News and Public Notices

The Speaker of the Bougainville House of Representatives, the Prime Minister of PNG, Honourable James Marape, the Chief Justice of PNG, Justice Salika, Other PNG Leaders and Government Officials, Members and Ministers of the Bougainville House of Representatives, the Diplomatic Corps, Other distinguished Guest and citizens of Bougainville.

It is indeed my honour to address you upon my return for a second term of Presidet. May I start by thanking the people of Bougainville for your confidence in my leadership in pursuing our common agendas of independence, economy and good governance.  May I also thank the Bougainville Electoral Commission for conducting a free and fair election.   

In my victory speech in 2000, I said that the “Winds of change have arrived and that we Bougainvilleans must be the winds of change. No one else will create a better future for us but ourselves”. This statement is still true today - we must desire the need for change at all levels of society and move forward towards a better Bougainville. 

The direction for my leadership in the last term of Parliament was based on the Six Point Strategy. As you know, significant progress has been made on the Political front with the final hurdle remaining, that of tabling the referendum results on the floor of the PNG Parliament, through the Melanesian Agreement. 

On the economic front, in the five years of my Presidency, and as Mining Minister, I have moved Panguna into the Exploration stage and my Govt is now waiting for BCL to speedily progress to the next phase or tell us if it is unable to operate Panguna. Some landowner factions, supported by Bougainvillean businessmen, continue to create confusion in the mine pit. Let me remind the Land Owners that in Bougainville custom, Panguna now belongs to the whole of Bougainville, secured by the blood of 20,000 lives lost in a war created by the LOs and the mine. 

All powers and functions under administrative control agenda are available for drawn-down except the sovereign powers and foreign relations. We will need to improve our ability to operationalise the drawn-down powers and functions into tangible governance and development realities. The Public Service must improve on its performance. The measure of success of your work, will be judged in the improvements of people’s livelihood and standard of living – not by the number of trips to you make to Waigani.

The one area where Govt and Public service have yet to fully appreciate is the role that Civil Society and the Private sector can play as development partners. NGOs are doing a wonderful job attending to the needs of vulnerable groups in health, education, income generation and gender equality. There is need to better align NGO services with the relevant programs of Govt rather then conducting programs in competition to that of Government.

The Private sector in my view needs to turn a new leaf. Currently, the private sector is merely a recipient of Govt tenders and pay a “goods and services tax” through your commercial operations. Many business houses operate in Buka and Arawa because of Govt presence. Any foreign business in Bougainville must seek a partnership arrangement with a local entity.

My challenge for the private sector is to venture into new enterprises and broaden your reach to other areas of Bougainville other then Buka and Arawa. 

I am happy to remind us that Bougainville now has a 30-year Long-term Vision of becoming a “high income, educated, healthy, peaceful, Christian sovereign nation” by 2052. I further note that the administration has started reflecting this Vision in its various Master Plans. In this new term of Govt, we will pursue this long-term goal through an overarching Bougainville Nation Building Strategy that will integrate all of Govt Policy making, program design, implementation and monitoring right across Govt under the Chief Secretary.

Under this term of Governmentt, we will continue to increase our efforts in strengthening relations with our neighbours on social and cultural exchanges and extend the scope of our relationship as Bougainville progresses beyond the Melanesian Agreement and in implementing the Bougainville Peace Agreement.

“Hindsight” is a wonderful thing as it allows you to look back as you move forward.  It is now 36 years since the beginning of crisis in 1989, 32 years since the beginning of restoration in Buka in 1993, 24 years since the signing of the Bougainville Peace Agreement in 2001 and 20 years since the formation of the ABG in 2005. After 2 decades, we are just now beginning to seriously think about development and transformation.

In comparison, Rwanda under President Kagame, has only taken 20 years to transform itself from a very serious ethnic cleansing war to a thriving progressive nation. Bukina Faso under President Troare has also quickly transformed itself taking control of its economy. We in Bougainville have dwelled too much about the past and we now need to shift gear quickly. And how do we make this happen? At this juncture of our journey, independence, economy and good governance are essential.

But underpinning these transformations, especially in the case of Singapore, is “intellectual capability” apart from leadership and good governance. We must have the intellectual ability to analyse, synthesise, crystalise and chart the way forward. An ability that captures lessons from around the world as well as our history and crystalise it into our situation in Bougainville. Vision 2052 and Nation Building cannot be achieved without such “intellectual capability” to guide leadership, the bureaucracy and the broader society. We must become a learning society.     

The Bougainville Peace Agreement in hindsight, imbued a slow pace of progress perhaps anticipating a generational change in leadership and thereby also anticipating changes in the dynamics for independence. Bougainvilleans will disagree on many things – but there is one agenda where Bougainvilleans will always stand as one people – and that is Independence!!!    

Let me now focus on what I stand for in this new term of Parliament. I campaigned to pursue three main goals which are - Political Independence, Economic Independence, Good Governance.

• Our journey for political independence is very clear. We have already voted for Independence as provided for in Part 14 of the PNG Constitution. We have spent the last three years consulting as if we don’t know about our future political status. The real question is “whether PNG is ready to accept the Bougainville people’s choice”.
• We expect the Melanesian Agreement and the Sessional Order to be the conduit through which the PNG Parliament will endorse the people choice.
• Bougainville must be a Republic in the true sense and not the current hybrid of Presidential system mixed within a Westminster system of Government. The President is directly elected by the people and should not have to negotiate with Ministers in the exercise of his mandate. Some laws acquired through colonialism will change.
• The journey home must embrace “economic Independence” at all levels – the family level, the community level and Bougainville as a whole. At the govt level, my Govt will first of all ensure that Panguna quickly progresses to the next stage of development.
• I am happy to announce that the Bougainville Gold Refinery in Arawa will begin operations soon. Our aim is to build our own gold bullion that will be the foundation of our sovereign wealth. However, in the long-term Bougainville must have a broad-based economy in agriculture, fisheries, forestry, tourism, commerce, finance and banking and so on. 
• Land is fundamental in economic development and my government will explore ways of bringing more customary land into commercial production. My government will also seek avenues of bringing back large plantations into productivity. Our private sector needs to be ready to take advantage of such opportunities. 
• At the farmer level, I urge our people to continue working hard growing cocoa and copra but Govt must do more with these crops instead of continuing to do the age-old practice of exporting raw. On this note, the excellent cocoa downstream processing research work by DPI at Kubu must now progress into commercial production.
• Overall, there is so much room for innovation, for example with emerging cash crops and improving varieties of food crops commonly sold at the road side markets.  
• Farmers continue to experiment, trying new crops such as Vanilla and Balsa. We also continue to import massive amounts of protein when we should be producing some of these ourselves. Rice is the same story.
• Fisheries continue to be a sleeping giant but needs to be awakened through Foreign Investment. If PNG is serious about economic independence for Bougainville, then it must immediately transfer the Foreign Investment powers and functions.
• In this term of government, under the Nation Building agenda, my Govt, through the Chief Secretary, will be setting clear directions and targets for the economic sector Depts to meet. We must set clear deliverable targets for each Ministry and Heads of Depts. 
• The subject of innovation brings me to intellectual property rights – Our traditional knowledge is already being sold in the national and international markets without Bougainville benefitting commercially from these inventions.
• During the Crisis, traditional medicine became the daily prescription for all sorts of illnesses – even massage of muscles and the healing of bones. We are abandoning this knowledge in preference for western medicine. 
• Bougainville must now have an Intellectual Property legal, scientific and commercial protocols that will protect and regulate the creation, development and marketing of our intellectual property through an appropriate entity.
• Economic independence cannot be achieved without skilled manpower, amongst other enabling factors. Panguna will begin to ramp up soon and will require an estimated 2,000 blue and white collar workers. There are also other mines in the horizon. If we are not ready, we will become spectators on our own land and recreate the social economic conditions that contributed to the Crisis.
• Given the urgency of the situation, Education Dept must wake up to this fact and take necessary steps to upscale Technical – Vocational Education and Training and address the situation.
• The third agenda I campaigned on is “Good Governance” – Governance is the foundation of any nation as it is concerned with institutions, systems and processes that regulate the conduct of any nation.
• Institutional reform, both in structure and function, are necessary to ensure that the administration is aligned with the Republican political system. The new Bougainville Constitution must ensure this alignment.    
• Good Governance is fundamental to social economic transformation. We have already set the Longterm Vision– that by 2052 Bougainville will be “a high income, educated, healthy, peaceful, Christian sovereign nation”. Bougainville is now progressing from State Building to Nation Building.
• Good governance is achieved through transparent leadership and strong institutions. Institutional strengthening must ensure the enactment of relevant laws and systems but also inculcate the right morale values and ethics at both the leadership levels and the public service. This year, my Government, will be launching a home ground Leadership Training Manual contextualized to our own situation and also cultivating our own intellectual capacity in leadership training.   
• The Education curriculum is currently oriented toward formal employment in offices. The curriculum must be reformed into a skills-based curriculum so that it prepares citizens for a self-sustaining life in Bougainville. Our history and way of life must also be taught in the schools. Churches need to play a greater role in providing ethics, morals and values education. On the whole, education content needs a serious overhaul, including Teacher Education. 
• Health is doing an excellent job building new health facilities throughout Bougainville. A new Health Centre was recently opened on the West Coast while Wakunai, Arawa and Buin hospital are being built. Health Dept also needs to give equal priority to primary health care so that people know how to live healthy. 
• Community Govt and Community Development Depts also need to transform yourselves because your target populations do not live in Buka town. There is so much to be done at the community level in promoting development, good governance and strengthening cohesion, peaceful and harmonious living for transformational development especially with the youth population. Your potential is only limited by your creativity.
• There is good functional rationale for the merger of these two Departments which we will consider under this govt. Population data function is currently vested in the Community Development Dept. We will have to look at placing it in a more appropriate location as the Dept is struggling to manage this function.  
• The structural duplication of leadership between Community Govt Chairperson and Constituency Member needs to be streamlined. There should only be one political head for each Constituency. This would also streamline resourcing matters. 
• Gender equality needs to be pursued in a way that fits with our Bougainville Christian values and not the western values of women’s rights because Western societies are not any better despite more then 60 years of women’s rights. In fact, the countries that have taught us Christianity have decayed with same sex marriages. This is against nature and against our Christian heritage and is therefore a big taboo in Bougainville.     
• Good governance is not just talk only. We leaders must take lead in practicing good governance – Compliance is absolute!! The Public Servants and Citizens must follow the rules and laws of the land. Leadership must lead by example and the people will follow.
• Whilst on the subject of “Leadership”, as we all know, the Bougainville Crisis destroyed institutions and systems through which leadership evolved at that time. These institutions were custom, the church and the government. These institutions remain weak and has affected “leadership formation” in Bougainville.
• This is the reason why my Government, under the Nation Building program, is initiating a home ground leadership training manual that takes into account our history, culture and spirituality in the leadership curriculum. However, in real life, it is the “school of hard knocks”, through the three institutions noted above that cultivates leadership.    
• Transparency and accountability are essential elements in the practice of good governance. Leaders are answerable to the people and people are also answerable to the leaders through proper systems and processes for information sharing.    
• Outside of the formal government institutions are the private sector, the churches, the clan systems and other civil society organisations. The churches have a fundamental role is shaping the behaviours, morals and values of individuals who collectively form the nation.   
• Our challenge is in making both formal and informal institutions “effective and efficient” so that they are all delivering and ensuring that Bougainville is moving together as one cohesive people in the same direction.
• The local Private sector is currently, mainly dependent on government financing to conduct business such as constructing roads, bridges, hospitals, offices and schools. It’s Guest houses and Conference facilities are constantly hired by government. Its supermarkets are where the pubic servants do their shopping.
• My Government will be looking at policy initiatives that provides a fair go to the local businesses and help grow the private sector. At the same time, I would encourage the private sector to better organize themselves in order to create economies of scale and be competitive.  
• The bulk of the Bougainville citizens live in rural areas outside of the daily reach of Government. These citizens need to be capacitated so that they fend for themselves through the various civil society groupings - be it the Clan, the Church, Farmers groups, Womens’ group, Youth Groups and so on.  This is why its’ important to harness Civil Society and the Private Sector in pursuing our collective development aspirations.
• Equitable development is also part of good governance and should not simply be seen as mere rhetoric of the global body of nations. You only have to travel 5 minutes out of Buka town to see evidence of inequity on Buka island – one side enjoying sealed road, cement footpaths and electricity while the other side in still living in the 1960s like most parts of Bougainville. 
• The ABG is the government for the whole of Bougainville and must exercise leadership and promote equitable development in such manner that it garners respect, obedience and stewardship from the whole of Bougainville society.         
• This is one of the reasons my Government is introducing the Bougainville Nation Building Strategy as the vehicle for moving the whole of the Bougainville institutions and citizens in the same direction. Each sector and Department will identify clear milestones to be delivered under subsequent Master Plans and MTDPs – these will be mandatory.
• These deliverables will be tied to the performance-oriented Contracts of each Head of Dept. Chief Secretary and Dept of Personal Management must strictly enforce performance management of HODs. Perhaps Bougainville should learn a bit more from the New Zealand Public Service which is globally recognized for its efficiency and effectiveness.  
• Security, Law and Order provide an enabling environment for economic development and the practice of good governance, enabling citizens to realize their full potential. Freedom and democracy is a double-edged sword – if you do not exercise freedom and democracy in a responsible manner, they will turn around and hurt you. The lessons are everywhere around us. Some countries have gone to the extent of limiting the freedoms and rights of citizens for the greater good.
• We are on the cusp of establishing a new nation but we do not have the financial means to establish strong institutions or organizations that will secure the new Bougainville. You, as citizens, are the best security to our nation - your good behaviour as citizens will secure the safety and prosperity of a new Bougainville.                         

Let me take this opportunity to talk about Geo-Politics in relation to Bougainville. The world was already divided into political and economic alliances by the colonial powers. Today these powers are competing for global or regional influence using trade, aid, financing, education, security and telecommunications as the tools of influence. The regional powers have entered into new relationship through AUKUS and PNG has signed the Pukpuk Agreement with Australia.  Bougainville will assess for itself, the merits of these arrangements.    

Geo-politics is not a new game. It is the rise of China and the formation of the BRICs alliance that is shaking the west from its “business as usual attitude”. Geopolitics offers us opportunities as well as risks. We will assess for ourselves what is good for us in shifting relations from “backyard diplomacy to front-yard diplomacy”. The lessons of Panguna are too devastating to continue the status quo.

Honoured Guests, ladies and gentlemen and citizens of Bougainville, there is so much to talk about because the agenda in front of us as an emerging nation is huge. I have mentioned some areas for reform in relation to the three core agendas of independence, economy and good governance. The Chief Secretary will take note of these and direct the relevant Departments to take necessary actions required.  Many of the reforms in systems and processes will not require additional resources but better use of existing resources.

The transformation that I am advocating for under these three agendas, is not difficult to achieve with your co-operation at whatever levels and roles you are playing in Bougainville society. Resources is an obvious constraint. I appeal to all the citizens in the wider society, the private sector, the civil society and the public service to all play your part in achieving these aspirations.

I now wish to conclude by presenting what I intend to do in the first 100 days of this Presidency. As noted above in this speech, there is plenty to do as we position ourselves to be a sovereign nation.

Here is my agenda for the first 100 days:

1. Enact Constitution for an independent Bougainville

2. Agree on a clear process framework and timeline for implementing the Melanesian Agreement and a Draft Sessional Order for taking the 97.7% vote for independence into the PNG Parliament,

3. Establish the Bougainville Nation Building Secretariat under the Chief Secretary and Launch the Bougainville Nation Building Strategy.

4. Panguna mine – secure Joint Venture arrangement and progress towards Mine Development Plan.

5. Bougainville Gold Refinery to start production

6. Enact legislation to reclaim the large plantations from absentee landlords and develop a strategy for redeveloping the Plantations.

7. Fisheries – negotiate with PNG the transfer of Fisheries powers and seek Joint Venture and financing

8. Establish Bougainville’s own Cocoa Export Company

9. All Depts to develop revenue generation plans for the next 5 years.

10. Establish an effective HOD performance management system

11. Improve capacity for Tax collection

12. Technical Education – Conduct assessment of Technical/Vocational Training and formulate Plan for increasing capacity of these institutions,

13. Develop Plan for strengthening law and order focussing on the Correctional services especially Bekut and Kuberia.

Many of these priorities are not new because the need has been with us for a few years. The priorities will require coherent political leadership in providing the necessary policy directions for each relevant Dept. I urge the Administration, through the Chief Secretary and the relevant HODs to take note of the priorities for the next 100 days as well as the broader priorities stated in this Speech and undertake the necessary tasks required to achieve all of these during this term of Government, as we head towards being a sovereign Bougainville.

I thankyou and may God Bless us all.      

Honourable Ishmael Toroama - MHR
President 

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