Are we still worthy of “Big Brother” tag in the region?

By JASON GIMA WURI

As Melanesians, it is only natural and fitting to stand up for our own kind or our own Melanesian brothers and wantoks as we call it in this part of the Pacific.

With Australia’s regional resettlement deal hot on its heels whereby Australia seems to be shifting its asylum seeker boat issues to the lesser competent Pacific island nations in Papua New Guinea and Nauru in exchange for promises of development and funding.
It seems like Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has ulterior motives to win the federal elections and does not care who stands in the way whether it be Papua New Guinea or Nauru.

PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neiland his government as we understand are looking at it from a development perspective whereby funding is coming in from the deal to help bring about development in Manus Province  but do they  even consider the long term effects, whether or not the asylum seekers will be settled here?
Recently reported on Australian Network this week, the Fiji Government criticized Australia’s Asylum deal signed with PNG on the `19th of July this year, during a 20th Aust-Fiji Business Forum in Brisbane.
Fiji Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola accused Australia of using its economic muscle to persuade PNG to accept 1000’s of people who are not Pacific Islanders into the country.
“For an Australian Problem, you have proposed a Melanesian solution that threatens to stabilize the already delicate social and economic balances in our societies” he said.
He described the deal as a pattern of behaviour that is inconsiderate, prescriptive, high handed and arrogant
The deal has been made to solve a domestic political problem gain and without consultation. Kevin Rudd wants win the federal elections and does not care who stands in the way.

Also reported in ‘The Age’ Newspaper’ this week, Fiji Foreign Minister attacked the new Hardline Asylum Seeker policy, warning it could alter the social fabric of the Pacific Islands.
"This deal, and those mooted with Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, clearly threatens our interests by altering the fundamental social fabric of any member country that accepts a deal.
"We are deeply troubled by the consequent threat to the stability of these countries and the wider Melanesian community by the scale of what is being envisaged."
The foreign minister said that while he respected the PNG government's sovereign right to make the deal, it was done to solve Australia's domestic political problem for short-term political gain, without proper consideration of the long-term consequences.
"This was done without any consultation, a sudden and unilateral announcement, which is not the Pacific way and has shocked a great many people in the region," Mr Kubuabola said.
"We share the horror of many in the international community at the deaths of more than 1000 asylum seekers trying to reach Australia.
"But we cannot remain silent when the current Australian government dumps this problem, which is arguably of its own making, on our doorstep.
PM Rudd is saying that it is his understanding that the Australian Government will pay for the processing and resettlement of Asylum seekers in PNG.
Australia has already committed to fund the processing centre that will be built for asylum seekers who arrive by boat and are sent to PNG.
He stated that as stipulated in the deal signed understanding is that asylum originating out of Australia will be borne by the Australian government.

Furthermore the Solomon Islands has rejected Australia’s request to play a role in the federal government's plan to send asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea for processing and resettlement.

The country's Prime Minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo has been in talks with Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr on the matter.

This follows last month’s announcement that no asylum seeker who reach Australia by boat will ever be resettled in Australia, instead they will be sent to Papua New Guinea for processing and, if found to be refugees, will be resettled there.

“No we will never consider that. It was informally put to us and I rejected,” PM Lilo said.

“I basically said No to them.”

“They made a choice to go to Australia and not to come to Solomons that is the first issue” PM Lilo told Fiji journalists in Nadi while attending the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) inaugural meeting.

PM Lilo bluntly rejected the idea of the Pacific Solution that is invented in Australia saying the issue must be first consulted amongst leaders of the region.

“Pacific Solution has to be discussed broadly with all the Pacific Leaders. You cannot invent something in Australia and say that is a Pacific Solution. That’s wrong but more fundamentally the choice of asylum seekers.

"They made a choice to go to Australia, not to go to Papua New Guinea or Solomons,” he said. 
So it seems that Melanesian Big Brother Papua New Guinea is crumbling to the pressure of this refugee resettlement deal applied by Australia while the small brothers, Fiji and the Solomon Islands are refusing to bow down. 

PNG should take heed for once and listen to its smaller Melanesian brother countries Fiji and the Solomon Island’s concern and advice to refrain from this deal with Australia for the sake of the region at large.
Although PNG is a signatory to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention, we do not have the systems, the western perspective, the capacity and the resources to be able to sustain this commitment.

Our people’s reaction will be to grasp at what we understand and react to - money, power, land. This will be so different to the Western way of thinking that we are likely to be categorised as "difficult", "dangerous", "backward" etc.

The prime ministers of both countries knew this and knew that there would be no great outcry in PNG; and that if there were; it would be from the minority of educated people who would be unable to sustain their opinion and reaction due to a lack of understanding of the issue by the majority of the population.

Peter O’Neill and Kevin Rudd knew it would be a hose down and went for it. They exposed PNG's vulnerability to their advantage.

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