| Business |
One people and one government
ONCE again we have a senior judge
making use of his rights as a citizen of Papua New Guinea and
daring to say what many others would not.
Mr Justice Kandakasi has made a forthright statement in court
pointing out what we suspect most people in PNG already believe –
that provincial governments have overstayed their welcome and
should be removed.
And for good measure, the judge added that they were costing the
people of PNG a great deal of money.
We can already hear the shrill chorus of protest from those who
stand to lose most – those who benefit handsomely from the largely
hidden wheeling and dealing and corruption of the provincial
government system.
We have been beguiled for far too long by the tantalising image of
an efficient public service working hand in hand with scrupulous
and honest Parliamentarians. That scenario has never taken place
in this country, nor is it ever likely to transpire.
What we do have is a series of provincial governments, some of
which struggle gamely to provide goods, services and a modicum of
leadership to their people.
Ranked against them is, in our opinion, the majority of provincial
governments, riddled with corruption from the typists to the board
chairmen and the offices of the governors.
Look at the levels of development in the majority of our
provinces. In many cases, the people are significantly worse off
than they were under the Australian territorial administration.
Some provinces reflect an almost total lack of development and a
level of pure greed and rampant neglect that would put many
African countries given comparable natural and human resources to
shame.
The history of provincial government is indeed a sad and sorry
one. Begun as an essential political response to pressures for
independence from Bougainville in the lead-up to independence in
1975, provincial government was initially seen as the answer to
the fledgling nation’s development concerns.
The expertise would be moved out of Waigani. The highly
centralised administrative structure made familiar by the
territorial power would be demolished and replaced by sundry
provincial authorities.
These would be structured to meet the needs of the people. Instead
of the lengthy delays for decisions and action experienced under
the centralised system, these individual administrations, all 20
of them, would address local issues expeditiously.
A cadre of experts would
exist at each provincial headquarters, and an elected political
assembly would ensure that each province was governed efficiently
and in the best interests of the people.
But instead of devolved powers and provincial governments attuned
to the aspirations of the people, the same old system of “big men”
laying down what would and would not be done evolved.
In effect, the central government with all its faults and
corruption was repeated again and again around the nation.
And much of the money that Parliament has given annually to the
provinces for 32 years and which now must total hundreds of
millions of kina has simply disappeared into some invisible
parallel time zone.
If Mr Justice Kandakasi is correct – and we have no doubts about
that – then there are two alternatives that should be considered
as soon as possible.
Either we abolish the provincial governments and allow them to
become a reviled footnote to PNG history, or we devise some other
method of decentralisation that would address the growing demands
for autonomy.
Enter the spirit of Sir Iambakey Okuk, the departed political icon
from the Highlands and a man with his own view of the world. Sir
Iambakey was an avid supporter of regionalism for PNG. He saw a
nation made up of four administrative regions – Papua, the
Highlands, Momase and the Islands – and he urged acceptance of his
ideal.
Politics at the time were against him and his proposal, but that
is more than 25 years ago, and there are many who remain convinced
the regional concept is the best way to ensure PNG develops as one
united nation.
The fact is that the people are fed-up with provincial government
as it stands, with its posturing leaders craving power and these
days protecting it at the point of a gun. It’s time to put an end
to provincial government in this country.
 
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