I first came to Papua New Guinea in 1979, just a few years after Independence. It was a very different country in those days. There was great excitement about being a new nation, and people were very conscious that if Papua New Guinea was going to survive as a nation we would all have to work together, whatever our language group. They would say, “We are one nation now. We will have to work together.”
Of course, back in the seventies and eighties, many people were very poor. There were problems about healthcare and education just as there are today, but although people were poor they were expecting things to get better. There was the Copper Mining in Bougainville and Ok Tedi Gold Mining. We lived in a country rich in natural resources. Many people began to make a profit out of Oil Palm Production and Coffee Growing. The tourist trade was beginning to lift off. I think it would be fair to say, we knew we had problems but we expected the situation to get better.
There was a great spirit of optimism in Papua New Guinea in those early days after Independence.
But a lot of things began to go wrong. On Bougainville there was a violent conflict that went on for nearly a decade. Papua New Guineans were fighting Papua New Guineans. Copper production ceased and that wealth was lost to us. The nature of the Bougainville conflict changed the face of crime too. Now there were guns in the hands of criminals, and violent crime increased greatly.
Living in Port Moresby in the early 1980s if you were lucky enough to have a car, you knew it would be stolen from time to time. It seemed as if your car was always being stolen. It was a real nuisance. You would wake up in the morning and find your vehicle gone. It would just have been taken away while you were asleep. Usually, a day or so later the police would ring you up and say that your car had been found and tell you where to collect it. It was a nuisance. But listen, no one pointed a gun at you to steal your car. People did not get shot at. These days you are just as likely to get killed so someone can take your car away. In the old days most crimes were crimes against property not against people.
Back in those early days of Independence AIDS did not exist for us. We had plenty of problems. Infant mortality was high then as it is now. Things were quite hard enough without the problems of HIV and AIDS that were to come. Now the HIV/AIDS epidemic actually threatens the very survival of our nation and if we do not make a vast change in our sexual behaviour, and soon, our children may not have a country to inherit at all.
I remember, when I first came to this country that certain things really impressed me. I was very impressed by the way that the children were cared for. There were no orphans in those days. If a child’s father died, then his uncle would be a father to him. There were no homeless people. If someone came to Port Moresby and could not find work he would stay with his wantoks. Back home in the village everyone had their own land on which to grow their food. That seems to have changed completely. I see lots of orphans now on the streets of Port Moresby, children with no-one to look after them. Back in the eighties we would never have believed that could happen.
There were no beggars in the early days of Independence. That will be hard for the young people to believe I suppose, but it is true. In Melanesian society begging was almost unheard of. Papua New Guinea people did not beg. They helped each other, they did not beg from strangers. Now I have beggars at my door every day. They come because I am a stranger and a foreigner. He’s an ex-pat, they think, he will be stupid enough to give me money. I wonder where the old-fashioned hospitality has gone. We used to welcome the stranger in our midst in the old days, now we just try to take his money off him.
In the early eighties people used to visit one another’s homes all the time. Churches in the city were very active all week with meetings, social activities and services most evenings. People were not afraid to walk around at night. Nowadays, in a city like Port Moresby people are afraid to be on the streets after dark. We are celebrating thirty years as a free country but are we really free? How free are we at night? Can our women and our children walk around freely on the streets of Port Moresby when they know they might be beaten up or shot at?
We need to rediscover the vision, the vision of the kind of nation we want to be. We need to believe in ourselves. Let us try to imagine the kind of country Papua New Guinea can become, and then work to make that vision come true.
What does Independence mean?
Independence means defining ourselves. It is up to us to decide what kind of nation we are. No-one else can do that for us.
Independence means no longer going like beggars to the other nations but as their partners. We don’t just take, we exchange. We have something of our own to give.
Independence means freedom, for everyone in the land. Freedom from fear, freedom from hunger.
Independence means looking after each other. Being one nation.
Independence means the country belongs to the people, all the people, rich and poor alike, male and female, young and old.
As we go forward into the next decade let us set ourselves Five Goals For Independence. The Give and Take of a Free Society.
- Give protection to others. Take care of the weak.
- Give honesty at work and home. Take control of resources.
- Give hope for the future. Take power from the unworthy.
- Give what you can. Take only what you earn.
- Give others their rights. Take responsibility for yourself.
Papua New Guinea is a wonderful country. It can become a great country. In fact, it can be whatever its people choose to make it. Hold onto the vision, Papua New Guinea. Believe in yourselves as a Christian Nation, a courageous nation, a free and independent nation. God bless Papua New Guinea.
+Peter Fox.
Bishop of Port Moresby.
