Bougainville: Clarifying the futureGUNS can no longer have any...

Bougainville: Clarifying the future

GUNS can no longer have any part to play on Bougainville.
Autonomy is now a practical reality, and elections are around the corner.
Those elections will form a water-shed for the Bougainville people, and provide a practical demonstration to the world that the island and Papua New Guinea are together capable of producing and maintaining a workable peace settlement, and a promising future relationship.
Sir Peter Barter as Inter-Government Relations Minister, has urged Bougainvilleans to rid themselves of the shadow of weapons before the elections are held.
He is perfectly correct when he says that the presence of those guns “gives rise to a sense of uncertainty in the surrounding community, and their implication is even broader.”
Sir Peter, speaking at the passing-out parade of Bougainville police last Friday, had a number of important points to make.
We hope that all involved with Bougainville will take heed of the Minister’s words, for they have a direct bearing on the months and years ahead.
If those words are ignored, and worse, if the sentiments they embrace are not translated into practical action, it is the people of Bougainville who will suffer most.
This is not the time for heightened emotions, nor for slanging matches and worse between rival Bougainvillean parties that have nominated members for the Governorship of the newly autonomous province.
To have even a small quantity of weapons hidden in the background inevitably poses the question of ownership, and more importantly, the spectre of how they might be used to enforce the claims of one or other of the candidates.
Were that to happen, it would pose a real threat to the burgeoning democracy on the island, which in one form or another appears to be at the heart of each of the candidate’s platforms.
Sir Peter also spoke of his concern over the accession to autonomy.
He made a valid point when he said that autonomy is much more than the signing of agreements and the granting of status.
An autonomous people have reached that point in their development because they share a hope that through autonomy they can access a better and more productive way of life.
To do that, as Sir Peter emphasized, “it is obvious that Bougainville has to establish an economy capable of sustaining autonomy.”
Such an economy cannot be produced, like some magical rabbit, out of a hat.
It is a slow and accretive process that must involve all the sectors of Bougainville society.
Otherwise there can be no way that the expected benefits of autonomy can flow to ordinary Bougainvilleans.
Sir Peter added “although government is important, it is not an end in itself.”
That is a truism that should be pondered not only by Bougainvilleans, but by the balance of Papua New Guineans.
Too often we regard government as the ultimate, the source of all progress. We sit and wait for the government to change our lives, either through massive handouts, or through the building of infrastructure and the underpinning of our lives.
The concept of democracy implies equal opportunities for all.
It also implies equal responsibilities that must be exercised by all citizens.
Democracy seeks to give power to the people. To us a phrase dear to the heart of John Momis, democracy is all about devolving power to the people, and empowering every individual to have some say in future developments.
But the accession of that power demands an equal investment of responsibility, and the meeting of democratic obligations, if democracy as a philosophy is to become a reality.
Having acquired the framework of empowerment, the people of Bougainville now need to begin the arduous and demanding task of creating economic opportunities that will ultimately enrich their own lives.
One of the chief complaints of Bougainvilleans during the Panguna mine era was their own lack of involvement in that enterprise, and their own inability to reap meaningful benefits from the mine.

http://www.thenational.com.pg/0419/editorial1.htm