Don’t be controlled by donors, countries

THE Government that comes into existence after next year’s general elections will have a lot on its plate and would potentially have to make decisions around a five-year window that would be crucial for the nation moving forward.
Papua New Guinea is nearing its 50th anniversary and it is about time that our leaders put their PNG cap on rather than the observer cliché with the donor nations pulling the strings.
The Government, under Prime Minister James Marape, gave us hope but this seems to be short-lived with elections nearing and people coming up with all sorts of assumptions.
One thing that I want the current and future Government, along with all the line department and agencies to take stock of is the competition between the West and China.
International pundits, particularly of the United States and its allies, have been critical of China’s rise and purported influence in the region, including PNG, alleging that it has a shady foreign policy in the region.
The recent news about the Australian government potentially funding a private sector bid for its mobile operator Telstra in acquiring stakes in the struggling telco company, Digicel, should be a clear-cut case of that.
Australia will always be the US’ number one ally.
Australia is responsible for being its proxy when it comes to political affairs of the region.
Australia recently had a fallout with China after it blacklisted Huawei from operating in Australia, accusing them of spying.
The ramification of that included other nations following suit, including US and New Zealand.
Telstra has been in operation before PNG got independence and is the largest mobile operator in Australia.
However, one wonders why Telstra all this time did not consider a PNG base and is now interested all of a sudden when China comes in to play.
Australia and PNG have always had a permanent relation which predates our independence.
However, one has to wonder why Australia is stepping up its initiatives when China is all of a sudden interested in PNG and the region.
More so, China’s belt and road initiative is seen as a threat by the West as China’s ploy to exert its foreign policy, but a simple Google search would say otherwise, when countries who are longing for much-needed developments are participants to such a deal.
This has now created a situation where the Government needs to be on its toes when taking in proposals from donor countries and their agencies under the guise of development.
Although we have pre-existing relations, it is imperative to always seek alternative options that is suitable for the PNG landscape rather than impressing our political allies just because we are friends.

Localman,
NCD