The grapevine is abuzz with reports of rumblings from the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) that they want to defer next year’s ABG elections to “beyond June,” and even up to a year.
By this time, the referendum for independence will be well and truly over, the votes counted and the results in. As most are expecting an overwhelming ‘yes’ vote for independence, surely the Autonomous Bougainville Government will, by then, be defunct by definition and a new interim body will be holding fort until the political way forward can be organized. No?
If not, I find the expectation of the current regime to be astonishingly presumptive and, if the people of Bougainville have agreed to this, I feel they should think again. The ABG have never been in the forefront of the Independence movement.
Please let me give you the benefit of my many years as a student and scholar of political nationalism.
Identity politics
Bougainville’s particular brand of nationalism is ethno-nationalism with a few economic motives thrown in. This is similar to many global nationalisms that have spawned secessionist movements. The nationalism that has spawned an independence movement on Bougainville is indeed ethno-nationalism and is really to do with ‘identity politics’ – ie. we are not them..
For a feeling of not belonging to the Centre (ie PNG) is a recurring theme with Bougainvilleans where many believe they are more closely aligned ethnically with the Solomon Islands – that they are different to PNGeans whom I believe they call ‘redskins’. If the people then believe they are being disadvantaged and/or economically compromised by the alien centre (PNG again) – as was the case with Panguna – then you have what has surely occurred in Bougainville, in this case, preceded by a bloody civil war.
But beware!
In the words of Walker Connor (a scholar and prolific writer on nationalism)
“…ethno-national aspirations, by their nature, are obsessed by the dream of FREEDOM FROM domination by outsiders rather than by FREEDOM TO conduct relations with states.” When everyone is free of the oppressors, the new nation/state is left alone and must attend to its duties and obligations and if no one is paying attention it leaves the unscrupulous to step into the breach – replacing what went before with another brand of oppressors.
Pay attention
So pay attention, Bougainville, if not to me then to what the Speaker Hon Simon Pentanu said in his Independence Day speech. If you are overjoyed at the prospect of ‘Freedom from’, enjoy the moment but don’t let it divert you from the realities that after independence you will have a nation/state to run.
Choose your government wisely and don’t give the old one too much rope, the last thing you want is to be free to suffer by the hands of your own.
BTW. Reports from the ABG Parliament show that the idea by BEC about extending the life of the current House was knocked cold in the head by members in Parliament yesterday. It’s a dead issue now
That’s an excellent result. But the warning stands. By the time of the scheduled elections there may not be an Autonomous Bougainville any more but an independent one.