[The Political Betelnut Speaks
 |
| Joelson Anere |
Description:
“A social and
political philosohy writer’s corner dedicated to inspiring our leaders be they
in government, in the private sector, in business and most importantly among
our young people especially students in our schools throughout our beautiful
country, Papua New Guinea; in so doing it is the writers hope to germinate and
infuse inspiration, a stronger belief in hope and the politics of change in
which we are the main crafters because of your vote as a citizen of this beautiful
land.]By Joelson Anere
2.
Digital Politics in
Papua New Guinea
The ‘PNG Spring’ is unlike its cousin
the ‘Arab
Spring’ and is becoming an increasingly forthright agent for change in
all spheres of society in PNG. This spring first began on April 2012 when
thousands of people gathered at Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby to
protest at the political crisis gripping the country; especially the tussle
between Peter O’Neil and Sir Michael Somare. Social media and social internet
sites such as Facebook played a pivotal and important role in making this significant
event materialize.
The significance of this event has not
gone unnoticed by political commentators in PNG and this has no doubt ushered
in a new era in PNG Politics. Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
has largely opened the floodgates for Papua New Guineans to have a greater say
and participate in the politics of their country and more so how their
Democracy is being shaped on a daily basis. This means that Politics and
Democracy in PNG are no longer the exclusive preserve of a few political and
beaucratic elites. On the contrary, it has become the inclusive preserve of
Papua New Guinean’s everywhere in this country. These have become evident
following the liberalization of the telecommunications market in 2007.
There is strong evidence to suggest that
PNG (despite there being little research on the impact of ICT on PNG politics)
shows that the liberalization of the telecoms market in 2007 has led to a 0.7
per cent increase in GDP the following year, and the mushrooming of innovative
project proposals for funding in microfinance and financial lending services
which draw on the extensive experience elsewhere in the developing world.
The opportunity to utilize ICT gives
rise to new reporting mechanisms such as the use of the internet and blog sites
that become anti-corruption reporting sites and act as a check mechanism on how
the Government of PNG is managing tax-payers money. It has also opened up new
fronts and new centers of power; ICT in PNG has the ability and capacity to
provide customers with the latest news and information on anything affecting PNG
in real time. The increasing use and access to the internet via mobile phones
means that on-line organization and coordination to off-line organization and
protest gatherings are fast becoming a powerful medium that allows customers
real time information. Customers can now make an informed choice about anything
that directly affects them and their livelihoods. Furthermore, the introduction
of new online anti-corruption measures and information about corruption highlights
the National Government’s weak resolve to act on its own failures, especially
during an election campaign. The immense power and privilege that online-social
network sites such as Facebook and twitter pose is that they provide an
unprecedented access to a broad range of information from so many sources that
the customer is bombarded with new information on a constant and regular basis.
This means he/she is able to make up their minds fairly quickly about something
when given the facts. And Facebook does exactly that, provide facts and statistics,
and an alternative avenue for people to take ownership of the ways in which
their tax is spent and also the way in which the affairs of the country are
managed.
The growing onslaught of on-line social network sites and their development provides citizens with the immense reach and opportunity to effectively formulate on-line corruption reporting systems. In fact, recent research now points to the link between the revelation of corruption, the creation of an expectation and citizen incentives to act against corrupt governments in PNG are now more feasible and are a growing new political culture that has the ability to dwarf previous political cultures of triple floor-crossing of parliament.
This sort of exposure of government corruption and corruption in any sector; which filters into the country print media only after it had first appeared on the internet, is a new and powerful center of power for local citizens and has the potential to ‘leap-frog’ many infrastructure deficiencies that PNG has faced for a long time. This new political phenomenon – digital politics - is creating two new political identities: (a) civil society identity and (b) political ‘protest’ identity. These two new identities show no sign of abating and are likely to increase exponentially to over fifty (50%) over the next five years. At the moment, young people and adults between the ages of 17-35 years of age are by far the most active and responsive to on-line social political participation and dully voice their concerns on a constant basis and have considerable influence on off-line political ‘protest’ activities throughout PNG.
3.
Conclusion
Ends.
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