“We are not stupid. We understand that this is a political stunt by the ALP to win votes from white Australia,” she explains. “My concern is that these genuine asylum seekers will be traumatised and PNG does not have the capacity to support them. We have no welfare system, health care is atrocious. This is a human rights violation.” This is precisely the reaction Bill Standish, a longtime PNG specialist based at the Australian National University, is anticipating from O’Neill’s gamble. “The educated youth of PNG are likely to protest loudly,” he says. “To send Australia’s unwanted arrivals [to PNG] is the ultimate colonialism. PNG people I know are disgusted.” “All in all it’s a bold and tough stance that Rudd has taken, and it may very well stop the boats,” he says. “But at what cost to our way of life in PNG, and at what cost to our democracy?” Emmanuel Narokobi says many of his contemporaries are concerned that ordinary Papua New Guineans will one way or other pay dearly for Kevin Rudd’s PNG solution. They anticipate the costs of food and housing, already hyper-inflated by the resources sector, will be pushed up even further with the arrival of the inevitable corps of expat functionaries with expense accounts required to do the business. They’ve seen it before in PNG when Australian Federal Police were deployed, and in the Solomon Islands with RAMSI (the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands). Brilliant article. Thanks Rebecca Monson! theglobalmail.org/feature/for-those-whove-come-across-the-seas-a-short-trip-to-png/662/
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 00:38:01 +0000
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