Bougainville Manifesto 14: A Political System for Bougainville

Leonard Fong Roka

A Bougainvillean is person with a culture; and that culture is secured in a land known as Bougainville that is in a territory of Solomon archipelago and this is a self-sustaining entity. In Bougainville Manifesto 13, it is said that:

If cocoa grows in Bougainville, then Bougainville must produce chocolate powder; if coffee grows on Bougainville, then Bougainville must produce coffee powder; if a coconut palm sways on Bougainville, then Bougainville must produce oil cosmetics; if the sea girds Bougainville, then Bougainville must produce salt for his table; and if the Bougainville child is born on land, then that child owns the land and everything that grows on it belongs to him but he must care for them and trade them to get what his land will not give him.

And in the tiny sea of islands that Bougainville is a part of in the Pacific self sustaining economic and political models are vital; and such a system must not be too capitalistic but should be centered on the welfare of the people.

 

In Section 40 of the Bougainville Constitution (Structure and Levels of Government) it is stated:

Government in Bougainville shall consist of—

(a)    the Autonomous Bougainville Government in accordance with Division 2 (Autonomous Bougainville Government); and

(b)   a level or levels of formal government below the level of the Autonomous Bougainville Government in accordance with Division 3 (other levels of formal government); and

(c)    the traditional system of government in accordance with Division 4 (traditional system of government).

 

Under the autonomy arrangement this three-level system is already active and it has proven to be inclusive of all Bougainvilleans in decision making process of their homeland. Currently Bougainville has about four levels of government (Village Assembly (VA) being added recently) as can be observed throughout the island.

In most cases the first level of government is the Village Assembly (VA). This level is centered in the village where there are different clans (also having own governing structures) that come together to make decisions of their village affairs. Individual VAs then has a fair representation in the next level, the Council of Elders (CoE). The CoE members are elected members. From here Bougainville now had the District level where it is made up of the CoEs and in most cases it is more public policy oriented rather than political. And the last and top level is the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) parliament.

In the case of Bougainville, a four-level government system, seem not economical and from the present arrangement a three-level (ABG-CoE-VA) is viable.

Whatsoever the levels of government are, the fundamental question is: what are the roles and responsibilities of these levels; and the most reasonable answer to this is that the levels or a Bougainville political systems’ major collective task is the sustenance of a mutual state-citizen relationship. The Bougainville state should be advancing in regional and international politics, its economy should be functional in the capitalistic global market systems and the citizens of Bougainville should be a happy lot and not the one with chronic disparity and struggle.

Many states—big or small—in the current world dominated by capitalism and globalization turn to work on the sustenance of a positive Gross National Product (GDP) at the cost of the people and with such a reckless rush for scarce resources they harm equality and equity within their citizens. Thus disparity of economic, political, social, cultural, technological gain is prevailing breaking the world order.

And for a tiny island as Bougainville; with a few resources and a growing population of some 19-30 (Bougainville Manifesto 3) language groups that indicate the number of peoples, a happy state-citizens relationship is paramount; and this is because the strength to build the state of Bougainville should be sourced from this harmonious state-people coexistence.

There is room for Bougainville to design a political system centered on the Bhutanese politics of Gross National Happiness (GNH) as provided by website, Gross National Happiness (n.d.) whereby material and spiritual development can occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other.

 

And Bougainville and its people are known for struggles against exploitation, indoctrination and subjection to genocide in the midst of the Pacific. Thus the four (4) pillars of Gross National Happiness: (1) promotion of sustainable development, (2) preservation and promotion of cultural values, (3) conservation of natural environment and (4), the establishment of good governance, can be the way forward for Bougainville political future and state building.

All these points to one direction and that are the application of the welfare concept of development in Bougainville politics where government should work to alleviate poverty, focus on human wellbeing, and improve equality. Participatory or social democracy should be the system for Bougainville making GNH, Welfare, human capital investment, sustainable development and so on as the national Bougainville state pillars.

This is of course reflects the Nordic model as pointed by Wikipedia that combines the free market economy with the welfare state.

The Nordic models as Wikipedia puts it, that:

These include support for a "universalist" welfare state (relative to other developed countries) which is aimed specifically at enhancing individual autonomy, promoting social mobility and ensuring the universal provision of basic human rights, as well as for stabilizing the economy; alongside a commitment to free trade. The Nordic model is distinguished from other types of welfare states by its emphasis on maximizing labor force participation, promoting gender equality, egalitarian and extensive benefit levels, the large magnitude of income redistribution, and liberal use of expansionary fiscal policy

Bougainville must encompass this political model to survive. For Bougainville to survive under globalization its powerbase, these are the people of Bougainville, must be secured and be safe first; that is, all Bougainvilleans must be in a peaceful environment, they must be free, they must be participating, they must be educated, they must be standing on their traditional values, and so on then Bougainville will truly be a stable and advancing democracy.

The success of a Bougainville political system (s) will depend on peaceful citizen-state relationship. And the citizen-state relationship must be enhanced by getting every man to firstly know his place in society, he must know his cultures and other Bougainvillean peoples, he must know his land and environment and he must know his region’s or country’s place in the global village.