West Papua Conflict is Asian infiltration and rape of Melanesia

By Leonard Fong Roka

Melanesia or ‘dark islands’ is a region covering the biggest island of New Guinea and its islands, the Solomon island chain, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia. It is a region considered as the ancient gate way into the human colonisation of the Pacific. But, today it is losing grip of its ancient cultural and political tranquillity for our brothers in West Papua.

West Papua Flag

Since the arrival of Europeans, the long historical apparatus of calm was shattered by the rapacious drawing of lines of division across traditional nation states to a belittling impact. After many hands (some only had one colonial master) and the dawn of decolonisation, West Papua ended in Indonesia; Bougainville in Papua New Guinea and New Caledonians struggling for self-determination from France rule.

The trio, West Papua, New Caledonia and Bougainville had had significant influence on the political fabric of the countries that governed them. In the Pacific, all also had being in one way or the other, held the upper hand in the political gossips of the region in regard to the use of rebellious resistance.

West Papuans, who are rightfully Melanesians, had being ignored by the most Melanesian leaders out of fear of negative repercussions from Indonesia. Government after government in Papua New Guinea (apart from ordinary PNGeans) as not stood up for a fellow Melanesian. So far, I have heard of Vanuatu, at least speaking out; with some little groups or individuals in the Solomon Islands and Fiji.

Melanesian states (excluding the current regime in Fiji), especially Papua New Guinea, are so good in worshipping powers that are militarily or politically powerful. I cannot hide that PNG is moderate because foreign aid is her blood of existence. They even, are not able to change what they were given by the colonial powers and this is not because of the lack of natural capabilities, but it is because of negligence out of fear from external pressures if they create political and economic systems that are realistic to Melanesia.

What Melanesian states and people need to know is that, liberal democracy today is not ‘people power’ but, it is tyranny controlled by the western banking system through the military industrial complex to control the remaining natural resources in the world.

In the West Papua issue, Melanesians must realise that we are at war with an imperialistic Asian parasite; they are merciless, torturing, rapacious and gluttonous at heart to rob our fellow Melanesians from their land and wealth; PNG is already a victim with all the Batas trading near Wutung that denies the town of Vanimo in West Sepik Province to develop.

The island of New Guinea is said to be a bridge between Asia and Oceania. With this, I see a hopeless situation in the future of our Melanesia. If West Papua is to be controlled forever, then the spill-over effect will be into PNG, then into my Bougainville and the rest of Solomon Islands and beyond.

Hearing the West Papuans’ struggle, the first thing that bothers me are the facts, that Asia houses more than 60% of the global human population; and currently, is host to some of the world’s rapidly rising economies that needs natural resources to keep them running.

In this regard, our fellow Melanesians across the PNG border had long, under Indonesian rule, being undergoing genocide which the UN Convention on the Prevention in Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Article 2) defines as, ‘…acts committed with ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a natural, ethnical, racial or religious group’.

Indonesia could argue that there is no intent to eradicate Melanesians in West Papua, but one could ask back: ‘Are you are member of the United Nations?’ If ‘YES’, then Indonesia knows exactly the contents and goals of the United Nation’s Minority Rights and Indigenous Rights.

All these rights for ages now have being denied to our West Papuan brothers and sisters by Asian aliens. Their wealth being exploited for the betterment of Asians, their land robbed through the transmigration effort and their gesture for freedom decanted with the barrel of the gun.

The plight of Melanesians in West Papua today is being worsened by western hegemony. As the suppressed peoples turn to terrorism against Eurocentric takeover to attain their likes, the West led by the US turn to label many whom I see as genuine freedom fighters, terrorists. Thus, in the recent years Indonesia has had taken advantage of its alliance with the US to flush out Melanesians in the name of the global war against terrorism.

Furthermore, Melanesians in West Papua have being neglected by their own relatives in the name of national security. But, Melanesians states especially PNG, worries about national security at the international realm and ignores the domestic security. Influx of West Papuan refugees is a problem that can weaken PNG from the inside whilst the government concentrates on external affairs, to PNG, and to me; the only solution is to help West Papuans to move into self-determination which under the UN’s Indigenous Rights is their right.

From the Wikipedia, here is what the UN’s Indigenous Rights have to say:

‘Indigenous rights are those rights that exist in recognition of the specific condition of the indigenous peoples. This includes not only the most basic human rights of physical survival and integrity, but also the preservation of their land, language, religion and other elements of cultural heritage that are a part of their existence as a people. This can be used as an expression for advocacy of social organizations or form a part of the national law in establishing the relation between a government and the right of self-determination among the indigenous people living within its borders, or in international law as a protection against violation by actions of governments or groups of private interests.’

Collectively, as Melanesians, we contribute to deny Melanesians of West Papua from their rights.

So, with all these nightmares before us, the element of ‘intent’ in the UN’s definition of genocide is clarified. Starting from the Western hegemonic actors to Indonesia, to Melanesian countries that help not to voice and support the West Papuans, our intent is to eradicate the Melanesians in West Papua from the surface of the Earth and Asianize the island of New Guinea is that ignorance and fear of Indonesia.

The United Nations has given us every mechanism to get up and stand up for our rights (as late Bob Marley puts it) as Melanesians, what we need is a collective effort without any fear.

In summary, let us save West Papua for Melanesians; independence for West Papua, is survival from Asianization of Melanesia as a unique people on the surface of the Earth.

Joseph Kabui and his leadership of Bougainville

By Leonard Fong Roka

The late Joseph Cannsius Kabui was the last premier of the North Solomons Province in 1990 when the Bougainville crisis erupted and the first President of the Autonomous Bougainville Government in 2005 as the result of the Bougainville Peace Process that slowly began in 2004.

Late Joseph C. Kabui in navy shirt and short (Mekamui photos)

Joseph Kabui was born around 1954 in Sipuru Village (near Paruparu in the Evo-Torau constituency). His mother, Agatha Sipura (my great grandmother), was a widower and hails from the Tumpusiong Valley of Panguna. She had my two grandmothers, Anna Akonabo and Magareth Mirirua, with her first husband, Darii. After Darii died, she remarried into Evo (our neighbouring constituency) and then born and bred her next three children Martin Miriori, Joseph Kabui and a Theresia Pipino.

He was educated at Pirurari, Sipatako village schools, Tunuru, Saint Joseph’s Rigu mission schools and Ulapia (Channel College) in PNG. He took sometimes with the BCL civil works as a spotter handling the stop-go sign in the work places. From here, late Henry Moses (then head of BCL workers’ union) had him in the Panguna mining workers’ union and from here he spent a year or two at the University of PNG and back in BCL again. After sometime, the union had him in the United States in a program on labour laws.

After returning, he was into politics. He was with the community government for a while in the early 1980s and contested the provincial election in the mid-1980s and began the premier of North Solomons in 1987 to 1989 when the crisis came about to splash out the PNG people and government.

Has many, for example his NSP government secretary, late Peter Tsiamalili left the island he after being threatened by the BRA, he remained back and faced the consequences. Despite being harassed by the order less and unorganized BRA personnel of the 1990s, he remained steadfast a Bougainvillean leader.

In 1990, the late Francis Ona after shutting the mine and getting rid of non-Bougainvilleans had not much interest in the former NSP premier but, it was Ona’s military strategist, Sam Kauona, who actually invited Mr. Joseph Kabui in the BRA politics of that era. In one of the late months of 1990, Sam Kauona ordered his faction of the BRA to bring Mr Joseph Kabui and his elder brother, Mr Martin Miriori to his village in Tororei; there he officially asked them, especially Kabui to help the BRA in its political manoeuvring.

From here, the Bougainville Interim Government (BIG) was born. Some peace efforts like the Endeavour Accord, a trip to the UN Rights of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples hearing in Geneva, and the declaration of independence in 1991 (UDI). Also, there was this establishment of the Radio Free Bougainville that broadcasted from Arawa that drove a lot of BIG propaganda to the population.

Elder brother, Martin Miriori was in charge of the BRA-BIG office in Honiara.

In the years of BRA’s internal chaos and the Australia-backed PNG blockade (to the PNG government this is falsely said to be a selective embargo of goods and services) on the Solomon Island of Bougainville, Mr Kabui led faithfully. So keen he was, in giving words of encouragement to people to carry on.

Amidst this anarchy, the BIG leadership acted and talked as if all was fine. But in fact, the BRA was operating in the island at its own terms creating division on the island and the BIG played its own game of covering up and pointing fingers on external forces. Kabui, as the vice president was the captain and the president, Francis Ona was never seen in public where a leader ought to be, but he was in the safety of his cocoon doing nothing.

From this we pick out the qualities, my relative Joseph Kabui had. Despite being harassed by the BRA, still he carried on ‘finding the way out’ for the people. Without the help of Francis Ona (who lacked any political will to lead), he struggled forward often under fire from Francis Ona and who only was giving orders ‘do this and do that’ in 1990 to 1992. Often, from his tours he always returned to our hamlet Kavarongnau, exhausted to the core.

This, for me,  shows four broad characteristics of my brother; Joseph Kabui had the ‘heart of love’, he ‘lacked the ability to say no and affect his relationship with others’ and had the nature of ‘silently and bravely pursuing his visions’; of all, he was a visionary for our relegated island.

His ‘love’ created the catch-phrase ‘peace by peaceful means’ for the Bougainville Peace Process. That is, finding normalcy for Bougainville through reconciliation and not retributive justice. In heart he thought God was the way since he was religious. But, in reality, the power play was not in favour of a solution through ‘peace’ because authority was still not recognized; everybody, as long as he had gun, lost a property or relative in the crisis, was ‘authority’.

But, what that made my relative thinking that his strategies were working is the ‘pouring money for peace’ from donors that captivated combatants to make peace everywhere.

His desire ‘for maintenance of cordial relationship with others’ brought upon his leadership the ‘Invincible Resources’ nightmare of in his political career. Then, the Bougainville Peoples’ Congress was cash strap and galloping with doubt towards the 2005 Autonomous Bougainville Government first general election. One of his cronies was responsible to tabling to Joseph Kabui the plate of gold!

The controversial Bougainville Resources Development Cooperation (BRDC) was created and the initiator of the Invincible Resources-ABG arrangement which is bad because it was a state-to-an-individual affair; when it should have being a state-to-state affairs, had no dirty stain to this very day in the public domain.

Joseph Kabui shouldered the burden of his ‘not being so sceptical’ to his death in 2008.

In his ‘bravery to pursue’ nature, he attained the Bougainville Peace Process. In 1992, I began hearing the words ‘round table’ solution to the conflict in my kindred’s tongue. Against, Francis Ona’s hardline stand to fight on; he pursued his will for peace.

Around 1994, there was already a line of division between Francis Ona and Joseph Kabui. Ona in that period was going public in his verbal attack on Kabui’s gestures for peace. He even left the safety of his Guava village and began to tour other villages in Kieta in Central Bougainville spreading his anti-peace messages. But, Kabui silently moved on with the people gaining majority support with him.

 Across the Bougainville Strait he took the risk to find and talk for a peaceful solution to the crisis. In late 1997, he set his foot in the streets of Arawa and dwelled in my family’s Section 17 abode to talk peace in the areas where the PNGDF was in control of.

And his will and Bougainvilleans’ desire for a peaceful settlement was gained but the addressing of our cry for freedom is yet to be reached.

Great was he has a visionary. In our hamlet of Kavarongnau in the Panguna District, I was keen as a kid in 1992 (the peak years of the crisis) listening to his discourses. He would look up into the Onove Mountains (to our west) and the Deumori Boulder and suggest: ‘when we gain independence, we will have a cable-car operating in between’. Of course, Wikipedia notes that Joseph Kabui wanted to see Bougainville as the ‘Kuwait of the Pacific’.

Lest I Forget My Brother

(*In Kieta kinship system, my grandmother’s brother is my brother and my grandmother is my sister)

Poem to PNGeans and the Sandline Mercenaries

Around 1996, the PNG government was having nightmare as the tide of agression on Bougainville was turning against the infiltrators. In Buin they were attacked by the pro-PNG Bougainville Resistance for raping women, arson and ill-behaviour; in the Koromira Catholic mission, they were made to swim to the islands after overpowered by BRA firepower and in numbers, the pro-PNG forces were running into the bush with their guns.

The PNG solution to this, was to invite some more powerful forces to get rid of the Bougainville people from the land and culture. Bougainville was to be New Guineanized!

But, because of their culture of corruption, their plot created a Frankinstein crisis and the departure of PM Sir Julius Chan.

PM Sir Chan resigning (flickr.com)

Poem to the Papua New Guineans:



Sandline Mecenaries

by Leonard Fong Roka

Island in the south seas…

Brokenville lies here,

In this lake of chaos

Longing for missionary legends

And their kind of god.

Not your lethal warheads

Of mass murder and looting.

Nor that torturing policing rod

As she no feeder of gluttons

Like your darling red sun

Of that killer west…

Oh, you money face killer

She cries for her freedom from redskin subjugation

Of this black inspiration

Dimmed to thinness of emptiness.

She’d struggled

At door ajar, oh, money maniac…

Keep my Bougainville for missionaries…

Not mercenaries’

Greed.

Note #: I wrote this in 2008 in Panguna after watching a documentary on this affair

South Bougainville DWU Student 2011 Awareness in Pictures

with kandre Philip Ihira

In the 2011 as part of the Divine Word University Bougainville students' drive to bring back home what they learn in their tertiary experience, our group visited Buin Secondary, Tonu High and Bana High schools.

As a measure of Bougainville helping Bougainville we play our part in the long walk of the drive to free our homeland from the dirty glue of aliens like Papua New Guinea and its agents.

Then Year 4 PNG Studies student, Stephanie Kimisi at Buin

Buin Secondary Hall

The Team in BSS hall

Inside BSS hall

Gearing for departure for Tonu High School in Siwai. Leonard Fong Roka met us here from after his Konnou tour and heading for Panguna.

Tonu High principal, Mr Toosi makes a welcome to team

Philip Ihira makes a make

Bana High School

when a nation unites, the heaven rejoices

Papua New Guinea is caught in between

By Leonard Fong Roka

The Papua New Guinea government and its citizens, blindly today, boast of what a great nation they are, with a so diverse cultures united in the ‘green and gold’ flag. Across the country’s schools students chorus the National Pledge:

‘We the people of Papua New Guinea, pledge ourselves united in one nation. We pay homage to our cultural heritage, the source of our strength. We pledge to build a democratic society based on justice, equality, respect and prosperity for our people. We pledge to stand together as One People, One Nation, One Country  God bless Papua New Guinea’ day in day out. But, do we know what we are talking about?

PNGeans are indoctrinated by the law as wind-socks that are blown here-and-there by irresponsible and visionless politicians.

On one of Bougainville’s Regional Week’s days, 15 June in 2011 I was caught in the middle of a fight between Arowes and Bulus in Kimbe. They were all equipped with offensive weapons. This was a scene so strange in Bougainville. Before this, I had to walk for hours from Lae’s main market to Tent City because there were no PMV services after the Hagens and Morobeans clashes there. And back in my late father’s desolated island, Bali Island in West New Britain, relatives were asking me for guns because they were in a long conflict since 1992. What does these scenes tells you?

This just reflects how much, the concept of tribalism is intact in the hearts and minds of Papua New Guineans (exclude Bougainville where it is manageable) and that the law of this country has no power to solve conflicts once and for all! Culture drives the art of governance, official succession, crime and justice, national interest and foreign policy, foreign investment and landownership and so on.

PNG in this regard, is operating its politics and economics in two systems that are not harmonious to each other. In the book, Bougainville 1988-98, Karl Claston (1998) cited that National politics in PNG ‘has not centred on ideological or policy debates or party divisions, but rather on personal factionalism, regionalism, pork-barrel allocation of funds and squabbles over the spoils of office’.

New Guineans combine the Western art of politics with Melanesian traditions despite the fact that both oppose each other greatly. Melanesian politics is based on land, survival and relationship whilst, the European concept operates on money, contract and the written law. Since, the world is contained by the international law to the liking of the first world; Melanesians suffer by ignorantly forcing their traditional power-play into a determined and dominant capitalist globe.

This weakens the political mechanism and sells off the sovereignty of the state. In this situation, PNG is susceptible to external forces that influence the governmental hierarchy. I should conclude here that, in such a scenario, the parliamentarians are lost between two obvious forces: the people (national interest) and the foreign state and non-state actors that manipulate the state mechanism for profit and extraction of raw resources to feed their home-based industrial complex. 

When this happens, state weakens and the primary proof should come about from economic indicators. So, let me translate what we fear would happen when economic shrinks: ‘Some regional analysts fear that PNG’s economic collapse could lead to interior secession movements, indigenous terrorism, or the use of PNG as a terrorist base…’ (www.nationsencylpedia.com).

Signs are already out there for PNG to see and change, but irresponsibility and corruption now rules the fabric of the country that prides itself as the bridge of Asia to the Pacific; and the natural resource pot of the Pacific, thus no economic progress is seen in the country. But foolishly, people pride the LNG driven building boom in Port Moresby and the many resource extraction industries around the country within looking under the skin of this nice investments.

Being a natural bridge from Asia to the Pacific, I fear that politicians in PNG had long being thinking about the literal side of the story by considering the geography. In fact, they are a bridge between Asia and the West in the Oceania front. Why I claim this is because the Pacific is American. Speaking in 1900, American Senator A. B. Beveridge said:

‘The Pacific is our ocean…And Pacific is the ocean of commerce of the future. Most future wars will be conflicts for commerce. The power that rules the Pacific, therefore, is the power that rules the world. And… that power is and will forever be the American republic’.

In this circumstance, PNG is caught up in two worlds. In the blog, East Asia Forum, an article recently featured US secretary of state, Mrs Hillary Clinton saying that China was eating American lunch in the Papua New Guinea LNG project. This exposure of PNG has a land of war-on-resources is a serious issue with negative repercussions for the future. PNG is not prepared politically to deal with these concerns with its current political trends.

PNG needs a strong and fearless government to pursue national interest. It does not need a government that worships traditions and traditional partners. It needs a government to rid off corruption and drive equality and justice. Beside, a leadership is needed that shall bolster nationalism in this multi-ethnic society that today, absolute lacks a united patriotism that can be observed growing in Bougainville in the social networks, example, in Face Book.

As future Bougainvilleans, we need to learn from the day-to-day running of Papua New Guinea, if we are to design a democracy that will be for the people, by the people and of the people.

Look Back: Bougainville updates

Wednesday, August 31, 1994 - 10:00

PNG military retreat

Radio Free Bougainville reported on August 19 that the Papua New Guinea military operation "High Speed" to recapture the Panguna mine, having hit the brakes, is now in reverse. The report claims that the Bougainville Revolutionary Army damaged a helicopter of the National Emergency Service bearing an Australian flag in heavy fighting. It is alleged that the pilot injured in the shooting is New Zealander Dennis Killip, and that he is now recovering in a Cairns hospital.

Three PNG soldiers were killed in fierce fighting in the Panguna area on August 24.

UN calls on PNG to negotiate

The Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the UN Human Rights Commission, meeting in Geneva in August 19, passed by consensus a resolution calling on the government of Papua New Guinea to return to the negotiating table and to immediately allow medical supplies into the areas of Bougainville presently under PNG military blockade. It urges PNG to cooperate with the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions and the special rapporteur on torture to enable them to investigate the reports of human rights violations on Bougainville.

The resolution also endorses the decision of the Human Rights Commission to request the secretary-general of the UN to consider the appropriateness of appointing a special representative concerning the human rights situation on Bougainville.

Copper company wary of future

In its half yearly report Bougainville Copper Limited noted that while the directors intend resuming and continuing operations at Panguna, this was subject to economic viability, political stability and a consensus in favour of mining by Bougainvilleans. These conditions will be difficult to achieve in the short term, the directors concede.

Barclays de Zoete Wedd Australia, in its research update of August 17, reacting to Wingti's premature claims of reoccupation of the mine site, noted that restarting the mine "will be no easy exercise, as the remaining orebody is low grade and the start-up capital will be considerable — the economics appear marginal".

Further, again basing its analysis on Wingti's false assertions, Barclays assumes that "a feasibility study commences in 1995, with limited production commencing in 1997 phasing up to pre-shutdown production levels by 1999".

Sourced from: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/8289

New Input: 'LOOK BACK'

Dear Reader,

I decided to introduce 'Look Back' for you for the sole reason of getting old writings from any sites in the web on Bougainville issues so as to keep alive the history of the relegated island.

Here, inserting 'Look Back' then a colon followed by the actual tittle of the copied work from eslewhere for you. Bare with me since I am also learning and trying to improve my blog.

The well groomed senior students know too well, but I am just a beginner rebel from Bougainville.

Cheers

Leonard Fong Roka

PNG Studies Year 2

Divine Word University

Madang

     Ph : (675) 71841295

Email : leonardfongroka@yahoo.com

Look Back: Accord shaky as Bougainville waits for supplies

Monday, February 25, 1991 - 11:00

By Norm Dixon

There is an alarming lack of action from the PNG government to implement the Honiara Declaration, according to Moses Havini, representative in Australia for the Bougainville interim government. Havini issued a statement on his return from visiting the embattled island with an SBS film crew.

Bougainvilleans are anxious that vital medical supplies and other essential services be resumed. This has become a major test of the PNG government's sincerity in adhering to the peace accord signed on January 23.

The first shipment was scheduled to leave Rabaul on February 14 but was delayed — reportedly because the crew felt its safety was not guaranteed. Many in Bougainville, however, suspect that the government is reluctant to lift the blockade.

More than a tonne of Australian non-government aid intended for Bougainville has also been gathering dust on the Brisbane waterfront for the past six weeks. The PNG government claims administrative problems have delayed delivery.

Havini suspects "powerful men" inside the PNG government are trying to sabotage the accord. Prime Minister Rabbie Namaliu denied this on February 17, when the MV Sankamup finally left Rabaul for Kieta with a cargo of urgently needed medicines and fuel. PNG agreed to allow the Australian non-government relief supplies to leave for Bougainville on February 20.

The people of Bougainville won important concessions from the PNG government at the talks held in the Solomon Islands capital on January 22-23. Their perseverance in the face of a brutal economic blockade forced PNG to accept that the interim government led by Francis Ona is firmly in control and has popular support.

Cabinet divided

The Honiara talks followed the breakdown of the agreement signed aboard the New Zealand warship Endeavour on August 5. That accord collapsed when PNG broke its pledges by landing troops and police on Buka Island, off the northern tip of Bougainville. The promised "urgent" resumption of supplies of food, fuel and medicines never eventuated.

However, the continued severe privations failed to undermine support for the interim government among the people of Bougainville, leaving Port Moresby the alternatives of attempting a costly and bloody military invasion or renegotiating a peace

settlement. The cabinet, known to be split between those who favour a negotiated settlement and those who favour full-scale war, chose the former.

The PNG government also came under heavy diplomatic pressure to resume talks from the government of the neighbouring Solomon Islands and that nation's Christian churches. Hundreds of refugees have fled to the Solomons seeking medical help, and many Solomon Islanders have relatives in Bougainville.

Bougainville's leaders were desperate to bring the blockade to an end. The leader of Bougainville's delegation to the talks and former premier of the North Solomons Province, Joseph Kabui, told the Fiji-based Islands Business magazine on January 23 that Francis Ona had given him a mandate to bargain for a swift restoration of essential services in exchange for "whatever it takes".

"We can't afford to breach" the accord, Kabui told Islands Business. "Our eyes are not blind. We've seen deaths and suffering from confrontations and blockades. About 1000 would not be an exaggerated figure for deaths from confrontations between BRA and [PNG] security forces and people dying of health reasons."

Kabui added that 4000 babies born between 1989 and 1990 were without immunisation or vaccination against the island's tropical diseases. "Our worry was that if nothing was going to be done, most of them would die because they were totally vulnerable."

Interim authority

The Honiara accord pledges that the blockade will be lifted and essential services restored to the island. As in the earlier accord, discussions on the future political status of Bougainville are deferred.

It was also agreed that an Interim Legal Authority on Bougainville would be established. Joseph Kabui told Islands Business that this would be the current interim government. "It is an authority that PNG is accepting, if not we wouldn't have signed this agreement." The accord grants members of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army immunity from prosecution.

Foreign Minister Michael Somare agreed to the demand that PNG troops not return to Bougainville. The accord provides for a "Multinational Supervisory Team" to oversee implementation of the accord — a key demand of the Bougainville delegation. The Bougainville leaders promised to surrender their arms to the MST.

Sourced from: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/1852

Improve English in schools to develop PNG

Source: 

The National, Wednesday 16th May, 2012

IF the government is se­rious about providing free education, then it should also recruit qualified professionals.
A university degree in English language and li­terature can be as valuable as any specialist degree.
The government needs to promote the study of English in schools as it will help students in their studies.
We, therefore, need to have good English language teachers, especially for our rural schools where most of our population reside to learn about other aspects of English teaching methodology.
For example, teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) using lite­rature aimed at children and teenagers is gaining popularity.
Youth-oriented literature offers simpler material (simplified reading is produced by major publishers) and often provides a more conversational style than literature for adults.
Children’s literature, in particular, sometimes provides subtle cues to pronunciation.
One method for using these books is the multiple-pass technique.
Today, most graduates from universities and colleges  also lack communicative English language which emphasises interaction as the means and ultimate goal of learning a language.
The task-based language learning (TBLL) also needs to be taught in homes, schools and workplace or even anywhere in the fields.
Proponents believe com­­muni­cative language is important for develo­ping and improving speaking, writing, listening and reading skills.
Take Laos, for example, where English language has been increasingly im­portant in education, international trade and cooperation since the 1990s.
The Laotian government started to promote foreign investment, and the introduction of Laos as an observer at the Asso­ciation of Southeast Nations (Asean) summit in 1992.
From that year, the government worked hard to ensure as many people as possible gained sufficient knowledge of the English language.
Laos became a member of Asean in 1977.
PNG, on the other hand, has done little to improve the standard of English learning in rural schools.
The government must act quickly as it is important to open doors to the outside world.

by Benjamin Kuna
     in Pangia

Let’s Institutionalize a Bougainvillean Exodus home

By Leonard Fong Roka

Many myopic thinkers and observers of Bougainville (worst of all are even fellow Bougainvilleans) claim that lawlessness and weapons in the hands of Bougainvilleans is the problem. But, this is a narrow minded coward’s talk!

The man with a gun is not a problem. Our leaders in the government are not the problem. The village men are not the problem, but ‘WE’ and our ‘short sightedness’ is the problem!

Bougainville, today wait for miracles that will never come. We see that our President John Momis is the solution; but, in fact he is not, but it is you, the SOLUTION! Instead, the man that I am blaming for our problems—that is YOU—is worshipping the imposed laws. Where the agreed laws are not realistic to the situation, we still are there kneeling as our problems grows out of hand.

Last year, 2011, a bunch of PNGeans were brought into Panguna by some short-sighted scrap firm to teach Bougainvilleans how to weld. What are slap in the face for us! But, thank you ‘true’ Bougainvilleans who kicked these aliens out. Also, our schools run short of teachers each year, and to that let’s asked: hundreds come into PNG to train as teachers, where do they go to? Why are they servicing PNG, the riches country in Oceania, when the homeland needs them?

Bougainvilleans, living outside love to go home in their coffin, thus as leaders we need to address this for this just disadvantaging us.

My thoughts in all these, and even in the area of restarting the weapons disposal program and peace and fast-tracking of betterment, are to get all Bougainvilleans back to Bougainville.

The so-called hardcore trouble makers will see that what they died for is being upheld by the ABG with this gesture of protectionism. After all, this is a route to the already growing developmental trend of self-reliance we see where all business activities on Bougainville is being owned by locals.

In the Bougainville Peace Agreement there is a section that is titled ‘Two List System For Driving Powers And Functions’ and it is in this section I see room for negotiation and change we need to address some problems affecting us because the ABG is currently so myopic in its operations. Here it is:

“Subjects Not Now Known or Identified

57. Consistent with the agreed process for the transfer of powers, any subject not

listed on either list will remain initially with the National Government, provided

that:

(a) where either of the Governments wishes to legislate on a subject which is not clearly on either list, it will consult the other with a view to reaching agreement on which government should be responsible for the subject;

(b) if either Government passes a law on an unlisted subject, then the other may, if it disagrees, contest it through the agreed dispute settlement procedures;

(c) any dispute over which of the Governments is responsible for a power or function will be resolved by applying the principles governing the division of powers in this Agreement” BPA

From this section, Bougainville should create a Vagrancy Act for Bougainville against PNG. This is justifiable, by the concept of ‘nation’ in its reality. Also, the historical causes of the Bougainville Conflict; Bougainville needs protectionist measures today and not tomorrow. For, to many former combatants, the only outcome known is that, the Redskins are coming back! History is being repeated despite the fact that we died.

Many should argue my points, but the culture in Bougainville is that so known piece, throughout Melanesia as ‘big man’. It is creeping yet. Many that sign ‘black and white’ things are still nobodies to the illiterate and ‘catapult man’ who fought the BCL and Papua New Guinea.  

To win hearts, the way is to satisfy the majority that had no formal educations, but their interest on their land is undebatable.

From the lowest level of government in Bougainville, the Village Council of Chiefs to the Autonomous Government, there is this ignorance of the ‘ungroomed young man’ who is only good with his catapult in the bush. What we ignore is that this catapult has the much feared gun as senior at home.

A leader has not yet gone down into their boots with ‘established charisma’ to tell them that ‘what you fought for is now protected in a manner you like’.

Shut the influx of New Guineans or we start shooting

By Leonard Fong Roka

‘Halt the influx of Redskins into Bougainville or we start shooting!’ Say, this is the words of the politically weak of Bougainville. In fact the men who drove Bougainville and Papua New Guinea into an armed conflict were these very lot; the ignored bunch of people by the elite.

Long time serving BRA man, Leo Takinu, from Kupe says that our leaders have so sold us away. Firstly, through the Peace Agreement, they told us to give up our guns so Bougainville can be a gun-free and democratic society. But, the problem is: when you take away and destroy my hard-gained weapon, what do you give me?

Leo Takinu, BRA Kon'ampai Platoon

The PNGDF did not give the guns as a X-Mas present, we killed and took them.

We want a gun-free Bougainville, but a gun-free Bougainville not under the Papua New Guinean deathly claws. It’s true, guns have nothing to do in Bougainville, but for us to destroy these weapons, where is the protection we long fought and died for on our island?

So far, since the establishment of the ABG not a leader talked about policy frameworks with PNG so has to have Bougainvilleans rebuilding Bougainville from the scratch. The Bougainville Peace Agreement so clearly outlines that where need or problems arises; both have to sit and analysise and sort out so as to keep the peace going. But, none has been vocal on this.

In 2010, a New Guinean married to a local woman but was not here during the crisis was killed in cold blood. He was killed because he was doing fine in business, and later won a security contract with the Arawa gold essay. To the killers, they said they did justice to Bougainville. But, for us open minded few; we say it’s the bad side of ignorance of ABG on the people of Bougainville.

Hundreds of Bougainvillean teachers, for example are in PNG when Bougainville schools are short of teachers. We say that we lack intellectual capacity, but look up some top jobs in PNG, there are Bougainvilleans behind the wheels.

Nothing is hard here, create a law in the PNG government to harden employment opportunities to Bougainvilleans for the sole purpose of getting Bougainvilleans helping back their island. But, instead of coming up with such simple strategies we import the cockroaches into our island to fill the gap.

ABG is allowing them to come as preaches in the churches, businessmen, bilum sellers in Buka town, News paper vendors, and holiday makers and so on. These simple things that a Bougainvillean ought to be doing! We are keeping an eye on this.

They are coming without even compensating us for the lives lost. We export our students there, and they are marrying and bringing them here. By bringing them here, remember there are Bougainvilleans whom their father or mother is from PNG but married to us before the conflict and we killed him or her here, what will these Bougainvilleans say to us?

What retributive justice have we done to these sort of Bougainvilleans who a parent was a redskin and we killed here by saying his redskin father is a nobody on Bougainville?

And one child of these children has said that the moment Bougainville is independent, any marriage to a PNGean after the signing of the Bougainville Peace Agreement, will live on a legal street of broken bottles.

He stated that laws will be created that will protect us. Any non-Bougainvillean that arms a Bougainville must go for death penalty or deportation.

But for me, if my relative comes home with one New Guinean, I will kill his or her New Guinean in honour of the 15 000 lost Bougainvilleans that we still are not respecting.