Post Sydney Mining Conference 1st - 3 rd December 2014. A Post Mortem

By GABRIEL RAMOI
A  peculiar condition  observed among weak  States is the tendency of its Elite  to go on a horse and pony show in the former Colonial Metropolis  to  drum up investment opportunities in their home Country  as a panacea  for dealing  with  the growing level of poverty, crime, lawlessness  and  Urban drift that is making life difficult and uncomfortable  for these elites back at home. The Sydney  Mining  Conference is a horse and pony show that has  become Stale  as the same faces that do the rounds in Port Moresby reappear in Australia followed by a large retinue of  Public officials happy to take a break abroad at tax  payer’s expense to go shopping.  I  have lived in Port Moresby on and off for a period of over  30 years including spending time at both the University of PNG and  the university of Bomana and  I am  frighten by the current level of rural migrants that have moved into Port Moresby  since May 2014  following the successful completion of PNGs Fist LNG Project .  

I am  sadden to see Port Moresby inundated with a unplanned sea of unemployed humanity that have taken over the city’s  public parks  and space. This   problem   requires  the  attention of policy makers  and public officials  to hold  public forums  in PNG to immediately make a case for the allocation of  resources  to acquire land  in areas such as South Simbu  and to invite leading experts to these forums  to  discuss the best way to settle our  rural immigrants  to ease the pressure  on all our infrastructure and support facilities and services  in our cities of  Port Moresby ,  Mount Hagen , Lae and now  Madang.   Talking  to a group of  Foreign Business man who care two bob about our unemployment  problem at the Sydney Hilton will not result in finding  a solution nor pretending that the  problem does not exist. Already  the sides of the main drainage system  that runs through   the Central Business District of Boroko and the pavements of the streets in front of the shops have taken a life off their own after 11.00pm  every night as  the marginalised  in our society take over  these space to rest their tired and hungry bodies for another night. Unplanned settlements at Garden Hill  estate  East Boroko  and two mile have  become  a  sore eye.  We  must immediately work on crafting  a  Social Security policy to deal with this issue and  to also deal with the issues of Social Housing, Social Water and Social Electricity for all our people  to  arrest the flow  of  rural urban migration.  
The solution to our problems is not in Sydney or elsewhere  it is internal and  in the long term requires renewed and sustained political will  and courage to  remove the last vestiges of Colonial  and neo colonial  laws and thinking  that entrap us as a nation in order to unleash  the true potential of this nation . It means  the courage to make  changes to our Mining and Oil & Gas Act  that must see a tectonic shift  in the ownership structure of our Extractive resources and I am sorry to remind our  Sydney Mining Participants that this view will not find support  in the Sydney Hilton or any Forums held abroad. 

It follows  that the  State  will also need to find more innovative ways of raising  Capital  to develop  its Resources in a way that gives maximum return to the State so it can immediately  adopt  interventionist public policy to  mitigate against  the  explosion of civil unrest and  violence on our Streets as recently witnessed in Mount Hagen in the Burning down of Shops and Property by  those that are marginalised in our society  and have in recent times moved into our Cities to look for better opportunities for themselves and their children.
Let me  Publicly speak   to  the Prime Minister and his two leading  coalition  Partners  in Minister Micah and Minister Pruaitch  through  this blog not to be disillusioned by the current referrals by the Ombudsmen and the Public Prosecutor that may  have shaken their confidence and dampen their enthusiasm and spirit in dealing with reforms inour resource sector but to remain them to have courage and be  resolute in their desire to change policies and laws that will see a better outcome in the resource sector   for the State in order to secure  a more inclusive and  shared prosperity for all our People.

It is a course worth fighting and dying for.  Take heart , Just look across at Indonesian and study the resource ownership structure and  resource  extraction regime in that country  and compare the ability of that country [ despite the corruption]to be  is able to build modern infrastructures and  lift  100million of its People out of Poverty  with the use of the income from its extractive industries over the last 40 years. While the State in PNG has  limited itself  to owing  30% and 22.5% of its mines and hydro Carbon  resources respectively in  Indonesia it is 60%  State ownership  on a production sharing arrangement since 1966  with a current ban in place against the export of raw materials imposed in 2011 to take effect this year. Freeport copper has been forced by the Indonesian Government to stop exporting Copper Ore out of Indonesia and to build a copper smelter  within Indonesia. Contrast that with the battle for their life by the Porgera Land Owners  over a cleaning and  laundry Contract and in Panguna  a Civil War  to increase landowner royalty from 2% to 10% from a Royalty pool accruing to the PNG Government of 2.5% of the Exportable  Ore out of Panguna that was meant to be shared by the National  Government , the Provincial Government and the Land owners.
Post Script. Since this article was written Port Moresby erupted with wide scale looting following the Malee between the Army and the Police on the early hours of the Morning of Morning of Saturday the 6th of December2014

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