Bougainville Politics & People Characteristics

Leonard Fong Roka

NOTE: I am not an academic and had not invested time or effort to research these ideas.  But these are thoughts that I make when looking at issues in Bougainville. In 2011, I did a speech in a local primary school and mention something along this line, many supported my thoughts thus I decided to write it down.

Having lived all my life in Bougainville and travelled extensively around the island; and growing up with the Bougainville secessionist conflict since 1988, there are certain things I personally had gleaned about my island.

'But this population [of Central Bougainville] also readily absorbs changes into the society or adapts to create results'...Post crisis living standard of Jaba hamlet in the Tumpusiong Valley of Panguna.

 

Bougainville has 27 or more identified languages which mean there are 27 or more nations each having its own unique culture and independent way of behaving and thinking. But one thing that binds these peoples is the geographical unity of Bougainville, Buka Islands and the whole Solomon archipelago and certain shared cultural traditions.

So, all being one people, Bougainville can claim the right of a single independent nation state that they have had paid for with their own blood in a Melanesian sense away from the cruel Papuans & New Guineans who are not at all Bougainville’s relatives.

Bloodshed, since 1988 was the result of the long denial of Bougainvilleans’ rights as human persons in their own geographical setting of the Solomon archipelago by nobody else, but the cruel state of Papua New Guinea that had for decades ruled the island since its forced annexation under the pros and cons of colonization by the Germans and the British.

Colonialism had far reaching impacts in the Bougainville psyche in its interference with the traditional environment of the people. Thus the socio-political acculturation in play since 1768 with the discovery by Louis De Bougainville had branded certain significant characteristics so embedded in the psyche that still are affecting the political processes in play today in the post 1988 conflict Bougainville.

After the 1988 conflict, Bougainville had a number of peace initiatives that did succeed or failed. Success or failure again, when classifying pre-crisis and crisis events, comes as a result of people attitude or characteristic that is so observable across the island. Politicians and other policy makers need to understand the island and the people to create decisions with tangible results on the ground.

All these said issues, for my classification, comes in a geopolitical characterization of Bougainville that should be mapped out with all human personal attitudes that needs to be known or mapped out by political strategists with interest on Bougainville. These concerns so taint Bougainville politics today and throughout the recent history.

In the geopolitical light, I could claim that in Bougainville, North Bougainville has a population of ‘feigning’ people; Central Bougainville has a population of ‘talkers’ and South Bougainville has a populace of ‘practical’ people.

There is no cranny into understanding my observations for a connoisseur but my personnel views or collection of thoughts can point out some cultural trends to rid one from being connivance. It aches when local and external leaders and the ordinary people think about the Bougainville crisis and the reaching of peaceful and politically and economically vibrant and independent Bougainville. But my judgments, as a Bougainvillean, sometimes can help boost the island’s leap for a peaceful settlement of all problems.

Many people, when looking at the Bougainville problems, like to look at the situation through the Papua New Guinea lens which is not the way to fine amicable solutions. But people must see the problems through the Bougainvillean way to solve the issue. Because with Bougainville, we are struggling to solve a crisis intertwined with Bougainville nationalism and not a Bougainville longing to be in Papua New Guinea!

Much historical literature about Bougainville and Bougainvilleans had being long written by non-Bougainvilleans and in most cases, generally, there are true observations that I see on the ground.

Despite little internal differences, Bougainvilleans show of resistance against a foreign intruder was evidence well back to October 1768. Locals around north Bougainville did marked their dislike of the navigator Louis de Bougainville and his men by shooting an arrow at them from a retreating canoe after an onboard gesture discussion with the European sailors.

This situation again resurfaced in our conflict against the Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) and the PNG government and people since 1988. Bougainvilleans stood as one to attack the New Guinean and Papuan intruders though there are slight human characteristic differences beneath the land.

In the geopolitical sense, north Bougainville is made up of a people that show the spirit of ‘pretention’ in Bougainville.

In the historical light, the 1979 book, Bougainvillean Nationalism by Alexander Mamak and Richard Bedford, it was written that in the 1960s the Napidakoe Navitu independence movement of central Bougainville claimed to have run a referendum for Bougainville independence. South Bougainville did claim that secession for Bougainville was too early and the north Bougainvilleans just sided with the south contradicting the fact that it was the north that actually birthed the idea of Bougainville independence into the hearts and minds of certain leaders like Damien Damen in central Bougainville with movements such as the Hahalis Welfare Society by John Teosin. The north denied the fact that it was they who influenced the central Bougainvilleans to resistance.

In the recent 1988-90 conflict, I noted that the problems caused by the ‘opportunist rascals’ in the name of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) was concentrated in the vicinity of the areas around the current Buka town but still, the people in the far off Haku area of Buka island were quick to sail off to New Guinea and forge an agreement in New Ireland to re-invite the New Guineans and Papuans and their government back into Bougainville. The north pretended that they cannot address the situation in a Bougainvillean-to-Bougainvillean dialogue no matter how dangerous it was; or resist the rascals in a collective north Bougainville collision. But the north went ahead to seek help from the very Bougainville’s axis of evil, the PNG government.

In the people cultural light, furthermore, the north Bougainville region is populated by people that hide the truth of their living standards. On the island of Buka, most village standards are similar to the squatter settlements of PNG’s urban areas. Yet people do act so developed in their people to people interactions; for example, their dressing standards or social relations are so westernized.

This can be also seen in the Bougainville’s top cocoa producing district, Tinputz. Tinputz by far produces the highest percentage of pre-1990 cocoa (also today) but the money earned cannot be seen as bringing positive developmental change to the villages and peoples’ lifestyle as it can be seen in central and south Bougainville in the post crisis times. In Tinputz, despite the high cocoa generated income housing standards are yet to be improved.

When travelling along the Kokopau-Arawa highway’s Salau to Tinputz section; or around the island of Buka, this is noticeable on the roadside villages. Living standards of the people are not that economically consistent with the value of cocoa and copra they produce. But when observing the people of these places in Buka town and any place outside Bougainville, they turn to reflect the standards worth generating by the income that can be earned by their cocoa and copra.

One factor I note to drive this spirit of pretention in the north is environmental; that is the lack of water, especially for the Buka island and Selau in the northern tip of Bougainville. Here despite the issue of scarcity of running water, people still has high degree of beautifying their bodies with coconut oil for visit into town. Such practice then influences their psyche to act not the reality.

In many places I have been outside Bougainville, by far, I have met people from Buka island (north) trying to copy Hollywood standards and speak fancy English yet when they go back home they can be seen sharing the same roof with their domesticated pigs and dogs.

Thus people in the north of Bougainville generally just pretend not to be what the reality is; they turn to hide the true circumstance on the ground. With this there is also the spirit of pride and boastfulness in the psyche of the northern people of Bougainville.

Since the north is now the gateway into Bougainville, development rate is highest in the north thus most people are having the opportunity of being ‘social show-offs’ with the little political, economic and social gains seen on the Buka Island. But to my analysis all key development in the north is not controlled by the north but by the south Bougainvilleans with little doses from central Bougainville.

In Central Bougainville where the Kietas are so politically and economically dominant, there I see a lot of ‘big mouths’ that just cannot stop talking. Central Bougainvilleans are creative in exporting their dreams without testing the practical outcomes of those thoughts. But this population also readily absorbs changes into the society or adapts changes to create results.

I could say that in Central Bougainville, generally, nobody looks before leaping. With this there is also extreme stubbornness in this mountainous land that even the peace process or ABG has not eradicated as yet.

Before PNG’s independence in 1975 it was the Central Bougainvilleans that created a lot of anti-PNG noise in the Pacific political scenes with ideas they imported from the north Bougainvilleans. Through such organizations such as the Napidakoe Navitu the central Bougainvilleans attempted to change Bougainville politically once and for all. All this effort was, I should say, done without any proper strategizing—what should have being the short term and the long term planning for Bougainville and its people.

In the 1989 conflict this was repeated by the late Francis Ona.

In today’s Bougainville politics, Central Bougainville is where most hot politics is played with great spill-over effects. From the mountains of central Bougainville the 1989 crisis that had killed 20 000 innocent people was created; from these mountains the problem of Meekamui was created and even the cult of UV-Stract and the Twin Kingdoms of Papaala, now based in Siwai, first got its start-up fuel from Central Bougainville.

Central Bougainville is blessed with dreamers or visionaries with loud voices without any liking to practical application of their thoughts. Explore, for example, the 1970s Napidakoe Navitu movement; it was not an organized body, but rather a noise of scattered bands of cargo cult movements with political ambitions until leaders from South Bougainville got involved, then it became a organized force..

In 1989 it was again, the late Francis Ona who got the South Bougainvillean backing to kick-start the secessionist movement that had one of the world’s largest open pit mines, Panguna, during the 1980s to shut down.

Across many villages of Central Bougainville politics is present in every mouth of all ages. Bougainville political chit-chats are replacing the old tradition of myth telling in the night. Men and women discuss and condemn politicians—both Bougainvillean and Papua New Guinean.

This positive culture lacks unity or uniformity for impact creation to heal the political divisions so prominent in Central Bougainville. This is the problem for the loud talkers in Central Bougainville—they lack the capacity to be practical! And Bougainville had witnessed this problem with the late Francis Ona’s leadership since 1989 till his death. The late Ona was a talking machine that lacked the capacity to navigate his trail with practical power to create physical change for the people of Bougainville to benefit from.

It can also be seen today that in Central Bougainville’s realm of politics, a Kongara man is there dreaming for a Kongara influenced Central Bougainville; a Panguna man wants a Panguna controlled Central Bougainville or a Nasioi (Kieta) man wanting his Nasioi area to be masters of Central Bougainville. A significant case can be seen with the Morgan Checkpoint by the rebel, Chris Uma from Nasioi who longs to have a say in all things happening in the Panguna District.

Central Bougainville is the home of ‘big mouths’ or people with selfish hearts that like be always at the top of the rungs in their dreams even though they do not have the knowhow into achieving their dreams. I often believe that this attitude was developed because the area was the centre of the pre-crisis and post crisis Bougainville politics and pre-crisis economic development for the island. Because of this, people began to have the feeling that central Bougainville is the natural leader so they talk a lot and do so many things that greatly affects Bougainville.

In today’s Central Bougainville, the area is the host of many development that is having the whole island and the ABG aching. People with their characteristics of ‘careless leaping’ are inviting persons for business partnership illegally or legally to pursue their interest. They care less of who is the authority but fight for what they see should bring betterment to them.

One classical example of this Central Bougainville weakness is the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA). The Bougainville Interim Government (BIG) was formulated in the early 1990s alongside the BRA command structure in Central Bougainville. But during the rest of the crisis era, the top leaders of the BRA had no influence on their subordinates thus the result was the loss of many innocent lives.

But in central Bougainville there is another characteristic that is worth employing to help Bougainville up, the people here, once given the best strategies and climate of development, they will go without the authority spoon feeding them. That is, their ‘big mouths’ will carry them away to disaster or triumph.

In South Bougainville, the story is a bit different. In history, the Napidakoe Navitu once claimed that they conducted a referendum for independence in the 1970s and in the results that followed, the voters in South Bougainville did not turn out well because of practical reasons. People in the south saw that Bougainville lacked skilled people to drive Bougainville forward but most in Central Bougainville were not bothered by this fundamental concerns Bougainville should have had.

Again in most literature about the colonial Bougainville, it can be noted that most colonizers regarded South Bougainvilleans as people, especially the Siwai, with practical capabilities.

This was the direct result of two reasons: (1). the land in south Bougainville is not so fertile or productive in most areas; and (2). economic development came late into the region. To this many people had struggled to bring change into their homes thus developing their characteristic or nature of being practical people.

In so many political events of historical significance for Bougainville created in Central Bougainville, it was the South Bougainville men that stood behind the ‘big mouths’ of Central Bougainville dreamers to bring about the wanted impacts. For example, the 1970s Kieta’s Napidakoe Navitu group was effective because of leaders like the late Sir Paul Lapun from Banoni and later, the shutting down of the BCL’s Panguna mine spearheaded by the late Francis Ona in 1989 was effective because of the direct involvement of South Bougainville leaders such as the late James Singko from Nagovis and many others.

In the post crisis Bougainville, we even had seen South Bougainville conflicts so often marching alongside the chaos in Central Bougainville. There is a trend here; problems are created in Central Bougainville and spills over to South Bougainville with real practical impact. For example, we have had the recent Konnou Crisis in Buin and the ongoing cult of the Twin Kingdoms of Papaala and the UV-Stract scam in the Siwai district.

In the economic arena, Bougainville is again controlled by South Bougainvillean businesses. The Siwai people by far are now in charge of most business operations in Buka and a growing investment in Arawa. This is also the situation in the non-urban settings.

In this area, many South Bougainvilleans are sweating their guts to earn money for Bougainville or their own bread & butter as Central Bougainvilleans are occupied by the talks of reopening the Panguna mine and the north Bougainvilleans just relax to collect development as a byproduct of their region being the current gateway into Bougainville.

In the education sector output, South Bougainville has more graduates from colleges per annum compared to the ‘big mouths’ of Central Bougainville. Central Bougainvilleans are yet to do more in having their youths into schools. (This, however, is to do with the population size; there are more people in the south thus more young people are graduating from colleges).

One crisis event that should support my theory for the south Bougainvillean nature is the killing of the late Anthony Anugu from Siwai in Panguna.

In  1990 when the PNG government and the BCL left Bougainville, the late Francis Ona  was there in the hills of Panguna blinded by the joy of winning a confrontation  with the PNG troops and the BCL. With his ‘big mouth’ he was not interested in the practical burden of providing the goods and services for the shattered people of Bougainville.

In the anarchy that was unfolding, the late Anthony Anugu from South Bougainville, responded by creating the South Bougainville Interim Authority (SBIA) for the sole purpose of providing for the basic services to the people whilst the late Ona was there in Kieta ordering his BRA to persecute his enemies instead of bringing development to the people.

This act of providing some service to the people was a threat to the late Francis Ona so he had to have the late Anthony Anugu death.

With all these observation I see that in Bougainville, South Bougainville is where practical people are. I can pinpoint this fact from the Konnou crisis in Buin. Here Damien Koike of Meekamui and Thomas Tari with his Freedom Fighters who are pro-ABG went into row and then got into action. In another case, when the Freedom Fighters decided to attack the Twin Kingdoms of Papaala and the UV-Stract in Tonu, they did it and even the Kieta rebel, Chris Uma got a lucky escape from South Bougainvillean bullets in Buka.

This spirit of putting into practice what comes into mind straight away cannot be seen in Central Bougainville and North Bougainville.

In summary I think any thinkers in the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) should consider Bougainville along the lines of geopolitics when doing planning for the development of the island. As for me, with my own observations, I have come to say that Bougainville should be looked at in the three sections, that is: (1). North Bougainvilleans are ‘pretenders’; and (2). Central Bougainvilleans are ‘talkers’; and (3). South Bougainvilleans as the ‘practical’ people.

Through such observation and understanding of our people in general, I believe, as decision makers we can create realistic policies in government and also bring tangible development and positive change on the ground to the appreciation of the people.

Furthermore, I see that my thoughts can be a resource in addressing many issues affecting Bougainville today.