The Anti-Corruption Movement in Melanesia - Introduction

The anti corruption movement has been around since the late 80s and today it is part of a big network of a grassroots movement that extends all across Melanesia.

Two main interruptions to that movement included the Bougainville crisis and the Australian RAMSI occupation of the Solomon Islands.

In the beginning it was civil society and the churches alone, although there were many very qualified people from government who were resigning from their government jobs to be involved in actions that reached the people at the village level.

Video: NGO workers and their community leaders 

travelling on the Aramia River, Western Province 2002

This movement saw in the  late 80s, the creation of the first ever national volunteer service in a third world country - that was the "National Volunteer Service of Papua New Guinea" - an NGO and civil society organisation that was placing NGO technical, social, health and literacy workers etc. all over Papua New Guinea especially in the rural areas.

The National Volunteer Service was probably the best aid organisation in PNG, because it was local and it's philosophy is still:

• Community self determination and organisation, 

• Individual and Community Empowerment. 

That means that the projects it was involved in were community funded and managed through the effort, energy and drive of the target community itself.

Along the way, some crooked politicians have used the movement to launch their political careers and the civil society has seen and experienced that. So they have mainly been disabused of any previous hope and trust they had in upcoming promising politicians. Now all they concentrate on is the war against corruption and  looking beyond the pretense of the rule of law to see the underlying injustices.

The creation of the world wide web in 1991 certainly helped the movement through the use of emails and when facebook started, that whole movement also migrated to the new platform. On facebook there are several groups and pages that carry the determination of Melanesians to regain the independence they lost through the corporate take over of their governments. 

The main advantage of moving to this platform is that it provides greater networking capacity and it is a great rally platform for the masses of voices that were once denied representation on the public forum of the Newspapers and the "National Televisions". Facebook is a space that many governments are trying to control for various reasons. But so far the civil society movements of Melanesia have taken to the internet like fish to water.

Tick Tock Ticking

Old writings from my hard drives, I was trying to imagine a scene for a film. There was a clock in the corner ticking away the timing of a robbery operation taking place down in Waigani. But as it happens the story was being told by the clock and would end not with the heist itself but with the clock becoming the observer, witness and the actual narrator of the story... because it keeps drawing people back to the scene of the crime while counting down to a day of reckoning and finally becoming the stress factor that brings about the conclusion...

Tick Tock Ticking:

It may sound very funny
but one day you'll be running
and you will turn to see
that once you were a story
this Tik Tok really ticks

You try to be convincing
when stood before the judges
articulate your version
your lawyers have a flair
but time will make you stop

The rules are always bent
and justice serves the rich
money frees corruption
the law is bought and sold
and poorest do the time

Our house is in a mess
rains fall through the thatch
the cats have grown too fat
so rats are hard to catch
we try to last the season

So overcome with fear
we fail to see and reason
so hopeful for reward
we stand for this injustice
our minds can hear the silence

They cruise our nation calmly
in steaming hot Waigani
their cars have air condition
and windows bullet proofed
they fear no ammunition

If you have so much power
why then must countless suffer?
we don't want all your money
you've promised that to others
Why don't you spare the lies?

You print your propaganda
to tell us of your worth
but think about your powers
how money gives them colour
yet time will bleach you bare

Once in that position
you start to scheme you scum
that chair is not your own
the people put you there
and they can throw you out

Tik Tok Ticking
your fear will fake some rhythm
you'll die without a drama
no twenty one gun salute
you failed to live with us

Martin Maden 1995


Goroka, the 16th of March 1995