Democracy

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PNG News #7 - Democracy


As you read my news, especially this email, dear reader, please remember that the name Papua New Guinea and the unification of the nation is a colonial construct.

I can’t get PNG’S interpretation of democracy out of my head. Some contradictions are revealed in a recent documentary about the 2002 elections in Enga a remote province in the highlands. The video is called Tanim (pidgin for change) and you can learn more about it at the website www.tanim.cc.
You would expect the PNG people to incorporate their traditions like bride price, Sangai - the rite preparing boys for manhood, reciprocity - giving in the expectation of receiving benefits, into their new system called elections. However, the competition becomes like theatre of the absurd or perhaps it is a new kind of sport, when Enga people *assert their Melanesian identity within this postcolonial democracy.


Here are some of the facts in the Enga elections that make me wonder about the overlay of democracy onto this province.

*There are 156 candidates standing for 6 seats.
*There are several tribal invasions on the campaign trail.
*Two candidates vote with their guns.
*People are interviewed on camera saying they have voted three times.
*Electoral officials are seen running from gunfire.
*Bridges are destroyed to prevent votes being counted.
*Clandestine teams are filmed filling out votes.
*Two BIG men tell their tribes how to vote, and pass the ballots to the current candidate’s son.
*One day of voting turns to over a week and a half.
*Voting boxes are transported to the Police Station and locked in shipping containers to await counting.
*Gunmen attack Wabag’s election headquarters and invalidate unmarked ballots.
*In an effort to secure the situation officials destroy the voting papers.
*30 armed men storm Wabag Police Station and blow up the shipping containers with 2 tons of jet fuel.
*Thousands of votes go up in smoke and 3 weeks later they count the charred remnants
*There are twice the number of returned ballots despite a good portion being burned.

I know this might be more than any of you want to know about the Enga elections, however it reveals the disconnect between what we introduce and how it is interpreted and implemented. The absurdity of what we in the west think we are doing. I thought I was inventing my own ism - postdevelopmentism to fit the chaos of postmodernism until I came across the phrase in a development book.

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