James Marape on the 49th Anniversary of Papua New Guinea’s Independence. Photo: Supplied/ PMO
As Papua New Guinea prepares to mark 50 years of independence from Australia in 2025, the government faces a host of matters that need to be sorted, urgently.
Don Wiseman spoke with RNZ Pacific's correspondent in PNG, Scott Waide, to gauge his take on the country's situation.
Don Wiseman: 2025 is just two years away from the next scheduled election, but there were huge problems with the Electoral Commission and the whole process around the election last time back in 2022 and big promises made to get that corrected. What progress has been made?
Scott Waide: The government is trying to look at it very positively. It has begun work on electoral reforms as it, as it calls it, and there was a meeting two months ago where they brought in all the heads of the Electoral Commission into Port Moresby, plus other stakeholders. One of the key figures there was the deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee that investigated the 2022 elections, Dr Puka Temu. Now he wasn't too happy with the progress so far. He basically said that, you know, we're running out of time, and there needs to be a lot more demonstration of political will to get this process through before the 2027 election. So, he wasn't really confident of it. He wasn't really happy, but the process has begun now. Whether that process will be completed before the elections is something else. It's like a dark cloud hanging over the Electoral Commission just going towards 2027. With the independent celebrations coming up a lot of people are they're not too hopeful about it. Yeah, the question has been on the minds of many Papua New Guineans 'what are we going to celebrate in in 2025.'
DW: The critical thing, of course, was the law and order around that 2022 election. But when you look at 2024 it may be just as violent. There have been some horrific things that have happened over the past 12 months. There's been a lot of talk about beefing up the police force, but this is also talk that goes back a long way and keeps getting repeated, but we don't seem to see that much change, do we?
SW: Yeah, the term that many politicians like to use is legacy issues. And you know, those legacy issues have been lingering for a very, very long time. I mean, we've got legacy issues in the state-owned enterprises that are not getting any better, and especially, as you said, with law and order. With this last parliament session, the Parliament passed the domestic terrorism bill, made it into law, increased the police budget in the 2025 budget in November. Now on paper, it looks very good that a lot of funding is going to the PNG Defence Force, a lot of funding is going to the police and all that. But from experience, in the last 10 years, we make budgets, but the money just isn't there when people need it. So, it's going to be another challenge in 2025 whether the police are going to get that money to actually enforce the laws that politicians have passed in Parliament. So, a whole range of issues that need to be addressed and are being addressed very, very slowly.
People queue to vote in Bougainville’s independence referendum from Papua New Guinea in Buka, the capital of the autonomous region, pictured on 23 November 2019. Photo: BenarNews / Stefan Armbruster
DW: Bougainville had wanted to be independent by next year, or by 2027, at the latest. But they haven't made any progress, or there hasn't been any progress made on this issue of tabling the referendum in Parliament, the referendum on independence, and last week, we had the prime minister saying, well, Bougainville is nowhere near being able to economically support itself. So, what's going to happen with this Bougainville story in the near future? Do you think?
SW: Yeah, it's a point of contention and a point of frustration for Bougainvilleans, especially the president and his government. Outside of Parliament, there has been some progress made with bringing an external partner into this discussion to iron out how to get the referendum results to Parliament. That is a discussion that's ongoing. That's work that's ongoing, but whether we will get that into parliament, for parliament to say yes to Bougainville independence is something else. A lot of Bougainvillean MPs in the PNG parliament are frustrated. And I think one of the most vocal in this year [2024] has been Francesca Semoso, who was very angry, expressed that anger in Parliament. And I've spoken to her separately. She has expressed that Bougainville should be allowed to move forward with independence. And you know, no country that has attained independence has ever been ready in the Pacific. So, she says that that process should go ahead, and Bougainville should be allowed to find its own way, instead of people dictating how Bougainville should progress with this independence aspiration.
DW: Now, 2025, the 50th anniversary of independence for PNG, and there's already a lot of emphasis on this. It's going to be a big year for the country.
SW: Yes, it's going to be a big year, and a lot of people are preparing for it. But, you know, the ordinary person on the ground is feeling the pinch of, you know, rising food costs, expensive education, expensive healthcare, and the difficulty of basically getting by every day. That's what they're facing going into 2025 so a lot of people are saying, Yeah, we're going to celebrate independence, political independence. But what does it mean for the ordinary person? What does it mean for me? How is it going to change my life? So that's the discussion that's happening outside of political circles, outside of the celebratory mood that many people want to project going forward. And you know, we have elections in two years after 2025 so people are looking towards the future with a lot of uncertainty.
