THE TWO ESSENCE OF DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE: Strongim Ol Liklik Man na Meri long Ples Bilong Yiumi

This article categorizes development into two distinct parts according to the “developments’ practical aspects”. It aims to inform the readers that development is both within the control of the ordinary people as well as outside their control. This article totally reflects the perception of the author as an independent development thinker and analyst.

Introduction

Development is a broad concept. There are many theories and practice of development in the world today and each one is adopted and used depending on the context of each respective countries. The most fitting development theory in PNG is the ‘Theory of Development in the Post-Colonial Countries’. In the meantime all theories that I perceive that relates to the development in the developing countries has certain important elements. The elements according to (Snyder, 1980) basically focus on ‘modernization, independent and incorporation’. ‘Modernization’ is about getting to the country to meet the developed standards of the first world. ‘Independent’, is about trying to be independent without manipulation of other more developed countries. Finally, "Incorporation" refers to the inclusion of internal aspects of development within the country into practice. 

This article in the light of the important development elements will present the two vital aspects of development which the author perceives is very important to everyone in a developing country like Papua New Guinea and particularly West Sepik Province. The two very important aspects of development are Communal Development (National Development)* and Individual Development (Development at a personal level)*.

Communal Development (National Development)

The Communal Development (National Development)* is a term that refers to the public development, a development that affects and benefits everyone in the community. This specific development practice is beyond an individual’s control.

This development practice is only handled by the government and development partners. Ordinary people in most cases do not  play major parts in this specific development. Examples of such development would include roads, bridges, wharves, airports and so forth where the government, its machinery and the development partners are major players in this specific development.

The very nature of this development denotes that only the government and the external forces apart from the local indigenous population has the upper hand in this specific type of development. The government specifically is in the driving seat to ensure that the indigenous population have access and benefit from such development practices.

In addition, local indigenous populace should not spend their entire life brooding from and of the lack of this development as it is beyond their control. The people should rather focus on the Individual Development that will be explained under the forthcoming heading.

Individual Development (Personal Development)

The Individual Development (Personal Development)* is a term that frames development that is practiced by the local and ordinary people. This specific development is a personal development or a people development that is totally different from the above mentioned development practice that is controlled by the state or in in other words directly influenced by the government.

The Individual Development or Personal Development is the second of the two development practice perceived by the author that can be controlled and carried out by any individual(s) with or without direct outside influence such as government incentives and so forth. The examples of such development practice would be that of an indigenous local villager who is farming cocoa trees and sells cocoa to make income in order to improve his standard of living. Another example would be that of a “Strit Mangi’. This ‘Strit Mangi” instead of smoking drug and taking on home-brew beer decided to go to a vocational school to get a trade to earn a living and make his living purposeful in his community.

This specific development practice is under the control and influence of the ordinary people who can facilitate this in their personal life, family life and at the community level to bring in development. This second aspect of development is the most important aspect of development that has been overlooked at most times. Once this basic development aspect is ignored, the local population now put more pressure on the government and shift their economic and other forms of development dependence on the government. Government and Politicians are now seen as basic development Messiahs or development Devils depending on their development outputs once this specific development practice is neglected.

 

Furthermore, people who are conditioned to accept and rely heavily on the first development practice eventually forfeited the second development practice of ‘Individual development’. This group of people becomes lazy and worthless in the society. Hence, ‘Individual or Personal Development’ is essential and should be the most discussed, thought of and the most practiced development among the local populace for the advancement of our districts and province.

CONCLUSION

The “Communal Development (National Development)” is beyond ordinary indigenous populace’s control and the major responsibility heavily falls on the government and the development partners. The “Individual Development (Personal or Family Development)” is the development practice that our local indigenous populace should focus more on. The “Individual Development” aspect empowers the local people to be in control of their own development as they wait for the Government and its Machinery to do their part.

The laziness syndrome and the Government and Politicians' development dependence syndrome should now be the dilemma of the past. The local population should now maximize their strength through the ‘Individual Development’ aspect to ensure that they progress in life.

Finally, we as local indigenous West Sepik People have the power to bring development when we utilize the second development option. We as a people for so long have kept ourselves in underdevelopment prison of ignorance. Therefore, let us now look forward to development and welcome developments as we become development while we wait for the government, its Machinery and the other Development Partners’ intervention.

Reference

Snyder, F.G. (1980). Law and development in the light of dependency theory. Law & Society Review, 14(3), 723-804. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3053197

All  images are accessed from https://www.facebook.com/pg/Aitape-Lumi-In-Photos-255108604886014/photos/?ref=page_internal 

The boarder image is accessed from https://www.google.com/search?q=Vanimo+Border+Images&client=firefox-b-d&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=4022R7_nqKJDTM%253A%252C3PL1DjMKXNJHJM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQY2nKyC6wcgteUYrw0yzgwe8mZgQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7rqnZ2q_oAhXszzgGHXp2CqgQ9QEwAHoECAkQEg#imgrc=4022R7_nqKJDTM:

Foot Note:

* Communal Development and Individual Development are the author’s own development terms.

·         Follow our FB page “West Aitape Inland Grassroots Development” and web address for new insights into development in Aitape Lumi District and West Sepik Province.

 

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West Sepik Province Development: The Forgotten Voice

“Taim yu tingim development, plis tingim mipla ol meri na liklik ol lain long ples”

This article aims to point out that our women and local village people’s voice in development is very important for West Sepik Province to build a strong socioeconomic baseline that will boost our Province’s development.

 

Introduction

The distinction within the human species that we now call gender has long been identified and celebrated respectively since the beginning of time. The typical Melanesian society since the days of the forefathers and long before the arrival of the explorers and colonisers have only celebrated the two distinctions, that of male and female. In the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea, the West Sepik people have generally accepted gender as man and woman. This distinction for so long has played a pivotal role in the existence of our people even to date. Thus, this distinction and the understanding of development created by this distinction is of paramount importance to the progress of our province in development.

This article seeks to assert that the consideration of the women and village people’s perspective in development is very crucial to developing a balance development approach that leaves no one behind.

Importance of the female voice in development

The consideration of female perspective in development is very important. For a very long time, West Sepik Province does not have sufficient women voice in the decision making bodies that specifically deals with development. Such absenteeism affects their voice in development agendas. This may have well become a stumbling block to the Province’s development in respective of the gender perspective.

Melanesian women traditionally throughout the history of this nation have played very important roles for the survival of their family. Though men predominantly in most parts of the country are revered and held in high esteem than women, women are precious and essential to the survival of this nation. They constitute the basic building blocks of development in our country, thus cultural norms should not impede their empowerment and participation in development activities.

To put the above mentioned points into perspective, a study conducted in Nigeria by Ajala (2016) highlight that existing traditional beliefs, cultural norms and customary practices is the root cause for women poverty in Nigeria. This may also be true to other developing countries in the world and our Melanesian experiences have reflected this common challenge.

All too often we see women sitting in the market place selling their garden produce and participating in SMEs and other informal business to keep their family going. Ray (2016) affirm that as far as development is concerned, the physical and emotional burdens of accessing daily necessities such as food, fuel and water are high on the priority list for women as opposed to men. Henceforth, a very balanced development approach in our province will be an approach that will not leave women (in this I’m saying all women including our women that make up the rural population) behind.

Gender and their influence on development

Cai, Fan and Du (2016) identified that though women are positive, they show lower levels of attitude towards technology and changes.  This indicates that many sophisticated development projects thought of by our leaders and government will only benefit the fortunate ones who are exposed to technology and other forms of development. The ordinary female villagers and local village men to some extent will not be able to flow and adapt to development themselves in this trend.

He and Freeman (2010) also confirmed that men are more technology oriented than women because of the exposure, participation and experience with technology. This study by He and Freeman was conducted among college students. However, considering our women in the rural areas of our province with the prevalent high illiteracy rate, fancy development projects that does not consider this simple fact is destined to leave our rural men and women folk behind.

Due to the limitation of this article, other supporting studies will not be further discussed in this section. However, there is indeed a huge difference in the way women and men perceive, accept and participate in development practises and change.  Therefore, it is justice to consider and implement development in the framework of both male and female perspective of development in our province. By championing this process we will fulfil our current Government’s vision of leaving no one behind in development.

Development Practices that will boost our Society

Development projects that will heavily involve all our women including the women in the rural parts of our province is the ideal development project that should be prioritised by our provincial and district development leaders and machineries.

Generally in Papua New Guinea, women perceive agriculture (farming/gardening) with good access to market and marketing services and small business (SMEs) as important forms of development. According Mishra and Smyth (2016), over seventy to eighty percentages of women are involved in informal business while only thirty five percentages or less are engaged in formal business in PNG. This study indicates that informal businesses that are conducted by women should receive more empowerment as they contribute more to the development of the family unit, community, district and province at large. Such informal businesses as described by Mishra and Smyth represents selling of garden food at the market, sea food, road side market and other informal businesses.

Rosenbach and Schmidt (2019)  recently confirmed that in PNG, agricultural trade is mostly owned by women while non- farming enterprises is at most like such as transport vehicles and others is owned by men.  The study conducted by these two authors serves as a signal light for the aligning of our development agendas and priorities. More government support and women empowerment in the area of agriculture trade in our province would see a greater increase in the development at all levels of our society. On this note, it is of high importance that West Sepik Province collectively as a people and government should embrace the agricultural development initiated and spearheaded by the East Sepik Provincial Government.

In addition, as per discussed by Rosenbach and Schmidt, proper basic services such as roads, wharves and airstrips should also be key priorities in development. Support given in this area should also enable our local male population to be engaged in their own development pursuits as they are more non-farming enterprises’ development oriented.

On the other hand, Mandie-Filer (2017) strongly assert that, key to women empowerment is through providing safe and accessible educational opportunities to our women folk and this includes the provision of best health care and facilities. Moreover, I would add in the light of the discussed articles, that the main wheel that drives individual development, especially the illiterate and base level people of our communities as highlighted would be through focussing on the agricultural trade to empower our women folk to create a strong local socioeconomic baseline before looking at other areas.

Conclusion

The modelling of our province in the pattern of development demonstrated by the Western countries is a self- destructive practice that leads to underdevelopment. Instead, let us empower our traditional way of development that is very inclusive and incorporates everyone in the very fabric of our society.

Development practices that incorporates everyone and boosts the very fabric of the society should be given the first priority. In this context, development practices that empower women and small village people should be given first priority by our provincial government and our districts.

Development projects such as a creation of good markets and marketing system for garden produce and fish is very important. The marketing system should include providing a very good market for the cocoa, vanilla, oil palm, copra and other agricultural and seafood products in general. Such projects will empower the very unfortunate local people who very much depend on agriculture and fishing for their livelihoods.

Furthermore, accessibility is another important factor that is worth considering, thus basic services such as roads, wharves and airstrips should be developed and continuously maintained. It is through this development approach that we can empower our local indigenous population who have no skills and expertise but solely rely on their land, sea and water for survival.

Reference

Ajala, T. (2016). Social construction of gender roles and women’s poverty in African societies: The case of the Nigerian woman. International Journal of Gender and Women Studies, 4(2), 1-10. doi: 10.15640/ijgws.v4n2pl  

Cai, Z., Fan, X. & Du, J. (2016). Gender and attitude toward technology use: A meta-analysis. Accessed from www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu

He, J., & Freeman, L. A. (2010). Are men more technology-oriented than women? The role of gender on the development of general computer self-efficacy or college students.  Journal of Information Systems Education, 21(2), 203-212.

Mandie-Filer, A. (2017). Women in Papua New Guinea: Distance education as a means for educational advancement. In Toward New Horizons for Women in Distance Education (pp. 129-136). Routledge.

Mishra, V., & Smyth, R. L. (2016). A scoping study to provide an assessment of SME policy priority areas for Papua New Guinea. National Research Institute.

Ray, I. (2016). Investing in gender-equal sustainable development. UN.

Rosenbach, G., Schmidt, E. (2019). Evaluating the welfare effects of nonfarm enterprises on rural households in Papua New Guinea. International Food Policy Research.  University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, PNG.

*Only one picture is the author's picture while the others are accessed from google 

The Phantom Limb of the Onele and Uni people

An analysis of the activities of Vanimo Jaya Limited in partnership with the One-Uni Landowner Company in the SABL Project of the portion 248C covering the Onele and Uni villages of West Aitape LLG, Aitape Lumi District.

Introduction

The Onele and Uni people of the West Aitape LLG of the hinterlands have a large area of virgin rain-forest that is home to thousands of exotic birds and animals that are authentic to the area. The people through the times gone by were mostly hunters and gatherers and often hunt animals and forage the forest for food as they enjoy their beautiful forest home. With the arrival of the government system through the influence of the colonial government, they were clustered together with their respective clans into villages and thus created the current villages that are now in existence.

This article presents their plea in the light of development that is rapidly changing the face of the environment without the supposed tangible services required.

Development

The dawn of development at last has come upon the Onele and Uni people. This development dawn came to them suddenly and forcefully with costs that are so detrimental in nature that will forever affect their lives. On July the 19^th, 2006, the Papua New Guinea Government made the initial grant to Vanimo Jaya Limited and One-Uni Development jointly. The portion 248C that was granted was an enormous piece of land that covers 47, 626 hectares of land from the Milinch of Tadji to the Fourmill of Aitape (Numapo, 2013).  It is a 99 year lease that covers at least two generations of the indigenous people’s life since the initial contract was signed.

Sadly, the plea of the Onele and Uni people had another twist. On 14th May 2007, One-Uni ceded its half share in the SABL to Vanimo Jaya Limited. It made Vanimo Jaya, a foreign company, the sole owner of the SABL that is currently in operation (Numapo, 2013).

The people of Onele and Uni since the initial operation of the SABL till now,  have suffered greatly from this deal. Though, in the early stages of the operation only a small number of people and certain clans from Ramo village, Sumo village and Barera village have received morsels of benefit. These morsels of benefit have since became a trickle and has ceased altogether. Other Onele and Uni villages are yet to experience the tangible change that has now become a phantom limb to the local villagers in the light of development. 

Impact of SABL at the National Level

At the national level, the SABL initiative has dramatically changed the development landscape of the country since its establishment. Although certain parts of the country are benefiting from the SABL, this policy has brought destruction to the land and lives of the local people in its wake in some parts of the country. In the recent MOMASE Customary Lands Summit that I attended and participated for two days in Madang in 2018, much discussion and debate immersed on this issue of SABL of, how benefiting it is to the local landowners. Recommendations for the amendment to make the SABL policy indigenous landowners' user friendly is still not properly defined. Furthermore, certain prominent development academics such as Colin Filer (2011) termed this policy as a “new form of land grabbing in PNG” created by the government without much consideration for the indigenous land owners through the legalized practice of ‘lease-leaseback’. 

Development Implications of the Onele and Uni people

The SABL as a nation-wide customary land development option is still not properly defined and has flaws that and that has been the down side of the policy affecting a lot of indigenous landowners in the country. Empowered by the lease leaseback system, foreign development entities have taken advantage of the policy and have been making profits at the expense of the people. Thus, while the government through the Land’s department is trying to sort out this issue, those who are suffering like the One-Uni people still continue to suffer.

The implications of the activities of One-Uni Landowner Company and the Vanimo Jaya Limited to the Onele and Uni people are as follows:

1. 1.      Since One-Uni has sold its share and title to Vanimo Jaya Limited, the development taking place at this stage is totally owned by the foreigners and a foreign company.

1. 2.      All the villages covered in the initial scope of the portion 248C have not benefited and will not benefit because of the reckless deal by the landowner company and the developer.

1. 3.      One-Uni Landowner Company is a defunct company (meaning it only exists in papers and it is not literally functioning.

1. 4.      The One-Uni villagers’ lands and development rights were sold to the foreigners lock, both stock and barrel.

Conclusion

The Onele people and Uni people who are within the development scope of portion 248C are suffering because of the hasty and reckless decisions made by those who represent the people and are in charge of the landowner company and other District and Provincial leaders of that day things started and fell apart. Yes, the Onele and Uni people of West Aitape LLG of Aitape Lumi District has been suffering since 2006 and are still suffering. This failed development investment and project with the lack of basic government services such as good road network from Poltulul villager via Pes Catholic station and across Yalingi River has redefined them as back page of Aitape and Lumi in the light of development.

The question, will this development dilemma be rectified for the betterment of the people of Onele and Uni villages is now on the wall.

*Note- There may be other recent under the table deals regarding the SABL project in the portion 248C that the author may not be aware even as a local researcher.

Reference

Numapo, J. (2013). Commission of Inquiry into Special Agriculture & Business Leases (SABL). National Gazette, 1–272. Retrieved from https://www.mendeley.com/research-papers/commission-inquiry-special-agriculture-business-leases-sabl 

Filer, C. (2011). New Land Grab in Papua New Guinea. Pacific Studies, 34(2), 269.