PNG Politics is…

…corrupt, chaotic, complex and at times violent.

Today is Monday and it's a Public Holiday in PNG – Remembrance Day. A long weekend! Yeehaaah….

Here I am at home: blogging, surfing, emailing and researching Open Source material for the project at the Hospital.

And as I'm cyber-choiring away on my laptop in the lounge-room – a truck pulls up out the front of the house full of testosterone charged blokes. The counting might very well be over but the election process certainly is not. Embedded deeply within the PNG male psyche is the concept that when a vote is bought it must be given. Sounds fair enough. It gets complex and potentially nasty when money has been given to a community or village for the purpose of buying votes and folks end up voting for someone else. A candidate tends to measure his or her ability to attract votes by how much cash they have in their pocket. So… no cash – no votes!! And then of course there's those communities that accept gifts and cash from multiple candidates. Nasty!!

Back to the blokes in the truck out the front…

PNG men love a fight and now that counting is almost over and winners are all but declared – anger is flying left, right and center. Time for payback! Those folks that were paid but never gave their votes can expect visits. Visits by blokes with guns, knives and ion bars – such as the ones on the truck that pulled up out the front. The truck was on its way to a village to fight, burn down houses and teach the local folks a lesson.

When it comes to rugby and politics PNG men are definitely bad losers.

Note that the very folks that complain about corruption in PNG are the ones accepting cash handouts and gifts from their candidates. Where then does the source of corruption lie in PNG?