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by Dr MICHAEL
UNAGE
Political parties must lift our living standards
A FEW weeks ago in Talking Point, we
mentioned the need for political parties to have summaries of their
platforms in the print media to help voters decide.
It would also enable the people to comment on the policies which would
help the parties to refine them.
Soon after the appearance of that article, the National Research
Institute (NRI) invited political parties to present their policy
platforms at its seminars.
The NRI exercise, nonetheless, may be confined to the National Capital
District and to a circumscribed audience.
Therefore, there is a need to have party platforms in the media,
especially the newspapers, as this is a convenient forum for many
literate voters.
In that article, we stressed that failure to do so would mean that the
party lacks a vision for development, and cautioned voters against
political rhetoric and demagogy.
Policy platforms must become congruent with the national goals and
directive principles.
If political parties develop policies without due consideration for
national goals and directive principles, there should be enough reasons
to suspect that parties are self-centred or are promoting foreign
interests apart from the concerns and aspirations of the people of this
land.
In this article, we will discuss the common characteristics of
developing countries and to see if any political party has
constructively dealt with these issues of underdevelopment.
However, before doing that, we shall look at the impact of the political
development processes that have taken place so far.
The three major phases are the process of colonisation, decolonisation
and globalisation.
PNG is the product as well as the recipient of these three movements in
history.
The three phases have their own brand of politics (who controls people),
economics (who has the buying and selling power) and administration (who
controls government systems).
A few hundred years ago, development was measured in terms of conquest.
Land and natural resources were there to be acquired at no cost, and
settlers were moving in waves and shifting the natives to the fringes.
PNG shares that experience but is more fortunate than the Aborigines
(Australia) and Maoris (New Zealand) in that PNG retained its land and
resources unlike its other two neighbours.
That experience radically changed, when people entered the second phase
of political development called decolonisation.
There have been serious political, economic and social problems
experienced as a consequence of this development phase.
The experience of emancipation and self-rule has become a new form of
enslavement and scourge whereby a few greedy and corrupt leaders and
bureaucrats decided to fill their own pockets thereby creating all sorts
of problems for the common people.
Instead of moving the country forward, they enriched themselves.
Shortly after decolonisation, development was no longer autonomous but
depended on the global forces.
The process of globalisation did affect those countries that have just
experienced emancipation from colonial rule.
Those in control of both political and economic powers were the
multinational companies and the so-called G8 group of countries.
The global forces, along with the corrupt native legislators, have
preyed on their own people.
The legislators accepted all forms of bribes, selling their resources
along with the people.
Realising the vulnerability of the people, the global giants returned on
the pretext of structural adjustment programmes.
People in PNG are beginning to feel the effect of corruption and
neo-intrusions.
Power has been corrupted for sectorial interest and not for the
advancement of humanity.
The effects are then categorised as the common characteristic of
developing nation in which PNG is included.
There are six characteristics common for countries that have undergone
the processes of colonisation, decolonisation and globalisation.
Political parties should develop constructive policies to deal with
these common features that are making people regress rather than
progress.
The six common characteristics are what observers from the outside say
about what is happening and they compare people with their standards.
The analysis may be biased. However, it is important that people in the
developing countries know about them for two reasons:
*The more people become aware of what others are saying, the more they
may be able to find some amicable solutions; and,
*Political parties must devise their platforms in order to transform and
improve the current state of affairs.
The first characteristic found in all developing countries is a low
standard of living.
People would lack basic things such as good housing and electricity.
In the human development index, PNG is rated 137 out of 177 countries
and 78 out of 103 countries on poverty, which means that PNG has a very
low standard of living.
Development policies should focus on this aspect of basic human
conditions.
The second common characteristic is low levels of production.
There are many reasons why PNG lacks productivity (and future
governments should look into these areas) – lack of technology and
machinery, lack of knowledge and skills, the spread of indolence, the
perpetuation of cargo cult mentality, the escalation in political
gifting, and lack of mobilising people for work ethics.
The third attribute of developing countries is the high rate of
population growth and dependency burden.
Every child that is born seems to make the parent poorer, and a house in
town can host as many as 20 people.
Thus, clear regulation on population growth and parental responsibility
becomes imperative.
Population growth without the mechanism of control of people’s movement
and identification is dangerous to a nation.
It is like walking onto a minefield.
The fourth feature in PNG and other developing countries is the high and
rising levels of unemployment.
Policies should be developed to address this area, where many skilled
and trained people are without jobs.
The fifth attribute of a developing country is the substantial
dependence on agricultural production and primary exports.
As mentioned, technological efficiency and sophisticated machinery in
developed countries makes developing countries more backward.
Thus, there is a need for small scale downstream-processing system to be
owned and controlled by nationals.
The sixth attribute is subjugation, dependence and vulnerability in
international relations.
Along with all the other five characteristics, PNG like other developing
countries, is only a recipient of the forces of globalisation.
Our development is not planned but is accidental.
The powerful nations dictate development processes to suit their needs.
The idea to plan our own development can be an intricate task, if we
want to achieve the Western standards.
However, we have land and our human values to help us in our own plans
for development.
If these can be enhanced, we could improve on those common experiences
of debasement.
Future governments should deal constructively with the issues to turn
PNG on the course towards advancement.
 
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