http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/13/1073877825117.html
In for the long haul with PNG By Hugh White - January 14, 2004 [ Hugh White is director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. ] A long and complex task lies ahead of Australia in Papua New Guinea. The Government's decision - announced on December 11 - to send almost 300 police and public servants to PNG is important. But if we are to make a lasting difference, this will need to be just the first, small, and relatively easy step in what will be a demanding national enterprise. That first step is important. Practically, it constitutes a major commitment to take significant responsibility for improving law and order in PNG. That in itself is important. And symbolically, last month's decision marks the end of the "post-colonial" era. We are now in a new era in which fears of being accused of neo-colonialism no longer constrain a return to deeper levels of engagement with PNG than we have seen since independence in 1975. This change in approach to PNG is one of the most important developments in Australian foreign policy in many years. It has been spurred by our slowly growing recognition of the depth of PNG's problems, and of their burgeoning scale. Within 20 years, PNG's population will double to more than 10 million people. But the even more important factor has been our growing confidence that there is something we can do about it. This is partly a global phenomenon. Since the end of the Cold War, the international community has become increasingly comfortable with the idea that countries have the right and even the obligation to become involved when the failure of states threatens the wellbeing of their citizens or of others. A doctrine of "humanitarian intervention" in the affairs of failing states has been born. Australia has been at the forefront of this process. We have been involved in humanitarian interventions of different kinds in places as diverse as Somalia, Rwanda and Cambodia. For Australia, state failure is a problem that sits on our doorstep, and engages our most enduring strategic interests directly. Crises in Bougainville, East Timor and the Solomon Islands have set a pattern for a new level of Australian involvement in responding to regional problems that threaten the stability and viability of our smaller neighbours. Our motives have blended genuine altruism with a clear sense of direct national strategic self-interest. And our successes have emboldened us to think we can make a real difference to the much bigger and more complex problems of PNG. Well, it is worth a try. But to succeed, we will need to do a lot more than simply continue the very substantial aid programs that we have been running for years. And we will need to do more than provide the extra 300 police and public servants announced last month. So let's step back and ask the broader questions: what are we trying to achieve in PNG, and how in broad terms are we going to do it? Australia's key objectives should be to reverse PNG's long-term economic and political decline, and restore it to a sustainable path to political stability and economic prosperity. This is the long and complex task I mentioned in my first paragraph. There are at least four elements to the kind of broad national agenda on PNG that we need to develop. The first is law and order. This is where the Government has very properly made its start. But no one should believe that 230 Australian police - no matter how excellent - will solve PNG's law and order problems. We need to look beyond the present deployment, to help PNG develop and implement a long-term plan for the police and justice systems it needs, and to agree what role Australia should play in it. The second element is the delivery of critical services - especially health and education. In these areas, Australia needs to move beyond the provision of advice and funds, to take a more active role in the delivery of services - just as we are doing in policing. But if such efforts are to be more than panaceas, they too need to evolve into a long-term program to help PNG build and sustain effective service-delivery systems. The third element of an Australian agenda for PNG should be the development of PNG's economy. Unless we can be confident that PNG is potentially economically viable, the whole process is a waste of time. There is no reason why it should not be, but it will require the application of a lot of entrepreneurial talent, as well as some capital, to realise PNG's economic potential. And finally, we need to help develop PNG's leadership: political, administrative, judicial, entrepreneurial, and intellectual. The many impressive individuals active in PNG public life should not blind us to the fact that PNG's resources of leadership are way below its needs. This is a complex issue involving institutional reform and education among many other factors. No issue is more important, or more sensitive. None of the elements of this ambitious agenda will be achieved simply by a wave of the aid wand. Aid will be part of the answer, of course, but the critical issues will be more political, diplomatic and even social than financial. First, we are looking at a major national undertaking which will stretch over decades and cost billions. So we need to build a strong and durable consensus within Australia around the kind of broad national agenda on PNG that I have sketched here. That means the agenda needs to be developed, refined, debated, scrutinised, and finally agreed to - in public. Second, we need to broaden and deepen Australian engagement with PNG away from the Federal Government and the committed but narrow interest groups that dominate the relationship. A lot more Australians are going to need to become a lot more familiar with PNG than they are today, if we are to make any kind of lasting difference to the place. And a lot more PNG citizens will need to spend more time in Australia. Last, and most important, we need to develop a genuine dialogue with PNG's people and leaders about where their country is going, and how we can help. Often we Australians are not trusted or welcomed in PNG. Political point-scoring within PNG about the deployment of our police is a worrying reminder that we can achieve nothing without the support of the people of PNG themselves, and the country's political leadership. This is not just a matter of government-to-government diplomacy, but also of broader contacts between leaders and elites in many walks of life. This kind of intimacy was common enough in the 1960s and '70s. We need to rebuild it, quickly, if we are to achieve anything else. This is indeed the next urgent step in developing our national agenda on PNG. That makes it one of Australia's top foreign policy priorities. Hugh White is director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. These are his personal views. -- Visit the proposed Leftlink web site at http://www.leftlink.net/ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
