Transcript
TED WOLFERS: If people are going to make an aware, consciously thought through vote they need to know what its implications are and for the moment most people independence means mostly breaking most of the links. But there are quite practical issues that need to be addressed. Would Bougainvillean university students still have access to mainland universities? Would people be able to move freely around the world - there are all sorts of arrangements, free association between formally independent entities which allow for certain kinds of freedom of movement, shared institutions and so on. And there has to be a dialogue, not only about what Bougainvilleans want but what the national government of Papua New Guinea might be prepared to agree to. And I don't believe that that dialogue has taken place. People just assume that independence just means breaking away in totality, but there may in fact be substantial interests in working you way through what the options really are.
DON WISEMAN: So one of the examples that comes readily to mind is the relationship New Zealand has with the Cook Islands and Niue.
TW: Absolutely. Those are not unique arrangements in the world and in the Pacific for example you have got the University of the South Pacific which operates from a number of different countries. You have other shared institutions and shared arrangements, some bi-lateral some multi-lateral, and if as the future of Bougainville and the rest of Papua New Guinea is discussed it's probably important to work out not only what Bougainvilleans want but what are other Papua New Guineans prepared to agree to or might even feel is preferable to just a complete separation. And there has to be a careful discussion, not a complicated and academic one, but working through the issues until both sides are clear about what it is they are prepared to argue about. And even then of course it still has to go to the national parliament which has the final say over whatever the outcome of the referendum might be, and that is another argument for having that dialogue, so one will have some idea of what the parliament will do.
DW: Do you think as it exists at the moment that Bougainvilleans realise it will be the PNG parliament that actually makes the decision?
TW: Look I can't answer for what people at village level think but it's in the Bougainville Peace Agreement, it was a very contentious insertion into the agreement, it is part of the constitutional framework, so any who is looking closely at the agreed framework and the legal framework would need to be aware of that. But that doesn't stop people from saying that they have a right to independence, but that is not in fact what the legal framework or the Bougainville Peace Agreement actually say. And of course there is even a provision in the Bougainville Constitution, in certain, very limited circumstances it might be possible not to hold a referendum, but it is extremely unlikely that that would ever be the case.
DW: So under what circumstances might that apply?
TW: Well that's if there are widespread consultations, a special vote in the Bougainville House of Representatives, which would require a really big super majority - it is very unlikely, but I think it would not only go against public opinion but it could itself be an issue for retaining internal cohesion. I haven't heard anyone say, in Bougainville, that it shouldn't go ahead, but as a matter of law there's that possibility.
