Defence force needs more funding to fulfill its role

THE PNGDF, in its current form and capacity, is ineffective to contain another Bougainville-like conflict, should one eventuate.
The deterioration of its air and maritime capabilities means it has not been able to respond in an adequate and timely manner to government directives in the past two decades.
Its responses have been  ad hoc and haphazard, which is uncharacteristic of any military, whose primary mandated task is to maintain a proactive posture to respond in a military fashion when the need arises.
Even with the much publicised right-sizing exercise, the military’s budget has either re­mained constant, seen the occasional increase, or at times, plummeted.
The government is obviously not supporting the PNGDF to do much or to participate in other military operations other than military conflict.
The strength of a country’s military ultimately rests on the health of the civil-military relationship within its society.
In PNG today, there is much debate as well as tension regarding the proper role and significance of a military (as opposed to a para-military) in our democratic state.
But through it all, Papua New Guineans are deeply proud of their defence force, even during the Bougainville crises.
For the most part, the PNG community is sympathetic with the general consensus of serving members of the PNGDF and concur that the soldiering profession is continuously looked down upon by the government.
Many of our politicians seem to be oblivious to the reality that it is the military that ultimately defends the democratic freedom of the state’s populace and national interests.
Thus, one might conclude that the PNGDF, comprising the land, maritime, air and the support elements, will remain only as a ceremonial and convenient organ of the state unless the government restores its fully constituted roles through collective political will in the form of tangible budgetary and policy support.
The government should re­view and realign our military’s acquisition, employment, integration, modernisation and re­habilitation policies in view of the rapidly evolving dy­namics of the global geo-political and socio-economic scenarios.
Only then will the PNGDF be transformed into a capable, res­ponsive and professional custodian that all Papua New Gui­neans can be proud of.

Peter Aimos
Beijing, China