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  

NO PROJECT FEES UNLESS PROJECT PROPOSAL SUBMITTED

MR. ANDREW ANGOBE
First Assistant Secretary for Department of Education, PNG

In line with the decision made by the Marape/ Steven Government to do away with the Tuition Fee Free (TFF) policy, schools nationwide have been questioned on whether project fees are to be collected for the 2020 academic year.

To answer this, the First Assistant Secretary for the Department of Education (DOE), Mr. Andrew Angobe, has made it clear that all government run primary and secondary schools should not be collecting any project fees at this time, unless the project proposals have been approved by the respective Provincial Education Boards.

“Parents should only be focusing on paying their portion of this year’s school fees that have been passed in the government’s new Subsidized Tuition Fee Policy.”
“Payments for this year’s fees should only commence in Term 2 because all government schools have been ordered to utilize money from last’s year’s 4th quarter of TFF funds, to run this year’s term one,” said Mr. Angobe.

Mr. Angobe, who is also in charge of monitoring schools in NCD, said that all schools in the nation’s capital should not be collecting any project fees because project proposals, budgets and plans have yet to be approved by the NCD Education Board.

“For term one alone, students are not to be sent home from attending classes even though if they have not to paid any of their fees yet. The money from last years’ 4th quarter of TFF is already available for school’s to use to cater for term one,” he said.

In addition Mr. Angobe stated that, all Provincial Education Boards will be going out to monitor and inspect the schools to see if they are in violation of this decision.

“Those Principals who are found guilty will be dealt with and will face dire consequences. They can lose their jobs or even be relieved from office if found guilty,” Mr. Angobe said.
He further went on to reassure schools nationwide that the DOE is currently working on getting this year’s funds ready for use.

Meanwhile, the parents should know the fees they will have to pay for their children as approved by National Education Board. In 2020, parents will be contributing 36.6% of the total Maxim School Fee Limit set by the NEB. The fee sectors will be as shown in Table 1. In Table 2, the overall estimated budget allocation for each component by sector is given. [Source: PNG EDUCATION NEWS]

Fee Structures for 2020 in Table 1 and Table 2

PNGFM / PNGEducationNews

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.

PROPOSAL FOR NEW HELA FLAG

PROPOSAL FOR  NEW HELA FLAG 

Recently, the Hela Provincial Assembly decided to change the Hela Flag, so that it defines the unity of four genealogical descendants of Hela. The previous Flag shows a Painted Huli Wigman with face painting which in some ways do not display gender equality.

 A. PROBLEMS WITH THE PAST FLAG:

     

PICTURE 1: OLD/PREVIOUS FLAG

     A1. Stone Axe: Stone Axe depicts our culture and past which was used on our previous Hela Flag. Stone Axe was simple of our ancestors. However, two reasons made it not good icon. (1) It is not used by all sons of Hela. Two, it should not be placed in the middle above green colour. Green colour our middle generation, present generation, where we don’t use such tools. The black colour at the bottom shows our past. (see explanation in Section B6).

       A2. WIGMEN with wig headdress and face paint does not represent gender equality. Hela is not belonging to only male gender.

A3.  Blue circle in the middle do not reflects any meaning at all why it is placed as a circle right in the middle above green colour and on top of which is WIGMEN. No meaning can be derived from which.

B. PROPOSED NEW HELA FLAG

PICTURE 2: PROPOSED NEW HELA FLAG

If  the Hela Flag has to be changed, then I would suggest the above flag (or similar) be officially used. My explanations for this proposed flag above are as follows:

      B1.  COLOUR NOT CHANGED: The colours from previous flag are not changed. These colours are: YELLOW, RED, BLACK, GREEN, BLUE, WHITE. Many shirts, skirts, bilums, caps, etc. have been made by our patriotic Hela people already, using these colours, thus the colours are maintained. This is to strengthen the SME ventures our citizens are engaging.

B2. RED WIG: One of the unique cultures that are putting our province on world map is our culture, known as “Wigmen”. Our Rugby Team is known as “Hela Wigmen”. The wig is unique and never developed by other provinces. That unique culture must be our icon thus must be shown on Hela Flag regardless of whether we are Huli, Tuna, Tuguba, Opena or Hewa. Its colour is in RED which is  the colour of blood and fire, is associated with meanings of love, passion, desire, heat, longing, lust, sexuality, sensitivity, romance, joy, strength, leadership, courage, vigour, willpower, rage, anger, danger, malice, wrath, stress, action, vibrancy, radiance, and determination.

B3. FLAME & RIG: The Rig with Flame in Blue colour shows our natural resources. Hela province in known all over as a major producer of Oil & Gas, thus, must be our icon too which should display on our Flag. Its colour is mostly in BLUE which represents both the sky and the sea, and is associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, expansiveness, inspiration, and sensitivity. Blue also represents meanings of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, heaven, and intelligence. 

B4. FIVE STARS: These represent well known Hela descendants: Hela HULI, Hela TUNA, Hela OPENA, Hela TUGUPA and only daughter Wan HEWA (smaller star because we have minority Hewas within Hela). White, an inherently positive colour, is associated with purity, virginity, innocence, light, goodness, heaven, safety, brilliance, illumination, understanding, cleanliness, faith, beginnings, sterility, spirituality, possibility, humility, sincerity, protection, softness, and perfection, which all Hela descendants aspire to have and live with.

B5. BIRD OF PARADISE: This is on PNG Flag and this shows that we are one of the provinces within Independent State of Papua New Guinea. The colour of PNG Bird of Paradise and Hela Wig are same, to say, we are Papua New Guineans with same dreams of living in this land our ours, as told in section 2.

      B6. FLAG SECTIONS OF COLOURS: The Colours are defined herein:

•       Bottom BLACK shows Hela’s past (the dull/doom/gloomy) culture and way of life our ancestors lived. The black colour is associated with power, fear, strength, authority, elegance, formality, death, evil, and aggression, authority, rebellion and sophistication. Black is required of all colours so is our foundation, on which other colours will come out to be. 

• Middle GREEN shows the life, renewal, nature, and energy, which is associated with meaning of growth, harmony, freshness, safety, fertility, and environment. Green is also traditionally associated with money, finance, banking and ambitions. The Papua New Guinea is independent for 44 years; it is in the middle to show our standing with PNG and world.
• Top YELLOW shows our future. It is the colour of sunshine, hope, and happiness. It stands for freshness, happiness, positivity, clarity, energy, optimism, enlightenment, remembrance, intellect, honour, loyalty, and joy. Also, it represents cowardliness and deceit too. It is placed at the top location, on which Bird of Paradise flies, to show that Hela will one day compete equally and be equal among rest of Papua New Guinea.

MAY HELA USE THIS NEW FLAG (IF YOU AGREE WITH ME)?

(C) Tarali T. HIBUYA