"We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put." (Ngugi wa Thiong'o, famous Kenyan - Kikuyu writer)
Previous blog posts in this series:
Part 1 - A Childhood Dream. Experiences of a Vice Chancellor in Papua New Guinea (1)
Part 2 - Employable Graduates. Experiences of a Vice Chancellor in Papua New Guinea (2)
Part 3 - The Student Movement. Experiences of a Vice Chancellor in Papua New Guinea (3)
Part 4 - The Staff Organizations. Experiences of a Vice Chancellor in Papua New Guinea (4)
Part 5- The Opportunity Costs of Navel Gazing. Experiences of a Vice Chancellor in Papua New Guinea (5)
PNG Attitude Postings
- 5 October 2019: There cannot be peace without justice
- 4 October 2019: PNG’s odd racialised post-colonial morality
- 3 October 2019: Delusional O’Neill's calamitous legacy
- 4 September 2019: Corruption, maladministration; & students who can be cleansers
- 14 August 2019: No heroes these wasted years: memoirs of a vice chancellor
- 15 June 2019: Dear Hon James Marape, I make a plea for an innocent man
- 30 March 2018: Morobe leaders call on govt to retain Schram as Unitech head
- 25 March 2014: Leak of Sevua investigation confirms Dr Schram’s innocence
Background
I want to thank my 7,000+ followers on twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook for their encouraging comments on this series, and Keith Jackson for publishing the short versions. Many of my followers are students, sponsors or relatives of students, or among the 6,000+ graduates of which I signed their degrees. Thank you all.More and more, I am convinced eventually the PNG University of Technology will eventually be transformed from a joint criminal organization, and a cesspit of greed, spite and mediocrity (as described in earlier episodes), into a true university delivering highly competent and employable graduates. It is up to us to decide whether we want this sooner, or rather in say a decade, when all current protagonists probably have passed on given their age and bad health.
Before describing my experience with the university staff organization, I will make a few remarks on the economic and moral environment in which PNG universities operate. The disastrous state of the economy since Peter O'Neil took over in 2012, stimulated dishonest and opportunistic behaviour. Dishonesty in turn was further justified by exceptionalist 'logic', and the fundamental difficulty many PNGeans have that everybody is equal before the law, and rules should be applied to everyone without exception. The tribal "wantok" system seems the only system that works, and it is what many people are still most comfortable with.
Since 2012, continuing misgovernment, thievery and wasteful spending put a terrible stress on society due to Peter O'Neill's callous and delusional economic policies, which only produced exclusive benefits for his cronies in Port Moresby. In 2014, for example, in some areas in the highlands there was a fully fledged famine, and at some point the World Food Program was supporting over 250,000 people with food aid. The non-payment of LNG revenues to landowners by the government, has led to a continuing civil war in Hela and Southern Highland provinces, which ironically are the provinces where the current and previous Prime Minister hail from. For UNITECH where over 50% of students are from the highlands this created a difficult operating environment. Many parents and sponsors were unable to pay the "skul fee" on time.
