33rd Independence Anniversary
Address by
HON. DR PUKA TEMU CMG, MP
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Lands & Physical Planning and Mining
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, and children who have braved the early hours of dawn to gather here on Independence Hill to see the sun rise on this the 33rd anniversary of Papua New Guinea's attainment of independence.
And greetings to the people of Papua New Guinea who are listening in on their radios.
Throughout the country today we are celebrating thirty-three years as an independent nation. Today happiness and joy underline the spirit of our coming together in towns, villages and hamlets to celebrate.
As a country we face many problems, but on this day and on other anniversaries, we celebrate our oneness as a nation. This unity must not be trivialized, or undervalued when we are of a thousand tribes and cultures and speak over 800 languages.
By anyone's standards we are a successful nation. We have overcome our differences and diversity, turned these into assets, and preserved our unity as one people and one nation.
We have withstood the pressures and tests on our unity through the 33 year journey. That is the success that we are proudly celebrating today all over the country.
A major instrument of our success as one nation is democracy. Democracy is successful in Papua New Guinea. Holding together diverse and independent cultures comprising different sociopolitical systems.
As a result of these different socio-political systems, democracy has been put to strenuous tests and has survived.
THE PAST
As we look back on the road we have traveled, we acknowledge that in the first 31 years of our journey we traveled through governments that were in a continuous state of flux.Governments lasted only two and three years. Policies and development plans and programmes discarded as new governments took office.
There was no long term vision for the country as efforts and resources were concentrated on achievement of political survival.
Even the fundamental democratic process of election through which every voting citizen has a voice in how the country should be governed, was rigorously tested.
The 2002 elections saw democracy undergoing the most fiery of tests, but the country survived and righted itself by changing the process in 2007 to the limited preferential system which can be described as truly democratic because the member elected through LPV has a wider representational mandate.
Rural Papua New Guinea is still not accessing critical services. Infrastructure and communication are still not reaching the 80 percent of our people in the rural areas making service delivery extremely costly.
Our social indicators are the worst in the Pacific and perhaps the worst in the Asia-Pacific region. Our Public Service is most bloated yet very inefficient and not delivering.
Our education system is a major consumer of development funds, yet most of the 10,000 and 12,000 grade 12 students who left school in 2006 and 2007 will not proceed to higher institutions of learning or to vocational schools.
HIV/AIDS is a major challenge with its progress being more rapid than the effect of government's mitigating response. Medicines are not reaching the people and deaths through preventable deceases continue to increase.
Most of our institutions need to mature. Systems need to be revised and adapted to changing methods and management philosophies.
Some of our laws need to be made effective. Some need to be changed. Law and order problems continue to test our thinking, our resources, and our systems to the limits. Corruption still needs to be reigned in.
Donor participation in our development aspirations needs to be better managed.
These are some of the gaps and failings that become too clear as we examine our performance in the last 32 years. However, no one country can boast of perfect systems of government.
So we are not alone in failing in many ways in the past 32 years.
Successes
We have had some successes too. In spite of the woeful picture I have just painted, the resilience of our people is amazing. Our people are not hungry.
Our Constitution has been protected. This is the foundation on which all else is built. It has not been subjected to changes to suit political will. In protecting the Constitution, we protected our sovereignty.
The institutions of state continued to function through that period of political instability prior to 2002.
Constitutional bodies such as the Ombudsman Commission, the Auditor-General, the Police, the Electoral Commission, continued to function with their independence protected.
The Public Service continued to hold the country together. The judiciary, stretched to its limits at times, did not fail to guide the country through legal and constitutional interpretations.
As we look back, we are amazed at our resilience. As the Prime Minister said, he took the helm of an independent Papua New Guinea in 1975 with only a handful of educated Papua New Guineans with managerial skills.
Today, there are thousands of educated Papua New Guineans in all professions. Today we are exporting talent.
Education is expensive, but the rate of literacy is increasing. Our geographical location subjects us to regular natural disasters, but our spirit is not broken.
As our ancestors did, we survive the catastrophes of volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and floods, and are moving on. We acknowledge the role played by international partners who come to our assistance.
We came through the Bougainville crisis at great human costs, but again we see the triumph of democracy in the search for peaceful solutions, and in the new system of government in the Autonomous Bougainville Government.
We survived the financial crisis of the '90s and the World Bank-imposed structural adjustment programs.
Today we have surpluses. Today Papua New Guinea is an investor in the Solomons, Vanuatu, and Niue.
Papua New Guinea is an attractive investment location. Our natural resources continue to lure the foreign investor and his investment dollar. The surpluses we are experiencing come from this sector and the agricultural sector.
We have maintained our presence in the international arena and sustained our bilateral and multilateral relations. We took pride in hosting the 200-strong African Caribbean Pacific/European Union Joint Parliamentary meeting in 2006.
This November, we shall host them again. This time the number will be 500 strong. These events are significant as acknowledgement of our maturity to provide a conducive and safe environment for the deliberations of international bodies.
In the Pacific, the Grand Chief the Rt Hon Sir Michael Somare, Prime Minister, is the senior statesman and leader in the Forum countries. He is looked upon to lead in collective efforts in finding solutions to problems, where problems threatening the stability of the region exist.
We cannot talk about success stories in the past 32 years without mentioning reforms in the electoral system and the political reform resulting in political stability.
These reforms have paved the way for the shift of focus from personal and party survival to the national interest.
From two governments within a five-year parliamentary term to a stable government with the mandate to govern for the full five year term.
Land
In Papua New Guinea, land is the most single important factor in terms of economic development. It is also a very costly aspect of investment if not well addressed. It is an emotive issue and we have witnessed dire consequences when not properly addressed.
We find that as we are resource rich, we are cash poor. Studies had been commissioned into how land can be a factor in the "resource rich - cash poor" equation.
Policies are now determined allowing the landowner to participate in economic development through his/her land while at the same time retaining his/her ownership of the land. For the landowner and the investor, this is a win-win situation.
Agriculture
Agriculture has always been our livelihood and will continue to be important. One of this Government's policies is the "Green Revolution".
The National Agricultural Development Plan has been approved and funded to the tune of Kl00 million. This is a key plan to revitalize and realise the potential in the agriculture sector.
Through proper management of the sector under the Plan, Papua New Guinea should feed itself, replace imports, and export surplus produce.
Earnings from this sector is between K1.1billion and K1A billion.
Tourism
The government approved a 10 year Tourism Master Plan. Papua New Guinea is a tourist paradise. We offer diverse products compared to other Pacific countries.
Proper management under the Master Plan to develop the tourism industry will realise the dormant potential of this industry and its contribution to the economy.
Roads and Infrastructure
The Government also approved a 10-year Roads and Bridges Development Plan. Many bridges were built.
Under the current Medium Term Development Strategy, funding was concentrated on maintainance programs and new roads were not built other than the Southern Highlands to Kerema Road. Portions of this road are yet to be constructed.
Management of ports and harbours has been privatized under the privatization policy. Six airports have been approved for upgradation in response to the Tourism Master Plan. These are Alotau, Madang, Lae, Wewak, Hagen, and Tokua.
In the maritime sector, safety strategies have been implemented and improved with the assistance of donor partners.
EducationA 10-year Education Plan was approved. A lot more thinking and planning is still required to address the increased number of school leavers and corresponding shortages of higher learning institutions.
A policy will be in place to regulate and govern private learning institutions at the university level and partnership arrangements between the government and private education providers.
Health
The Government approved the 10-year Health Plan and other important medium term plans in the health sector. The National HIV/AIDS Plan was the first ever in the Pacific region. A review of this plan is now under progress.
Most indicators are poor, but amazingly enough, we are living longer than a generation ago when lifespan did not reach 50 years.
Climate Change
Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare is a world leader in climate change. Three or four years ago, he took the debate to the international arena and argued for preservation of our forests in exchange for trading carbon.
Papua New Guinea was one of the first countries to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. The Prime Minister has earned the respect of the world in this matter and at the same time put Papua New Guinea on the world map.
Political Systems
Since 1975, a few political systems have been introduced, one deemed to be an improvement over the previous one. The autonomy concept applied in Bougainville is an addition to the three-tier government system under the Organic Law on Provincial and Local-level Governments.
Of course the Constitution had to be changed to allow for the autonomy concept.
As a concept, autonomy merits proper examination with the view to policies regulating introduction of either some measure of autonomy or full autonomy depending on the merits of a province.
There are many success stories, but I would like to think about the future.
FUTURE
Two weeks ago, here in Port Moresby, a National Development Summit was held. For the first time ever, the Executive government and the Provincial Governors came together in consultation over a vision for our future and to agree to a long term development plan strategic framework.
A 40-year broad framework covering the 2010-2050 period was accepted. Do not be alarmed in thinking that this is another example of top-down planning which will fail.
The National Executive Council has approved a task force comprising some prominent persons. This task force will ensure that bottom-up consultation and planning take place.
They will visit provinces, districts, villages, and ask citizens to articulate the kind of future they want for their children, and the kind of Papua New Guinea they want to live in.
The country, after all, belongs to all of us and all citizens should have a say in how its future should be shaped.
The opportunity is here for all of us to work together to chart the future and to determine how we can participate meaningfully in future development.
We now have political stability and can afford to have long term visions, and to strategically think long term.
We now have the political will to lead the country into the future. At the political level, we have the youthful energy as well as the understanding of the needs and aspirations at the district and village level to want to make a difference there.
We now have the financial ability to plan. The major resource projects in gas, oil, mining, forestry, agriculture plantations, will bring us more financial ability. We know that the gas resources alone will have life spans of 30 years.
In the past, plans could not be sustained and 70 percent of development funding came from donor partners. We will have the means to finance future plans.
This opportunity to plan for change must not be wasted. We must develop a roadmap to take our country forward in the next 40 years.
The 40-year long term strategy accepted by the Leaders last week will be implemented in eight 5-year medium term strategic plans.
Whereas the long term strategy will not be resource constrained, the medium term strategies will be priorities and resource based.
By this I mean that every five years along the 40 year path, we will set priority targets which will be measurable. For example, we might want to concentrate on infrastructure development in the 2010-2015 period, or on education, or on health, or on agriculture, or on law and order.
The point is that we will no longer be trying to deal with a mix-pot of developmental issues as we have been doing and accomplishing very little because financing of plans has never been secure.
We will institutionalize the long term plan through legislation. This will allow the plan to survive changes in governments. New governments will continue implementation of the same plan through the mechanism of the 5-year medium term strategies.
Countries like Malaysia and Singapore have had long term visions underpinned by almost absolute political stability. Through that stability, leadership concentrated on the national interest.
That is what Papua New Guinea should emulate, but through legislation, as partisan and regional and personal interest may take time to mature into national interest.
My fellow Papua New Guineans, we now have the opportunity and the moral duty to plan a much better future for our children and grandchildren.
Do not squander this opportunity by absconding from participation in thinking when the task force I have mentioned earlier comes to your district or village or hamlet in the next six months to hear your ideas.
Whether you are formally employed or a village gardener or fisherman, you are a Papua New Guinean and the future belongs to you and me and our children.
Twenty years from now, your sons and daughters must not ask you where you were when the opportunity came to you to help plan a better future for them.
This government has the good fortune to lay the foundation for a brighter future for our people. A future in which young people will be better educated because their parents will have capacity to allow for that.
A future in which the school leaver will participate in the economic development of the country as well as of himself. A future in which young people have hope and see a place for themselves rather than seeing no way out and resorting to lawlessness for survival.
A future in which every child born will live, and mothers will not die at childbirth.
A future in which every girl child will be better educated and have opportunities for economic independence.
The task before this government now is to re-examine the institutions and systems of government as well as the laws because these are the vehicles through which planned change will come about.
It is no secret that the public service machinery lacks vision and energy. It needs to be revamped and reenergised, to take charge of the long term plan and to prepare the government and country to be responsive to the inevitable changes coming in the wake of the major resource projects like the LNG project.
Papua New Guinea is about to enter a major industrialization phase, and may not necessarily be prepared.
It is no secret that the presence of the public service at the district and ward levels is anaemic at best. Focus must be shifted there to build capacity. Funds for development at these levels are available even now, but the capacity to mobilize project implementation is lacking.
This is where 80 percent of Papua New Guineans live.
I appeal to all citizens to come on board to rethink how our country can be better managed and to help plan our future. Let us determine a future in which we will truly be independent.
I wish everyone a HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY.
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