By John Wright
PAPUA New Guineans are starting to wonder whether they have misplaced their faith in the ability of Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare to tackle the country's single biggest problem: institutionalised corruption.
An inquiry last year into massive losses by the PNG National Provident Fund -- a private sector superannuation fund -- implicated dozens of people, including public figures, in mismanagement or fraud. They included Industrial Relations Minister Peter O'Neill, former prime minister and Speaker of Parliament Bill Skate and former finance minister and sitting MP Chris Haiveta.
Another was the fund's former chairman, Jimmy Maladina, implicated by the inquiry in criminal activities. He reportedly is living in Brisbane awaiting extradition by PNG authorities to answer expected corruption charges. An extraordinary outcome of the inquiry is that with the exception of Maladina, not one of the others implicated in fraud or mismanagement has yet been held to account or put on serious notice of it, and there are signs that the long-suffering PNG public has had enough.
This month, hundreds of impoverished electors in PNG's resource-rich Southern Highlands Province who gathered to complain that they couldn't afford school fees were told provincial administrators, and at least one former politician, had stripped 106 million kina (about $50 million) from the province's accounts in the past six years.
And this is just the tip of a very large and very obvious iceberg. PNG's major daily newspaper, The Post-Courier, and other media organisations carry almost daily revelations of Government officials and minor politicians caught with their hands in the till, of trust funds and public utilities robbed or mismanaged, of bribes offered and taken, of rank nepotism and
cronyism, of a public stripped and betrayed by its own servants.
Corruption has relentlessly invaded and contaminated the fabric of public life in Papua New Guinea and has been growing in intensity in the 27 years since independence.
It now is recognised as being so serious as to undermine the nation's security. Moreover, despite PNG's abundance of natural resources, its 5.2 million people have one of the world's lowest standards of living.
This massive betrayal of trust -- the robbery of the people by those they elect or their agents and cronies -- is the subject of national lamentation every time an election is held.
Sir Anthony Siaguru, one of PNG's most respected public figures and the head of the watchdog group Transparency International PNG, summed it up cogently just before a hopelessly corrupted and chaotic national poll last year which claimed the lives of more than 30 people.
He wrote in The Post-Courier of revelations of ``the sordid details of our grubby leaders up to their grubby tricks, snout in the trough of national
wealth, our wealth, one full sweaty hand on their wallet -- that's for their own benefit -- one dry empty hand on their heart -- that's for our benefit''.
The National Provident Fund inquiry and its outcome were seen by observers in PNG as a litmus test of the new Somare administration's resolve to tackle corruption and, for the first time, there were prospects of a radical change in official attitudes towards it.
After the inquiry, Sir Michael said any government minister implicated would be stood down. He recently reneged spectacularly on that promise, refusing to suspend his implicated minister, O'Neill, on grounds that although recommended for referral to police, he had not been charged or found guilty of anything.
O'Neill is the leader of one of the political parties cobbled together by Sir Michael into a governing coalition after last year's national elections. Sir Michael produced his backflip while outlining, ironically, prescriptive measures for the restoration of investor confidence in his country.
They included a clampdown on corruption and law and order problems. During the 2002 election campaign, which saw an astonishing 80 per cent turnover of MPs in PNG's 109-seat parliament, Sir Michael drew enormous
crowds wherever he went.
OBSERVERS saw this as a clear signal that PNG was looking to its founding father in hope, if not desperation, as the agent for change.
But what the country got wasn't the Michael Somare of the past -- the fiercely nationalistic ``Chief'' who had led the people out of the perceived yoke of colonial administration.
When Sir Michael fronted a recent PNG Business Council function, he read hesitantly from a prepared speech, the delivery and content of which neither betrayed any of his former oratory skills nor inspired confidence in his audience.
``It was a major climb-down by Somare,'' a prominent Port Moresby business executive said. ``He didn't deal with the issue of corruption. The thing is, you can't go on having inquiries which implicate people and spell it out chapter and verse and then do nothing about it. ``Anti-corruption organisations like Transparency International might be kicking up a fuss about it, but Somare is almost certainly not listening.''
This is a grim assessment of a leader in whom the people of Papua New Guinea displayed so much faith at the polls less than a year ago. But it comes as no surprise to political analysts.
Almost 28 years of independence have seen various national governments, three led by Somare, preside over the loss of trust in politicians, the steady decline of state authority and political legitimacy, the destruction of public morale and, ultimately, near economic collapse.
During that period, Australia contributed billions of dollars to PNG in overseas aid and is still doing so through bilateral programs at the rate of $1 million a day.
The Somare Government appears to be serious about fixing the economy and has been pushing an export-led recovery agenda in Australia. But the people are waiting for a sign -- any sign -- that the culture of corruption that has blighted their country will not be allowed to continue.
The one hope in the absence of any demonstrable commitment to that end is that PNG, despite its historical lack of public probity, has a free and independent media leading a brave anti-corruption fight.
It is doing this in conjunction with a dedicated Ombudsman Commission and an increasingly vocal private sector group, the Community Coalition Against Corruption. ``We are optimistic that something will happen (out of the NPF inquiry),'' said Mike Manning, a Port Moresby-based Transparency International spokesman. ``It means there is, for the first time, some idea of jeopardy for those who are continually breaking the law.''
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