secession

Charles Lepani

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2
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Matthew Devlin
Name
Charles Lepani
Interviewee's Position
High Commissioner to Australia
Interviewee's Organization
Papua New Guinea
Nationality of Interviewee
Papua New Guinean
Town/City
Canberra
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Charles Lepani recalls his experience as one of Papua New Guinea’s highest-ranked civil servants during the country’s decentralization process in the mid-1970s. He highlights the challenges the central government faced in attempting to decentralize power to newly formed and ethnically distinct provincial governments while maintaining a sense of common national identity. He identifies the various parties involved in the debate over decentralization and details the struggle between the central government and provinces that pushed for a greater devolution of powers, most notably the island of Bougainville. He also explains how financial powers were divided between the national and provincial governments and how he dealt with the opposition he encountered among civil servants accustomed to the formerly centralized system.   

Case Study:  Decentralization Without Disintegration: Provincial Government in Papua New Guinea, 1972-1985

Profile

At the time of this interview, Charles Lepani was Papua New Guinea's High Commissioner to Australia.  Previously, he worked as an economic and public policy consultant. He was a member of the Aid Review team for the governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia. As director of the PNG National Planning Office from 1975 to 1980, he was involved in the formulation of PNG’s post-independence macroeconomic policy and public sector planning system, including aid coordination. Lepani served as PNG’s ambassador to the European Union from 1991 to 1994. He was managing director of Minerals Resources Development Co. from 1994 to 1996, leading the partial privatization of the state’s mining and petroleum assets and subsequently heading Orogen Minerals Ltd.  He earned a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.  

Full Audio File Size
94MB
Full Audio Title
Charles Lepani Interview

John Momis

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3
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Matthew Devlin
Name
John Momis
Interviewee's Position
Career Politician
Interviewee's Organization
Papua New Guinea
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Papua New Guinean
Town/City
Buka
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
John Momis talks about his experience as one of the leading politicians from Papua New Guinea’s island province of Bougainville. He recalls the debate over decentralization in the 1970s and explains why Bougainvilleans emerged as the most vocal advocates of a sweeping devolution of powers away from the central government. He recounts the sense of frustration that led to Bougainville’s 1975 secession and the subsequent negotiations that brought the island back into PNG and led to the 1977 law establishing provincial governments. He talks about the problems that began to emerge under the decentralized system during the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as strained intergovernmental relations and an ill-coordinated transfer of administrative responsibilities.
 
Profile

 

John Momis was one of the leading politicians representing the island province of Bougainville during the first decades of Papua New Guinea’s independence and has regularly been credited as the central ideologue of decentralization in the country. A Catholic priest at the time, he was elected to the national Parliament for Bougainville in 1972 and was appointed chairman of parliamentary committees and de facto chair of the Constitutional Planning Committee by then-Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare. From his position on the committee, he exercised great influence over the formulation of PNG’s constitution and was a fervent proponent of a decentralized system of government. He broke with the national government in 1975 as Bougainville, dissatisfied with the degree of autonomy granted it, issued a unilateral declaration of independence. However, in 1976 he played an instrumental role in reconciling the island with the Port Moresby government. In 1977 he was appointed minister for decentralization. Except for a brief hiatus as minister for minerals and energy in 1980, he held the decentralization portfolio until 1982. As minister for decentralization, he was responsible for increasing governmental capacity at the provincial level and overseeing the central ministries’ implementation of the decentralization policy. In 1985 he served as deputy prime minister and in 1988 he was appointed minister for provincial affairs. At the time of this interview, he had just returned from his position as Papua New Guinea’s ambassador to China and was running for president of Bougainville in the 2010 elections. He won that vote.

 

Full Audio File Size
89MB
Full Audio Title
John Momis

Julius Chan

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10
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Rohan Mukherjee and Matthew Devlin
Name
Julius Chan
Interviewee's Position
Former Prime Minister
Interviewee's Organization
Papua New Guinea
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Papua New Guinean
Town/City
Port Moresby
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Sir Julius Chan talks about the early years of decentralization following Papua New Guinea's independence in 1975. In his capacity as finance minister in the years that followed independence, Chan was unsure of the ability of provincial governments to successfully manage the autonomy given to them by decentralization. He gradually grew concerned about the inability of provincial governments to deliver services at the local level. When he became deputy prime minister in 1992, Chan assisted Prime Minister Paias Wingti in his attempt to reform the provincial government system. Chan himself became prime minister in 1994 and completed the reform effort despite threats of secession from provincial leaders in island provinces who opposed the reform.
 
Profile

At the time of this interview, Sir Julius Chan was the governor of New Ireland province and a member of the national Parliament in Papua New Guinea. He was prime minister from 1980 to 1982 and from 1994 to 1997. Chan was a national politician even before PNG’s independence in 1975. Over the years he was repeatedly re-elected to Parliament and held a number of cabinet positions such as finance, industry, external affairs and trade, and also was deputy prime minister. Chan was deputy prime minister in the 1992 government of Paias Wingti that actively pursued a reformist agenda on decentralization. He became prime minister in 1994 and championed the Organic Law on Provincial Government and Local Level Government, which was passed in 1995. Chan lost the 1997 national elections and remained out of politics for a decade, returning in 2007 as a member of Parliament and governor of New Ireland province.

Full Audio File Size
99MB
Full Audio Title
Sir Julius Chan Interview