Transcript
JOHNNY BLADES: Well it was one of those days when Port Moresby descends into chaos. It was a mass convergence on parliament by police and correctional service officers in their landcruisers and vehicles. Whatever had transpired earlier in their meeting with the Police Commissioner and Police Minister, many left unhappy. Amidst the chaos of gunfire and security force convoys charging around Waigani, various looting incidents occurred in suburbs like Tokarara and Erima. Asian-run shops as usual were the targets of looting.
DOMINIC GODFREY: What has been the government and police commissioner's response to all of this?
JB: Back at the parliament, as the attack or the vandalism abated, the prime minister Peter O'Neill and members of government met with the police commissioner and the head of the defence force. Coming out of that there were police and government statements assuring the security forces officers that the pay would go through as soon as possible.
The Finance Minister James Marape, who was one of two or three leading MPs who went to personally address the security forces after the commotion at parliament, issued a rather blase statement characterising it as a misunderstanding about the timing of payments, saying that the entitlements were now being processed.
So it's not clear what the consequences will be in the immediate term. The police may be expected to arrest some officers. The Commissioner Gary Baki is likely to announce an investigation, or inquiry. But that usually doesn't produce quick or decisive results in PNG.
DG: These were security forces who had been part of the huge security operation around the APEC summit?
JB: These are members of the Joint Security Task Force, which overall had some 4000 personnel in Moresby for the days up to and during the summit. Around half of those were foreign personnel. But they (the PNG security forces) have been let down on payment of their allowances, they say. Allowances are a significant need for security forces personnel who have some to the capital from other parts of PNG, all around those remote provinces and so forth.
The timing is really specific. Just after all the APEC leaders summit's events, and the all the various meetings leading up to it, had finally wound up. It's just the next day practically that all this unrest has happened. These elements of the security forces wanted to send a message to the state, because there is a trust issue. Police and other security forces have been under-resourced for a while now, and its' clear some felt they hadn't been heard. The problem of outstanding allowances or entitlements has been long-running for public servants, health and education workers too. Unfortunately, frustrations this time lapsed into violence, particularly violence against the state.
DG: And of course the purchase of a fleet of Maserati luxury vehicles (by PNG's government for APEC) can't have helped?
JB: That's the most visible example of the extent to which this government has gone to hosting APEC. What happened yesterday is clearly a reflection of discontent among the populace and among the security forces at the government and how it has approached this APEC thing which apparently has cost the country in the order one billion kina.
DG: How damaging is this for the government?
Well, pretty damaging. It's just hosted this huge event on which it has pinned so much expectation for the country, and devoted an extraordinary amount of money and resources to, only for this to happen the next day. It could n't be much more clear. The government has sort of run out of credit with the public, and certainly with these security forces.
After the unrest the speaker of parliament condemned the breaching of the sanctity of the house. This has shaken people. At least one government minister has called for the resignation of the Police Commissioner. But Gary Baki is the prime minister's appointment, so that puts some pressure on Peter O'Neill, who has just come off an especially busy week hosting the summit, where the world's superpowers were butting heads.
Scrutiny on the government, particularly APEC minister Justin Tkatchenko, is really heating up, and is being applied by the parliamentary opposition and civil society. Because of controversy over the Maseratis and other spending items for the summit, they want Tkatchenko and his team to account for every toea of public money used in the name of hosting APEC.
DG: On the coat tails of APEC, how big has this become on the international stage?
JB: It's been well noticed. And I think a lot of those media who had come to Port Moresby to cover the summit, they have covered this (unrest) because their attention is currently on PNG. So this is a bad look for PNG's government.
