I wasn’t good at French in my final year of high school. My classmates had five years of language studies behind them. I had three. As a result of my woeful grip on the language, I wrote a terribly bad essay in my final French exam.

The more I read of ChatGPT’s output, the more I am reminded of my final French essay. I could not express the complex ideas I wrote in my English essays, so instead, I repeated the question a lot and clumped together words and phrases that sounded like they kind of went together. There was no logical thread, no cogent argument.

• READ MORE: Other articles on artificial intelligence

It was a bit like the perplexing, digressive, buzzword-rich oratory stylings of Donald Trump.

I have been a university lecturer, tutor and marker for coming on two decades now and late last year a student submitted an essay that I sent off to the university integrity team, explaining that it was “bad in a new and different way”.

According to Turnitin (our detection software), it wasn’t plagiarised. It didn’t read like it had been written in another language and run through Google Translate. The grammar was impeccable but there were glaring non-sequiturs and it danced around the question, which it repeated several times, but didn’t actually answer.

I didn’t hear back from the integrity people. They probably didn’t know what to do about it and may have been busy, as it was the end of the teaching year. I had also said it wasn’t urgent, as it had failed against my marking key, meaning the student, whose marks had been poor all along, would have to repeat the unit anyway.

New teaching year
A couple of weeks later ChatGPT was made available to the public, joining the dozen or so other AI writers available to people who want AI to string together their sentences.

Now, heading back into a new teaching year, having spent the summer chatting with ChatGPT, I am in conversations with my colleagues about how we should proceed. I teach journalism and my colleagues are from a range of arts and communications disciplines.

Collectively our feelings are mixed, but I’m looking forward to letting my students know about this leap forward in communications technology.

I plan to explain it in the context of the other leaps and lurches I’ve lived through.

This won’t be the first to make swathes of workers redundant. I remember the angst in my industry about digital typesetting usurping the compositors and typesetters, replacing vast numbers of them with far fewer graphic designers.

ChatGPT will undoubtedly take some jobs, but it’s the donkey work of the writing professions. It frees us up to do the innovative fun stuff. Also, while ChatGPT is big and shiny, we’ve known that AI writing is on its way for a long time.

In 2018, Noam Lemelshtrich Latar summed up the progress in our field to date in his book Robot Journalism: Can human journalism survive? He documented the many workplaces already using AI writing software and concluded that there was still work to be done. There still is.

Essay capacity underwhelming
Much of the media racket over ChatGPT this summer has been about its capacity to write essays, and so I have read several essays it has written, and I can happily report that I am underwhelmed by them, but also fascinated by the challenge we face in getting better at describing the ways in which they are bad.

This task is part of the mission humanity more broadly is facing in figuring out what it is that people can do that robots can’t. If robots/AI writers are going to do the donkey-work writing in workplaces, that is not something we need to be training graduates to do.

Graduates need to be able to do things an AI language model can’t, and they need to be able to articulate their skill sets.

So, I will be generating AI content in my classrooms and we are going to set to work pulling it apart, in search of its failings and foibles. We’ll do this together and learn about it and ourselves as we go.

Another big theme in the media hype has been ChatGPT’s ability to “do the marking for us”. This, in my opinion, is rubbish. Sure, you can copy-and-paste some text into ChatGPT and ask it for a comment and a grade, but every university I know of demands more of the markers than a simple comment and grade.

If only it was that simple. But, no. We have to describe the specific criteria every piece of work will be assessed against, and the expectations ascribed to each criterion that will result in the award of a specific number of marks. This forms a table called a rubric, which is embedded in our unit websites and getting the assignments and rubrics out of that software and into ChatGPT would take longer than the tight time allocation we get to mark each piece.

Besides the software we mark in is already replete with time-saving tricks, like a record function so you can speak rather than type feedback and the ability to save commonly used comments.

‘Getting to know students’
In addition, failing to read the assignments would inhibit the “getting to know your students” process that marking their work facilitates, and so I imagine it to be the sort of drain-circling behaviour used by failing teachers on their way out of the profession — as student assessment of teachers who cheat in their marking is going to be on par with teacher assessment of students who cheat in their assessments.

Cheating is a key word here. While ChatGPT is new, universities have longstanding policies and charters that use words like “honesty and fairness” in relation to academic integrity. These are being underscored and highlighted in preparation for the start of semester and hyperlinked to paragraphs about AI writing.

Honest use of ChatGPT will involve disclosure about how it was used, and what measures have been taken to verify its content and iron out its wrinkles. It then joins the swath of online tools we encourage our students to use to prepare them for the professions they’ll enter when they graduate.

For my first year students these will be professions that have adjusted to the existence of AI language models, and so their new graduate brilliance will need to be focused on things only humans can do to make the world a better place. This is how I’m going to frame it in my classes, when our next semester starts.

Dr Kayt Davies is a lecturer in journalism at Curtin University. She is a contributor to Pacific Journalism Review. The article was first published in The West Australian and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with the author’s permission.

The ruling FijiFirst Party has released its candidate list for the general election on December 14.

With it came some dubious biographies composed by candidates which voters will have to delve into over the coming weeks.

The list gives a basic outline of FijiFirst: 60 percent of its candidates — 31 people — have a university bachelor’s degree.

• READ MORE:  USP forced to cut costs as Fiji still refuses to pay grant for third year
• Other Fiji elections reports

Very few have anything more, and it would be fair to say, FijiFirst is not rich in intellectuals or academics. No prestigious universities for any of them.

What is important is the fact that just over a third of the candidates — 18 people — have degrees from the Suva-based University of the South Pacific.

They owe their careers and jobs to a university that the FijiFirst government is trying to destroy.

Fiji continues to refuse to pay its USP dues of $88 million — and yet its own candidates benefited from the important regional institution.

The 21 FijiFirst candidates with nothing more than a high school education are famously led by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and include his possible successor Inia Seruiratu.

Michael Field is an independent journalist and author and co-editor of The Pacific Newsroom. Republished with permission.

More than two million New Zealanders will get a one-off $350 sweetener as part of the Budget’s centrepiece $1 billion cost-of-living relief package.

The temporary short-term support is counterbalanced by a record $11.1 billion for the health system as the government scraps district health boards (DHBs) and replaces them with a central agency.

“Our economy has come through the covid-19 shock better than almost anywhere else in the world,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement. She is in covid isolation.

• READ MORE: RNZ coverage of the Budget 2022 and reaction
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“But as the pandemic subsides, other challenges both long-term and more immediate, have come to the fore. This Budget responds to those challenges.”

Ongoing uncertainty over inflation, covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine continue to cast a pall over the economy until at least the end of the year.

A large $19 billion deficit is expected this year, returning to surplus in 2025.

Treasury is forecasting house prices to ease and unemployment to drop as low as 3 percent.

Cost-of-living sweetener
New Zealanders aged 18 and over will be eligible for the $350 payment unless they earn more than $70,000 a year or already receive the Winter Energy Payment.

The sum will be paid in three instalments over August, September and October, working out at roughly $27 a week.

The temporary payment is estimated to cost $814 million — funded out of the remaining money in the covid-19 war-chest which is now being wound up.

NZ Finance Minister Grant Robertson delivers Budget 2022. Video: RNZ News

The support comes with a two-month extension to the fuel tax reduction and half-price public transport given the current high fuel prices.

New Zealanders who have a community services card will continue to get half-price public transport permanently from mid-September.

“While we know the current storm will pass, it’s important we do what we can to take the hard edges off it now,” Ardern said.

The government will also rush through legislation under urgency over the next few days to crack down on supermarkets in an effort to reduce grocery bills.

The legislation will ban supermarkets from using restrictive covenants to prevent competitors from accessing land to open new stores.

Ministers flagged further announcements in response to the Commerce Commission’s recent report in the sector “in the coming days”.

Health service
The Budget contains “the largest investment ever in [the] health system” — $11.1 billion — as the government presses ahead with its plan to replace DHBs with a centralised health service.

An initial $1.8b annual investment this year will help clear DHBs’ debt, giving the replacement Health New Zealand service and Māori Health Authority a “clean start”.

Health Minister Andrew Little said the 20 DHBs had collectively run annual deficits in 12 of the 13 years since 2008.

“As Health NZ takes over the books from the 20 DHBs on 1 July, a funding boost is being provided so the national system can start with a clean slate.”

The Māori Health Authority will get $168m over four years to directly commission hauora Māori services.

New Zealand’s drug-buyer Pharmac will also get an extra $191m over the next two years – in what Little says is the medicine budget’s “biggest-ever increase”.

It brings total funding to $1.2 billion which is 43 percent higher than when Labour was elected in 2017.

“Pharmac has assured me it will use this funding to secure as many medicines on its list as it can, with a focus on better cancer treatments, to ensure as many New Zealanders as possible benefit from this biggest-ever increase to its medicines funding,” Little said.

More than $166 million has been put aside over four years for ambulance services, adding more than 60 vehicles to the road fleet and about 250 more paramedics and frontline staff. Another $90.7 million will go towards air ambulance services to replace ageing aircraft with modern helicopters.

The Budget increases dental grants for low-income families from $300 to $1000 in line with Labour’s 2020 campaign promise.

A new Ministry for Disabled People is also being established at a cost of $100 million.

Housing support
While the housing market is showing signs of slowing, the Budget includes more support for first home buyers with funding available for about 7000 more grants.

House price caps across regions have been increased to line up with lower quartile market values for new and existing properties.

It means some significant shifts — both Wellington’s cap and Queenstown’s jump from $650,000 to $925,000, and Tauranga’s jumps from $600,000 to $875,000.

The income caps remain the same but will be reviewed every six months along with the new house price caps.

A new $350 million housing fund has also been set up where not-for-profit developers can apply for grants to build affordable rental accommodation.

Education equity
Replacing school deciles is the single biggest area of new spending for education.

The Budget provides more than $80 million a year for the equity index which replaces deciles as the measure of disadvantage in schools.

Most of the money, $75 million a year, will go directly to schools, adding to the $150 million they currently receive through the decile-based system.

The budget increases school operations grants and tertiary and early childhood education subsidies by 2.75 percent.

There is also $266 million over four years to give early education teachers pay parity with school teachers.

In tertiary education, the Budget provides $56 million a year to pay for an expected increase in enrolments next year and in 2024.

There is also $40 million for modernising polytechnic facilities.

Māori health, wellbeing
More than half a billion dollars is being pumped into the Māori Health sector with $579.9 million going towards Māori health and wellbeing.

The Māori Health Authority, Te Mana Hauora, is set to be launched July 1 and will receive $188.1 million over four years for direct commissioning of services.

Some $20.1 million will go to support iwi-Māori partnership boards, and $30 million will be invested into Maori providers and health workers to provide support and sustain capital infrastructure.

Lack of workforce capability has been identified as a key factor in being able to bolster Te Mana Hauora — and $39 million will be used for Māori workforce training and development to support them within the new health system.

The $579.9 million invested in Māori health and wellbeing is on top of the $11.1 billion health allocation.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

As the Taliban has taken control of the country, Afghanistan has again become an extremely dangerous place to be a woman.

Even before the fall of Kabul on Sunday, the situation was rapidly deteriorating, exacerbated by the planned withdrawal of all foreign military personnel and declining international aid.

In the past few weeks alone, there have been many reports of casualties and violence. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.

• READ MORE: Afghan government collapses, Taliban seize control: 5 essential reads
• Taliban ‘has not changed,’ say women facing subjugation in areas of Afghanistan under its extremist rule
• JERAA calls for urgent action to support Afghan journalists, female reporters

The United Nations Refugee Agency says about 80 percent of those who have fled since the end of May are women and children.

What does the return of the Taliban mean for women and girls?

The history of the Taliban
The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996, enforcing harsh conditions and rules following their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Under their rule, women had to cover themselves and only leave the house in the company of a male relative. The Taliban also banned girls from attending school, and women from working outside the home. They were also banned from voting.

Women were subject to cruel punishments for disobeying these rules, including being beaten and flogged, and stoned to death if found guilty of adultery. Afghanistan had the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

The past 20 years
With the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the situation for women and girls vastly improved, although these gains were partial and fragile.

Women now hold positions as ambassadors, ministers, governors, and police and security force members. In 2003, the new government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which requires states to incorporate gender equality into their domestic law.

The 2004 Afghan Constitution holds that “citizens of Afghanistan, man and woman, have equal rights and duties before the law”. Meanwhile, a 2009 law was introduced to protect women from forced and under-age marriage, and violence.

According to Human Rights Watch, the law saw a rise in the reporting, investigation and, to a lesser extent, conviction, of violent crimes against women and girls.

While the country has gone from having almost no girls at school to tens of thousands at university, the progress has been slow and unstable. UNICEF reports of the 3.7 million Afghan children out of school some 60 percent are girls.

A return to dark days
Officially, Taliban leaders have said they want to grant women’s rights “according to Islam”. But this has been met with great scepticism, including by women leaders in Afghanistan.

Indeed, the Taliban has given every indication they will reimpose their repressive regime.

In July, the United Nations reported the number of women and girls killed and injured in the first six months of the year nearly doubled compared to the same period the year before.

In the areas again under Taliban control, girls have been banned from school and their freedom of movement restricted. There have also been reports of forced marriages.

Women are putting burqas back on and speak of destroying evidence of their education and life outside the home to protect themselves from the Taliban.

As one anonymous Afghan woman writes in The Guardian:

“I did not expect that we would be deprived of all our basic rights again and travel back to 20 years ago. That after 20 years of fighting for our rights and freedom, we should be hunting for burqas and hiding our identity.”

Many Afghans are angered by the return of the Taliban and what they see as their abandonment by the international community. There have been protests in the streets. Women have even taken up guns in a rare show of defiance.

But this alone will not be enough to protect women and girls.

The world looks the other way
Currently, the US and its allies are engaged in frantic rescue operations to get their citizens and staff out of Afghanistan. But what of Afghan citizens and their future?

US President Joe Biden remained largely unmoved by the Taliban’s advance and the worsening humanitarian crisis. In an August 14 statement, he said:

“an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me.”

And yet, the US and its allies — including Australia — went to Afghanistan 20 years ago on the premise of removing the Taliban and protecting women’s rights. However, most Afghans do not believe they have experienced peace in their lifetimes.

Now that the Taliban has reasserted complete control over the country, the achievements of the past 20 years, especially those made to protect women’s rights and equality, are at risk if the international community once again abandons Afghanistan.

Women and girls are pleading for help. We hope the world will listen.

Azadah Raz Mohammad, PhD student, The University of Melbourne and Dr Jenna Sapiano, Australia Research Council postdoctoral research associate and lecturer, Monash Gender Peace & Security Centre, Monash University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

As many as 714,066 Papuans and 112 organisations which are part of the Papuan People’s Petition (PRP) have rejected last week’s enactment into law of revisions to Law Number 21/2001 on Papua Special Autonomy (Otsus), reports CNN Indonesia.

They believe that special autonomy is not the answer to resolving the problems in the land of Papua.

“There’s no such thing as Otsus in the Papuan people’s dictionary. The Papuan people are asking for the right to self-determination,” said Rawarap from the group West Papua Youth and Student National Solidarity (Sonamapa) during a PRP event broadcast on the Suara Papua TV YouTube channel on Friday, July 16.

• READ MORE: Other reports on the special autonomy law for the Papua region

Rawarap believes that special autonomy is a product conceived out of an illicit affair between the political elite in Papua and Jakarta. According to Rawarap, the policy has not accommodated the Papuan people at all.

“Otsus is like an illegitimate child conceived during a sex party between the Papua elite and the Jakarta elite. We explicitly reject Otsus because Otsus is an illicit product. It’s the result of an illicit affair,” he added.

Rawarap said that the decision by the House of Representatives (DPR) to ratify the revisions into law would not in any way make Papuans feel proud.

More than 20 years of the implementation of special autonomy has failed to bring prosperity to the Papuan people.

‘Still many mama-mama‘
“The fact also is that many have already explained that over the 20 years Otsus has been in force in the land of Papua, there are still many mama-mama [traditional Papuan women traders] who sell on the side of the road,” he said.

“Still using cardboard, sacks as mats, sitting on the road selling areca.

“The fact also is that there are still many Papuan children who drop out of school and cannot continue their studies at tertiary institutions because education is expensive, yet there is money from Otsus.

“But, the fact is that many Papuan children drop out of study or do not continue school, and the unemployment rate is high — what is there to be proud of with Otsus?,” he asked.

Rawarap then touched on the findings of the National Statistics Agency (BPS) which says that the Human Development Index for Papua and West Papua provinces are the lowest in the country despite Otsus being in place for two decades.

“Sonamapa — along with the 112 organisations involved in the Papua People’s Petition reject Otsus — explicitly states that we reject Otsus Chapter II resulting out of secret revisions [to the Otsus Law] by the [DPR’s] special committee,” he said.

PRP spokesperson Sam Awom said that group rejected all forms of compromise with any deliberations on special autonomy which failecd to involve ordinary Papuan people.

‘Return mandate to the people’
“He also asked policy makers to return a mandate to the Papuan people to determine their own future,” he said.

“We demand the immediate return to the Papuan people [of the right] to choose and determine their own future on whether they accept Otsus or independence as a country”, said Awom, reading out a statement.

Awom declared that they would hold a national strike if the demands of the Papuan people were not followed up.

“If the petition [against Otsus] is not followed up, then we will hold a national, peaceful civil strike throughout the territory of West Papua,” he said.

Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs Mahfud MD has stated that the government will prioritise dialogue with “separatists” seeking self-determination and independence in Papua and use law enforcement against alleged armed criminal groups (KKB).

“On the Papua issue the government will use an approach prioritising prosperity which is comprehensive and covers all aspects,” he said.

“In confronting separatism, the government will prioritise dialogue.”

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “714 Ribu Orang dan 112 Organisasi Diklaim Tolak Otsus Papua”.

British and Indonesian human rights defender Carmel Budiardjo, founder of TAPOL watchdog and the movement’s driving force for many decades, has died peacefully aged 96.

TAPOL said in an announcement that she had died on Saturday and would be greatly missed by an extensive network of people whose lives had been “touched — and sometimes transformed — by her passionate and determined campaigning for human rights, justice and democracy in Indonesia, East Timor, Aceh and West Papua”.

For many, she had been a great mentor as well as a beloved friend, TAPOL said.

• WATCH: Carmel Burdiadjo and the story of TAPOL
• Surviving Indonesia’s Gulag: A Western Woman Tells Her Story
• Carmel Budiardjo: rights defender who shone a light on Papua

TAPOL stands for “tahanan politik” or “political prisoners” in Indonesian.

Budiardjo, a British citizen then living in Indonesia, was imprisoned without trial by Indonesian authorities following former President Suharto’s rise to power in 1965.

An Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, Budiardjo was released after three years’ imprisonment and she returned to the UK.

In 1973, she founded TAPOL to campaign for the release of the tens of thousands of political prisoners following the 1965 atrocities by the Suharto regime and in support of the relatives of the hundreds of thousands who were killed.

Raised awareness of atrocities
Budiardjo was determined to raise international awareness about those atrocities and injustices in which many Western countries, including the UK, were “complicit in their attempts to halt what they saw as the rise of communism”.

Over the next three decades, TAPOL’s work broadened to encompass wider issues of human rights, peace and democracy in Indonesia, including in Aceh, East Timor and the contested Melanesian territory of West Papua.

“Wherever possible, and despite the extreme repression of the New Order regime, we built close relationships and collaboration with the very brave human rights defenders and pro-democracy campaigners there,” said TAPOL.

In 1995, Budiardjo received the Right Livelihood Award, after being nominated by the International Federation for East Timor.

With awareness growing also of the environmental damage being wrought by the regime on nature and local communities, in 1988 Budiardjo helped set up a sister organisation, Down to Earth, to fight for ecological justice.

Later, in 2007, Budiardjo and TAPOL were also founder members of the London Mining Network, established to support communities harmed by London-based mining companies.

“As Indonesia became more democratic during the 2000s, we increasingly turned our attention to the region of West Papua. There, human rights violations have continued, largely out-of-sight and un-discussed within Indonesia as well as internationally,” said TAPOL.

John Rumbiak Award
For TAPOL’s international work on West Papua, Budiardjo also received the John Rumbiak Human Rights Defender Award and was honoured as an “Eldest Daughter of Papua” by leaders of West Papuan civil society in 2011.

TAPOL is still today very much as Budiardjo set it up — a small organisation/network of committed staff, volunteers and collaborators, all aiming for a big impact.

“We remain committed to her ideals of promoting justice and equality across Indonesia, and are deeply grateful for all that she contributed and taught us,” the TAPOL statement said.

“Our thoughts and sincere condolences for this huge, sad loss go to Carmel’s family in particular, but also to all those across the globe who knew and loved her.”

By Laurens Ikinia

Papua New Guinean academics and community leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand tackle their concerns about climate change and mental health issue in the Pacific through a traditional and famous craft – weaving bilums.

The Papua New Guinea cultural language week was held by the PNG Community Trust in Manawatu region at Rangiora Community Hall in Palmerston North late last year.

Bilum-making was introduced to the audience through a presentation by Dr Hennah Steven who recently completed her doctorate in development studies from Massey University.

Dr Steven described the bilum as a handcrafted bag that had been passed down from generation to generation, saying it was a craft that the women in PNG and other Melanesian societies did in their leisure time.

She said a bilum was one of the “famous items” carried everywhere in PNG.

“It is a women’s leisure activity, where we normally sit down and make bilum,” she said.

“Bilum was also a cultural element. If you go to PNG, everywhere people carry at least one bilum – from a little child to young people and to old people – they always carry a bilum.”

Special occasions
Dr Steven said that the bilum had several purposes, so during casual occasions people carried a small one. On special occasions – like at a funeral – people used longer ones that were made of traditional materials such as tulip tree and sisal fibre.

Following the presentation, skilful women – and men – bilum-weavers from Manawatu PNG’s community gave a display.

Dr Steven, Dr Stephanie Sageo-Tapungu, who completed her doctorate in communication studies at Auckland University of Technology, and the event organiser Paul Titus, the PNG community trust chairman in the Manawatu region, shared their insights about bilums.

They described bilums as having ancestral values and that they were a sign of Melanesian identity.

Bilums are not only used in PNG and across the Pacific, but are also used by people from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the USA with Melanesian or Pacific experience.

“Palmerston North – we are the ones doing this thing and we also have done different things in many ways,” said Paul Titus.

According to him, the aim of the event was “to showcase the bilum-making by using PNG language” so that people could be educated about PNG culture.

Teaching younger people
Also it was hoped to be able to teach younger people about bilum-making and the benefits.

Titus said bilum-making was connected to language and participants chose to demonstrate this.

Dr Sageo-Tapungu said bilums represented the foundation of society and womanhood.

“Babies sleep in the bilum because its design is similar to that of the womb. Food and firewood is carried in a bilum. We adorn our bodies with bilums during our traditional celebrations,” she said.

“Bilums are given as gifts to our precious loved ones. We carry our most precious possessions in the bilum and we do not open another person’s bilum because we do not want to invade their privacy.

“It represents our Melanesian worldview and is sacred and precious.”

Dowry for women
Dr Tapungu added: “To me, a bilum is also a form of dowry for women. When a woman gets married, she is adorned with bilums and she takes that to her groom.”

“Likewise, the groom is also adorned with bilums to given to his bride as gifts.

“Bilums are hung over a deceased person’s coffin or body to show that the spirit will have something precious to carry when entering the spirit world.”

Paul Titus, who has been living in New Zealand since 2003 and frequently visits his home country, said bilum-making had a great benefit over health issues, particularly mental health.

Women came together and while making or crafting bilum, they are able to share their stories, he said. Thus, they would feel relief from the stress of any problem that they were going through.

Laurens Ikinia is a Papuan Masters in Communication Studies student at Auckland University of Technology who has been studying journalism. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report.

The second term of New Zealand’s school year starts today, but nobody is going to class.

Schools are in lockdown along with the rest of the country and more than 800,000 teachers and students are now starting two weeks of remote learning.

The curriculum leader for Year 7-8 at William Colenso College in Napier, Shyna Kesha, said she and other teachers were looking forward to getting back to teaching, even if it was via phone and internet.

READ MORE: PM unveils new support for students on NZ’s ‘deadliest day to date’

“It will be great to see our kids again, I can’t actually wait, I can’t wait to see what they’ve been up to,” she said.

“Students need their teachers, but teachers need their students as well.”

Kesha said the focus would initially be on simply connecting with students.

“Making sure that they are emotionally okay, physically okay and just ensuring that they know that we are available to them,” she said.

“It’s really important to re-establish those relationships again, especially when our students are coming into a time when they don’t have a full understanding of what school might look like.”

Talking directly
Year 13 student at the college, Layla Christianson, said she was not worried by the prospect of online learning, and was grateful video-conferencing programmes would let her talk directly with teachers about maths and physics concepts.

“I’m going to miss being able to have face-to-face contact with my teachers, but we have the Zoom lessons set up where you’re still getting to talk to them,” she said.

In Northland, Horahora School principal Pat Newman said his teachers would be asking children to do things with the rest of their family.

“I used to suggest a lot of baking, but flour’s a bit hard to get. Checking the flowers that are out, checking what insects, how many birds you can see. If we can have families really getting together now that’s the really important part that will last and will benefit society in future,” he said.

Most teachers would be working with classes they already knew, but a few would be starting new jobs.

Among them is Laura Brennan, who would meet her students at Onehunga High School in Auckland for the first time today.

“I’m going to be introducing myself by a video which I’ll be posting on Google classroom just explaining who I am and that I’m going to be their new teacher,” she said.

Google hangouts
“We’re having Google hangouts and at that point I’ll with the other teacher be introducing myself to the class as well so I’ll be getting to know personalities through there and hopefully speaking to some of the students.”

The Education Ministry said it last week sent 23,664 hard-copy packs of education materials to children in Year 1-10 who attended decile 1-3 schools and it expected to send a further 40,000 this week.

It also sent yesterday laptop or chromebook computers to families that did not have one and expeted to send at least 5000 this week.

In addition, two educational television channels start broadcasting today.

English-language content will air on TVNZ channel 2+1, TVNZ on Demand, and Sky Channel 502, while Māori Television will broadcast content in the indigenous language te reo Māori.

The channels will run from 9am to 3pm on school days.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

• If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP – don’t show up at a medical centre.

• Follow RNZ’s live blog for all the latest coronavirus updates

Social media and tech industries have been replicating the ugliest aspects of capitalism from the 1800s, according to an AUT computer science lecturer.

Associate Professor Tony Clear says that social media and tech executives are taking advantage of unregulated markets in a similar way as the wealthy industrialists or “robber barons” that exploited abundant resources and cheap labour in the 19th century.

Only now according to Dr Clear, the resources are not gold, coal or silks managed out of London or New York. Now it’s data out of Silicon Valley.

READ MORE: Bring ethics into global smart tech, warns UN cyber expert

“The world of the robber barons has come back to life again with data as the gold dust,” he says.

While the resources might have changed, he says the masses of “manipulated” people are still needed to turn the cogs and drive the profits of the giant digital machine.

“They’re manipulating us through their algorithms. The more we use their platforms, the more we give them, the more they can know about us, the more they can manipulate and control our behaviour.”

“I don’t think it’s a far deal.”

A editor and columnist for computer education magazine ACM Inroads, Dr Clear has written extensively on the flaws in the tech and computing sectors.

He says a lack of ethics throughout the industry, coupled with rampant growth and innovation have made social media platforms dangerous environments where hate – such as that which lead to the Christchurch Mosque Attack – can fester and spread rapidly.

Letter to PM

Which is why after that atrocity, he penned a letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s office urging for a “regulatory regime” to be imposed on social media platforms in New Zealand.

While the “robber barons” comparison is not a new one, Clear believes that regulation is key to moderating the potentially dangerous whims of industry heads.

“Because these guys [social media executives] have no moral base we need to regulate the hell out of them,” he says.

Governments appear to have taken steps on this. At the May 15 “Christchurch Call” in Paris, Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron implored social media platforms to take more of a hand in regulating their content.

It’s not as simple as just asking however, as according to Dr Clear, few industry heads actually know what harmful or bigoted content looks like.

“They don’t know the difference between free speech and hate speech,” he says.

“They neatly wrap it around the US constitution and freedom of speech idea which means you can say any hateful bloody thing that you like.”

While globally Facebook deletes 66,000 posts per week which breach its own definition of hate speech, Clear argues that the platform hides behind the argument that it is not a publisher and does not need to take a strong moral position like newspapers would.

Domestic regulation

This grey area with freedom of speech is the reason some countries are regulating platforms based on their own laws.

Massey University’s Professor Paul Spoonley is an advocate of such a move. An expert on hate speech, he doesn’t think the “Christchurch Call” will make much difference. However, he praises some European countries for already taking the initiative and regulating social media platforms based on domestic law.

“See what the Germans have done which is quite successful. The ethics is not that of Facebook, it is that which has been deemed important by an individual country, in this case Germany,” he says.

Introduced in January 2018, the German law as known NetzDG puts the onus on Facebook and Twitter to differentiate between hate speech and free speech, requiring them to remove any “obviously illegal” hate speech from their sites within 24 hours or face a potential 50 million Euro fine.

As a result Facebook now has 1200 reviewers based in Essen and Berlin deleting at least 15,000 posts each month in Germany.

While regulation appears to be the most obvious tool to fix the tech sector’s ethical vacuum, there is one option that targets the root of the issue. And it starts in the universities.

Ethics in schools

Dr Clear says that young computer science students need to be exposed to more “social good” or ethics papers which can help lay down sound moral foundations on which they will build their careers.

“Its about teaching young computer scientists that there is a bigger world than what they see technically,” he says.

This comes with challenges however.

Along with other leading academics, Dr Clear wrote a paper on value-driven computer science education. It found that many students do not see a link between computer science and societal benefit as they would in careers like nursing and teaching. This also discourages more women from enrolling in computing courses.

“Many avoid taking CS classes because they do not perceive a computing career as having the power to do good and make a difference,” the paper read.

It also read that if there are papers on ethics or social good available, they are usually not introduced until the third or fourth year of studies, long after many students with such inclinations have become discouraged and dropped out of the courses.

Wellington-based computer programmer Oliver Bridgman agrees, saying he couldn’t recall many ethics papers during his studies a decade ago.

“If they were there they were optional and only made up about 5 of 200 points” he says.

He too, draws comparisons between low and mid-level computer science workers and the proletariat of old.

“In my opinion the coders on the front lines are basically your coal miners in the early 1900s except now they get paid a ton more so have to care even less.”

“So your real ethics conundrum is the money behind it all, which is almost always driven by the same capitalism.”

‘Careless’ code

Senior software developer Alex Frere expressed a similar opinion, citing such incidents as the recent Boeing 737 jet malfunction as a result of carelessly written code.

“It’s staggering really that no real code of ethics, or industry standard regulation exists across the tech sector, despite how deeply it’s rooted in modern society.”

However, he points out that there are big players addressing the ethics issue within the industry such as Robert Martin, or Uncle Bob – renowned as one of the fathers of computer science.

“Uncle Bob has coined a bullet point list called the “Programmers Oath”,” Frere says.

“It’s of a similar vein to a doctors Hippocratic Oath, or a lawyer being sworn in after passing the bar.”

While Frere couldn’t recall much ethics being taught in his university course, he hopes that more grassroots teaching along with an increased focus on societal good from an “enlightened youth” will eventually revolutionise the industry.

Industry changes

Such changes are already taking place, with Facebook reportedly introducing artificial intelligent to block and remove violent content like the video that was live streamed from the Christchurch Mosque Attack.

According to Tony Clear, these types of changes are inevitable as more end users begin to comprehend the insidious perils of technology and the price that must be paid to enjoy it.

“We’ve got a pact with the devil at the moment,” he says.

“But I think the people realise when they’re being exploited.”

The Pacific Media Centre has wrapped up the academic year with a seminar dedicated to democracy and media freedom in the Pacific, featuring three people who reflected on events of 30 years ago and their legacy today.

The seminar featured the just-completed Fiji general election, which returned Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama to power with a reduced majority, and the New Caledonia referendum on independence from France earlier this month.

Sri Krishnamurthi, recently arrived back from Fiji after an extensive coverage of the second post-coup general election since 2006 with two trips to Fiji, was the first speaker.

It was the first time he had stepped on Suva soil since his departure in 1987 – a week after the first coup when he was aged just 21.

“It’s been 30 years since I watched Rabuka take the parliamentarians down the backstairs of the Fiji Parliament and bundle them into two trucks,” says Krishnamurthi.

The chair of AUT’s PMC, Associate Professor Camille Nakhid, also welcomed the other two panellists Nik Naidu, convenor of the Coalition for Democracy in Fiji, and Professor David Robie, director of Pacific Media Centre.

He covered the Kanak struggle in the 1980s and wrote the 1989 book Blood on their Banner about the insurrection, and returned three decades later for the historic independence referendum on November 4.

Taxi driver
Upon his arrival in Fiji on his visit for the elections on November 14, Krishnamurthi interviewed a taxi driver who had a close to a “perfect prediction” about the Fijian election results – an interview derided on social media by Fijian academic Dr Ganesh Chand.

“Tarun Chandra – the taxi driver, a refreshing insight – calculated FijiFirst would win by 29 seats, two more than they actually did,” says Krishnamurthi.

Nil Naidu, who is also an Asia-Pacific Human Rights Coalition (APHRC) campaigner, critiqued current issues in Fiji while reminiscing about his past struggles as a young campaigner.

He spoke about his and other youthful protests, including protesting against the first coup in 1987 alongside the current Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

In fact, Nik Naidu and others such as Marie Leadbeater, Del Abcede, David Robie and journalist turned lawyer Richard Naidu carried on the protests after he arrived in New Zealand in 1988 with the remnants of the Coalition For Democracy In Fiji.

During the controversial visit to NZ by then Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in 1991, Naidu protested against Rabuka’s arrival in Auckland.  However, Krishnamurthi says Rabuka – who he likened to Freddy Kruger in Nightmare on Elm Street at the time – is a changed man now.

“Rabuka has changed a lot, he has mellowed and he has transitioned to become a true leader in some ways,” says Naidu.

Echoed thoughts
Similar thoughts were being echoed by Krishnamurthi three decades later.

In his presentation, Krishnamurthi said due to the fake news and media trolls being a critical factor in the elections of 2018, it was suggested that an investigation was needed into the role of Qorvis Communications, a Washington DC based public relations contracted to work for government, and NADRA, a Pakistani software company with a questionable reputation.

Alleged expenses such as $1.9 million on advertising and campaigning and $80,000 for social media in FijiFirst’s financial accounts for September (Source: Twitter) leave questions about their role in the election.

Krishnamurthi posed the question “where next for Fiji?”, saying that political stability was the most important election issue for Fijians.

Education, health, jobs, housing, a minimum wage and removing VAT from basic items were also vital, along with exploring indigenous land and identity issues for the next four years.

It is expected the opposition (made-up of Social Democratic Liberal (SODELPA), and the National Federation Party (NFP) with A combined total of 24 seats (of which SOELPA holds 21) will be more effective in holding the government to account.

However, the warning is on the wall that after winning the 2018 the election narrowly with just 50.02 percent that it will possibly need Coalition partners for the next election.

Future coalition?
Possible future coalition partners for FijiFirst to woo could outstanding women leaders such as Lynda Tabuya (lawyer and deputy leader of SODELPA, Lenora Qereqeretabua (NFP, broadcaster) and Tupou Draunidalo (HOPE party, lawyer).

All three could possibly lead their parties at the next elections and the irony for the mainly male-dominated Fiji is that they are women.

PMC’s Professor David Robie spoke about Fiji (he was the first journalist to name the Taukei Movement leaders at the time of the May 1987 coup), media freedom (he was keynote speaker at the recent University of the South Pacific journalism awards) and the independence vote in Kanaky/New Caledonia (where he reported on the 1984 elections boycott by the pro-independence FLNKS and the Hienghene massacre and other murders of Kanak political leaders.

He gave an optimistic view of the independence vote for the future of New Caledonia, describing it as a victory for youth and a multiracial vision of the country.

With a 56.4 percent “no” vote and a 43.6 percent yes vote, the supporters of independence rocked the French establishment with their strong turnout (80 percent)and this has in turn forced a more collaborative negotiation about the future.

“The demographics are gradually favouring the youthful Kanak population and an emerging new cross-cultural generation that is far less polarised than in the past,” he said.

“It is taking time, but I do get a sense of the winds of change starting to take hold in New Caledonia.

“The big question is whether these changes can happen fast enough to catapult the pro-independence Kanaks into power in the territorial elections next May and in time for the new independence referendum due in 2020.”

Dr Robie also remarked on the ironies of the seminar – “here we had an election in Fiji between two former coup leaders, and we ourselves are the 30 Years Club!”

• The seminar details

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines was due to hold bilateral talks later today with Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Peter O’Neill who arrived in Manila yesterday on a three-day state visit to the republic.

President Duterte is expected to host a state banquet for O’Neill after their scheduled talks, reports UNTV News.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the visit was an important opportunity for the Philippines “to reaffirm and further strengthen the friendly and cooperative ties with Papua New Guinea”.

“With other similar histories and shared aspirations for greater peace, progress and prosperity for our peoples and region, the Philippines stands ready to work with Papua New Guinea for the mutual benefit and sustainable and inclusive growth of our nations,” he said.

Rice production expansion
Freddy Mou reports for Loop PNG that Prime Minister O’Neill said the Philippines was a world leader in rice cultivation, and the republic was interested in working with Papua New Guinea on expanding its local production.

O’Neill added that the engagement between Papua New Guinea and the Philippines went back to the 1800s when Filipino missionaries accompanied European Catholic priests to “live with our people”.

Papua New Guinea and the Philippines had had diplomatic relations for 43 years as nation states, and it was important that the two countries continued to strengthen their engagement.

There were now more than 35,000 Filipinos living in Papua New Guinea, making them the largest group of expatriates in the country.

Prime Minister O’Neill said many Filipinos provided services in sectors that included healthcare and education, as well as working in many businesses.

Papua New Guinea is this year’s host and chair of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

• More Papua New Guinea stories

By Hele Ikimotu with visuals by Blessen Tom in Suva

This year, the University of the South Pacific is celebrating 50 years since its opening in Fiji in  1968.

The university’s first campus was established in Suva, with a student count of 200 – it now accommodates over 30,000 students across the different campuses within the Pacific region.

USP has campuses in 12 different Pacific nations – Fiji, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Chandra said USP has made a positive contribution to the Pacific region, including contributions in human resources, policy change and research.

He described the university as being “owned by the Pacific and serves the Pacific”. Professor Chandra emphasised the need for these Pacific countries to work together in advocating for Pacific issues.

“As small countries, we need to work together. One is simply too small to be playing in the big world out there. We need to put all of our voices together. We need to co-operate, work together and integrate,” he said.

Professor Chandra also spoke highly of USP’s efforts in tackling the issue of climate change.

Leading stand
Over the years, the university has become one of the leading tertiary institutions to make a stand against the issue.

“The university has played this role of researching, advocating, supporting policies and disseminating knowledge around climate change,” said Professor Chandra.

The USP journalism school for example is consistently producing stories on climate change issues in their student newspaper Wansolwara. They have also partnered with AUT’s Pacific Media Centre to host two students every year for the Bearing Witness climate change journalism project.

This has seen significant stories about the effect climate change has had on communities in Fiji such as the award-winning multimedia story produced by Kendall Hutt and Julie Cleaver last year about Tukuraki village.

“I am also proud of the USP students. They have gone to the various COPs and have supported their own countries and have become senior advisers to their governments.

“I am quite proud and happy because the climate is central to the survival and prosperity of our country.”

The university’s 1999 strategic plan also saw the establishment of the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD).

Raising awareness
The centre was opened to implement more research of the region’s environment and has continued to raise awareness about climate change and sustainable development in the Pacific.

PaCE-SD offers a postgraduate programme in climate change, with currently 200 students across the Pacific enrolled in the programme.

The centre also implements community projects around climate resilience in the Pacific and has been involved in major projects such as the Community Coastal Adaptation Project (C-CAP) and the Future Climate Leaders Programme (FCLP1).

Since the centre has been established, it has been recognised as a strong part of the university’s fight against climate change and environment research in the Pacific.

PaCE-SD director Professor Elisabeth Holland said it was important to be on the ground making a difference in the Pacific region and local communities.

Deputy director of the centre Dr Morgan Wairiu echoed Professor Holland and said the focus of PaCE-SD was helping communities adapt to the changes in the environment because of climate change.

He said it was also important to provide students with the right skills to help them in their areas of research so they could come up with effective solutions to help communities affected by climate change.

Community projects
Professor Holland said: “We run community development projects. We have a locally managed climate change adaptation network that extends to more than 100 communities in 15 countries across the Pacific.”

She said that by listening to how communities were affected by climate change, it had taught their team to listen better and develop a more participatory approach in decision making.

“We have the opportunity to learn from one another and if we’re learning from one another, we’re in a partnership to serve whatever problem is in front of us.”

Professor Holland encourages anyone who is interested in learning about climate change to keep an open mind and said: “Don’t assume you know what the answer is.

“The strongest solutions are those developed together. The fundamental values of participatory listening and respect help solve most of the challenges that come up.”

Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom are in Fiji as part of the Pacific Media Centre’s Bearing Witness 2018 climate change project. They are collaborating with the University of the South Pacific.

• More Bearing Witness stories
• USP’s ’50 Years’ website
• Wansolwara News

Auckland University of Technology has appointed a new head of the School of Communication Studies, the largest in New Zealand, the university has announced.

She is Professor Berrin Yanikkaya, currently professor in communication science at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey.

The acting dean of the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Pro-Vice Chancellor Philip Sallis, said Professor Yanikkaya had an admirable record of teaching, curriculum development, research and management.

“She comes highly recommended for her leadership and ability to bring staff together in the pursuit of academic excellence. Among her experiences as an academic she has been a member of the Turkish National Curriculum Accreditation Authority and numerous professional community organisations.”

Professor Yanikkaya takes over the role as head of the School of​ Communications Studies from Associate Professor Alan Cocker who in July will take his long-overdue sabbatical leave.

Pro-Vice Chancellor Phillip Sallis said Dr Yanikkaya was chosen from a field of well-qualified and able applicants and went through two formal interviews and gave a presentation to the school and the appointments advisory committee.

She also met with the Vice-Chancellor and Deputy-Vice Chancellor as part of this process.

“Berrin stood out among the candidates for her energy of purpose, clarity of vision for the school and an obvious grasp of these issues and challenges it faces”, he said.

Professor Yanikkaya will begin her role in July. ​

AUT’s School of Communication Studies is a leading academic and media producer, publishing the news websites Asia Pacific Report and Te Waha Nui, and the SCOPUS-ranked research journal Pacific Journalism Review.

• AUT School of Communication Studies news

Popular Oro Governor Gary Juffa, one of the opposition leaders contesting Papua New Guinea’s general election next month, has called on the nation to take back the country from elitist “globalised zombies”.

Declaring that Papua New Guinea needed fresh leadership when the country goes to the polls, the People’s Movement for Change Party (PMCP) leader added that it must be one that did not repress the people.

He appeared to be referring to the current government of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and a host of foreign advisers.

Juffa, who has travelled to Henganofi, Kainantu and Lufa in the Eastern Highlands to endorse his candidates, called on Papua New Guinea to break free from a “colonised mindset” and take back its economy from foreign control.

“Our people need basic services like health, education, law and order, justice, markets and platforms to perform promote and export their art culture and sport,” he said.

Papua New Guineans were convinced by others “who merely exist for profit and material riches alone, whose heads are filled with intelligent schemes and scams but whose hearts are empty.”

‘Sucked the life’
“These globalised zombies, a class of elitist rich who have sucked the life out of their societies are here to do the same,” he said.

“These evil beings and their agents who come to ‘help’ will have our people become so busy thinking and moaning about what we don’t have … that they [will] have us forgetting about the abundant blessings we do have and the great opportunities that come with them.”

Juffa said he had always advocated that Papua New Guinea was a blessed country.

“It has rich soil and there is plenty for everyone,” he said.

“Look at our people. They are great people. Talented and compassionate. They take care of themselves. They provide for their families. We are not a welfare state. We do not need to pay anyone social security.

“What we need to do is economically empower our people. All our people.

“What we must do is provide true loving leadership … that promotes the interests of the people.”

Papua New Guineans will vote between June 24 and July 8.

Papua New Guinea has entered the third week of the eight-week election campaign before polling commences next month.

Unlike previous elections, this year’s campaign appears not as noisy as in the past.

Social media has played an important role in the campaign so far with political parties buying Facebook pages to launch their awareness messages.

Almost all the 15 political parties in PNG contesting the election now have a paid Facebook Page.

The ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) has reportedly disseminated a lot of information about its polices and continues running social media ads.

One of the PNC’s major party platforms is the Free Education policy. As the ruling party, it has implemented and PNG has felt its impact since 2012.

Like any other government policy, the PNC free education policy has its weaknesses. In order to defend this policy, party leader and Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said recently he wanted to make the PNC’s free education policy government policy so that future governments will continue implementing it.

‘Politically suicide’
In what looks like a counter attack, its rival Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party (THE) has issued a “politically suicidal” statement by party leader and Opposition Leader Don Polye saying it would scrap free education instead introduce a “compulsory and subsidised education” as it policy.

Polye went on to say that this policy would be a national policy if THE formed the next government, making it illegal for parents not to send children to school.

Firstly, THE party’s policy would make school compulsory, and secondly parents would need to pay from elementary to grade 12, but not at technical colleges and universities.

THE party wants government to take full responsibility to pay for develop the skills of those in tertiary institutions.

This policy sparked a response from Prime Minister O’Neill condemning the Opposition for developing “reckless policies” that could only set the country back, reverse development and undermine economic growth.

“This is the most reckless Opposition campaign to be seen in elections for a long time,” O’Neill said.

“These Opposition policies would hurt families, would see people miss out on education and have funding decisions taken away from the local level and returned to Waigani bureaucrats.

“How could anyone think that ending free education could be a good thing?

“Under our government, it does not matter if a family is rich or poor, urban or rural, we will make sure all of their children are able to attend school,” O’Neill said.

Some implications
Let us look at some of the implications of THE Party and PNC on their education polices, leaving aside other issues for a while.

Under PNC’s policy, there would be more children going to school because it is free to attend school from elementary to high school and perhaps colleges (some colleges are still paying fees this year at some colleges).

This will see an increase in the grades 8, 10 and 12 dropouts. These dropouts will add to the number of unemployed youths and unskilled laborers. After 10-20 years, there will be an increase in the number of school leavers compared with today.

This is a situation whereby students from well-off families may enroll further in private schools or take further studies abroad but this number is always a minority. PNC’s free education policy creates issues in the long-term but it may look good in a short-term.

THE party’s policy on education will put pressure on poor parents to firstly send their children to school or they be jailed for not sending and to pay their fees in full.

This is a harsh policy by THE party whereby parents would need more counselling on family planning as any child born must be educated by law and they have to meet the cost up to grade 12.

It is tough for parents but in the long-term it will benefit the country largely. Firstly, by concentrating on paying fees for higher education and colleges will ease parents of their financial burden.

Literate population
Secondly, compulsory education would produce a literate population and that is good for a developing country. Today, many young people are not going to school and are roaming the streets — even if it is free to go to school.

But when there is a law to force students to attend school, there will be no children on the street begging as we see today in cities like Port Moresby, Lae and Mount Hagen.

The PNC and THE party’s policies on education have both negative and positive implications.

The term or the phrase “free education policy” is in fact not proper because nothing is free, it would be better to say subsidised fees than to say free education.

Nothing is really free. It is not free to get educated, rather the government is using people’s tax money to subsidise the cost of education.

This confused phrase of free education is a brainchild of the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM)  which led two governments under Paias Wingti and Sir Mekere Mourata as Prime Ministers who implemented this policy.

The policy was fully implemented during Sir Mekere’s term as Prime Minister in 2000.

Before the Bougainville war
Before the Bougainville civil war, tertiary education at the universities and colleges was fully subsided (students were also given monthly allowances) when Panguna mine was in operation.

But after the Bougainville conflict there was a new “user pay” policy so all the benefits of allowances and fully subsidised fees for tertiary studies were withdrawn and students had to pay for university and college education.

This means that Don Polye’s education policy will bring back the glory days prior to the Bougainville conflict when PNG enjoyed a fully subsided education at the tertiary level.

All in all, Peter O’Neill’s education policy is short-lived and may put pressure on the government budget to continue funding as the population increases each year.

Don Polye’s policy may look tough from the start but it is not a new policy in PNG to fully subsidise education at the tertiary studies. The new thing will be compulsory for every child in PNG to attend school.

For a country like PNG, we need a good policy on education and Don Polye’s policy will save Papua New Guinea for the years to come.

Peter O’Neill’s short-lived policy might mean Papua New Guinea would face social and unemployment problems and economic problems as the population increases.

Don Polye’s policy will also have an impact to control the population and I think this is a very good proposal for PNG.

It is my personal guess that Polye’s policy is what PNG needs and it speaks of more maturity than O’Neill’s, which lacks sustainability.

You decide which policy you need at the polls.

• PNG Electoral Commission updates

OPINION: By Mike Treen

Unionists and other progressive minded people need to put a stake in the ground in opposition to the latest immigration proposals from the New Zealand government.

Tens of thousands of workers in this country have been brought here under false pretences. Many have been conned into paying tens of thousands of dollars towards courses that they hoped would open the door to jobs and the chance for permanent residence.

The promises have proved to be nothing more than a fraud perpetrated by the government.

These students and workers had the rules changed on them after they arrived. Many have studied and worked here for up to a decade.

The government has now increased the points required to get permanent residence under the skilled worker category and imposed a minimum income requirement of almost $50,000 that many will not be able to meet. Those who don’t meet the new requirements will have a maximum of three years before they are kicked out.

READ MORE: Prediction: Crash in migrant numbers coming — let people stay

At the same time, the government is proposing to continue bringing temporary work visa holders for lower skilled and lower paid occupations but for a maximum of three years and no right to bring family members.

This will most likely lead to either a massive drop in numbers coming or those who do being so desperate they will be wide open to abuse and exploitation.

One-off ‘amnesty’
In their plan, the government has made a proposal for what they have called an “amnesty” for a group of workers in the South Island as a one-off pathway to residency for around 4000 temporary migrant workers and their families.

In the words of Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse:

“Many of these migrants are already well settled in New Zealand and make a valuable contribution to their communities.

“It will also enable employers to retain an experienced workforce that has helped meet genuine regional labour market needs.

“My National colleagues in the South Island have advocated strongly on behalf their constituents throughout the development of this policy, so I’m pleased the government has been able to deliver on our commitment to enable this cohort of migrant workers to remain in their communities.”

Many of these workers will be working on dairy farms run by National Party stalwarts who have lobbied their MPs to keep these workers.

The “amnesty” being allowed these workers from the requirement to meet the new points or income thresholds for permanent residence should be extended to the whole country. The restrictions in the current amnesty proposal to bind workers to particular employers should also be removed. This is a form of bonded labour that needs to be got rid of as part of any genuine immigration reform.

Parties that want to reduce the number of permanent and long-term net arrivals to New Zealand from the current 70,000 plus number can also support this humanitarian policy towards those already here.

There are currently around 250,000 temporary work visas issued each year.

It makes no sense to throw out people who want to stay and have invested a significant part of their lives to creating homes in this country while continuing to bring in people on temporary visas only to throw them out again after three years.

The new policies are inhuman.

Extend the amnesty to all workers on temporary visas who want to make New Zealand their home.

• Review of temporary work migrant scheme

It is highly ranked in the Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings 2017.

There are three categories in THE’s Young University Rankings — top 50 Generation X universities (1967-1985); top 50 Generation Y universities (1986-1999) and Millennial universities founded in the 21st century.

AUT ranks number 14 in the world and number one in Australasia in the millennial universities category.

The Young Universities Rankings, previously known as the THE 150 Under 50 Rankings, has now been extended to include 200 institutions.

Applying the same performance indicators as the overall THE World University Rankings, young universities are measured on their teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income.

The methodology for these rankings has been carefully recalibrated, with reputation counting for less, to reflect the special characteristics of younger universities.

Institutions in Belgium, Brazil, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom also feature in THE’s Millennial category, which focuses on the youngest universities in the world.

AUT is the only university in Australasia to feature in this category.

THE concluded that millennial universities generally have low levels of income and research productivity, compared with their older counterparts.

However, their analysis found that they are the strongest age group when it comes to producing internationally co-authored research, when compared with “Generation X” (1967-1985) and “Generation Y” (1986-1999) universities, as well as the cohort of institutions founded in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

They also outperform every other group bar Generation X on citation impact.

World rankings

Ten years ago, Tonga’s Kisione Manu was studying a Bachelor of Science at Palmerston North-based Massey University on a New Zealand scholarship.

After graduating, Manu returned home to teach chemistry and biology at Tonga High School, and enjoyed teaching students about his passion – science – before starting a job as a Senior Qualification Analyst at the Ministry of Education, in Nuku’alofa.

One decade later, he has travelled back in NZ to complete his Master of Education, at the familiar Massey University campus, once again through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) NZ Scholarship initiative.

When Manu saw the inaugural Pacific Island Scholar Alumni Network (PISAN) fono at the University of Auckland being promoted, it was a “no-brainer to attend”, he says.

“I saw it as a forum to meet other New Zealand scholars from different nations, and as an opportunity to share with others about our cultural backgrounds,” Manu says.

The PISAN Fono, facilitated by the Pacific Cooperation Foundation (PCF), got underway on Friday and concluded on Sunday, attracting approximately 150 NZ scholars.

These scholars come from the Pacific and Timor-Leste, and currently study at various North Island tertiary institutions.

Chance to connect
Speaking on the final day of the North Island fono, Manu says the event met his expectations — and offered so much more.

“I was able to surround myself with people from Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Kiribati and other cultures … it has been a great chance to connect with other professionals too.

“I met two scholars also studying their Master of Education at Victoria University – one from Papua New Guinea and one from Vanuatu, and I will definitely stay connected with these new friends.”

Tonga is currently trying to get tertiary providers in Tonga registered and accredited, using a system like NZQA, and it is this reason why Manu is studying in New Zealand, he says.

The new contacts he has made will enable him to compare education programmes and systems happening in the wider Pacific region, he adds.

“Ten years ago, there was no forum for scholars from different universities to interact together, and Pacific nations tended to stick together – Tongans with Tongans, Samoans with Samoans, and so on … the fono is a fantastic idea.”

Throughout the three-day fono, scholars heard from keynote speakers who are both alumni – Papua New Guinea’s Noel Mobiha, an ICT and energy consultant, who has held senior management and advisory roles in PNG; and Jody Jackson-Becerra, AUT’s community engagement manager, from Samoa.

Nurturing connections
Both presenters shared their experiences of studying in NZ, and the importance of making connections and nurturing them.

For Manu, the highlight of the weekend was Jody’s presentation where she used the work of Tongan/Fijian writer and anthropologist Epeli Hau’ofa to stress the point all the Pacific scholars belong to Oceania, and this commonality can help these students to collaborate and work together to create change and progress in their region.

Scholars also attended workshops based on priority areas outlined by the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) 2016 Communique.

They discussed topics and came up with ideas and opinions, which will be documented and presented at the PIF Leaders’ Meeting later this year in Samoa by a scholar selected from the North Island Fono, and another scholar chosen at this weekend’s South Island Fono.

On the final day of the fono, it was announced that the 2017-18 Summer Internship applications were open for NZ scholars.

Summer internship
The fono attendees heard from three NZ scholars, who were part of the 2016-17 Summer Internship initiative – Jeremiah Tauiliili, Ana Tupou and Marilyn Jime.

They shared their experiences as Summer Interns, and the benefits they feel they have gained from taking part in the initiative – such as improved communication skills and professionalism – and encouraged current scholars to apply for an internship.

PCF chief executive officer Laulu Mac Leauanae says it is “fantastic to see the vision” and aim of the fono come to life.

“We wanted to provide a forum where New Zealand scholars could meet other people from different universities and from all kinds of backgrounds, to make their time in New Zealand truly memorable and prosperous – the contacts made now at this fono will come into play later in life when these scholars are leading their respective countries,” Laulu says.

The PISAN Fono for scholars studying in the South Island will get underway this Friday, at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, and conclude on Sunday.

• Apply for the 2017-2018 Summer Internship initiative.

Students and staff filed their first two stories this week for the innovative website published in partnership with Evening Report.

Roy Abrhamn Narra and Carlo Casingcasing reported an exclusive story showing how Canada’s latest global terrorism blacklists were tagging the Philippines as having the third highest number of “individual terrorists” behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq while journalism coordinator Assistant Professor Jeremaiah M. Opiniano covered Philippines Environment Secretary Regina Lopez’s crackdown on mining companies in a bid to encourage a “green economy”.

Twenty three mining companies have been been served with closure notices and  five others face suspensions. One company involved has assets in New Zealand.

Opiniano was pleased with the collaboration and said UST was working towards a more comprehensive partnership with the PMC and School of Communication Studies.

Professor David Robie, director of the PMC and editor of Asia Pacific Report, welcomed the development, saying: “We are delighted to have UST on board and their input will help boost coverage of the Philippines, especially with more depth.”

He said that since the live feed of the Philippines presidential election last year, the website had experienced a strong Filipino interest and this was reflected by the growing audience among the Philippines diaspora in New Zealand.

Asia Pacific Report also collaborates with other journalism schools around the region, including at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and Wansolwara newspaper.

• Two new journalism degrees in Philippines

Penisimani Fifita has been moved from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to Ministry of Education.

Kaniva News reports the Prime Minister, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, who was Minister of Education, has been reassigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said King Tupou VI had granted the ministerial re-assignments recommended by the Prime Minister last Friday.

The changes are in line with provisions in Tonga’s Constitution which stipulates the Prime Minister may assign and re-assign ministries to and among Cabinet ministers.

The ministerial re-assignments were effective from last Monday.

Fifita as Minister of Education and training will now have to deal with the Raw Mark examination system implemented by his predecessor last year, which has caused much anger and criticism by education professionals in Tonga.

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro’s contribution to global social justice and dignity, and to developing nations worldwide – including the Pacific, was praised in New Zealand tonight.

Activists, politicians, academics, journalists, teachers, trade unionists and community workers were among about 100 people gathered at the Auckland Trades Hall to hear Cuban Ambassador Mario Alzugaray and other speakers give tributes to Castro’s life.

Alzugaray challenged the audience to continue Castro’s half century of struggle for a better society: “The best way to remember Fidel is to carry on his legacy and keep it alive.”

The ambassador said Castro had social justice at the core of his ideals and action.

“He was an internationalist since the very beginning,” Alzugaray said.

“He was involved in every movement connected to the anti-imperialist struggle in Latin America.”

Before and after the Moncada garrison attack in 1953, Castro had recognised the importance of launching an appeal to the Cuban people.

Revolutionary spark
The Moncada garrison in Santiago de Cuba was named after General Guillermón Moncada, a hero during the war of independence against the Spanish.

The attack by a small group led by Castro failed but this is regarded as the spark that fired the socialist Cuban Revolution, which eventually overthrew the brutal dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista six years later.

Castro died, aged 90, on November 25 and his funeral will be in Santiago tomorrow after the four-day cortege around the country.

“Fidel was the first one to effectively and successfully unite Cubans around the revolution,” Ambassador Alzugaray said.

The envoy praised Castro’s social policies in Cuba, such as agrarian reform, education and health.

“Fidel’s determination and involvement in international affairs made him possibly the most important leader to look after and represent the interests of developing nations,” Alzugaray said.

“His influence is huge and although CNN and other media organisations are trying to focus on the reaction of Cuban-American extremists in Miami, there are millions of people mourning the death of Fidel.”

Media ‘bias’
Alzugaray was critical of the “bias” of many news media in New Zealand and other Western countries.

“I was asked if Fidel was divisive. We live in a divisive world,” Alzugaray said.

“Greed and personal interest are driving society in many parts of the world.

“It is completely biased to raise this opinion and to be silent about the United States embargo and permanent hostility towards Cuba.”

Alzugaray said people had to decide whether they were on the side of the poor, starving, or the rich and powerful. Fundamental rights needed to come before a narrow Western concept of human rights.

“What Western powers and oligarchs can’t forgive is the huge impact of Fidel’s personality and, more importantly, his ideas, in international politics.

“Most of us will have people supporting or expressing their dissent. You just have to decide which side you’re joining.

Issues of humanity
“Fidel was very much involved in every important international issue affecting humanity.

“Environment, international financial order, independence and liberation movements, peace and global disarmament as well as human development as a comprehensive concept are some of the issues.

“He understood you can’t be poor, starving, homeless or lacking the fundamental right of proper access to public health and considered being part of an effective democracy.”

“Fidel never took a rest. He was until the end very much involved in food security issues.”

Other speakers included Unite Union director Mike Treen, of the Cuban Friendship Society, organisers of the celebration, who said Castro had played a central role as a leader of the Cuban revolution for more than 50 years.

“In that time Cuba has literally saved the lives of millions of people through their medical aid programme,” he said.

“They have helped liberate southern Africa from apartheid and colonialism. They have ended illiteracy in their own country and repeated the practice across the globe.

“They have helped create the possibility for other countries in Latin America and the world to join them on the march to national independence and social justice.”

Treen also praised Castro’s support for independence movements in the Pacific, such as in Vanuatu and Kanaky/New Caledonia, and health care in Timor-Leste and across the region.

• Fidel Castro’s ashes begin journey across Cuba
• Fidel Castro’s anti-colonialist legacy
• Castro’s funeral procession reaches Santiago
• Video clip of ambassador’s speech
• Sope praises Castro over Vanuatu

Cuban Ambassador Mario Alzugaray speaking at the Auckland Trades Hall tonight.
Video clip: Café Pacific

The students met the bishop on November 21, three days after Catholics celebrated the 50th anniversary of Jayapura Diocese.

During the meeting they urged the bishop to reopen four church-owned dormitories in Wamena that were closed in early 2000.

According to Paskalis Itlay, one of the students, Jayapura Diocese used to have four dormitories in Wamena — one was the St Don Bosco dormitory for junior high students and three others for senior high school students.

The facilities housed many poor Catholics families from remote areas who could not afford to rent housing in Wamena city.

“Those facilities were also important as a training center for young Catholics who aspired to be leaders in the region,” Itlay said.

The dorms were opened in the 1980s and are funded by Caritas Australia.

The facilities were used to accommodate Catholic students and families from nine parishes in Jayapura Diocese, who studied in Wamena. At that time high schools existed only in cities.

The dorms closed when the foreign donations stopped.

The youths said the dormitories have forged the life of many lay Catholics, but since their closure there is concern about the formation of future lay leaders.

“Reopening those facilities is crucial to empower young Papuans,” Itlay said, and they remain vacant.

Bishop Ladjar agreed to discuss the matter with diocesan officials.

‘Atenisi Institute’s academic dean Dr Michael Horowitz has joined the Pacific Media Centre this month as visiting research fellow and the Tongan university plans to establish a media school on its second campus next year.

Dr Horowitz holds US postgraduate degrees in social science from the New School in New York and the College of Public Affairs at Oregon’s Portland State University.

His analyses of US politics and culture have appeared in the Village Voice, Playboy, and the Psychiatric Times, among other periodicals, while academic articles and reviews have been regionally published in Sites, Journal of Pacific History and Journal of Pacific Affairs.

This week he delivered a seminar with AUT’s Institute of Public Policy on the impact of businessman and reality television magnate Donald Trump being elected as US President-elect earlier this month on democracy in his home country.

Under the pen name V.O. Blum, he authored the speculative novella DownMind (2013), which was favourably reviewed by the Listener soon after publication by Steam Press in Wellington.

Since 2015, Dr Horowitz has directed the university at ‘Atenisi Institute in Tonga, which is planning to establish a media academy on its second campus in the ‘Isileli district of Nuku’alofa.

The academy would train journalists, cinematographers, and thespians, among other talent, for media careers in Western Polynesia.

Part of Dr Horowitz’ agenda at PMC is to recruit specialists here in New Zealand to serve on the academy’s board prior to its launch.

PMC director Professor David Robie, who is currently on sabbatical, welcomed Dr Horowitz, saying: “We are fortunate to have a Pacific academic of the calibre of Dr Horowitz with us and we look forward to working with ‘Atenisi in the future.”

Dr Horowitz will be at AUT’s PMC from the middle of this month until early February 2017.

‘Atenisi: Six terms of reference for an Athens in the Pacific

Organised by the Pacific Media Centre at Auckland University of Technology, the Asia-Pacific “stream” of 12 people funded by donors spanned both an Australian and Pacific preconference and the main WJEC conference.

“I must give credit to a wonderful group of educators from what we always claim –not just in media but by our governments as well — our Pacific region,” said Misa Vicky Lepou, president of the recently formed Media Educators Pacific (MeP).

Roving photographer Del Abcede captures the scene.

Full story

From JERAA to WJEC

1 of 19

The traditional welcome was led by AUT students and staff and the conference is bringing together media and journalism educators from around the world for three days of discussions about global media challenges and education.

More than 220 people from 42 countries are attending.

The WJEC officially begins tomorrow and ends on Saturday.

The student executive leader of the University of Cendewasih, Elius Wenda, has criticised the recruitment of students in the Institute of Public Administration (IPDN), saying none of the Papuan candidates from Jayawijaya Regency passed the selection exams.

“When they did the test at the provincial level, they didn’t pass. We deeply regret this situation and it should be changed,” Wenda told Tabloid Jubi in Jayapura.

“The provincial government is responsible for the implementation of education at any levels in the province.”

He suspected there were “particular culprits” stirring the situation to prevent candidates from Jayawijaya passing the test.

“What kind of recruitment system was applied? Is there such a quota for certain people or bribery system or purely qualified?

“We must clean up the system for rejecting indigenous Papuans,” said Wenda.

According to Wenda, Law No. 21/2001 on Special Autonomy for Papua Province has clearly regulated affirmative action for indigenous Papuans.

Prioritise Papuans
“We ask all related stakeholders, whether in provincial, municipal or regional governments and councils, to pay attention to indigenous Papuans.

“So that in the recruitment of IPDN students, there is equal prioritisation. Do not always prioritise those who are able to pay more. Poor children can also study well,” he said.

The deputy chairman of Commission V of the Papua Legislative Council for Education Affairs, Nioulen Kotouki, said there should be a special policy to prioritise indigenous Papuans in the recruitment of students for IPDN Papua.

He said the governor and regents as well as mayors in Papua needed to fight for the  prioritising of indigenous Papuans when recruiting IPDN students in Papua.

“All the time we observed that in the recruitment of IPDN students for Papua, the quota for indigenous Papuans is still limited. Sometime the indigenous candidates were ignored,” said Kotouki.

Earlier, the Head of the National Civil Service Agency of Papua Province, Nicolaus Wenda, said that in 2016 as many as 977 indigenous Papuans took the Basic Competency Test (BCT) on Computers as a base for the recruitment of IPDN students.

“The BCT would be conducted into three phases, which as the first phase would have 300 participants, and 400 participants for the second phase and 277 participants for the third phase,” he said.

According to Nicolaus Wenda, the quota for Papua Province was lower than the previous year, 53 students compared to the previous figure of 54.

“So these 977 candidates would compete for 53 seats for Papua Province,” he said.

Abeth You is a Tabloid Jubi reporter.

Papua New Guinea’s long standing university student unrest is costing the country’s higher education sector financially, and is also damaging its international reputation.

Higher Education Secretary Prof David Kavanamur gave this verdict at the second departmental heads meeting today after students have been locked in an up to six-week protest over national politics, demanding that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill resign.

However, Kavanamur said the situation was not all bad.

He said the University of Natural Resource and Environment at Vudal “has been running academic programmes for two months now,” while both the Divine Word University and Pacific Adventist University “are intact”.

At the University of Goroka, Secretary Kavanamur said the students had been home for two weeks and the administration aimed to sort our their issues within that time.

Speaking about the situation at the University of Technology — before the latest attack last night killing a student and setting fire to several buildings in an unrelated issue —  Kavanamur said “full credit” to the vice-chancellor, Professor Albert Schram, for “holding the place together” despite tensions being high.

The government’s main concern now was the University of Papua New Guinea’s main campus of Waigani.

‘Running full swing’
However, Dr Schram said, the School of Medicine at the UPNG’s Taurama campus was “running full swing” along with the postgraduate programmes.

Kavanamur told the meeting that, for medical students, the unrest had meant those scheduled to graduate in 2017, would now be graduating in 2019 instead.

Another unfortunate consequence of the unrest is damage done on plans to attract more international students to the country, which Kavanamur described as a “major reputational risk” that needed to be addressed.

Apart from international reputation, the unrest had also put a financial drain on the higher education sector.

“Possibly K15 [NZ$6.6 million] to K20 million [NZ$8.9 million) already, that’s money that we could be spending on prioritised areas.”

He indicated that academically, drastic decisions might be made soon.

“We are coming to the end of that period whereby the academic senate will meet to decide on the tenability of the academic programme.”

Serah Aupong is an EMTV News reporter.

Hosted annually by the Pacific Cooperation Foundation, this year’s Pacific Wave event was held at Aotea Square, Auckland, where guests spoke about the importance of Pacific youth playing an innovative role in technology.

A significant keynote speaker was Dr Michelle Dickinson, director of the science and technology organisation Nanogirl and a senior University of Auckland lecturer.

Dr Dickinson, who describes herself as a “passionate engineer who wants to make a difference in the world”, stressed the importance of having diversity in science and engineering industries.

A call for diversity
“We need to talk more openly about having more female and especially Pacific and Māori students in this industry,” Dr Dickinson said.

“I get students to draw what they think a scientist looks like and it’s always a guy,” she said during her presentation.

“I’ve probably had over a thousand kids draw a picture of a scientist and I’ve never had one of them draw a women and I’ve never had one of them draw a picture of someone from a minority group… we need to change that.”

Speaking to Asia Pacific Report, Dickinson explained: “Diversity in science and engineering is really important because what we do is solve problems. The best way to solve problems is to have teams and if you have a team of people that are just like you and think like you, you probably are not going to problem solve as well as if you had a diverse team.”

Diverse teams ensure people are coming with different experiences and backgrounds, which help create the best science solution or engineering product, she said.

Also a co-founder of OMG Tech! A programme that is focused on state of the art technology, allows children in primary and intermediate schools across the nation to take part in workshops, learning aspects of 3D printing, coding and building robots.

Passionate about her cause, Dr Dickinson said she did not run a workshop unless the class was 50 percent female and 50 percent low decile Māori and Pasifika students.

“Because I want to create a technical space of education where the minority become the majority,” she said.

Pacific innovation
Pacific high school students who attended the conference were encouraged to be creative and to think of innovative ways of using technology to add value to society.

Mike Usmar, the chief executive for High Tech Youth, an organisation which allows young people to use technology to change economic environments, said technology creates room for groundbreaking ideas.

“There is amazing innovation in the Pacific community and they’re utilising technologies in ways probably the designers didn’t think. That is just a hallmark of where our future is with our young people.”

New Zealander and global entrepreneur Jamie Beaton also spoke at the event.

The Kings College graduate is the chief executive of Crimson Consulting, a company that has made almost $90 million within three years.

The institution helps young professionals gain the mentoring and assistance they need to study at world-class universities.

“Basically after high school I had applied to all these universities around the world. After I gained admission to them I realised there was this massive need in New Zealand to help students with the resources necessary to break these geographical boundaries – that was the starting block,” he told Asia Pacific Report.

More Pacific needed
The 21-year-old reinforced the theme of empowering youth with technology.

Beaton explained he is particularly focused on helping universities which are actively trying to recruit students from the Pacific.

“But there isn’t enough representation right now from Pasifika, so we need more applicants.”

“I want to help inspire more of these students by providing the tools necessary to get into these places.”

He said it was important for young people to remember that their potential is not bound by their community, but instead bound by the world.

Pacific Wave speakers

By Quintina Naime in Port Moresby

The indefinite suspension of classes at the University of Papua New Guinea has been lifted and students will return to class to continue semester one.

The decision was announced yesterday by the university council following 10 days of suspension.

Semester one will resume on June 13, which is a public holiday. This is so classes will kick off on Tuesday, June 14, while the medical students will commence classes on June 6.

UPNG’s acting chancellor Dr Nicholas Mann said the suspension had given the council ample time to reorganise the academic calendar and also for the students to “think things through”.

The 2016 academic calendar has now been extended by another three weeks past schedule.

The restructured calendar will see semester one continue from June 13 to July 22. This will head straight into semester two from July 25 to November 5.

Dr Mann appealed to parents to encourage their children to return to classes.

He urged students to avoid situations that would lead to another suspension as they would do more damage to their academic year if they continued to boycott.

The students had been protesting for about a month over the country’s governance, calling on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to stand down and face investigations into corruption allegations.

Quintina Naime is a Loop PNG reporter.

• Court grants UPNG students go-ahead to seek judicial review over eviction

Alain du Boispean, the French Ambassador to Vanuatu, Vincent Bouvier, the High Commissioner of the French Republic in New Caledonia, and Philippe Germain, the President of the government of New Caledonia attended the joint committee meeting, which is the decision-making body set up under the regional cooperation agreement.

For the first time in its 14 years of existence, French was the working language of the committee.

A call for projects this year was launched from February 29 to April 8  and a total of 51 projects were received and reviewed during the technical committee meeting in Noumea on May 18.

This year the Prime Minister of Vanuatu is giving priority to education, francophone relations and training.

Nine projects were retained during the joint committee on May 20 with a total budget of 36.5 million vatu.

This programme is financed by the government of New Caledonia and by France under the Pacific Funds.

Chosen projects
The chosen projects are being distributed as below:

• 40 percent of credits will go to scholarships for students in AES Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree

• 25 percent to university and scientific projects

• 18 percent to cultural exchanges and francophone activities

• 17 percent to teachers’ training and to the improvement of digital technology in education

The joint committee provided an opportunity for both New Caledonia and Vanuatu to consider an ambitious strategy for closer relation and further cooperation, with the aim to engage in a comprehensive partnership.

While it was the police who halted a number of such academic events in Yogyakarta, lately, similar repression has been observed in West Java. The only difference in the latter was that the hard-line group, the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), played the role of oppressor.

Just last Thursday, the social and political sciences department of Padjajaran University (Unpad) in Sumedang, near West Java’s capital of Bandung, decided to cancel its seminar, entitled “Marxisme sebagai Ilmu Pengetahuan” (Marxism as science) following intimidation by the FPI.

Activist Firman Ekoputra from the Rumah Kiri organisation, Unpad political scholar M. Rolip Saptamaji and Unpad political science lecturer Carolina Paskarina were initially scheduled to speak at the seminar.

It was the second repressive act in only a week by the FPI against freedom of academic expression in the province.

On May 10, the hardliners dispersed Sekolah Marx (School of Marx), an event discussing Marxism conducted by the Daunjati student press group of the Indonesian Art and Culture Institute (ISBI).

The FPI demanded Daunjati end the event, but the press group continued with proceedings until last Wednesday, albeit with compromises.

Student Council spokesperson of Unpad’s social and political sciences department Muhammad Ariq Andarmesa said the FPI had come to the university, demanding that the university cancel the seminar.

Campus powerless
“The academic affairs division of my department then asked the students to cancel the event, citing security reasons,” Ariq told The Jakarta Post in an interview on Thursday.

He also received various anonymous phone calls, including one claimed to be from police intelligence, telling Ariq to beware as tension with communists was simmering.

“This proves the campus, once heralded as an autonomous institution free from outside pressures, is powerless in dealing with threats to its academic freedom,” Ariq said.

The department head, Widya Setiabudi, said recommending the student council delay the seminar was aimed to “deal with the simmering tension”.

“We wanted to cool down the situation. In the end, we just postponed the event,” Widya said, adding that Marxism was a common subject of campus discussion, given that it was part of the social and political studies course.

However, Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir told the Post on Thursday that Marxism was banned in all campuses in the country.

“It cannot be taught as a university subject. Every campus has to abide by the law,” Nasir said, adding that Marxism was not in line with core values that embody the “belief in God” principle, outlined in the Constitution.

Police job
The ministry’s director-general for academic and student affairs, Intan Achmad, said he was unaware that Marxism had become a subject at the university.

Meanwhile, National Police spokesman Brigadier-General Boy Rafli Amar said it was the police’s job to handle communist-related events, not the FPI’s.

“The FPI should not act as vigilantes toward any event related to communism,” Boy told the Post on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) researcher Andi Mutaqqien said Article 219 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates that advocating communism is a crime, was open to interpretation.

“Not every seminar on communism intends to advocate the ideology,” Andi said.

He represented Vanuatu in weightlifting at the Commonwealth Games, and he is an advocate of a radical new accountancy that brings a whole raft of social indicators to your typical balance sheet.

Dr Pala Molisa is currently a lecturer at Victoria University Business School in Wellington, New Zealand, and talks to RNZ Sunday presenter Wallace Chapman about his critical ideas on neoliberalism.

• ‘We’re going to lose islands … whole countries,’ says Pacific climate change advocate

However, the vote never happened.

The protesting students have a petition calling on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to step down and face an alleged corruption investigation. But they refused to hand over the petition to government officials last week when they visited campus without the prime minister.

The Electoral Commission told PNGFM News when contacted that the commission did not recognise the UPNG Students’ Representative Council (SRC) body and they would not conduct any ballot that day.

According to the Electoral Commission’s legal team, the SRC body has no powers to request for referendum to be conducted.

The commission would only respond to a request from the UPNG administration.

The director of UPNG’s public relations, Jim Robins, clarified the administration’s stand that it would not have any say in the referendum or how it would be conducted.

“The university administration cannot request the Electoral Commission to conduct the referendum as we would be in contempt of court if we do that,” he said.

Robins also stressed the statement by the Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Malakai Tabar, saying students should return to class before tomorrow to avoid exclusion from their courses.

‘Threat to democracy’
Earlier this week, the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, John Paska, claimed current student boycott of classes threatened the country’s democracy.

He urged students to return to class until all legal processes had been exhausted.

Paska has called on workers throughout the country not to join the protest, saying any demonstration is legally baseless.

• Unitech boycotts classes, Tabar slams UPNG students’ actions
• Take your petition to the PM, says Parkop
• UPNG warns student planned protest ballot ‘bordering on contempt’
• UPNG students shrug off threats

They are calling on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to step down from office and face allegations of corruption.

In the Taraka campus ballot last Friday, 2059 students voted in favor of the boycott.

Only 296 students voted against the boycott in a poll supervised by the Electoral Commission.

Vice-Chancellor Dr Albert Schram said the university did not have a position on the national constitutional issues. It was concerned only about completing the academic year successfully.

Dr Schram said that interest was shared between the university and its students.

In Port Moresby, a planned referendum for students at the University of Papua New Guinea to boycott classes is now expected to be held today.

The referendum did not eventuate yesterday after the UPNG administration failed to arrange for the Electoral Commission to facilitate the process.

This vote will decide whether the students continue their boycott or return to classes.

Boycott decision
The administration will only allow students who are internally registered to present their current registration and ID cards to take part in the vote.

The Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology,  Malakai Tabar has slammed the UPNG students’ actions for refusing to hand over their petition calling on Prime Minister O’Neill to stand down.

According to a statement posted on the ministry website, Tabar said: “The action of the Students Representative Council (SRC) president … on Wednesday, 4 May 2016, to conveniently withhold the petition of the student body of the UPNG from being handed over to me as the minister responsible is to be condemned by all peace-loving citizens and parents who have children studying at this institution.

“Such behavior is unbecoming of our future intellectuals and leaders of this country.”

“UPNG SRC is on record stating clearly that the Prime Minister, or his nominee, will receive the petition from the students.

“Receiving a petition means commencement of a process so that the petitioner can receive a timely response. Up to now government is not aware of the contents of the petition,” he said.

• Take your petition to the PM, says Parkop
• UPNG warns student planned protest ballot ‘bordering on contempt’
• UPNG students shrug off threats

By Scott Waide in Lae

An overwhelming majority of students at Papua New Guinea’s University of Technology in Lae has voted to boycott classes from tomorrow amid demands that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill step aside and for the police commissioner to reopen the Fraud Squad office, reports EMTV.

A referendum was conducted on Friday.

Electoral Commission officers counted the votes and later announced that 2059 students had voted “yes” while 296 voted against the boycott.

Forums have been ongoing but the Students Representative Council’s (SRC) constitution does not allow the students to progress to a boycott without a referendum.

While the students’ voice has been loud, the SRC has raised concerns over the silence of unions, workers and non-government organisations who have in previous years held governments to account.

Earlier, in a separate interview, Vice-Chancellor Dr Albert Schram said the university administration had not been closed and after two days of forum, normal operations would resume.

He said normal university functions would continue if there was a yes vote for the boycott.

UPNG students ordered back
At the national University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, reports Adelaide Kari, the Senate, the supreme body comprising the vice-chancellor and heads of departments for all schools at UPNG, held a special meeting on Friday.

Among the 5 resolutions of the meeting was a call for normal classes to resume tomorrow.

However, the students have vowed to continue the boycott.

Earlier on Friday, the National Academic Staff Association ccomprising all academic staff from UPNG issued a statement supported the boycott.

NASA president Emmanuel Gorea said his colleagues supported the stand the students were taking and called on the Prime Minister and the government of PNG to receive the student’s petition.

However, he said that they would cater for students through remedial classes to cover the loss of learning.

Scott Waide and Adelaide Kari are EMTV reporters.

• UPNG students burn 800 newspapers in protest
  
• PNG media council calls for ‘respect’ for role of journalist

The concerns coincide with World Press Freedom Day celebrations earlier this week on May 3 and  follow  local  journalists  being  subjected  to  “intimidation  and  threats  of harassment” when reporting on issues relating to the arrest of high profile personalities, says the MCPNG in a statement.

Some media  were also banned from covering related stories.

The  MCPNG,  as  an  example,  highlighted  recent  incidents  that  bordered  on  intimidation  and harassment of journalists.

April  18,  2016:  Members  of  the  Royal  Papua  New  Guinea  Constabulary  (RPNGC),  including  a  deputy  commissioner,  shouted  at  members  of the  media  and  told  them  to leave  after  they  arrived  at  the  National  Fraud  and  Anti-Corruption Directorate (NFACD) premises at Konedobu in the National Capital District (NCD).

April  22,  2016:  A  journalist  from  a  daily  newspaper  was  called  by  members  of  the RPNGC  and  advised  that  he  would  be  interrogated  over  mobile  phone  text  messages that  he  exchanged  with  the  NFACD  director,  Chief  Superintendent Mathew Damaru.

April 28, 2016: Journalists from the  Post-Courier were barred from entering the University  of  Papua  New  Guinea  (UPNG)  in  Port  Moresby  to  cover  student  preparations for an anti government protest calling on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill over corruption and erosion of democracy  allegations.

April 30, 2016: Student leaders at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) advised that three media organisations – PNG Post–Courier, The National and the television station EMTV – were  banned  from  entering the campus to cover the student protest and boycott of classes.

Subject to scrutiny
MCPNG  president  Alexander  Rheeney, who is also editor of the Post-Courier,  said  the incidents  pointed  to  a  trend  where  officials  “choose  to  be  discreet  in  their  dealings,  despite  holding  public  offices  that  are  and  should  be  subject to scrutiny”.

“Policemen are officers of the law and in the course of dispensing justice should be subject to public scrutiny, including media coverage for the benefit of ordinary Papua New Guineans,” he said.

About  the  attempted  interrogation  of  the  reporter,  Rheeney  said  the  act was  a worrying  development for journalists who swore an oath to protect their sources when writing stories in  the public interest.

“The actions of the policemen in attempting  to  interrogate the  reporter  concerned are unwarranted. While media organisations do not wish to stand in the way of and respect police  investigations,  the  reporter  and  his  or  her  employee  should  be  contacted  and a meeting arranged in the presence of a third party, preferably a company lawyer,” added Rheeney.

Recent events at UPNG which led to the banning of three media organisations recently  also needed  to  be  put  in  perspective, according  to   Rheeney.

The ban only put the student  movement  at  a  disadvantage  as  coverage  by  media  organisations  would  give  them  a  nationwide footprint.

“Including the two daily newspapers in your media strategy can instantly give you close to 100,000 readers on any given day. Throw in the coverage of EMTV and the story gets into the homes of over a million  viewers,” Rheeney said.

‘Smart media’ for students
“Students need to be smart in how they  use the media, a ban  doesn’t help their cause.”

Rheeney  said  concerns  of  bias  in  news  coverage  should  be  raised  directly  with  the media  organisation concerned, or  the  MCPNG.

It should be submitted with evidence, if any, to enable the media organisation or the council to consider it on its merits and for action to be taken.

Contact the Media Council of PNG

New Zealand needs to acknowledge that Pacific Island nations face an “ecological holocaust” and “ecocide” thanks to climate change, says Dr Pala Molisa.

Molisa, a lecturer in accounting at Victoria University, will be leading the open forum at the In the Eye of the Storm Pacific climate change conference, which started today. Dr Molisa is also the MC of the conference.

“One of the reasons we call this … conference In the Eye of the Storm,” Molisa says, “is that the Pacific is one of the places where the impacts of climate change will be most severely felt and first felt.

“We’re going to lose islands – we’re going to lose whole countries – because of rising sea levels … The Pacific is one of the most vulnerable areas to these super storms and extreme weather events.”

The conference, which runs from today until Wednesday this week, will provide an unconventional look at climate change.

“It’s bringing amazing leaders and frontline activists from throughout the Pacific together,” says Molisa. The conference will discuss not only the immediate causes and effects of climate change but also the systemic issues behind it.

Though a lecturer in accounting, Molisa enlivens a traditionally “dry” field by “following the numbers” within social and economic frameworks, and looks at climate change through the lens of “the economic system powering it”.

‘Unrelated issues’
Most people view climate change and poverty as completely unrelated issues, but Molisa sees them both as the byproducts of a broken system.

“We can’t treat climate change as this standalone issue that’s separate from the mass extinction that’s going on in the oceans, that’s separate from deepening inequality.”

These things all directly result from “this economic system which is at the same time powering catastrophic climate change”.

He points to the recently signed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) as an example of these systemic flaws, arguing that its provisions – such as those that allow companies to sue government over laws that damage their profits – could make it difficult to impose environmental regulations that are in the public’s interest.

The TPPA, he says, “undermines our ability to respond effectively to these climate crises”.

Molisa is dissatisfied with the current volume and intensity of the national climate change discussion.

“Our language isn’t up to the task,” he says. “This is a life and death issue, and yet the language of most politicians and public policy-makers is not life and death, it’s wait and see, incremental change, and it’s [using] very sanitised language.”

Radical language
Molisa believes the lexicon for mainstream discussion has been stripped of the appropriate radical language. Words like “ecological holocaust”, “ecocide” and “biocide” should be part of society’s working vocabulary.

“Actions are predicated on our understanding of reality, so language is fundamental,” he says. “It rained in December in the Arctic – you know, rain! That should be world news! … What’s the thing before you have a WTF moment? This is a crisis!”

The conference takes place against a backdrop of international efforts to reduce carbon emissions, most recently the COP 21 Paris Climate Conference, where much of the international community pledged to reduce their carbon emissions in an attempt to limit global warming to a further 1.5 degrees.

Molisa applauds these recent efforts but still finds them “woefully inadequate”, noting that experts project that a catastrophic 2.7-3.5 degree rise could still occur even if all the current pledges are met.

“It’s a start, but it’s only aspirational,” he warns. “We are pushing ahead at our current trajectory at breakneck speed.” Drastic action is needed before climate change reaches “runaway” levels – if indeed it hasn’t already, he says.

The In the Eye of the Storm conference will look not only at the problems but also the solutions. While Pacific Island nations wield relatively little sway, they are not powerless in the international climate change discussion.

As well as continuing to fight for tougher international standards – and, indeed, their survival – at international summits, the people of the Pacific, Molisa says, must be “the moral voices at the forefront of climate discussions around the world”.

Thomas Leaycraft is a Scoop student journalist intern covering the In the Eye of the Storm conference for Scoop, Asia Pacific Report and Evening Report.

Read more about the In the Eye of the Storm Pacific Climate Conference
To read more from Dr Molisa, visit his blog at blackstone.net.nz

The exuberant mood among the Fiji people after the 2014 election is fast fading. The realities of the high cost of living, low wages and deteriorating health and education services have not gone away.

This is because of a dysfunctional political system born of a deeply flawed and imposed Constitution, and economic policies designed to boost the government’s image, not Fiji’s long-term economic future.

The FijiFirst government has been big on announcements, but poor on implementation. Many of their publicity stunts are carefully crafted by government-hired and publicly-funded public relations firms like Qorvis, with the help of pliant media bodies like the Fiji Sun, a grateful beneficiary of exclusive government advertising contracts.

But what good is this for the rest of us?

Dysfunctional political environment
Serious questions continue to be raised about the independence of Parliament, state institutions and the civil service.

The highest bipartisan political institutions are parliamentary standing committees. In these, the people’s representatives — from the government and the Opposition — listen to the views of everybody on important legislation. Then they issue their reports making their recommendations.

In most “true democracies”, the government listens and responds meaningfully to these findings. Not in Fiji.

One such instance is the Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights. Last year this committee discussed the amendments to the Employment Relations Promulgations (ERP) Bill. We agreed unanimously — government and Opposition members together — to recommend changes which complied with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions.

But before these changes could be presented to Parliament, the Bill was changed overnight, without the knowledge of the Opposition members. The committee process, therefore, was just about window-dressing. A bipartisan committee had carefully considered how to achieve the best laws; the government just went ahead and did what it wanted.

In a similar way, the Standing Committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs considered and issued a report that Fiji should unconditionally implement the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT).

The government did not go back to the committee. Instead it moved a motion in Parliament to reject the Standing Committee’s report. So the government members of the committee were forced to vote in Parliament against their own report!

Recently, the Attorney-General interfered in the work of the Standing Committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs by asking the government-appointed chair of the committee to stop deliberating on allegations of torture made by lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh. The Attorney-General said in his view this was not the work of the committee.

But his view should not guide the work of a bipartisan committee. He has an obvious interest in these allegations not being heard because they do not reflect well on his government. But Parliament — an independent institution — has no budget for independent lawyers to advise it.

Draconian Media Decree
The draconian Media Decree remains in force. State radio and television media organisations and the pro-government newspaper (which is rewarded by exclusive government advertising contracts), continue to deny the opposition any voice. They openly parrot government propaganda.

Media organisations operate under the threat of their editors being hauled before the Media Tribunal and subjected to huge fines and other punishments. The lack of access to a free and independent media has been the single most frustrating obstacle for the opposition parties when they try to make the government publicly accountable on various national issues.

The only positive thing in all this is that, as I travel around the country, I realise that the people have begun to clearly see through this facade, and the real news has begun to seep through the firewalls.

The government continues to interfere in how parliamentary funding is allocated. The original allocation of funds by the secretary-general — who is supposed to be independent of the government was abruptly changed in December 2014. Under the new formula the NFP, with three MPs, gets only $45,000 per annum to run its parliamentary office and conduct its parliamentary activities.

The FijiFirst party, despite the fact that half of its MPs are ministers with their own taxpayer-funded civil servants, gets the same amount per MP as the Opposition parties.

In most “true democracies”, the Opposition receives a minimum amount of funding to operate on — to pay for researchers, support staff and travel. This is because “true democracy” recognises the importance of a well-resourced and informed Opposition to hold the government accountable.

Unbelievably, Opposition political parties are required to apply for permits for meetings with party members and others. This makes a mockery of democracy. Why do the people’s representatives need permits to meet the people?

The government, on the other hand, continues to use state resources to do roadshows, meetings and consultations. The Prime Minister seems to be on a permanent taxpayer-funded political campaign tour.

This sort of political dysfunction in Fiji has a direct negative impact on the accountability and transparency of government activities. Because the government does whatever it wants and does not listen to anyone else, many of its policies and programs are poorly thought out and implemented. If they listened more to other views, the people would get better policies and services.

Inconsistent economic policies
In 2013, no doubt with the 2014 election in mind, the Bainimarama government started spending on everything — tuition free education, bus fare subsidies and other social welfare programs. These would be good things if we could afford them and they were delivered well.

But they are certainly not delivered well.

School textbooks might be free, but they are useless if they don’t reach students on time. Unbelievably, the government has messed up textbook delivery for the second year running.

Now it has called in the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) to “investigate” its own inefficiency.

Health services continue to stagnate and deteriorate with appalling standards of service in hospitals and health centres. The free medicine scheme, another worthwhile idea run badly, is turning into a disaster. Now FICAC has been called in to “investigate” drug shortages in hospitals.

All of this FICAC investigating might help the ministers pass on the blame to someone else, but it is doing nothing much for the people.

The Tertiary Scholarship and Loans Scheme (TELS) program continues to disenfranchise poor students and their parents by imposing debts on them which they will struggle to pay in the future. A better designed TELS and scholarship program based on means-testing would have brought about better distribution of the benefits and the burden of debt on individual households.

The government of course is spending big on roads. That is a good thing, if this spending is run efficiently. Only a few days ago, the Prime Minister himself was reported demanding that the Fiji Roads Authority deliver results. If the Prime Minister is complaining, how confident can we be that these hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent well?

After all, these funds don’t belong to the FijiFirst party. They belong to the taxpayers. We are the ones who will be repaying the loans taken out to build these roads, for many years to come.

Based on 2013 figures, each woman, man and child in Fiji had a debt burden of about $4440.

A child born today automatically inherits a debt of $4440 upon birth — before they’ve even opened their eyes, grown their first tooth or taken their first steps. This debt figure burden rises with every passing year.

Government debt levels
Government debt stands at about $4.4 billion which is close to 50 per cent of GDP. This means that, like any household that borrows money to spend, we are becoming too deep in debt to be able to borrow any more.

The debt table below shows information government’s Budget Estimates and financial data is sourced from the website of the Ministry of Finance.

These are devastating figures. Remember that government’s actual revenue figures for 2014 and 2015 will only be known next year. So the percentage of debt to actual revenue will undoubtedly increase if government’s income projections are not met (like previous years, when they have not been met).

The government is very proud of its economic growth figures for 2013, 2014 and 2015 years. It is worth noting that this economic growth is much lower than in many Asian countries.

But the real test of our economy will be how it grows when the government stops borrowing and spending. The government’s own projections for economic growth has been revised downwards to 3.5 per cent in 2016 and about 3 per cent in 2017 and 2018.

Growing debt repayment requirements mean government has to find new sources of income to pay interest and principal every year. In the end, this can only be paid for if taxes increase or Government spending decreases. Either way, it is the people who will bear the consequences. It is the poorest people who will bear the biggest burden if Government services decline.

In the 2016 budget, the FijiFirst government was forced to break its election promises. In the election they promised they would keep the policy of zero VAT on basic food items. In the 2016 budget they broke that promise. Most people see little change in their household bills and the poor people only see their costs rising.

People think that the Opposition just opposes government policies and offer no alternative.

But the NFP, in its manifesto, had carefully proposed a reduction in VAT to 10 percent, leaving VAT on basic food items at zero. We had a credible plan to reduce wasteful expenditure that would not have created much pain for our lowest-income households.

The government recently claims that poverty has been reduced. Even if that is true, for the amount of public money it has spent, the reduction is very small. Unfortunately, the government has kept its statistics secret for so long that it is getting harder to trust their objectivity.

It seems that the government will only release the statistics that show good things. But, as Professor Wadan Narsey recently pointed out in an article in The Fiji Times, all the information should be available, for everybody to see, as soon as it is ready. In that way, all of us — the government, the Opposition, NGOs and the public — can work together to achieve the best solutions.

Of course these claimed reductions in poverty are before the 2016 Budget. Now the cost of basic food items has gone up, wages are not increasing and a huge number of people remain unemployed. So it is the next set of figures that will be the real test. Will the government delay releasing them if they aren’t good?

Economic management in Fiji has become dictatorial, confused and inconsistent, mostly reflecting a complete lack of understanding of how business and markets work.

Tax and tariff policies seem to veer in different directions in every budget, depending on which favoured businesses the government is listening to at the time. Meanwhile some businesses are being forced by the government to do business they do not want to do.

For example, government is forcing private pharmacies to participate in government’s free medicine scheme, even though these pharmacies cannot even recover their costs in doing so. If the government wants services from private business it should, like the rest of us, be required to pay those businesses properly and fairly.

The culture of servility and sycophancy has become so deeply ingrained under the FijiFirst government that some business people behave like obsequious fools. Few are prepared to criticise government policies.

Big businesses who are benefitting from bad government policies will pay the price in the long term. Their sycophancy and servility will to perpetuate a culture of bad governance, favouritism and ill-will. If the next government does not favour them, they will be the first to be demanding good governance — but it will be too late.

Deception
The economic and political deception of the FijiFirst government is likely to cost the country and our people dearly.

First, there is the political deception that has been created that Fiji has a “true democracy” under the 2013 Constitution. The government is forever talking about its “true democracy” — in its speeches, statements, even its advertisements. If this is “true democracy”, I wonder why it has to remind us so often? Is it because perhaps people aren’t convinced?

Many of Fiji’s international partners, including the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), have called for a review of the 2013 Constitution. They know it does not promote genuine democracy. The separation of powers, the derogations in the Bill of Rights, the ouster clauses, and the existence of draconian decrees all render the Constitution undemocratic. More importantly, they make it unsustainable in the future.

The dubious claim that this Constitution ensures “equal citizenry” (another favourite mantra of the government) is another deception. Just because we are now calling everyone a “Fijian” does not ensure the protection of minorities and other ethnic groups.

The reality on the ground is a stark reminder to many that there is no such thing as equal citizenry. Appointments in the civil service, government boards, and other government-controlled organisations, and selective awarding of government contracts continue to be based on patronage.

Recently the Fiji Sun has reported that the government is investigating staff members of Fijian Holdings Ltd (a private company) for “political agendas”. Apparently their crime is not to support the FijiFirst political agenda!

In the Ministry of Education, some staff have been promoted 5-7 ranks upwards in a single sweep, bypassing many qualified and experienced people. Similar cases have been highlighted in the Health Ministry.

This is a result of the lost independence of state institutions responsible for these appointments. The provision in the Constitution that all appointments below permanent secretary level will be done by the respective permanent secretaries, in consultation with the minister responsible, is a recipe for disaster. Ministers will demand senior positions for their cronies and yes-men.

Already we see ministers deciding which people are recruited, promoted and sacked at their whim. The current reform of the civil service by creating a Ministry of Civil Service and removing the Public Service Commission as an independent institution responsible for the civil service, is going to spell further disaster in the future and will be difficult to reverse.

Flawed economic policies, aimed mostly at looking good for politics, will cause much economic pain in the future. Fiji’s economy has grown modestly in the past few years on the back of remittances, tourism, borrowing and tax cuts. But borrowing and tax cuts are one-time tricks. After the so-called asset sales to fund spending in 2016, what will be the next rabbit that government will pull from its hat? That is when the economic pain will deepen, which will take a long time to reverse.

Can we get out of this rut? It is time to change course
The time for dictatorship and arrogance is over. It is now time for dialogue, it is time for bipartisanship in Parliament, it is time to free the media, and it is time to engage meaningfully with our development partners. It is time for the people to demand better. Moreover, it is time to change course.

The NFP has always advocated dialogue as a means of resolving national issues and our political record shines proudly untarnished from this approach.

I once again call upon the Prime Minister to shed his government’s patronising and dictatorial attitude and initiate a process of sincere dialogue on key national issues such as the review of the Constitution, a process to address the grievances of the indigenous Fijian people, the repealing of draconian decrees, and a process to address the deep concerns within the sugar industry.

Telling Opposition leaders to “jump in a deep pool”, telling gay people to shift to Iceland and shackling the nation with debilitating debt is not much of a political legacy.

True nationhood, common and equal citizenry can only be achieved if we work together. Reciprocity, humanity and national interest should be our guiding values if we are to succeed at bipartisanship, and not arrogance and condescension.

We continue to offer our hands for bipartisanship. It is now up to the government to reciprocate with sincerity and respect, in the national interest.

Dr Biman Prasad is an economist and former university professor. This article was first published in The Fiji Times on Saturday, 30 January 2016 and has been supplied to Asia Pacific Report. Two days after publication in the Times, the National Federation Party was suspended from Parliament.

Fiji’s National Federation Party suspended

Profile by Ivamere Nataro in Suva

If you’re a person who loves history and values culture then you would certainly want to meet Fiji’s Professor Alan Quanchi.

Dr Quanchi, commonly known to his peers and students as Max, is an academic by profession and is leaving the University of the South Pacific.

He specialises in the teaching of Pacific history and has been doing so for 43 years.

Growing up in rural farming areas of Victoria, Australia, Max was determined to attain his dream career. His humble beginnings and his perseverance made him the first member of his family to complete high school and matriculate.

Max, who was born in 1945, is the youngest of three brothers. According to him, he was too young to enter university so he spent two years training to be a primary schoolteacher. And if you know Max as well as I do, believe me when I say, his students love to attend his classes.

However, the saying “destiny works in mysterious ways” was exactly how life turned out to be for Max as history became a focal point of his journey when he managed to achieve a BA Honours degree and MA thesis on Fiji’s history in 1973 which, according to him was a breakthrough.

Max says his research and findings on Fiji’s attempts to cede itself to Great Britain drove him towards the study of Pacific history.

‘Hooked over Fiji’
“I was hooked after discovering about Fiji’s history,” he said.

And for the next 30 years he visited Fiji and most Pacific countries on a regular basis with a quest to quench his thirst for Pacific history and culture.

Now who would ever dream someone who played basketball, was an Australian Football League player and surfed was on his way to becoming an academic? This was possible when he received his doctorate from Monash University in Australia.

Max stated his journey could not have been possible if it were not for mentors such as Professor John Legge and Dr Jack Lacey who pushed him to become what he is today.

“They were responsible for heading me towards an academic career. They made me aware of the importance I can play, in turn, as a mentor to young Islanders.”

His passion for history was evident in how he presented himself to history critics, as he recalled in the 1990s when he responded to a speaker who argued the Pacific was a basket case and needed to learn more from the rest of the world.

“I pointed out that this thinking needed to be reversed, and that it was indeed the Pacific that had a lot to teach the world. The world needs to pay attention to the success in terms of harmony, conflict resolution, cultural maintenance and survival.”

And not only is he stern in his opinion of Pacific history, he also shares characteristics that lightsup a person’s world on a gloomy day. His humorous personality made him one of the friendliest lecturers on campus.

Sense of humour
Friends Felicia Leitupo and Wendy-Jane Powell in their description of Max stated they had only known him for a year and it seemed like a lifelong friendship.

“Max has a great sense of humour and is a very sociable person,” Leitupo says.

The jolly 70-year-old historian, according to Powell, has also adopted the rich cultural background and friendliness of Fijians. And this is true for a man who rarely loses the bula smile when extending his arms welcoming students and friends to his abode.

As a person who can create friendship with strangers, Max is also a widely respected person when it comes to the learning sphere.

Within the four walls of the classroom, he presents himself as a person with high calibre in the mastering of Pacific history.

His years of teaching in USP allowed him to not only better understand Fijian history and culture, but also engage in the publication of textbooks such as that for Year 9, Fiji in the Pacific and co-author and editor of five recently introduced history textbooks for Year 11, 12 and 13 students.

His book Postcards from Oceania, reviewed last month in The Fiji Times by Vinesh Maharaj, was launched by USP Press late last year and he said his favourite postcard was the one that reversed the gaze by having Fijian subject clothed, and the photographer naked.

Fiji archive of the past
“The postcard has disappeared now but a hundred years ago, photographers trekked inland to places like Namosi to take snaps, later converted into postcards. They are an important archive of Fiji’s past.”

He is an award-winning researcher of USP for the past two years, as well as with other small universities across the region on online course development.

Max is the author of more than 100 books, articles and reports.

A popular speaker, he has spoken on Fiji TV and over the air, at numerous schools, Rucksack Club and recently at the WWI commemoration conference at USP.

Mikaele Vakasilimiratu, formerly with the social science team at the Ministry of Education’s curriculum development unit, recalled that Max had run professional development for history teachers back in the 1990s.

“He was then co-ordinating the regional Teaching the Pacific Forum (TTPF) project funded by Japan and when he came to Fiji and joined USP he carried on in his own time with this guidance to our teachers,” he said.

Max has also taught in schools such as the University of Papua New Guinea, Queensland University of Technology and Monash University in Melbourne.

Tantalising local food
Having developed a taste for tantalising local food, Max said his favourite was “grilled fish from the market”.

But for a drink he certainly is not a fan of yaqona, although he said there were certain occasions where he had to give in to Fiji’s traditional drink.

Now that he will soon say adios to USP, he says Fiji is a “fantastic and exciting” place to live in and has a lot of potential as a Pacific country to develop.

He said he planned to continue teaching in the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea or the University of Queensland in Brisbane and for a person such as Max who knows no barrier, sky was the limit even if the tides swept against him.

When asked about what job he would take if life did not throw him into the profession he is in, Max jokingly said he would gladly be a rock star or be part of the Miss Hibiscus pageant.

His words of advice, knowledge and friendliness will surely be missed by all who consider him a friend and if only the hands of time could turn back to the exciting interview which shows his friendly personality, I would gladly allow history to repeat itself.