There are now hopeful signs in Papua New Guinea that order can be gained from chaos now the prime ministership and government of Bill Skate is at an end.
Skate attempted to cling to power to the end. He had already adjourned Parliament for six months in order to avoid a motion of no-confidence. He then tried to woo or perhaps bribe enough backers to stay in power either as Prime Minister or as a back-bencher with a titular Prime Minister in John Pundari. One of Skate’s advisers was caught with a bag of cash at Madang Airport. Madang was where MPs opposed to Skate were housed just before the confidence vote.
Earlier Skate had tried to get his government out of financial trouble by allowing Taiwan to buy PNG’s diplomatic recognition with a soft loan arrangement worth up to $3 billion. His administration was responsible for a crashing currency and near economic breakdown. It had also failed to improve PNG’s chronic law-and-order situation.
Fortunately, Pundari refused to play ball. He refused to accept the Prime Ministership in a Government that would be dominated by Skate’s party. He swapped to the Opposition party of Mekere Morauta. That was known just before the vote because after entering the chamber Pundari sat on the Opposition side. As a result when the vote was actually taken, there was a landslide to Morauta. Even Skate himself voted for Morauta. Of the 105 MPs, 99 voted for Morauta.
Morauta has pledged to form a Government of national reconstruction and development. He will enjoy an 18-month immunity from no-confidence motions under PNG law. It will give him at least breathing space to reverse the deal with Taiwan; undo the cronyism, corruption and maladministration that came with the Skate regime; attempt to put the nation into some sort of financial order; and pursue peace in Bougainville. Moreover, Morauta is well-qualified for the task. He was Governor of the Reserve Bank from 1993 to 1996. He showed some political skill in getting the top job, when things looked hopeless after Skate had announced his arrangement with Pundari.
They are all hopeful signs. Australia, which inevitably faces picking up the tab for poor administration in PNG, should be relieved. Indeed, Australia has become so fed up with maladministration in PNG and with being made the scapegoat within PNG for all PNG’s woes that it is changing the way it gives aid to PNG. It is changing from giving money that goes into general revenue to giving money directly to programs and projects. With the former, Australia’s $300 million a year went into a hole. There was not a great deal of accounting for it. The theory was that as an independent nation PNG should have control over funds. It was fine theory but poor practice. With project and program funding Australia can see what happens to its aid money.
But hopeful signs do not guarantee progress.
Morauta’s huge majority should not be seen as a sudden sign of parliamentary unity. Rather there was a lot of opportunistic jumping on to the band-wagon. A lot of the majority will dissipate before long. Disappointed MPs will begin expressing dissent. We can hope that they form a unified constructive Opposition, rather than a series of floating alliances that cannot wait to get their hands on the spoils of government.
Morauta survived with a reputation of integrity and good sense after a year as Minister for Fisheries in the Skate government, despite holding large fishing interests at the time. He has worked his way up the PNG Public Service so has a good knowledge of government. But he will still have to overcome the PNG “”Big Man” way of politics. The “”Big Man” of a village or area gathers supporters and is expected to pay them with the spoils of office. Office is one of the few ways to get rich in a poor country.
In PNG it is made worse, not better, by the nation’s rich natural resources. Rather than seeing them as national assets for national development, they are seen as avenues for personal gain when foreign interests seek to develop them.
The task for Morauta is to change this way of doing things. It will not be easy.
PNG is also dogged by the political system crafted for it by mainly Australian advisers. The first-past-the-post system plays to the “”Big Man” way. The voting system is similar to the British system where voters just put a cross by one candidate. The candidate with the most votes wins. There are no preferences. In theory, it was a simple system that would be more easily understood by PNG voters. In practice it has been deeply flawed. Unlike Britain and Australia there are a multitude of parties and independents in PNG and electorates can attract a dozen or more candidates. In practice it means that candidates can win seats with quite a small percentage of the vote, even as low as 15 per cent. It makes it easier for the “”Big Man” to influence enough votes to get a win.
Further, the low percentages needed for victory mean a very large number of seats change hands every election. This results in less chance for MPs to build up experience and results in instability. Worse, it results in a tendency among MPs and Ministers to see their time in Parliament as likely to be short-term, so some try to get as much out of it as possible as quickly as possible.
Mekere Morauta faces an enormous task. Australia will be ready to help. One good thing to come out of the past six months in which Parliament was suspended and extraordinary jockeying for position has been greater attention on PNG affairs in Australia. That greater awareness can only result in Australians giving PNG greater priority.