Papua New Guineans not taking Tkatchenko incident lightly

While many would have their own opinion on the Tkatchenko incident, The National’s editorial director Frank Kolma shares his views as he highlights some of the reasons that have triggered the nation’s negative reactions on the issue.

ALL the reactions to Savannah Tkatchenko’s TikTok video that has rocked this nation, boil down to three related issues. Let us take a dispassionate look at them.
The first was the circulation of the TikTok video hash-tagged #aussiesinengland posted by Savannah Tkatchenko.
The second issue was the official travel to London by Savannah at public expense to attend the coronation of King Charles III.
The third was Tkatchenko’s angry reaction on Australian television to the public response to his daughter’s TikTok video.
The first issue is now moot.
The video went viral, caused a great amount of damage within a very short time and has now been taken off cyberspace.
The name of the TikTok is one of the regrettable things in this saga that added to the insult felt by Papua New Guineans. #aussiesinengland, it said, which by implication meant that PNG was footing the bill for two Australians (father and daughter) in England.
On the second issue, the authority is the Salaries Remuneration Commission (SRC) determination which stipulates different categories of leaderships and what benefits are allowed to them including official travels, allowances and who should be involved.
The SRC Determination stipulates that a minister’s travel is approved by the prime minister.
The minister may take his spouse with him on such travels but this privilege is limited to only twice within the term of one Parliament (EL.2015-13).
The leader is paid duty travel costs of US$500 (about K1,767) per day plus accommodation.
He gets a clothing allowance for both summer (US$600 – about K2,120) once every 30 months and for winter (US$1,200 – about K4,241) clothing once in a term of parliament.
Spouses accompanying leaders on duty are entitled to 40 per cent of the leader’s allowance.
The SRC is silent on any form of privileges for any category of leader where children are concerned.
Savannah Tkatchenko’s travel to London at public expense falls outside the purview of the SRC determination.

That now is clearly a leadership matter.
Those who approved the travel and those responsible for raising payments, including allowances, are also liable for charges of misconduct in office.
The third point is the weightiest in this whole affair, the matter of the minister’s choice of words on public television, ‘useless’ and ‘primitive animals’, he said, to describe Papua New Guineans who attacked his daughter’s video.
The dictionary definition of primitive as a descriptive word (adjective) means ‘relating to, denoting or preserving the character of an early stage in the evolutionary or historical development of anything’.
It can also mean ‘something very basic and unsophisticated in terms of comfort, convenience or efficiency’.
Primitive as a name or a thing, as a noun, and when it refers to a person, means a person who ‘belongs to a preliterate, non-industrial society’.
It can variously mean simple, unsophisticated, lacking education and social skills.
When one holds the definitions above against Papua New Guineans generally, ‘primitive’ fits the bill for the terrible behaviours that are everywhere exhibited.
Let us not kid ourselves.
The regular killings that are conducted in all parts of the country in ways too gruesome to describe or run photographs of is reminiscent of a savage and primitive past, not this modern era.
Yet it is exhibited time and time again.
The total disregard for cleanliness we see in our towns and cities, the betel nut spittle and garbage collecting in the centre of towns; the deep disrespect for women in the regular rapes and beatings and in the way they are treated as second class citizens or as beasts of burden, best fit the primitive description.
PNG is a nation in transition.
There is a lot of the primitive past that lives on and is exhibited from time to time today and then there is an emerging new generation of elite Papua New Guineans who are lecturing at universities, flying the latest aircraft, and working as engineers and other technical fields all over the world. To these latter category of citizens, primitive is something they have fought hard to forget and any reminder is too hurtful.
And this is what Tkatchenko has done.
He has insulted that class of citizens who see themselves as equal with the best in the world.
It comes from the wrong person.
The foreign affairs minister represents the country to the world.
He is supposed to defend Papua New Guineans, every class of them – the old, the young, the educated, the uneducated, men, women and children, and those with disabilities.
He is supposed to show our best face to the world.
As a Caucasian Papua New Guinean, he represents the abhorrent colonial tyrant who brought the ‘primitive’ message home at every beating or berating.
Tkatchenko is originally from Australia, which was the immediate colonial overlord of Papua New Guinea.
He hurled his insults from England, the home of colonialism and all it represented.
And finally, the brother insults his brethren without whom he might not have attained the astronomical heights that he has in one lifetime.
He left his native Melbourne without much on an invitation by a politician who is now dead.
He was assigned as a gardener for National Capital District gardens and it has to be said that he has done a good thing with Port Moresby’s beautification activities.
And he has been rewarded for it.
He has grown a business, got accepted as a citizen, got married to a local girl, got elected into Parliament and has been made minister many times over.
Every value that has been added to the Tkatchenko name has been attained or added in this country.
It is these which stir people to anger when Savannah posted video selfies of herself enjoying a trip at public expense without any inkling of the suffering that the mothers or daughters in this country are going through; when she named her post #aussiesinengland when her father clearly represented PNG in the Prime Minister’s place, and when that father, in her defence, calls citizens ‘useless’ and ‘primitive animals’.
We have too much going on to dwell on this sad saga much longer.
A father has defended his daughter in the most stupid manner imaginable.
It is a fair assumption, drawing from all that has happened, that #aussiesinpng might be the prevailing attitude at the Tkatchenko breakfast table.
Such attitude might have led to the unexplained exclusion of Mrs Tkatchenko from the trip to London.
The time is right to review JT’s welcome in Papua New Guinea.

Frank Senge Kolma is The National’s editorial director