of the funding is derived from the oil, gas, petroleum and gold mining equity. There cannot be any exception for Madang, because the nickel and cobalt belongs to the province and the people of Madang as per its provincial and geographical boundaries. Thus the province is a major contender to have a proper stake in the equity breakup Through the equity stake the Local Level Government programs and any provincial projects can be adequately implemented and sustained Why was it not given adequate preferences at all? Or if Madang has any, can we know if the percentages are adequate?
This country’s expansion is dictated by long-term vision and the opportunities are very scarce. A closer look at the advantage of minerals and resources equity will agree that more benefits can be derived if funds are properly managed. For Madang to believe that only spin-offs and royalties will bring some economic benefits is a one-dimensional philosophy and blatant hogwash because the people do not have the capital to participate in their own resource development. But what will be the consequential impact on the ordinary people, in terms of the expected price increase, uncontrolled influx of the people who are now buying properties and land like wild fire everywhere, and their under participation in the distribution of wealth when the potential equity to the provincial government has been significantly denied?
The decision of the Provincial Government not having adequate equity may have its own reasons as to whether the national government or the investor also having prior arrangements in terms of equity distribution. But it is also emerging as an unfamiliar decision as compared to other mining provinces. Whilst all investors are free and welcome to do business in Madang, it would be interesting to know what actually transpired that led to the Provincial Government missing out. This is an argument that is contentious and requires a review as to why all other provinces with mining operations have had their provincial government controlling certain percentage of equity and interestingly not for Madang.
Most people have downplayed the issue because they reckoned it is easy as that. From a local point of view the people of Madang have not been able to be educated well about the immense impact of the mining. For instance, the sudden price increase that will be passed on to the ordinary citizens, the imbalances in the equation of supply and demand and all host of socioeconomic impacts. Today Madang is already experiencing the sudden influx of people wildly bombarding the scarce economic opportunities to lay claim over them. The Provincial Government has equally failed to explain how an equity of that nature if they have any can supplement the budget and subsidize the cost of infrastructure development and services like education, health and transport, when a similar undersized 2007 Development Budget is handed down for Madang in the future.
The people would be really foolish to think that royalties and spin-offs are the way forward simply because they do not have the overhead capital to start. Those who are now well established will have the upper hand to hijack the rightful opportunities and already they are waiting to seize the spin-offs. This is not a simple issue about few minorities having access to premiums and royalties and the province at large not benefiting as compared to other mining provinces.
It is with great trepidation that this issue must be raised. Insofar the Members of Parliament have yet to provide a satisfactory answer to the people of Madang. We have all witnessed the disunity amongst most who are yet to demonstrate real maturity to genuine development initiatives. There are some who cannot debate and diligently articulate on the floor of parliament about these issues. The Parliament “Hansard” will enlighten a lot of us on those who have been outstanding in representing their people. Hence, it is now clear that the people vested with mandate were not fit to even represent their families. If it was a direct repercussion of power politics then the villain of the piece may have vanished in the meantime but as a matter of concern the custodians failed to act in the best interest of the very people they represented.
History will prove that the decision to deny the people of Madang through their provincial government is a blow to the local community in effectively participating in real economic development and may be the turning point to greater development misfortunes. We all know that that there are more major impact projects comming up and we do not need poor political vision that will terribly backfire on the lives of the 300 000 plus people of Madang. Perhaps in the future such an arrangement should be reviewed by way of legislation to retrospectively incorporate a more equitable distribution amongst all stakeholders, as this arrangement appears to be totally pathetic.
However, if such is not possible then the people who are structurally stuck in the reinforcing cycle of poverty should demand for autonomy so that it will enable them as citizens of that province and landowners to have a greater say as to how the equities of such resource development should be divided. They will also feel obliged to undertake necessary preparation in anticipation of the development impacts of such a project. There are indeed fewer opportunities in challenging a government who decides favorably to service itself at the expense of the people’s resources by not sufficiently enabling them to participate or focusing more on the investor than the people.
The landowners on the same footing deserve even more equity than anybody. This creates a situation where the role of the state in equity distribution is by far unjustified as the rate of returns is temporary or unclear. Therefore, Madang Provincial Government as the ruling authority of the province deserve to have an adequate equity stake as it will be the direct service provider and custodian of the 300 000 people. Otherwise all the much-anticipated high returns in any minerals and resources development in the province will all be just the icing on the devils cake.
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