Digital Politics in Papua New Guinea

[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.]


Digital Politics in Papua New Guinea
By Joelson Anere

                                  1.         Introduction

 

This article discusses the new political phenomenon affecting Papua New Guinea politics today and beyond, that new phenomenon is the “PNG Spring” – the onslaught of Digital politics in PNG. You could say, that PNG politics just went digital. But to be fair, the initiative of this new phenomenon is the people of PNG themselves who are increasingly taking ownership of their country’s politics and also of how their country is governed or shaped.

                                 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

 

In conclusion, the Government of Papua New Guinea should not try to stamp-out this new political wave of change but rather that the National Government should welcome it as a greater opportunity to sharpen the edifices of our institutions of State and the entire public service apparatus and make them more open and external looking with a powerful ability to prosecute cyber-terrorist and or internet terrorists who would utilize such new changes to evoke a new type of crime, Cyber-crime or internet crime which is possible today given the advancing partnership between the mobile telecommunications industry and world of science.

Ends.