Pacific Affairs Series. Canberra: ANU Press, 2022. xiii, 321 pp. (Tables.) US$53.00, paper, free ebook. ISBN 9781760465209.
In December 1999 the first prime minister of Papua New Guinea, Michael Somare, gave a paper to a conference at Divine Word University entitled, “Where did We Go Wrong?” (Uncertain Paradise: Building and Promoting a Better Papua New Guinea, Divine Word University Press, 2000). Here Somare refers to the failings of PNG’s politicians (including himself) and their greed and self-centred behaviour, which have been the cause of so many of PNG’s problems. This collection of Ron May’s writings should perhaps be read in light of the same question as it applies to the two decades since Somare’s lament. All the chapters have appeared as previous publications, and the value in collecting them together in a single volume is to shed some light on the question of what has continued to go wrong. May introduces the collection by outlining a string of social and economic problems that currently beset the country, viewed through the lens of “poor economic management” (5), the corruption that has “continued to plague government performance” (5), and state weakness in the face of “high powered guns, and criminal groups,” among others (6). The chapters that follow are a selection of insights and opinions into various aspects of PNG political and governance issues ordered chronologically from the 25th anniversary of independence to the parliamentary election of James Marape as PNG’s 15th prime minister.
Much of the book focuses on the structure and workings of PNG’s political system, from its electoral methods—the subject of some reform—to the extraordinarily fluid behaviour of PNG’s political parties and the affiliations of individual politicians. One of May’s long-standing questions is how, despite the apparent weakness of the PNG state and its poor record of delivering even basic government services, PNG has managed to maintain “an unbroken record of democratic government” (10) and avoided predictions of state failure that, as May correctly points out, are largely based on false comparisons with African states. As the chapters unfold May describes a highly dynamic and rapidly changing political landscape characterized by “a lack of clear ideological differences between parties” (61); the ability of some politicians to simply ignore the rulings of the Supreme Court (87); the introduction of limited preferential voting, which was supposed to reduce the extreme violence and hijacking of ballot boxes that had become so prevalent in parts of the country (122); and an apparent “high tolerance of corrupt behaviour” by the people of their political leaders (157). On this point May entertains the argument (writing in 2007) that what we might view as “corrupt behaviour” is not necessarily viewed in the same way depending on the cultural context in which it occurs (157). May does try to keep a foot in both camps by suggesting that corruption that benefits a particular group is “defended as ‘cultural’ or kastom within the group” (158), but seen as corruption from outside the group. One might make the same observation about pork barrelling in Australia. Three chapters later, May (writing in 2016) takes a stronger line when he states “there is little doubt that corruption has become endemic in the public and private sectors” (190), yet he accords some of the blame to citizens who “often place heavy demands on members of parliament (MPs) and wantoks to gain benefits” (190). A similar line of argument is made (in a 2012 paper) in relation to the “often unrealistic” expectations of landowner groups for benefits from mining, oil, and gas projects (168). Yet these arguments are problematic. For one thing, it is beyond doubt that PNG has not benefitted as it should from the extraction of its resources, and by 2016 May makes it clear that “exploitation of the nation’s resources has not yielded significant benefits to the mass of the population” (189). It is not unreasonable for landowners to expect something rather than nothing. And to blame citizens for pressuring their political leaders into corruption, especially when it is mainly the political leaders themselves who benefit from corruption, more accurately describes the profound failure of leadership and governance that has led the country down that path.
By 2017, May is asking “has there been a shift in political style?” in PNG (207). And indeed the final chapters, describing the rise and fall of Peter O’Neill, and the rise and rise of James Marape, are markedly different from the previous papers. May describes in forensic detail the various political machinations, power plays, endless legal interventions, breathtaking corruption, and bewildering shifts of allegiance that characterized PNG politics during this period. Tying these complex series of events together is May’s contention that “O’Neill was able to behave as he did largely because, with a large governing coalition, there was little effective parliamentary opposition” (270), which is an argument that May made in 2016 and maintains until the end of the book. It is an argument that holds together well, and also explains some of O’Neill’s more Trumpian (or Nixonian) moments, such as when he declared to the Australian National Press Club that “Parliament is the supreme authority in Papua New Guinea” (246). Nevertheless, democratic government in PNG has survived the attacks against the authority of its Supreme Court, against its anti-corruption bodies, and the appalling squandering of the nation’s wealth. May could have looked more closely at the chronic problems of electoral fraud in parts of the country (not least in the electorate of the current prime minister), and he makes no mention of the fact that PNG has not conducted a census since 2011 and currently has very little understanding of the size of its own population let alone the authenticity of its electoral roll. It remains to be seen whether the “government of national unity” that May concludes had been forged by the end of 2019 is able to bring about the much needed improvements to the lives of the people of PNG.
Michael Main
The Australian National University, Canberra