We must not forget that the same laws will apply in the same national parliament and provincial houses of assembly. In the same national and district courtrooms, case law will grow and precedents will continue to be set in the absence of the hard questions that may never get asked about the blatant breaches in our society and adopted system of government.

From 2017 our leaders will (more than ever before) need the knowledge, political will, grace and patience to restore integrity, democracy and the rule of law as a national emergency in order for all else to be rebuilt without exception. The truth is a new government in 2017 will inherit inter-generational debt, a massive deficit and redundant parliamentary rules/standing orders governing important decision-making processes. Not to mention the crumbling sanctity of the National Executive Council (NEC) or cabinet.

They will realise that legislation set up in principle to provide robust governance mechanisms have been misunderstood or ignored by their predecessors. In 2017 a newly elected parliament will discover an exhausted public service, a manipulated police force, an angry defence force, and many broken Papua New Guineans with drought and income starved families and disrupted livelihoods.

Those elected Members of Parliament will find very drained state-owned enterprises, institutions and agencies incapable of operating with only a steady trickle of public funds to deliver wages, health & education or district support according to policies and promises of the past and present. They will find that the much promised revenues from oil and gas have been committed to paying off the current government’s unilateral decisions and therefore debt for unauthorised loans for generations.

New leaders in 2017 will need to navigate a global economic downturn of epic proportions with PNGs development and economic interests at heart. Our new leaders will discover that our broken service delivery system and our overheated economy will need more than elected candidates with tunnel vision.

Those elected will need to be legislators, not aspiring millionaires or public finance managers. Newly elected leaders will require an understanding of serious fiscal discipline, tax and industrial relations reform and economic modelling that reflect PNG’s economic conditions and our revenue-earning potential in sectors other than petroleum and energy.

PNG will need MPs who are humble yet extraordinary thinkers to guide monetary/fiscal, social, cultural and development policy simultaneously to aid a new-look holistic reconstruction strategy focused on understanding that our vast natural resources should never again be left to a single individual who knows no institutional, spiritual, executive or national boundaries. Those new MPs should be held to the universal promise that candidates seek election (and re-election) to be servants to their people not master manipulators of their resources.

All the hopes in online commentary revert to a single assumption that PNG will inevitably have free and fair elections next year. If all we do is dare to dream it’s no longer enough because we will inevitably get what we vote for yet again.

Photo: Sepik Wewak Urban Local Government facebook group

On behalf of the Executive Director, Chairman & Board of Directors of the Pacific Institute of Public Policy in Port Vila, Vanuatu…

It is with great pride that I take this opportunity to express the views of many people in our dynamic Melanesian sub-region with whom we have close personal relations, professional links and solid ethnic ties. The Pacific Institute of Public Policy is an independent policy research think tank. We pride ourselves on providing a powerful platform and window for public expression and opinion by unpacking core public policy issues relevant to our security, development and livelihoods as Pacific Islanders. As regular and key interlocutors with a diverse range of decision-makers in our sub-region we acknowledge the Melanesian Spearhead Group as a core and strategic asset to our development agendas and the benefits to our people.

I speak as an individual when I say that the economic dynamism of our member states and single territory is changing our political landscape also. You our Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders have achieved consensus where speculation and innuendo could have undermined the historic, mature and inclusive path you have chosen on a range of matters from MSG connectivity to finance and economic issues. Private sector development, law enforcement, sports, social policy, environment, disaster relief, youth, gender and ongoing trade negotiations amongst our member states continues to reveal the uniqueness of our underpinning ethnic ties and cultural values that embolden our political, economic and collective sense of ourselves. Regionally a shift is occurring with ambitious plans to transform the regional architecture to facilitate regional integration and cooperation, much of that will be influenced heavily by the conditions and decisions that emerge from this sub-regional bloc.

The freedoms within that paradigm available to me as a Papua New Guinean, has meant that I can live as a Melanesian in a neighbouring country with certain privileges and rights assisted by improvements in technology and effective transportation routes, customary privilege and language links. Each of these traits and criteria has without a doubt influenced the way we have and will negotiate aid, governance and trade with our development partners. These same features will inform and guide the management of our vast natural and human resources and promote further political and economic links influenced and strengthened by the certainty of our Melanesian ties. Most recently Air Niugini’s direct flights between Vanuatu and PNG has made MSG Connectivity a reality. Those opportunities also provide the timeliness and space for us to contribute meaningfully to international development agendas and strategies with a regional understanding and a clear localized impression of our institutional arrangements, traditional structures and peculiar customary nuance so relevant to how we are measured and discussed globally.

As a Melanesian designing strategies for a regional think tank I have critically examined our individual economic growth and our collective dynamism as a bloc with few opponents and vast human and natural resources. We are regularly criticized, under-estimated and somewhat over-analyzed as Melanesians. Cyclone Pam a recent natural disaster of epic proportions claimed lives and destroyed livelihoods but in true Melanesian spirit, it did not deprive our cousins the ni-Vanuatu of their strong familial and kinship ties that helped the relief effort in ways unimaginable in other parts of the world given capacity and resource constraints. In our sub-region and in my country in particular the transitioning autonomous region of Bougainville has just proudly celebrated the outcome of a successful election that re-installed one of Papua New Guinea’s founding fathers Chief Dr John Momis, as the President-elect of the Autonomous Bougainville Government. Yes peaceful transitions are possible and in fact achievable encased in a solid peace agreement and guided by unwavering political and customary leadership, as we’ve witnessed there – even after a solid decade of conflict amongst our own people. In our sub-region alone extraordinary examples of journeys to self-determination and self-reliance are evident.

My father the Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare may not have foreseen the full economic potential of the diverse country he was leading to political independence 40 years ago in 1975 but he understood the essential nature of human rights and political freedom to genuine democracy and self-determination, on our own terms in our own time. Today with political independence Papua New Guinea continues to rise above its challenges bound by our reconciliatory ways that are undervalued and over-simplified by outsiders – we have not been alone in this predicament. As a sub-regional bloc whose relevance has been questioned in various forms, you as Melanesian leaders have allowed more of our ethnically linked people to share in the value of rights and privileges only available when our history and current political context are truly considered.

Importantly, the acknowledgement of the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia in the form of its approved Associate Membership to the MSG will allow the opportunity for cooperation and compatibility amongst their culturally diverse society and leadership. Finally, Congratulations on your historic and inclusive deliberations yesterday. You have handed the greatest tool for many sustainable options to our Melanesian cousins in West Papua – you have given them a voice.

Thank you.

The truth is that Joko Widodo’s recent visit to Papua New Guinea is emblematic of a number of wily diplomacy tactics.

Strengthening economic ties and trade relations is expected of neighbouring states (immediately after the release of five West Papuan political prisoners). The thirst in PNG for commercially viable Asia-Pacific markets is halfway quenched by Indonesia’s mere presence this week ahead of PNG’s role in chairing APEC in 2018 in its capital Port Moresby.

With trade and investment dressing up the shop front, it’s possible to sideline frank discussions on headline domestic issues in Indonesia if red carpet, tight security and 21-gun salutes supersede media and civil freedoms. Tight security in Port Moresby prevented the planned peaceful protests by West Papuan activists and the restrictions on PNG media censored straight talk between journalists and the visiting head of state.

It is likely that the bilateral talks between the two leaders resulted in agreements on a diverse range of matters, including cross border cooperation for energy production, crime prevention, and deeper engagement at multilateral forums including the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

Indonesia is a middle-income country with a population of almost 250million people, an almost 6 per cent growth rate, and according to the World Bank a GDP measure of USD 868.3 billion in 2013. By contrast PNGs economy recorded USD15.41 billion in GDP the same year. PNGs population of 7.321 million citizens pales in comparison to its nearest neighbour. In 2013 PNGs annual GDP growth rate was 5.5 per cent, by 2015 its GDP has grown to 16 per cent.

From an economic perspective, the growing trade links and budding economic ties between Indonesia and PNG are a match made in free-market heaven. PNG’s quickly expanding middle class presents a market opportunity for Indonesian investment in products and services. PNG’s own vast raw materials and natural resources are an incentive for Indonesia to look nearby for otherwise expensive raw materials and energy products.

The benefits are clear. The two countries are linked via terrestrial and maritime borders. They also share impressive portfolios of vast natural resources and accessible transportation routes into hefty commercial Asian markets. Both countries have expanding populations and therefore labour markets essential for globally competitive industries such as manufacturing and textile. Technological advancements and improvements in information technology and communications in both countries makes improved access possible to otherwise inaccessible markets and geographically challenged yet commercially viable sectors such as agriculture and forestry.

But Oro province governor Gary Juffa says ‘Melanesian voices’ are being muzzled in the haste to secure trade agreements. Controversially, Juffa wants the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), the political grouping of four Melanesian countries and one territory, to be disbanded for what he says is its failure to represent Melanesian voices first and foremost. Mr Juffa’s implication that a crisis of conscience should overcome Melanesian leaders on the eve of the MSG Leaders Meeting in Honiara later in 2015 is perhaps a welcome interruption to the international criticism leveled at Indonesia in recent weeks. The alarming volume of publicity on social media and international attention on the social injustices and human rights breaches in Indonesia’s two Papuan provinces poses tricky questions for Indonesia’s diplomacy efforts regionally and on the international stage. Capital punishment sanctioned by Indonesia in recent weeks against foreign death row prisoners looks set to undermine its overall governance record.

After Mr Widodo’s visit to PNG, Gary Juffa suggests that the MSG is being overtly influenced at an economic level to undercut key human rights issues relevant to Indonesia’s 11 million indigenous Melanesians.

PNG business leaders took their own stand away from the political tension to state unequivocally that, ‘there is [an] immediate potential for Indonesia to enhance domestic trade and connect businesses with PNG.’

PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill belabored the point over historic links, hailing the value of bilateral relations between Indonesia and PNG. O’Neill hailed Indonesia’s trajectory as ‘one of the truly great success stories of our region and in the global economy.’

So while the pleas for economic cooperation between the two states took centre stage, the festering backstory continues to undermine any proclamation of great success on Indonesia’s part as an emerging leader in the Asia Pacific region. Regular allegations of Indonesian military border tampering and incursions at the Wutung Border Post in PNG’s West Sepik Province are routinely ignored. And only last week, the suspected violation of PNG’s airspace by Indonesian military jets and an Australian Defence Force aircraft speaks volumes about PNG’s largely static military position and its submissiveness in the face of its two most powerful neighbours.

In an ideal world, a true commitment to equitable prosperity for the people of Indonesia might include a categorical statement on the conditions of the indigenous Melanesians in the Papuan provinces in Indonesian territory. But Mr Widodo’s commercial pitch to an APEC-hooked audience in Port Moresby discussed exclusively the business-as-usual agendas of two sovereign states concerned primarily with their economic agendas.

The goal to influence the way political parties choose their candidates in Papua New Guinea is set to go before parliament in the coming weeks. If the Bill is considered favourable by the male-dominated 9th parliament of Papua New Guinea the existing laws will be amended before 2017 so that political parties in choosing intending candidates must consider a percentage of women as fully endorsed contenders. This means that by law 10% of candidates nominated by registered political parties must be women endorsed and financially supported as any male candidate, in the extravagant and regularly explosive process of national parliamentary elections in PNG.

The equal participation of women and men in public life is one of the key concerns of the 1979 United Nations Conventions on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) of which Papua New Guinea is a signatory. The under representation of women in parliament is central to the international community’s push for this obligation to be ratified by member countries whose histories of equitable representation have been weak. Papua New Guinea has ratified the CEDAW convention but effective implementation and inadequate reporting pose challenges for the aspirations of the resolution.

It is widely accepted that 30% representation of women parliamentarians ensures critical mass – anything less may risk the loss of momentum in the attitudes of the voting public regarding the viability of having more women in parliament.

If the Bill is passed and brought into law in PNG a few things would need to change. For example, if a registered political party is endorsing 80 candidates, under the new laws that party would need to endorse 8 women in 8 separate open or regional electorates.

But 2 female members of PNGs parliament have expressed views questioning the thinking behind the planned changes to law. Hon. Delilah Gore, PNGs Minister for Religion, Community Development and Youth, herself a recently elected MP, suggests that basic preconditions exist for all intending candidates irrespective of gender. Minister Gore’s view is that the law disadvantages political parties and fails to allow women to prove that they are capable leaders first. Gore who claimed victory over the Sohe Open electorate in PNGs 2012 parliamentary elections says ‘women should demonstrate true leadership before they are mandated by the people.’ But the view that entry conditions into political life for women is impartial in PNG is being disputed by one community representative who is optimistic that the reforms could be the beginning of a cultural shift.

Port Moresby Youth Leader Stanley Arako thinks the proposed additions to the current law on political parties and candidates would allow women to ‘establish their own stronghold and even push to outnumber men in the hausman’ (a reference to parliament) increasing the likelihood for more women to be represented in PNGs male-dominated legislature. But while laws can regulate behaviour within institutions such as political parties, attitudes of the voting population towards overall leadership criteria remain elusive. After 8 general elections since independence in 1975, only 6 women have successfully claimed victory. Delilah Gore was one of three women who beat impossible odds to be declared a Member in the same parliament in 2012.

Getting more women into parliament will rely on institutional reforms such as the ones proposed here by Dr Alphonse Gelu, PNGs Registrar of Political Parties. As the engineer of the proposal Dr Gelu makes an important distinction as to the intent of the new provisions that he says will impose new standards on the electoral choices for voters and regulate the discretion of political parties.

Money politics in the electorate in PNG is the game changer behind whether or not the laws will have the intended effect of increasing women’s representation in parliament. If we consider that on one level political power is sustained by a focus on wealth and its distribution in PNG and that politicians need capital to gain votes and reward supporters, then adding the missing voices of women to the mix could have the contrasting effect of diluting the ‘Bigman’ promise of rewards in exchange for an altered dynamic in the electorate under the leadership of women. More equitable representation in theory could stop the tide of entrenched patronage under the ‘Bigman’ system that continues to undermine institutional processes with the effect of crippling service delivery mechanisms and debilitating effective and efficient government. In practice unless the low numerical strength improves the participation of women legislators in discussions, parliamentary proceedings will continue to be weak. Gender-just and gender-sensitive policies will assist women to overcome the obstacles that their male counterparts rarely face, such as social and cultural barriers.

An injection of new laws more broadly focused on the legitimacy and attainment of political power through merit and policy driven agendas must also be considered in this space.

Could this be the beginning of a different game changer necessary to stop the tide of entrenched patronage in PNG?

If the Bill is passed into law the net effect could be that scouts of political parties looking to endorse viable candidates will be required by law to consider a selection of genuine female candidates with the greatest chance of claiming victory over their male counterparts. The legal provision will create 3 vital conditions: i) a natural selection process where leadership skills of female candidates are assessed and prioritized ii) a search for sustainable and feasible strategies to maintain electoral support iii) a nomination process that includes a more representative selection of potential leaders who reflect the configuration of PNG society.

Political parties that don’t nominate the statutory quota of women to contest elections will risk deregistration. If the penalty for non-compliance is cancellation from such a lucrative race will party leaders influencing their members on the salience of this bill be inclined to support it?

The point is there is a distinct absence of a culture of implementing deliverable and sustainable political party platforms and achievable policy strategies that are consistent with the underlying principles of transparency and accountability in the electorate that favor rational policy processes and ideals that transcend individuals and their whims.

Another youth leader in a Port Moresby suburb, Kaipu Kero Pirisa says no special advantage needs to be created for women as ‘the current level of competition in the general election was just and fair and should not be altered through legislation.’ Pirisa’s concern is that ‘financially weaker parties would simply be deregistered if women chose not to seek their endorsements.’ The impact of the new laws could be that by bringing provisional seats into law,the starting point for political parties to be viable contenders is one where women who form half of PNG society are considered viable natural nominees for leadership roles. This takes into account their diverse capabilities and the responsibilities they already implement in society.

The fluid nature of support for political parties in PNG hinges on the availability of electoral funds and the capacity for election campaigns to be run with great fanfare and with identifiable party leaders who have the appeal of celebrities. The changes to the OLLIPAC laws will need to withstand the pressure of money and the large sums of it that are already beginning to swirl around political circles in the lead up to the 2017 National Parliamentary elections.

The optimism of community leaders suggests that the reforms could pave the way for a cultural shift that would allow women to strengthen their base in the seat of power in Waigani.

When put to parliamentary debate at the end of May, setting this long term priority will need the genuine support of politicians, who must ensure that decisions taken are carried out without political interference. If the reforms are to be sustainable this policy agenda must be delegated to the highest political office, to be better insulated from political or electoral pressures.

In what has been described as a ‘1950s spy thriller’, the resource rich, conflict-torn nation of Timor Leste is contesting the AUD 40 billion oil and gas treaty it signed with Australia in 2004. The public espionage claims by a whistleblower, a former Australian Security Intelligence Service technical operations director, suggested that the integrity of the CMATS Treaty had been compromised during negotiations. ASIS reportedly bugged the prime minister’s office and the cabinet offices as well.

The CMATS Treaty is peculiar, to say the least. It ignores international standards concerning maritime borders, with the result that Australia gets a 50% cut of what is known as the Greater Sunrise natural gas field. Had the border been drawn along standard lines, Timor would have been sole owner of the field.

It’s alleged that then-foreign minister Alexander Downer ordered an ASIS team, posing as development workers, to install the bugs. Mr Downer now runs a public relations firm that lists Woodside Petroleum, Sunrise’s major operator, among its clients.

At issue in The Hague is whether spying on a country you’re negotiating with renders any subsequent treaty null and void. The relevant international conventions, significantly, do not require that a treaty be negotiated in good faith in order to be valid. Spying alone might not be enough to invalidate the treaty, but once proven, it could well force a renegotiation of the terms.

As the arbitration process kicked off in the Netherlands, it set in motion a sequence of events involving security searches by Australian law enforcement and intelligence officials on individuals and property of persons in Australia connected to Dili.

ASIO officials, citing national security concerns, ransacked the Canberra offices of Bernard Colleary, the Australian lawyer representing Timor Leste in the case.

Another search, this time of the whistleblower’s Canberra home, coincided with the cancellation of his passport. ASIO boss David Irvine accused the man of breaking the law by exposing ‘classified information’. Meanwhile Mr Colleary, a former ACT Attorney General, is seeking witness protection in the Netherlands for the whistleblower.

On December 5^th, Timor Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao expressed only a fraction of the frustration felt by Timorese when he called Australia’s actions ‘counterproductive and uncooperative.’ In Dili, demonstrators gathered outside the Australian embassy after fresh online reports emerged detailing the raids on their country’s legal representative and key witness at The Hague.

Then on December 15^th, East Timor Development Agency director Palmira Pires, her mother, a small child and an assistant were detained at Darwin International Airport and their belongings searched by the Customs officials. The search turned up $30,000 in undeclared cash. In the course of the search, Customs appears to have confiscated several mobile phones and other electronic devices. They have yet to be returned.

Palmira Pires is the sister of Timor Leste Finance Minister Emilia Pires and Petroleum Minister Alfredo Pires.

The exposure of Australia’s espionage is being linked to the November 2013 collapse in cooperation with Indonesia on military matters and in dealing with asylum seekers. Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reacted angrily to documents leaked by NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden. The documents indicate that the mobile phone conversations of the President and his wife, along with several close confidants, were being monitored by Australian intelligence services.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott rather insensitively suggested that Indonesia ‘move on from the spying allegations and resume cooperation on people smuggling’. Later, Mr Abbott indecorously blamed the diplomatic impasse for the increased boat arrivals in Australia.

Indonesia’s refusal to cooperate in a boat buy-back scheme, apparently a reaction to the spying charges, has forced Australia to rethink its $20million border security and asylum seeker strategy, and to come up with a different plan ‘to invest the money in an anti-people smuggling campaign in transit and source countries.’

The most recent spate of allegations of espionage against Australia will continue to affect Australia’s international relationships, all the more if the Abbott government continues in its refusal to admit its intelligence ambitions are affecting critical security and border control policies.

The arrest of West Papuan activists for ‘unlawful assembly’ in Port Moresby last week at a pro West Papua independence rally prompted a torrent of online views and opinions from PNG nationals. Arrested and later released on bail conditions were PNG nationals Fred Mambrasar, Tony Fofoe, and Patrick Kaiku. The PNG-based pro West Papuan campaigners received warnings from the PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill against the proposal to raise the West Papuan ‘Morning Star’ flag in Port Moresby to mark the West Papuan national day on December 1 2013.

In defiance of Prime Ministerial orders, clearly intended to avoid a stoush with Indonesia, the event resumed supported by renowned West Papuan sympathizer, event host and National Capital District (NCD) Governor Powes Parkop. When PNG police moved to disband the 1000-strong campaigners the ceremony continued on invitation from NCD Governor Powes Parkop at his municipal government headquarters in Waigani. Mr Parkop’s intervention also blocked earlier attempts by PNG police and immigration officials to arrest and deport UK-based West Papuan activist, Benny Wenda, and Australian human rights lawyer, Jennifer Robinson.

According to reports bail was set at K250 each reduced from the hefty K10, 000 on conditions that the campaigners report fortnightly to the District Court and further that no pro-West Papuan ‘political activity’ ever resumes.

PNG’s Women in Politics (WIP) President, Maria Ebai-Hayes denounced the disruption to the symbolic Melanesian gesture supporting West Papua’s long-standing quest for independence from Indonesia. Hayes reacted to the ‘use of state powers to frustrate an exercise of rights of freedom of expression guaranteed by the PNG Constitution’.

In the New Guinea Islands at the government headquarters in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ABG), a similar Morning Star flag-raising event took place on December 1 2013 sanctioned by provincial authorities. A 2015 referendum to determine Bougainville’s own autonomy from PNG is scheduled according to a peace agreement between PNG and Bougainville.

PNG bloggers thanked Governor Parkop for his ‘brave stand’ in diffusing tension even as he defended Melanesian solidarity, PNG’s own sovereignty, and the people’s rights and freedoms. Support, speculation and disgust within social media networks in PNG and elsewhere over the basis of the arrests continue to fuel the conjecture over ‘who’s orders and who’s interests’ were being served within the arrest orders and detention of the West Papuan activists.

In contrast to the fact that PM O’Neill warned against West Papuan ‘political activity’ in Port Moresby, in Vanuatu this week Prime Minister Moana Carcasses met with Uri Joweni, senior military

commander of the rebel OPM Free West Papua Movement.

Chief amongst the online chats were the usually veiled concerns over issues of Melanesian solidarity, human rights and self-determination of West Papuans. Ethnic, historic and geographic links between West Papuans and their Papua New Guinean neighbours present bold reminders of the glaring similarities and forced differences between these Melanesians who share an invisible international border that separates West Papua from the independent state of Papua New Guinea.

Despite there being much sympathy among PNG nationals for their “wantoks” over the border, this is rarely expressed at an official, political level, making Powes Parkop’s bold speech all the more remarkable.

Recent government clampdowns on investigative media reports suggest that the selective reporting is due to deeper concerns about media freedom in PNG.