Restoration of people’s Rights and Equity
The blithely-approved-and-imposed Westminster party system has been the nursery within which the political, administrative and social dysfunction which defines Papua New Guinea in 2010 has developed.
Far from an enfranchisement leading to the empowerment of the people, the party-system set up by – or perhaps it is better said countenanced by Australia, has led to the marginalisation of the proletariat in this once most-egalitarian of societies.
It has led to the growth of small, unstable, unscrupulous but very tenacious governing elite, divided by greed within itself but united in its concern to keep and expand its hegemonic hold over the affairs of the nation through its exclusivity.
The growth of the very conditions which the Westminster system slowly eradicated in Britain is, in complete paradox, the outcome of Australia’s foolish decision to allow it to arise in a setting where there was no requirement for it.
How could the Australian powers of the day have been so dense?
The answer lies perhaps in the strong “them-and-us” outlook manifest in the ruling clique of senior administration officials vis-à-vis the elected and appointed “private enterprise” “mission” and “indigenous” members of the old chamber of representation, the Legislative Council, or “Legco” as it was called.
Here was a de-facto governing party and a de-facto opposition operating in a parliament-like situation.
Today it is difficult to find any record of more than superficial discussion of alternatives.
At least one was readily to hand, in the shape of a fully-democratised version of the former Legislative Council supported by the 19 existing district advisory councils, democratised and linked to the network of well-established and democratically-elected local government councils then numbering more than 100.
This would-have-been governance anchored firmly at the roots of society, government answering the reality of regional needs and interests as opposed to non-existent social, class-based or occupation-based needs.
There was however an aversion at Konedobu to the encouragement of "regionalism"-perhaps engendered by the violence of tribal politics in Kenya and other East African states.
There is a hint of what may have bee the unadmitted and unspoken fears of senior echelon administration men contained in the late Ian Downs's novel “THE STOLEN LAND”.
What to do now, today? Today? In this endless-seeming era of turmoil in high places and allegations of impropriety and corruption?
Recommendations follow-
1. Provincial management committees to be created by LLGs and Governors along lines of old-time district advisory councils; may be set up. Strength will be in the statutory powers of individual members derived from their outside appointments and in the fact that this is the voice of the people AT LONG LAST!!!! Not unconstitutional; sanctioned by the laws of the land and the principles of the constitution. A voice carried to the places where it will couint and make a difference. A voice which will carry strongly through the opaque ceiling above which the nation’s exclusive elite of empowered MPs and servants reside in comfort.
2. These committees to be chaired by the Governor in each case and to comprise the Provincial MPs and Chairmen of all Provincial LLGs. Meetings to consider and prepare needed action based on the submitted, signed, sealed minutes of the past three months' LLG meetings. Meetings to be open. very well publicised, and reported upon.
3. Councils now empowered by an opean and understandable system of control over the politicians and the public service will deliberate upon and provide necessary support/action in regard to reports from Councillors at LLG meetings reflecting needs/conditions in each council ward.
4. Resolutions to be carried to the provincial public service and to national departments with forcefulness and with publicity both within and outside each province. Dates for completion/implementation to be publicised and referred to regularly.
All this will see democracy and fairness slowly arise amid the wreckage of attempts and failures and disappointments of the past 40 years. These steps are not in conflict with the principles of the Constitution. They need no great period of deliberation, no long and expensive series of conferences for consideration. They are common-sense, pragmatic, simple and able to be adopted and implemented if the people want them to come into being. But, and it’s a BIB but…such a proposal will be resisted strongly by the established parties, the MPs and the heads of the public service.
The action if carried out and settled in place will restore a significant sense of empowerment in the electorate, something which has been entirely missing fo many years. Cynicism and a sense of powerlessness has invaded society to its great detriment, engendering an abandonment of communal values and icreasing lawlessness.
Now, poor performance by school staff, aid-post orderlies and Police outstations, broken roads and bridges and outlaw gang activities will be monitored and addressed effectively. Besides empowerment, citizens will see that a measure of equity in the nations communal wealth and natural endowments is restored to them.
