“Downer We Will Remove More Than Your Shoes”
The Papua New Guinean government today said that it would suspend its receipt of Australian aid to the country until it receives an apology for an embarrassing diplomatic mistake.
Remember it? Late last month, their Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, was made to undergo “lengthy security searches at Brisbane on his way to and from New Zealand”. And, oh yeah - shoes were removed, apparently. The cool part is that two protest rallies have since taken place at the gates of the Australian embassy in Port Moresby (it seems that a third was postponed when JP II passed away).
But it seems that the incident hasn’t died down as a public issue in PNG, especially not since the PNG Foreign Minister disclosed that the Australian Governement had been notified well in advance when Somare would be arriving in the country. Furthermore, Australian protocol officers were travelling with the PM and attempted to rectify the situation, without much success. These facts are significant, because part of the Government’s spin on the embarrassment was to claim that Somare ’surprised’ us with his visit and stupidly took a commercial flight like any other hapless pleb. Conclusion - he was askin’ for it!
Indeed, His Royal Satanic Majesty has warmed to the theme, suggesting that Somare’s putting on airs and graces by protesting:
“I frankly believe these are things that if it’s good enough for the rest of the community, it’s good enough for the Prime Minister.”
Well… I guess if he puts it that way, he might have a point…hey, wait a minute! Didn’t we just have a whole raft of Royals in the country? Were they asked (using all the proper titles and so forth) to squat and cough? Let’s put it to the test next time.
But this is all relatively trivial stuff - what’s really interesting is the state of the “Enhanced Co-operation Program”, where, since 2004, Australia’s PNG Aid has been conditional on the presence of around 200 Aussie coppers, 18 Aussie prosecutors, nearly forty Aussie bureaucrats working inside key Papuan ministries and some border control guys in the country to crank up the old Law and Order quotient. The idea is to make the place less scary so that foreign investment increases. So lock up the raskols!
PNG never asked for it. In fact, the whole program is seen as a sign of Australian Neo-Colonialism in the South Pacific - along with the other police intervention in the Solomons and the Australian push for a “Pacific Union” supranational political entity, kind of like the EU (except totally not). Which is why it’s so great that PNG is refusing Australian Aid - it’s the ultimate refusal to submit everything to the will of charity. Good on ‘em.
But there’s a little bit of disagreement over how effective the program’s been. The PNG paper The National yesterday reported that there’s been a significant increase in reported crime in Port Moresby. However, the retort from the city’s commissioner in today’s issue counterclaims that the level of actual crime hasn’t changed, but people are beginning to report crime more. He doesn’t say it, but the subtext is that citizens have had little confidence in the PNG police force. With some good reason - they’re poorly paid, many are corrupt and police violence has been an established practice. But then again, fear of PNG coppers was used by those claiming an increase in actual crime too - the logic in that argument is that criminals now think the harshness of law enforcement is likely to decrease with whitey police around. Is our police intervention working? Who’s right?
Whatever - that’s a job for someone with research skills and a brain. But for the moment, let’s keep one thing in mind. Raskols don’t pop into existence when you feed a gremlin after midnight. Papua New Guinea’s criminal gangs are a huge problem - but they are a product of massive unemployment and urbanization. Lock up the worst of ‘em, but the symptoms won’t vanish completely until the cause gets nailed. And that’s what our aid should be doing - more so than it is at the moment.
April 17th, 2005 at 2:27 pm
I still think the PNG delegate travelling with Somare were overreacting. For one, wasn’t it mentioned that while PM was asked to remove his shoes, he and his team were served tea in the VIP lounge? Also I noticed from my travels to PNG and Australia that whenever a PX flight has arrived, more sniff dogs are around the arrival areas. Why? Because PNGuineans are notorious for not declaring their goods. They bring in buais, mustards, vanilla cuttings, fresh fish, and tons of veggies. Most of them are sometimes misdeclared…
April 17th, 2005 at 9:04 pm
Hi Alma, welcome to the ‘Stones!
You make a pretty good point, something that I neglected to include in the post - the whole affair is, on its own, quite trivial and both sides are making a fairly melodramatic issue of it. I’ve never thought that the violation of diplomatic protocol is world-shattering stuff (unless it results in a public relations disaster or, uh, war). So for Somare and his minders to kick up a fuss over removing his shoes…meh.
But I think you’ve missed the point I was trying to make in the post (or maybe I didn’t make it well enough): the PNG Government is posturing over the unsheathed prime-ministerial feet not because it was just bad protocol, but more because it is a way of blowing off steam about the condescending way that Australia has been administering its aid to the country, and also to the region in general.
I see from your website that you’re in Papua New Guinea (or am I wrong?), so I’d be really interested to know your views on the way Australia acts in the South Pacific.
April 22nd, 2005 at 10:34 am
PM: “I frankly believe these are things that if it’s good enough for the rest of the community, it’s good enough for the Prime Minister.”
HPS: “Didn’t we just have a whole raft of Royals in the country? Were they asked (using all the proper titles and so forth) to squat and cough? Let’s put it to the test next time.”
Jackson: I think Mr. Howard said ‘Prime Minister’ and meant ‘mere mortals’. He didn’t however say’walk on clouds Royals’. Considering his position on the Republic I think it’s safe to say that Mr. Howard is fishing for a Sir John Howard. I would ask if people ask him to take of his shoes however…
April 22nd, 2005 at 12:55 pm
Oh, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to take them off, having just swigged a pot of draught, knocked the dirt off of his blundstones and taken out a mortgage. He’s said that he’s happy to go through an x-ray machine, anyway.
April 27th, 2005 at 9:24 pm
Hi Vincent. Thanks for taking time to visit my site. No, I am not Papua New Guinean by birth, but I am married to one.
Yes, it is true, PNGuineans are more or less treated lowly in Australia, and because PNGuineans is still sore on the issue of PNG as a “dummy” of Australia but unsucessfully unable to prove its independence (since 1975) due to the increasing incidence of crime, corruption in the government, AIDS and poverty. This is sad because most of the aid from Australia are misused by the government of PNG and hardly felt in other parts of PNG. If you have the time, you might want to read this article, http://www.pngbuai.com/300socialsciences/foreign-aid/PNG-Future-of-Foreign-Aid-in-PNG.htm
I am looking forward to hearing your views.
May 4th, 2005 at 7:53 pm
[…] es In the past few weeks there’s been some interesting developments on the ’shoe incident’ - the diplo […]
August 25th, 2005 at 9:04 am
[…] uted for war crimes and/or crimes against humanity. Updated from: Somare’s Soles “Downer we will remove more than your […]
January 11th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
I just wanted to pop in and say hi… so… Hi!