BIGMAN CULTURE, STRONGHOLD OF CORRUPTION IN PNG

Photo courtesy of PNG Electoral Commission 2013 

 

By Tarali Tarlzen Hibuya
      

Introduction
Greetings to you all Papua New Guineans,  especially  working class, good citizens and students who'll be taking Term 2 holiday during the 2022 PNG National General Election (NGE) period (12th May - 01st August 2022).

For students, you will be taking holidays during 2022 NGE (4th July - 15th July)  as usual especially during polling days as revised by Department of Education (refer PNG Loop)[9]. For working class, your employers will give you a day or two to casts your votes. For some, you will be casting votes at your locations, whether institution or work sites. In the following passages, more emphasis is directed at students because, they are our future.

For students, unlike other vacations you've taken in the past,  this one is unique season, which arises every five (5) years. During this season (vacation) you are given a greater task by the almighty laws of this land to make better, wiser and fruitful choices for our future and our children's future. Remember, the life that we live, we borrow from our children and the choices that we make today are for them tomorrow. There are many choices we make in our lives, but this one is where all strings of choices  linked - Politics is where social, economical and other aspects of nation's progress and prosperity is entwined. Thus, we will choose our political leaders in this season to ensure progress and prosperity are realised by us today and generations to come.

Choosing a right leader to lead us and to make our land a better place for future generations is our duty this holiday season.

As we embark on to that important project of choosing right leader, as students, let's close our eyes for a moment and think through.

What is the root cause of ongoing rampant crimes and corruptions in Papua New Guinea?

You may thought of many answers, but mine is only one and that is  systems of "Bigman culture".

In Wikipedia a  big man is defined as "a highly influential individual in a tribe...Such a person may not have formal tribal or other authority ...,  but can maintain recognition through skilled persuasion and wisdom. The big man has a large group of followers, both from his  clan and from other clans. He provides his followers with protection and economic assistance, in return receiving support which he uses to increase his status".  Wikipedia [1]

The American anthropologist Marshall Sahlins has studied the big man phenomenon. In his much-quoted  1963 article "Poor Man, Rich Man, Big Man, Chief: Political Types in Melanesia"[2], Sahlins  revealed that  in bigman system , the  "leadership is not ascribed, but rather gained through action and competition with other ambitious men".

In our own terms, the bigman, as many of you would literally define, it is obviously by the measure of how wealthy a person is with many wives, many expensive cars, or has many scenic and palace-like mansions or one who has many businesses. Or perhaps you might think, bigman is someone with big potbellied abdomen who can buy more cartons of beers and win jackpots in casinos. Or one might define bigman as someone graduated with PhD from a well-known university with higher qualification. Or one might define bigman to be someone who is a CEO of a major company politically appointed. Well, all these definitions of bigman are the reasons why crimes and corruptions are destroying us today. Many  people tend to define bigman by all these means and it has taken roots into our society culturally nowadays, and that's why bigman culture radically thrives and that becomes the stronghold of crimes and corruption in PNG .

However, on the contrary, we forget to define it the other way. Irrespective of one's wealth, stature,  tribal affiliations, qualification or  gender, the  bigman  should be measured by his/her sacrificeable commitments displayed for the collective good of all mankind.  The Bigman should be measured by the production of quality  handiwork through applying his/her productive and corruptless work ethics. The bigman should be defined in terms of  maintaining acceptable personal integrity by upholding cultural, religious and holistic mannerisms. Most importantly, bigman should be defined in terms of selflessness and  steady demonstration of unconditional love for all humankind regardless of gender, qualifications, tribal groupings,  political affiliations, or social status.

In absence of these values, the "bigman" means nothing of importance, thereby bigman culture flourish.

Bigman culture and Political Power

The bigman culture and political power are in hot romance. Curiously bigman culture and political power, can be deduced as one entwined devil who does not believe in institutions of the government. Neither does it believes in the effectiveness of the law of our land. It can be equated that

Bigman Culture + Political Power = Corruption

The bigman in its quest to acclaim political power, creates impetus for crimes and tribal fights in Highlands provinces and rampant Corruptions in PNG. In 2014, Steven Howes, wrote an article about elections in Papua New Guinea, in which he titled "PNG’s elections: the most expensive in the world, and getting worse" [7]. Howes was basing his analysis basing on government spendings only but this also applies to candidates spending spree. Thomson Fafugian in book by R J May et al (2007) [8], reported that the
"...National elections in Papua New Guinea, particularly the Highlands Region, are
something that people look forward to — the educated elite, community leaders,
churches, businessmen and village people alike. Elections are a time when
money, pork and beer flow into the province and everyone wants to participate".

For the rich, politics has become do-or-die affair and so the reasons for violences and the election malpractices.

Another evil effect of this  system of Bigman Culture is that it eats away the greatness in all of us. Bigman undervalue people, because he will see ordinary people as poor or illiterate or valueless. By doing this, bigman depletes the development energy in our country and seriously raise questions about our undertakings of citizenship. This uncalled for divide between the liberated bigman and blinded citizens have led many people to believe that we do not have an equal stake in our country. We seem to forget our rights and self-esteem, and look up to bigman as saviour and provider of all our needs.

Instead of development and progress, bigman culture ultimately breeds, I should say,  devil-upment and regress.

In this country, the bigman has become the government. He loathes over others for simple reason that he can afford a balance diet where millions go cap in hand begging for food. The bigman triumphs because he can afford mansions in a country like this , where countless people are homeless, sick and unclothed. Once again, he doesn't care.

Bigman Culture when in political power, there will never be social security to cater for unemployment, old age or ill-health because he view his followers as valueless and unimportant.

Project eradicate bigman culture

The critical questions to ask ourselves are:

Do we  have the power to cure and eradicate  bigman culture? Do we have the zeal and will power to dismantle and neutralise this equation that breeds corruption?

Our answers should be fatty yes all the way.

Remember, when you stand up against bribery, nepotism, election rigging, etc in this National General Election, you are in actual fact fighting  the systems of bigman culture. Bigman culture will be performing at its best during this NGE with massive convoys of vehicles, massive gatherings, expensive posters, expensive grandstanding and promissory speeches with all credits to one person namely "me, me, me" and that is Bigman Culture at work in its fervent to seizure our rights, our pride and our future. The bigman will give you cash for vote. Bigman will buy you cartons of beer and make you merry all through the period of election. However, the bigman culture acclaiming  Political Power will breeds corruption, crimes, tribal fights etc.

During this holiday, be on a mission to deliver a project: Project eradicate bigman culture. Let's go ford to our small family unit, clans, council wards, districts, and wider provinces to preach about eradicating Bigman Culture which when marries with Political Power, will surely create doom and gloom for us and for our future. Let's take this holiday to resolve and break the epicentre of corruption, malpractices in election, crimes, tribal fights, etc in our society, which is none other than "bigman culture".

We should be prepared to  differentiate who is bigman and who is "right leader" .

I hereby, propose  several mechanisms  to identify our good choices . In doing this, we should be able to promote well being and minimise ill-being. The PNG  system of bigman culture thrives on  persuasions , bribes and intimidations . Hence, once  these malpractices are minimised, the bigman culture as a philosophy of suppression and oppression will suffocate.

Mechanisms to choose right leader

1.  Build individual self-esteem

In Papua New Guinea today, there is an urgent need to reorder our value system. It is an emergency. 

A person's standards  and self-discipline set, based on the common sense and wisdom of knowing what the  proper moral rules and disciplines are, and the amount of willingness to see themselves and others abide by them. 

Every individual is a unique existence of this world, thus our individual's freedom of choices must not be influenced by bigman through their conniving tongues and materialistic bribes.  We must not be intimidated or threatened to forcefully garner  our support for their accumulation of wealth. We must know our own worth, our uniqueness and our individual rights.

As we are going towards the date of 2nd - 22nd July 2022 (polling periods),  we must resolve to judge candidates not by what they have in terms of monetary value or wealth or stature, but what they can offer in terms of nation's collective welfare. Wealth, simple wealth should no longer be measured of candidate's worth.

2. Identify government or candidate with foresighted policy.

We need a caring and loving government through their affiliated political parties and the soundly foresighted  policies.

A caring government can do so much by creating and enabling  conducive environment to help the majority of our people by offering policies that can soften the gab between uncaring rich and the blind poor.  For instance, the introduction of  SME  program by Marabe government was one of milestone  achievement  for citizens. 

As it is revealed in National SME Policy [6] handbook, "the SME sector has the potential to generate over 50 percent of formal sector employment in PNG and contribute up to 50 percent of our GDP", which displays foresightedness to improve the economy and standard of living holistically.

We only need to choose a leader who can deliver and ensure this policy is implemented .

3. Choose a leader who has no record of crimes or corruption

Candidates with criminal records are disproportionately wealthy and famous so they have both the means to contest elections, as well as the incentives.  These candidates thrives on the system of "bigman culture".

For this kind of "bigman" the rule of law  can be viewed as potent cure to excesses of the rich.

The candidates who has records of crimes such as  involving in tribal fights, stealing money, gun smuggling , fraud etc must be dejected in our choices .

4.  Identify candidate who is supportive to your education

The leader with vision to support you in your education is someone who has love for his people and our children's future.

Knowledge is power. Everybody needs to pursue knowledge with energy.  It liberates and tears down the cover of irrational and repress the "bigman culture".

Leaders who have records of paying school fees, buying books, buying computers or putting up a classroom for a school is a kind of candidate who should be in one of our choices.

For instance, Governor Undialu through his HUEF paid fees for five years to all tertiary students. If this  was not done, some would have left school already.  Further, through  HRDF, Timon Takili was supplying books and computers to schools in Hela. 

We need a leader who can do such.

5.  Identify candidate  who can vigorously  fight for  what's ours in the  floor of parliament

In our choices , identify a leader who has a record of fighting for what's ours without fear or favour for the common good of people under his care.  For instance, James Marabe has a dream to "Take back PNG"  which is driven by the fact that most of our resources are taken cheaply by foreigners through deceits, fraud, bribery and persuasions.  His dream is for the common good  for all Papua New Guineans.

Conclusion:

Finally, I hereby urge each one of us to take responsibility for the sake of our children. We are borrowing this life from our children. Our actions today determines how our children and how our mother earth will sustain in the future.

Sound, corruption-free and stable government, sound economy for the nation and better, wiser and clean society will all be realised today and when we start today by making right choice to choose our leaders.

Avoid be bribed , intimidated, or take part in it in 2022 NGE.

Good lucking in choosing a right leader, in doing so, will eradicate old fashioned "bigman culture" practices in our society. 

♦ End

References:

[1] http://bit.ly/3wEujSq 

[2] James Whitley ("Social Diversity in Dark Age Greece", The Annual of the British School at Athens 86 (1991:341-365) applied Sahlins' ethnographic model to instability in settlement patterns during the Greek Dark Age, 10th-8th centuries BCE.

[3] Marshall Sahlins (April 1963). "Poor Man, Rich Man, Big Man, Chief; Political Types in Melanesia and Polynesia" (PDF). Comparative Studies in Society and History. 5 (3): 285–303. doi:10.1017/S0010417500001729. S2CID 145254059. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2013.

[4] Strathern, Andrew (2007). The rope of Moka: big-men and ceremonial exchange in Mount Hagen, New Guinea. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521099578. OCLC 698948824.

[5] Waiko, John D. (1993). A Short History of Papua New Guinea, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-553164-7, p.9

[6] Ministry of Trade Commerce and Industry, National SME Policy (2016) , p.iii

[7] https://devpolicy.org/pngs-elections-the-most-expensive-in-the-world-and-getting-worse-20140512/

[8] R J May, Ray Anere,
Nicole Haley & Katherine Wheen (Ed 1997), The Shift to Limited Preferential Voting in
Papua New Guinea, p.81

[9] PNG Loop, (2022), https://www.looppng.com/elections/school-term-dates-revised-112266  

THE DNA SEQUENCE IN THE HELA GENOME IS THICKER THAN THE BLOOD THAT CARRY OUR DESTINY:

THE DNA SEQUENCE IN THE HELA GENOME IS THICKER THAN THE BLOOD THAT CARRY OUR DESTINY:

Traditional attire of Hela Huli, Papua New Guinea

By James Marape, MP, Tari Pori

THIS article is not ethnocentric nor it undermines the rest of Papua New Guinea. It is the call of one Hela brother to another Hela brother. 

Henceforth the content outline the facts surrounding the sociocultural intricacies that binds the Hela brotherhood. At this space and time, it may not be necessary, but it surely cannot be denied of these cultural heritage and historical facts as it is true in the old adage 'men who are not connected to their roots are doomed of their destiny.' 

Here is the call to the 3 Hela Opene brothers in the alternate camp to join my course.

IN the hinterlands of the great landmass of the mainland of New Guinea is the land of the Hela majestically nestled on the backbone mountain ranges of the second largest island in the world. 

From the grooves of the Strickland Gorge; up unto the natural beauty of Lake Kopiago and through the plains of the Papuan Wonderland (Hela Embera); the Hela Duna reigns! Mbe-Kuba-la stands aloft securely in the north watching over the land of the Hela Opena whilst Mt Bosavi stands aloft securing the southern border and watching over the land of the Hela Tuguba. Doma Peak secures the gateway to the Hela land keeping watch over the Hela Palamanda ‘puru-pirabe-anda - Hulukumaiya's Palamanda ’ in the heart of the Hela Huli to the west – and to the south, Doma Peak stands aloft keeping watch over  Hela’s only daughter, Wena Hewa, in her glorious beauty of Lake Kutubu. 

Apa Igini’s Mondoli Tangi nestles well at the eastern foothills of the Doma Peak and keeps the gate to Hela secure like the mighty Hela Warriors! 

The history and the cultural heritage, the beauty of its panoramic geography and the greatness of its people, forge the unity of a greater Hela! 

Hela ethnicity numbers in  well over a million and is the biggest tribal nation in a country of 800 ethnic groups of 8 million people.

In the Land of Prophesies, cardinality of Hela laws are enshrined in the long held Prophesies of the time immemorial and talk never dies as a lineage to the biblical truth that 'in the beginning was Word and the Word was with God' hence it was with Hela’s God Datagaliwabe. 

The truth of the Hela siblings: Opena, you are the first born son; Huli, I am the second son; Tuguba is the third and Duna is the last of the Hela sons. When you, Opena fought over the cassowary intestine with Huli, you were given the best of the lands to the north by our father including the custody of our only sister. You did well and multiplied. 

Hulukumaiya took custody of what you left. Tuguyawini took custody of the Laitebo prophesy and Mirilia gave his only son, Pajabaja, to sacrifice for the good of us all. 

Hulukumaiya loved your salt and you love my pigs and Tuguyawini's oil. Hulukumaiya's Palamanda was your Trade Center.

Fast forward 5-7 thousand years and now it is a common knowledge that Hela toiled the soils of PNG and built the networth of each provincial economy. That is the time Hela started greasing the wheels of the PNG Economy turning. And it's been turning for 43 years under the guard of those sons of whom we've built wealth for them as cargo-bois. 

The time has now come for the sons of cargo-boi to continue the cargo-boi work of greasing and turning the wheels of the economy again. We must continue where our forefathers left to toil the soils again to 'Take back PNG'. 

Leave the in-house issues in our Palamanda to be discussed at our own space and time as brothers, as sons of Hela. The DNA sequences in our Hela genome will surely find its oneness to sitting together to discuss all issues we need to discuss of our resources benefits. The knife is in our hands to cut the best meat we want from our pig, for ourselves and for the rest of our brothers in PNG.

We've been cargo-bois for the rest of the country and the world over, and it is now our time to come back to the Palamanda and start talking about how we share the benefits from the resources we have on our land and in our land. We need to sit together in oneness and decide on how we equitably share with our other brothers in Papua New Guinea.

We've only started with Porgera and we must conclude Porgera together on this journey to Economic Independence. We have plenty of work ahead with developing our resources in Tundaka, Pakapua, Kare, Kili-Teke, Muruk, Manada Artic, etc. These are Hela’s resources that we must share equitably amongst ourselves as Hela sons and our sister, and our 20 brothers of Papua New Guinea.

I give respect to our elders late Anderson Agiru and Grand Chief Sir Peter Ipatas. Late Anderson Agiru is gone and I am here in place of him with Grand Chief Sir Peter Ipatas in our Palamanda. I belong to you and you belong to me by virtue of our Hela genome that make our same DNA. 

In the name of Hela and the destiny that we must set for Hela and PNG for Economic Independence through 'Take back PNG' policy statement and make "PNG the Richest Christian Black Nation in the world" - we must stand together as brothers, as Hela!

We are all time bound and this is the journey that we must take together in oneness as Hela, my brothers; Honorable Tomait Kapili MP for Laiagam Porgera, Honorable Rimbik Pato MP for Wapenamanda, and Honorable Sir John Pundari MP for Ambum Kobiam; come back to your Palamanda, Hela Hausman.

 

Hulukumaiya 

Hela Palamanda

ELECTION PETITIONERS THROWING BAIT INTO THE SYSTEMATISED RIVER OF CORRUPTION

By:  Tarali Tarlzen HIBUYA

Let me start my prologue with a story of a man who wanted to go out on a mission of catching fish using his hook tight to a nylon string in the agitated Tagali River in the highlands (Hela Province) of Papua New Guinea. This river is wide, deep and brownish:- actually the biggest and longest in the Province. There are lots of fish in that river but not easy to catch. He roasted remainder of only few local potatoes he had in the ashes to use as baits on his hook.

He set out early in the morning’s dawn and selected a spot where he thinks is where fish will easily take his bait. He threw the stringed and baited hook into the brownish river, and in all his undertaken throws and waits; his baits were taken by fish without fish itself ensnared onto the sharp hook. Sometimes, the unseen fish in the river had to sway the string ferociously in all directions, but when pulled, nothing heavy is felt in his hopeful hand whilst his bait is gone from the tip of the hook. After all, he realizes the potatoes in his bag are all used up and his stomach achy and hungry and the dusk befall on his eyes.

The rate of charming the baits and the hilarious movements of string by the unseen fish in the big, wide, and unclear river made the man to have high hope in catching something big for his dinner but nothing caught that day until his eyes see the string no more. The day to look for other food is wasted and the pieces of sweet potatoes he had are all wasted! When the night came, he slept with hunger and regret for the wastage, only to wake up another day at the same time to look for food and declare war with the fish that took out all his baits. Only if he could fast-forward the time to next day would he use his last energy!

Now, the corruption we have in the country undertakes in many forms but one big aspect of it is BRIBERY. When you try to bribe into a system to get something in your favor, you are already throwing your bait into the systematized river of corruption without knowing the size of your catch as favor or how soon to receive it.

Bribery is normally done secretly, thus is illegal and unbounded deals in which agreements are only in the concealment of the minds. Just like unseen fish in the river making a big splash and extravagant movements of strings, it will give you fake hope to buy more time and for you to waste what you have. And its persuasive tongues of the conniving system will indulge you into paying more and more until you run dry. The more and more you believe in their con tactics, the more you will give and finally you will realize you have gone too far to the brink of bankruptcy.

The election petitioners in Papua New Guinea have been conned big time by all systems of government in Papua New Guinea. The systematized rivers of corruption may in this case be Electoral Commission officials, Judiciary Systems, Lawyers, Witnesses, Politicians, Media Outlets, supporters, etc. and etc. who may wobble the petitioners’ strings excitedly and make persuasive splashes on their systematized river of corruption to make the petitioners anticipate their catch to be just there for easier and swift seizure.

If petitioners have involved in bribery to win in court, they will find that they a fighting the losing battle at the end only to realize that they have unexploited their time, resources and energy that could have been utilized during five (5) years to prepare for next election.

My Best wishes to incumbent Hela Governor Ajai Petai Nakai Tia Igini (Hon. Governor-Philip Aja Undialu) and petitioner Hali Hogawi Tinawi Tiri Igini (Mr. Francis Mulungu Potabe) in your court battles in Waigani. Hela people and your supporters are aware of how ferocious battle you are fighting at the corridors of Waigani court houses and under the tables in the Hotels in NCD.

Picture: (L-R)-Francis Potabe & Philip Undialu

At the end when all is done and dusted, remember this post which is and will be kept or posted in this durable Hela Political Forum (Original). At least you are informed by a good citizen.

PUZZLE-LIKE PROCESS FOR UNDIALU & POTABE COURT BATTLE

Photo Courtesy of Loop PNG

By Tarali T. Hibuya

The ending is not tomorrow, not next week Monday, not next month, not next year! Hela people, the fact is both parties (Potabe and Undialu) are yet to sell their life in the name of power in this battle of courts. It is a battle fought in a puzzle-like tunnel, where exit is difficult to be  envisioned.

The selling of their cloak in the form whatever valuable they possess to buy the sword is not done yet fully. Or in Huli we say "Anda koki, karo koki, onene koki, wanene koki, tindi koki imaru napi wene yako". Or we used to say in Huli again: "Manda Mandipu la koki, Ayu Ekarila koki" are yet to be done or in progress as we speak. The analogy is like Selling your cloak and buying a sword, to die by sword!

Potabe's successful "Petition Trial" and Undialu's Slip Rule Appeal cases at Waigani battling tooth-for-tooth and eye-for-an-eye may wade through very long puzzle-like and slippery trail .

Appeal after appeal can eventuate, adjournment after adjournment can occur and finally, the final result is most likely to be handed down in 2022 as I foresee.

Meanwhile, all powers vested upon Hon. Philip Undialu by the 300K plus people of Hela province and and powers of HPG are not stripped off by these court processes. The services and all other developments could flow, but only this nation's political and economical situations, on top of natural and our own made disasters at home, are somewhat slowing or hurdling the processes of development in our province down.

However, just like a dim light in a dark tunnel, the sealing of road started at Idiawi near Angore through ExxonMobil and Oil Search Tax Credit Scheme, and the Hela Undialu Education Foundation paid K3.5 million fees to PNG Tertiary Institutions for Hela students. Further, the Hela Health Authority and Tari Hospital's Emergency building processes are in final stages of completion. Many peace mediations are taking place among warlords in Hela as well, as we speak here, and many rays of lights beginning shine in the dark Hela!

Therefore, may I ask each one of us not to loose hope and trust in our duly elected governor, Hon. Philip Undialu. He is whom Late Governor Agiru blessed on dieing bed. He is the one our forefathers foretold (Kelote Igiri Honabi) to lead. And he is the one whom Hela people have chosen through democratic ballots. He is not a lier, but an honest leader. He is not that cursed, but blessed leader. He is not a desperatö, but a prophesied leader.
For better, or for worse. For Prosperity or for doom and gloom. For whichever destiny destined for Hela, it will all be realised when prophesied leader leads, and that's none other than our governor, Hon. Philip Aja Undialu.

I beg each one of us to support him in prayers, because our destiny lies in his leadership. Be patient and let's hold on to our psychological optimisms and believe in the deliverance of our needs through his political leadership, with the help of our God Almighty Takaliwape, because patience is virtue.

Likewise, to those who support the other faction, hold on to your hope as well because, anything can happen after five (5) years as I see, or sooner as you may see.