The Making of Leadership in Papua New Guinea: Elections, Bribery, Cheating and Corruption

By LUCAS KIAP

The current states of affairs in this country whether good or bad according to your judgment are the reflections of the standard and quality of leadership we have had over the last 38 years of independence.

 

To understand the standard and quality of leadership in this country, let’s go back to how our leaders are elected to parliament, hence elections. In the Highlands where I come from, leaders are not elected democratically as it suppose to be through the ballot paper but usually elected through force, intimidations, bribery and cheating.

 

In the following I share my personal experiences of election bribery and cheating starting from the 1997 up until the 2012 general/national elections.

 

As far as I can recall, I had first witnessed bribery during the 1997 general elections. In that year I was doing Grade 9 at Fr. Peter Secondary (formerly known as Fatima Secondary) in the new Jiwaka Province (before it was part of the W.H.P). All students were asked to go home to vote in our respective districts. Back in the village, I had found out that my father with some members from my Nenga Engamb clan supported a candidate from the neighboring clan. The neighboring clan and my clan are part of the bigger Nenga tribe and our villages are only separated by a creek. Community leaders in my village collaborated with the election managers of the candidate, collected names of people from my village that supported the candidate. The name list contained not more than 200 people were handed over to the candidate.

 

 The candidate called the community leaders from his clan and my clan together for a meeting. In the ensuing meeting, community leaders from my side confirmed the number of people in the name list and pledge their unconditional support witnessed by the candidate’s village elders. After the name list was confirmed, the candidate in the presence of witnesses handed over K3,000 in cash and two very large pigs, worth K2,000 each to my people. After handed over the money and pigs, the candidate told my people that the two pigs were to be slaughtered and shared together with the money among the people whom their names were on the list that will be voting for him.

 

In return, my village elders asked the candidate to confirm the number of votes in my council ward during the counting of the votes. This is another way of assuring the candidate that no one will get the bribery without voting him or escape. Unfortunately, I had my share of the pork meat and money and voted the candidate because of the lack of knowledge about corruption at that time. 

 

In the 2002 general elections, someone was trying to bribe me with money to vote for a particular candidate. In that year, I was doing my second year at the University of Technology in Lae. I came home to my village (Tondmong in Mul Baiyer electorate in W.H.P) to vote in the general elections. While I was waiting for my name to be called out to vote, one of my clan members approached me from behind and asked if I could vote for the candidate he supported, in return for money.

 

 He told me that everyone else got their shares and all were ready to vote for this particular candidate. I missed out because I was in Lae.  He continued on to say that I had three offers to choose from - K200, K150 and K100 for the first, second and third preferential votes respectively. I slowly raised my head and faced him, locked my eyes firmly onto his, told him that it’s wrong to accept bribery. But he insisted that all voters in the electorate (Mul Baiyer and Lumusa) had received money and pigs and no one is going to vote without getting something in return for their votes. He was the cash man for that particular candidate to bribe people at the pooling boot. Fortunately, I didn’t give in because I was then aware of corruption and what it is doing to our country and my life.

 

In the 2012 elections, one of my clan’s men has put up his hand to contest the elections. He is a Port Moresby based businessman. One of the things I found it awkward to understand was the high expectations of the voters expecting something from him. People came to him two year before the elections, asking him to help or assist them in their typical Highlands cultural obligations or personal matters. He was put under extreme pressure to meet all their expectations because if he doesn’t help them, they will not vote for him in the elections.

 

Voters took advantage of this and manipulated him to obtained money and other goods from him. They came to him asking him to buy coffin for their death, contribute money toward the funeral expenses, buy airfares, buy beer for them, assist in school fees, and many more. This is an endless list of things voters demanded from him before they vote for him. Because this is the current trend of politics in the country – he has no choice but have to live up to their expectations until the winner was declared. Unfortunately, he didn’t win but handed up spending his fortunes due to a practice which he cannot avoid and is quickly becoming a norm.  

 

Out of all the experiences I had observed, there is a latest trend in the politics which is more sophisticated, well planned and cleverly executed than any of my other experiences. This latest trend is the distortion and manipulation of the common roles with the intention to deflate or inflate the population figures in a particular electorate. I have heard people told me of their involvement in this latest trend but to confirm it was difficult until the 2012 national elections when one of my relative confessed his involvement.

 

This relative has confirmed the existence of such a manipulative system and how he involved with one of the candidates. Unfortunately, the candidate didn’t fully capitalize on this opportunity seeing himself defeated by another candidate. What happens is that when the common roles are updated, sitting members or candidates with the knowledge of such a system bribed the officials who update the common rolls. The population figures are then manipulated. The numbers of voters at their strongholds are inflated while the numbers of voters at the strong holds of their rivals are deflated. They also include ghost names, under ages as well as names of the dead on the common rolls in their strong holds.

 

 They create extra and illegal pooling boots that don’t exist to cater for the extra votes that they stole from other council wards. During the time of voting the returning officer marks and signs all the ballot papers for that particular candidate. These boxes containing marked and signed votes are then escorted by security personnel to the designated counting centers where it is then locked for counting. This cheating involves key players in all the facets of the election process. It involves officials from the Electoral Commission’s office to election managers in the provinces to district returning officers to the pooling officials on the ground and security personals. They have all been bribed for their part in facilitating this illegal voting scheme. 

 

After heard his confession, I asked him why he helped in facilitating such illegal voting practices. He looked me in the eye and said “sorry to tell you this but it’s the system - you have to be in the system to be recognized in order to benefit”.

 

What did he mean when he said, “you have to be in the system to be recognized in order to benefit”? The answer is very simple – politics in this country can unlock the door to endless opportunities, where political spinoff or gains are shared among the cronies, supporters and voters. For instance, you can have a well paid government job, involve in business activities by getting government contracts, live in luxury hotels, travel frequently between Port Moresby and drive around in expensive hire cars - all paid for by the tax payers money.  

 

If this is the process how PNG makes its leadership to run the country, then one may question the standard and quality of the leadership running the affairs of this country over the last 38 years of Independence.

 

Perhaps, this country would have been developed quickly if we had leaders as those defined by Dr. Cornel West as “if your success is being defined as well adjusted to injustice and well adapted to indifference, then we don’t want successful leaders. We want great leaders - who love the people enough and respect the people enough to be unbought, unbound, unafraid and unintimidated to tell the truth”.

 

Unfortunately, the system of bribery and cheating to elect leaders has never produced great leaders in this country.  Instead it has produced leaders with low moral conduct, questionable reputation and credibility, vast personal interests, and hidden agendas to the parliament whom have been promoting bribery, wantok-system and corruption, which are the dark forces acting behind the scenes slowly destroying our beautiful country and making our lives difficult.