THE WAY FORWARD: LOCAL AND INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENT

Papua New Guinea and especially West Sepik Province and for that matter Aitape-Lumi, as a collective people, has to shift from looking at the developments aspects that involves international companies (Asians and others). Looking at a typical case scenario especially in Aitape, for so long there were numerous involvement of logging companies and others of similar nature which mainly involved Asians. These companies come and go whilst others renewed their contracts or are now engaged in new forms of development. The Aitape peoples’ association and engagement in such development forms for so long has depleted us of our resources and no tangible change has emerged as a result of these development engagements. The logical question now that entails to such development approach is, “Do we as a people, Province and Country continue in the same path?”

PNG whilst on the verge of achieving independence, the newspaper article by Canberra Times (1973) published a section that states that the way of life for the developed world is possible because the third world is exploited. This idea for some time now underlies the need for the international companies to make profit in the name of development among developing countries. On the other hand, poor living conditions and standards in the developing countries such as PNG press forth their need for development which is provided by the international companies. However, conceptualizations of development with international companies in the developing countries have always been positive and negative.

Meyer (2004) observed that there are both positive and negative impacts of multinational enterprises in emerging economies. Peredo, Anderson, Galbraith, Honig and Dana (2004) assert in their analysis that the main issue among indigenous people and the international companies is that, the indigenous people have always try to actively assert rights over their resources against the international companies dealing with development. Whiteman (2009) later supports this concept by stating that while indigenous people appreciate development by international companies, the people are often poor and do not have control over developments taking place in their land. This altogether adds to the list of description of the relationship of developing countries and the international companies.

In the light of the above discussed arguments, studies have indicated otherwise that we as individuals and as a people should shift our development approach. This is a wakeup call for us now to focus more on local development or indigenous development. This approach means that, we as nationals should start rising up to carry the developments ourselves. Development in this regards involves our personal contribution to our families, our communities, districts, province and the nation at large with whatever capabilities and resources that we have. So much knowledge, skills and expertise have been wasted and eventually buried in the grave when we become selfish and live selfish lives.

What should I do, what must I contribute?    

Reference

Canberra Times. (1973, February 26). And here’s three ways to get involved: social action. Canberra, ACT: 1950 – 2007, p.18. Retrieved from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/

Meyer, K. E. (2004). Perspectives on multinational enterprises in emerging economies. Journal of international business studies, 35(4), 259-276. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400084

 

Peredo, A. M., Anderson, R. B., Galbraith, C., Honig, B., & Dana, L. P. (2004). Towards a theory of indigenous entrepreneurship. Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 1(1/2).

Whiteman, G. (2009). All my relations: Understanding perceptions of justice and conflict between companies and indigenous peoples. Organization studies, 30(1), 101-120. doi: 10.1177/0170840608100518