Cyberfox on JOHN MOMIS letter to BCL offering a deal: 1997 -- Fight corruption in PNG by forcing transparency & accountability on our leaders!

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Date Posted: 07:53:18 01/07/00 Fri
Author: Anonymous
Subject: Cyberfox on JOHN MOMIS letter to BCL offering a deal: 1997

POSTING FROM CYBERFOX

Now that some progress has been made on Bougainville, I �d like share with you all revolutionaries one of the issues that formed part of the trigger of that crisis.

Forcing changes for the better is not easy if the system is corrupt, as many of us PNGeans know. But if you are determined you can do it. In the words of General Sam Kauona, �We are prepared to fight on, no matter how long it takes. Ten, twenty,thirty years. We will not stop until we have completely demoralised the Security Forces�. Note the words. He did not say �defeat�...that was left to PNG�s own politicians to do. I feel sad for PNG when I cannot find answers to why our stupid government committed the nation to a war that need not have happened, was poorly planned and badly executed. Even the soldiers, many of whom I gave lifts to at my own risk, said so. They could see that Ona was figthing for justice, for his birth right, for his fatherland/motherland, whichever way you want to see it.

The wheel seems to have turned a full circle. My suspicion is that John Momis and Francis Ona are back on track to make their dreams come true. We will see more in the near future. But I post a copy of the letter that started it all.

--------------------------------------------------

Bougainville Initiative Fund

Paul Quodling
Managing Director
Bougainville Copper Limited,
Panguna
North Solomons Province,
Papua New Guinea 4 May 1997

Dear Paul,

I come to you, having been a leader of this nation for over 15 years, to offer you a gift on the eve of your retirement. You have lived among us for many years.Perhaps the mine you created will not long outlive your retirement.

The gift I offer you is on behalf of the Melanesian people, and particularly on behalf of the people of Bougainville. You will come to see that what I am proposing is indeed in the hearts of all the people of Bougainville.

What I offer you is the gift of understanding, of knowing in your heart the people of this island. I offer you the opportunity to crown your long career with the achievement of gaining the friendship of the people, who currently regard BCL with great resentment. I offer you an initiative which will break the deadlock which has long frustrated us all, a way out of the stalemate which leaves us feeling exploited, and leaves you frustrated at being denied permission to explore, fearful lest your resentment again boils over, as it has been in past years.

What I propose in fact offers a win for every one, and loss for no one.

Consider the problems inherent in the present situation. Some of what I say, you may not want to hear. Yet in your heart, you know it is true. To reject the painful truth is a mistake. The fundamental truth is that BCL has colonised our people, it has taken their land, it has reduced them to passive dependence. Our people -who to you are just Bougainvilleans, or even anonymously �nationals�- are now servants in a land where once they were masters. They keenly feel it, and deeply resent it. In your heart you know this to be true, even if it is your company�s profile to keep a low profile, to keep such distance from the people that no-one says it to your face. So few of your staff are nationals, except for the unskilled and semi skilled who do the dirty shift work, breathing the dust you make when you make a hole out of a mountain, After fifteen years of mining, only a handful of nationals have a rank higher than foremen, and that number is not growing but shrinking.

I do not come to you to cause you pain. As you will see, I have come to offer a fresh initiative, based deeply in our Melanesian culture, which can do much to resolve the impasse which frustrates us all. Yet the starting point must be an honest acknowledgement of the truth, even if it is painful.

No solution can undo what has been done. Some things are irrevocable. The BCL mine has forever changed the perceptions, the hopes and fears of the people of Bougainville. You are invaders. You have invaded the soil and the places of our ancestors, but above all, your mine has invaded our minds. It is like

Bougainville Initiative Fund ..../2

those great alien spaceship, the flying saucers, which haunt the fearful imagination of Western movie audiences. The spaceship, with its unknown and vastly powerful technologies, lands in the village, terrifying local people who cannot be sure if the aliens wish them ill or good. The people of Bougainville speak of BCL as a monster, and you know it. In recent months our theatre troupe have presented just this view, to you in your own mining company town.

You say you are good corporate citizens. You pay taxes to the national government, you pay wages, you pay royalties, you trumpet your public relations stunts such as the the Bougainville Copper Foundation, which doles out small sums to local sports clubs an the like. You build infrastructure, you compensate landowners. Yet those very monies are also very much the problem.

You have been so determined to take our earth and send it to Europe and Japan as quickly as possible, that you have created an operation on a scale which makes it overwhelming. Because of that massive scale you pour fifty million tons of our earth into the Jaba River every year. Because of that massive sale, you have made such massive profits that our economy has been reduced to colonial dependence.

You are not ruthless exploiters. You are the modern faceless corporation which takes care to observe local laws, and incorporates local people, locking then into minority share holdings in trading operations you so generously call a foundation, The vast sums of money you make by selling our gold, silver and copper has created amounts of cash undreamt of before. And that cash has tragically seduced some of the best leaders of our people. It has robbed us of some of our finest men. who have ceased serving their people, and instead line their own pockets with the money of BCL. You may not be legally responsible for the Bougainville Development Corporation scandal, but morally it is your shame as much as ours.

So many of your executives inhabit a fantasy world. They suppose they can merely maintain correct, formal relations with the democratically elected government which represents the people of this province, and there will be no problem. There is a problem. It is all the worse because it has remained unspoken for so long. The problem is that your way and our Melanesian way are different. Our people want to learn skills appropriate to village development. Not only does BCL have almost nothing to offer that is relevant to assisting self reliance and dignity of our people, it actually saps the confidence, reducing our people to dependent wage slave, cogs in the wheel. You have parked your bulldozers in our living rooms, yet you pretend that you can simply go about your business and we go about ours, and never the twain shall meet. I tell you this is not so.

the time has come for such delusions to meet the test of reality. Our culture has an ancient entrepreneurial tradition, which, if nurtured, could restore the lost dignity and self reliance which has descended on us in the lifetime of this gigantic mine.Our Melanesian entrepreneurial tradition differs markedly from yours. Material wealth was not an end i itself, but a means to gain renown, the esteem of one�s people. Thus accumulated wealth was regularly distributed back to the people who helped create it. By contrast, you are the head of a corporation, a body which lives and breathes even, when you have retired to your farm in Australia. The corporation is an entity which uses the energies of men, but has its own life.

Bougainville Initiative Fund ..../3

The modern corporation does not obey the natural rise and fall of life and death, as does our Melanesian tradition, which distributes a leaders wealth when he dies. The modern corporation obeys the ideology of the cancer cell, to ever grow and grow, without ceasing.

I want you to understand our Melanesian way. I offer you the gift of understanding our culture, because such understanding is the key to transforming BCL�s relations with the many peoples of Bougainville. If you appreciate the true nature of the Melanesian culture then you can leave as our friend, knowing we have made a start to building the bridge we must build between your way and ours.

The Melanesian way is energetically struggling to adapt to the invasion which BCL has brought. In every village, people now have fresh expectations. They want vocational training. to build timber houses with long lasting roofs.They want training in self reliant cash crop growing. They want better roads,and transport, and access to markets. They want trading companies to market their products, companies which do not grow uncontrollable, but which follow Melanesian tradition, which return profits to the people whose energies create wealth.

While the Melanesian way is energetically struggling with the cash society you have brought, BCL has shown so little understanding or appreciation of the Melanesian culture. So many of your employees are racist, openly contemptuous of us, just like the kiaps were. You have lived alongside us, but not among us. Consider the example of of an earlier invasion, that o the church. It was initially alien, but it brought the good news of compassion, love, justice and humility to the hearts of our people. It is now a national church, evolving a Melanesian theology. You r company shows no such sensitivity. BCL eats, roots and leaves. Your employees insult our national dignity, renaming our nation Papua Yugimme. BCL worker are told only to keep a low profile. They are given no training whatever in our way of seeing. And you know that our women can be procured for k5 at the Panguna mine.

Thus I come to my specific proposal. This proposal achieves several aims. It meets the needs of our people. It restores our dignity, confidence and self reliance. It gives us resources to tackle the law and order at its roots. It sets an example to the nation of the dignified way equals meet to resolve their differences. It gives you the friendship of a people who for long have resented you, Once you have won genuine friendship, it may be possible to begin negotiations over the moratorium which prevents exploration of the rich copper neighboring the existing mine.

What I propose is not just my idea. You will come to see, in this current national election campaign, and through the North Solomons Provincial Government election campaign which starts as soon as the national elections is past, that this proposal has the active support of the people of the North Solomons. The will of the people will prevail. If you do not immediately appreciate the wisdom of our proposal, i say to you now that you will, once you can clearly see the dignity and determination of our people.

This proposal represents a fresh start. It puts behind us the shameful hijack of Bougainville Development Corporation by selfish interests, and it puts aside BCL�s power of patronage through your Bougainville Copper Foundation.

BOUGAINVILLE INITIATIVES - THE PROPOSAL

The proposal is this: That BCL set aside each year three percent of its gross income from selling our minerals, to be given directly to the North Solomons Provincial Government. This is untied aid, without strings. It is
up to the government of the province to assert its dignity, capability and competence, to determine how that money may best be spent so as to foster the application of the Melanesian entrepreneurial tradition to creating
small scale ventures which meets the needs of the people and which returns their benefits to the village people. As a matter of national dignity, it will be for the government to apply such funds. If we are to recover our confidence in ourselves, this is essential.

There can be no question of BCL's ability to pay. Three percent of gross sale is, on 1986 figures, K12.6Million, a modest figure which will greatly assists the government which has mostly borne the brunt of BCL's presence.
BCL staff have told us that you could easily save enough for such an annual payment, simply by utilising more efficiently the machinery and manpower you have. Gross sales are an appropriate base line, as we do not accept you
practice of salting away k60 million a year which you return to the smelters who buy our copper, for the privilege of having them accept your concentrates. We are aware of transfer pricing and that of existing cartels.
If you find three percent of gross sales unacceptable, our alternative is four percent of the net sales revenue you declare in your annual report.

The agreement between the national government and BCL is outside the scope of this agreement. This is an agreement to assist the people who most immediately must accommodate your massive operation. We place on notice the urgent necessity in renegotiating the national agreement, given the
likelihood that superconductor technology will slash world copper demand, quite possibly as soon as five years from now; and because the mine, when it is closed, will leave us an enduring legacy of pollution and metal concentrations in our fish for thousands of years to come. By any standard
your mining benches are incredibly steep and dangerous. Landslides will be the legacy. The government, national and provincial, will inherit from you not only a giant hole where once there was a mountain, but also the long
term expense of cleaning up, and this has not even been discussed with you.

We have another reason for this Bougainville Initiative. We are concerned not only for the people of Bougainville. The nation of Papua New Guinea is at a crossroad. One road leads to the repetition, all over the nation, of the tragedy of Bougainville. We have had the Bougainville Development Corporation rip-off, we have had the Placer Pacific rip-off. We can tell the nation right now the names of the next such tragedies. The names are Ok Tedi, Lihir, and Misima Porgera. Each time a few of our leaders surrender to the policies of greed, the nation as a whole moves closer to the rule of money, of a rich few holding onto power, backed by an army which protects them from the wrath of the dispossessed. So many countries have degenerated into corruption and dictatorship. PNG is a vital democracy, and can be saved such fate, if the people can see how to live with such massive gold mines in
a way which asserts the dignified right of the sovereign people to ensure that benefit is redistributed to all.
The alternative road facing the nation is to make good our deep-seated entrepreneurial tradition, adapting it to the modern need of an indigenous commercial culture, which brings development to the villagers, harnessing
the energies of collective strength. Nurturing such enterprises will take time. But there are examples of such enterprises, even if we have now created an elite of rich men who attached themselves to foreign businesses,
to whom the Melanesian entrepreneurial tradition is no longer visible.

As the BOUGAINVILLE INITIATIVE takes shape, you will hear more from the
North Solomons Provincial Government.

One further issue needs to be clearly stated. Because the essence the Initiative is to encourage local enterprise, we cannot permit BCL to swamp local enterprise by establishing giant supermarket, at places such as Buin, or Buka, to compete on unfair terms. No local trader can possibly compete with the freight rates you get, through the availability of the ship used to bring in mine supplies of space for imported foods.

The National Investment Development Authority cannot permit such expansion of BCL's activities. Be content with mining and feeding your expatriates on expensive imported food. Do not hide behind your public relations Foundation, and pretend that such supermarkets are a charity. We are asking that you encourage initiative, not stiffle it.

The social economic and environmental impact of fifteen years of mining has not been dealt with constructively and openly until now. If it is left much longer, BCL will be gone. The people of Bougainville are determined to set a
positive example to the nation. We will set a standard fro dealing constructively with giants such as BCL, so that our people can again control their lives. We will restore self reliance through projects funded by seed capital from the Bougainville Initiative Fund we propose. Such money can
succeed if it is spent by provincial and local community governments. They are the governments closest to the people. Only they can select projects which not only meet community needs, but which in turn generate self
sustaining financial independence for community development. We are resolutely opposed to handouts and the passive dependence they create. What we are after is seed capital, to generate communal funds which are self sustaining, and which instil pride in community development. I am sure you will acknowledge that BCL has never attempted such intimate understanding of
our Melanesian way as to be capable of identifying such projects and patiently nurturing them. Your explicit BCL policy has always been to restrict your funds for large-scale projects. Only our own democratically
elected representative can wisely administer such a fund.

I played a major role in creation of provincial government, in part as a constructive response to the acute frustration felt by the people of this home province of mine, Bougainville. Having been a national leader for so long, it is my belief that we must deal directly with each other, as human beings equal in dignity. I do not believe in making splashy press releases. Before publicising this proposal I have come to you, face to face. I talk straight and true. What is proposed here must come to pass. It will be the
public agenda of the coming weeks of election campaigning. But first I come to you, to offer you our friendship, and to wish you a happy retirement to top of f a successful career. We invite you to retire in the knowledge that
you are not only a mine builder but also a community builder.

May God Bless You

Fr JOHN MOMIS

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