( read the full article at www.pngecho.com/first edition)
“Bougainville will be independent whatever it takes.”
Writes Chris Baria
On September 8, 1968, soon after CRA announced that there was an estimated 900 million tons of low grade copper at Panguna, two out of the three members of the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly and 22 students met in Port Moresby to discuss a referendum to choose whether Bougainville should remain part of Papua New Guinea, secede or become part of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (now the Solomon Islands – an independent nation-state). My uncle was part of that coterie.
The movement was largely stifled by an Australian government who favoured the status quo pressuring the PNG government to maintain it – and the battle was lost, but the war wasn’t over (both metaphorically and actually).
The failure of this referendum spawned a couple more unilateral declarations of independence. One on September 1, 1975 just two weeks before Papua New Guinea’s independence on September 16, 1975, and again during the Bougainville conflict on May 17, 1990.
At the start of the conflict in 1990, I, and many others, believed that had the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) gotten their act together they may have effectively taken independence for Bougainville then. The Papua New Guinea government had withdrawn from the island totally (the blockade), leaving an opportunity for the BRA to step into the breach. Independence, at that time, was a rare opportunity that we were unable to harness.
Had independence happened then, by now, we would have built up an indigenous-based system of government and organised an economy based on a wide range of resources and innovations.
This generation carries with them the hope that past generations have instilled into us: it is a reality that this generation has the power to effect – in their honour. Let’s not squander another opportunity..
The Papua New Guinean government has been given more than fifteen years to convince Bougainvilleans not to break away. To this date, its efforts have been dismal. The move towards independence with the referendum vote soon to be taken has reached the point of no return.
