What autonomy really means

IN response to John Mavi Jr from Unitech who is confused about provincial autonomy (The National, March 27), provinces like New Ireland and others gaining autonomy does not mean that they will break away.
Autonomy means those provinces will have certain powers and functions granted by the national Government to manage their affairs.
In the case of Bougainville, it is an autonomous province now.
The people will go to a referendum, which is a type of vote for them to decide whether to remain a part of PNG or gain their independence.
When that happens, then Bougainville will break away from PNG and become an independent nation.
All the provinces can work on gaining autonomous status as already spoken of by Dr Eric Kwa, Secretary of the Constitutional Law Reform Commission, during panel discussions on the national election.
The thing is for the provinces to work on their constitutions under the National Constitution as the guiding principle.
This will determine the basis of how they will manage their affairs, for example, agriculture, income generation and financial management, local governments, education and health services.
Most of these services should be planned and funded by the provincial governments rather than being dependent on the national budget.
Gaining autonomy means being able to govern their provinces with greater powers and responsibilities.
These powers and functions will be decentralised by the national Government to the provinces.
The national Government holds on to national matters like security and intelligence, defence, foreign affairs and other national policy areas to keep PNG as a sovereign nation-State.

PNG Citizen