Last november, papua new guinea prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta voiced a hope that 2001 might see the beginning of a return to law and order. Along with economic stability, it's what the country badly needs. But last week, economic ills triggered the worst civil unrest the country has seen in years. In the capital, Port Moresby, protests against the Morauta government's economic reform plans ended in bloodshed when police shot dead three university students and wounded many more.
In 1999, when Morauta took the reins of a political system riddled with corruption, he said the country was externally and internally bankrupt. Central to his recipe for economic recovery-which has seen inflation fall from 22% in 1998 to 12% late last year-is the privatization of all major government enterprises. Last year Morauta told Time that state businesses were in financial chaos and hamstrung by political interference. If [they] are left as they are, he warned, they will die.
The national airline, Air Niugini, and the P.N.G. Banking Corporation were the first to be approved for sale. International heavyweights like the World Bank and the I.M.F. have shown their approval of the reforms with huge loans. But at home, support for privatization has been much harder to find.
People are confused by the idea of selling off state entities, says Paul John Othas, a National Union of Students vice president. Othas was one of several thousand protestors who camped outside Morauta's office from June 21, waiting to present him with a demand that he reconsider the privatization schedule. After giving the P.M. their petition on June 25, Othas says, the students settled in for the night to wait for a reply-singing, sleeping and playing cards. At about 11 p.m., heavily armed police arrived and ordered them to leave. When the students refused, Othas says, the police began kicking and firing tear gas. The crowd scattered, some students making their way back to the University of P.N.G. campus. Later that night, three male students were shot dead and more than a dozen injured, and a fast-food outlet was set on fire. The police were like mercenaries who had been hired to kill people, says Othas. It was a nightmare. Police say the demonstators had begun destroying property and looting. Students say the police overreacted to the damage done by a few rogue protesters.
Though horrified by the violence, many Papua New Guineans share the students' unease-particularly about the prospect of partial foreign ownership. Says Tas Maketu, director of the Catholic Church's Caritas P.N.G.: People are asking, If the government sells off these assets, what has P.N.G. got left? Do we have anything to fall back on? Othas says students feel that bodies like the World Bank are dictating P.N.G.'s policy choices. Some politicians, including former P.M. Sir Michael Somare, argue that privatization will lead to cuts in already inadequate rural services.
At week's end Port Moresby was under curfew, and the Privatisation Commission was unwilling to discuss the policy's status. The future of that exercise is now dependent on the national government, says the commission's Evodia Boslogo. Morauta may not have much time to convince citizens of the need for privatization: when Parliament resumes this month, his government could face a no-confidence motion.
No one denies that most state enterprises are in a mess-least of all residents of Port Moresby, where it can take three weeks for mail to cross the city. But in a nation where most people have few possessions, the merits of parting with their nationally owned assets-even debt-ridden ones-can be very hard to accept.
-By