Disparities in Development: The plight of Inner mainland PNG

AN ESSAY By: TUGUYAWINI LAITEPO

Our beloved country Papua New Guinea, Usually stylized and called PNG land of the Unexpected is very unique and diverse as we all know. In recent times there has been much outcry from within sections of PNG against the Trans-Island highway proposed by the O’Neil government as well as the continuity of Tribal fights in the highlands region, specifically Hela Province, Enga and southern Highlands. Many have expressed their opinions for and against those issues and each individual has a right to their own personal opinions. It has come to this writer’s attention that many citizens’ views against the above mentioned issues trickle down to the notion of ‘Plesman, Uncivilised,’ attitude of the highlanders and citizens disdain for such behaviours in Port Moresby and PNG as a whole in this day and age. Many have noted that the highlands populace has yet to develop and stereotype them as being ‘Way back’ and still stuck in the Stone Age. This Paper will try its best to explain the reasons behind such disparities in culture/attitude and hopefully come up with at least a part remedy to this Plight that we as a nation are caught in.

It must be noted that when the island of New Guinea was discovered by Portuguese sailors and eventually colonised, many of our people in the Islands and coastal areas of Mainland PNG were the first to be exposed to the international or outside culture other than Melanesian. It is sometimes said that explorers and colonisers come with the sword and the bible and ultimately the missionaries were the first to introduce health and education to our local populace and opened up their knowledge of the world that we live in and call home. Places such as wewak, Rabaul, Port Moresby, Milne Bay, Kavieng, Buka, and Lae have had huge number of colonial administrative populations of mainly European background. With the exclusion of the Island PNG, the townships along the coastal Parts of Mainland PNG were light years ahead of the inner mainland part of PNG by the time PNG gained independence. Locals from those townships had a sizeable number of semi- educated elites from which many highly educated intellectuals emerged. As a culture, those areas developed and changed rapidly from their traditional ways due to the high amounts of influence and contact with outside world via the churches and colonizers. Cultures such as tribal fights have eventually stopped or no longer practiced in those areas. This writer defines inner Mainland PNG as the highlands provinces, inland Gulf Province, Inland Western Province, and Inland West Sepik Province as well as parts of East Sepik bordering Enga and Parts of Madang Bordering Chimbu. Human development is defined as the assimilation/adoption of traditional Melanesian/PNG culture into that of the western/Judeo-christian culture in certain respects via education and exposure.

While on the other hand, even during the first years of colonization, much of inner Mainland PNG remained unexplored and cultures in those areas had no idea of the bigger outside world other than their own and that of their neighbouring ethnic groupings. The change in culture (or rather adoption of certain aspects of western cultures) of the coastal mainland PNG people was further radically fastened by the introduction of TV and radio and inter-PNG migration from within the already colonized part of Papua and New Guinea Territories. Places like the Milne Bay on the tip of PNG had a huge number of locals being fluent in English (while also knowing native language) to reflect the level of change their culture has undergone in a short time span. However, many ethnic groups in the inner mainland had no exposure and lacked the basics of Health services and education to kickstart such cultural changes. This only happened in later years after PNG gained independence.

To put into perspective, the Papuan wonderland (Now Hela, SHP) was discovered in 1935 by Jack Hides and would take another 40 years for it be connected by road to other provinces. Development in the Papuan wonderland and rest of highlands was slow even after independence as road networks were bad due to the terrain and weather. These areas of inner mainland PNG had roads and a fair bit of exposure to the outside world but the roads only served those near it with roughly 70-80% of the populace locked in small pockets of villages high up in the mountains with only few venturing out. Other Places with no road connection, had virtually no way of contact and exposure to outside and many from those areas in places likekikori, telefomin, oksapmin, nomad, soabi, strickland and kopiago as well as in the mountain ranges of simbu, sepik Plains regiions. Even to this day many do not have any roads linking them to any centres with the only mode of transport being a k6-700 flights via old airstrips. Nearly half of Western province is not connected by road.The slow process of both human development as well as physical infrastructure development meant that the Cultures of inner mainland PNG remained strong and had not been radically changed compared to that of the coastal town populations. This was the case since independence until the introduction of mobile phones and social media which have played a significant roles on their cultural morphing.

The populations of inner mainland PNG were in a Cocoon of their own with a limited mindset that restricted them to the here and now and comfortably coiled up in their own cultures.

Yes there are the few from the regions who are educated and have different outlook of the world but the cultures as a whole is stagnant by lack of human development. In this day and age many are aware that there is a bigger world out there but are caught in a cycle of trying to balance external pull forces as well as the internal cultural norms. The uneducated subsistence farmers in the inner regions are confined to their coffee, sago and Kaukau gardens and issues other than land and tribal requirements are of no significance to them.

Thus, having laid out the framework around why the huge disparities in culture and attitudes between inner mainland PNG and Coastal Mainland PNG/Island PNG, the key factor arising is the concept of human development as a society in those respective areas. It can be noted that the key to enlightening the populace is via connection to the outside world with tools such as roads, education and mass media. This writer has observed that those centres that had high human development during the early years of colonization have replaced their former pre-colonisation culture with a modern hybrid that discarded the bad and adopted the good from both western/Judeo-Christian and traditional Melanesian PNG culture to the extent that society as a whole has disregards such practice as tribal fights etc. Therefore, the main issue that we face as a country is to educate and enlighten our populations in all areas of PNG to ultimately leave the bad and adopt the good aspects of our culture that is more relevant and can be used in today’s globalised society. The final part of this looks paper looks at possible remedies of how we could achieve that goal.

In conclusion, to get the Gist of what the writer is trying to establish here, one has to look at our country Papua New Guinea as a human being. Let’s call him Kumulis and like all other human beings needs the proper circulation of blood within his body for it to function efficiently and effectively. Kumulis will be crippled in one side of his body if there is no proper circulation of blood to a certain part of his body. Now with that picture in mind, blood equates to the flow of knowledge, resources, development etc. while the veins/vessels represents the road networks criss-crossing the country. However, in PNG’s case, there is not efficient flow due to limited road networks with 60-70% of the population being isolated. Thus, our country is crippled or rather paralysed from reaching its full maximum capacity for the flow of knowledge, services, development, resources and so forth. To cover for the disparities mentioned in this paper, PNG needs to open up its inner Mainland and have it connected to the main centres of Coastal PNG.  Current Government and Future governments need to combat this disparities by focusing on the following possible road projects listed below; Once the road is there, Everything will flow automatically.

1.    Trans-Island Highway
2.     Hela to West Sepik (Via Oksapmin and Kiunga/Tabubil
3.     Enga to East Sepik
4.     Kutubu to Kerema (Via Erave Samberigi)
5.     Baiyer to Madang
6.     Mt Wilhelm (Chimbu) to Madang
7.     Lae to Port Moresby Via Bulolo/Menyamya/Goilala
8.     Oro to Central
9.     Central to Milne Bay

The projects above are mentioned in a biased sense not due to its low level of development but because of the huge potential it holds for the nation as a whole if that area of the nation is opened up. Of the 7 Million citizens of PNG, roughly two thirds live in that region and as such the economic ripple effect of having a high number of educated workforce from there would transform PNG and reduce urban drift as well. PNG stands to gain more from opening up its inner corridors than to leave it as it is. The Recent concerns raised by Papuan Leaders regarding urban drift to Port Moresby from the proposed Trans-Island Highway was a valid point but as explained above, if the roads are not connected, the people in the inner mainland of PNG will continue with the current trend of attitudes and behaviour without any change. The opening up of mainland PNG via roads is not only for economic benefits but to assist in Human Development so that the majority of the isolated areas can be exposed to outside world to eventually change as a society.

 Tuguyawini Laitepo – Gigira Range, Hela