Papua New Guinea’s airspace will be closed for four hours with tight security for when US President Joe Biden touches down in Port Moresby on May 22.

And there will be a “little bit of discomfort” or reorganisation of life in the nation’s capital and travel arrangements in and out of Port Moresby around the key dates from May 21 to 22.

Five hundred security men will be deployed to provide protection for the world’s most powerful leader, President Biden, and also visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Pacific leaders.

• READ MORE: Other US diplomacy reports

Papua New Guinea is prepared and ready to welcome the two leaders –– President Biden and Prime Minister Modi –– and the Pacific leaders when they jet in two weeks from now.

Prime Minister James Marape will be flanked by government’s top ranking security bosses and a high-level ministerial team — Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso, Internal Security Minister Peter Tsiamalili Jr, Defence Minister Win Daki, Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey and National Capital District (NCD) Governor Powes Parkop.

The PNG Joint Security Task Force operation will mount its operations leading up to the key dates.

Security forces, snipers, secret service and special forces from the US, India, Australia and New Zealand will also arrive in Port Moresby in the coming days –– specifically to protect their leaders.

Many US intelligence visits
“There have been many visits by US intelligence, US security forces in the last six months leading up to today and for the next two weeks,” Marape said.

“It is not as if James Marape and the President are talking and hiding, there are much more detailed work that has taken place at the policy level, the official level and security level — today is just a front and face,” Marape said.

“We will have more of these conversations with you media for the public to know [what is] going up for the next 11 or 12 days before the actual meeting to take place.

“In 4 or 5 days into the actual meeting, there will be a security operation and so we will engage and the public will be informed and Air Niugini travel slots, because when [the] US President comes in, for three or four hours the air space will be shut down.

“Just informing each and every one of you.

Informing over finer details
“We will be informing all of you on the finer details on what takes place, in Port Moresby, in our airspace, for our travel comfort, it’s no ordinary time so there will be a little bit of discomfort or reorganisation of life in the city and the travel in and out of Port Moresby and around those key dates.

“I know the nation will tolerate because I don’t know when we will have a visit of that magnitude –– two powerful world leaders coming here, back to back. So I ask our country, one of the core purpose of this meeting is to inform us that yes it is happening and we will be announcing how we will be adjusting life in the city, especially days leading up to the meeting and the hours in the actual days these meetings are taking place and the time we say farewell to them at the airport.

“A lot of preparation is required with and in the entire country and our residents of Port Moresby city.

“We are safe and secure, we have a precedent of hosting APEC; they came and went with no major security issues — and generally speaking Pacific people and PNG people are peaceful and tolerant, and they welcome visitors.

Marape said he have his assurance that for the entire country “we are safe, we will work to our best to ensure that leaders that are coming here are looked after safely”.

Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.

Pacific Media Centre News Desk

Papua New Guinea’s police have opened the first national communications centre for the 2017 General Elections and it is now in operation.

The centre was launched after the opening of the Highlands security elections operations in Mt Hagen on Friday, Loop PNG’s Annette Kora reports.

A demonstration of direct communication between the communications centre in Port Moresby and the Chief Secretary, Isaac Lupari, and Police Commissioner Gari Baki — both present at the Mt Hagen launch — was a feature of the event.

Lupari announced over the police radio network that as well as the launching of the Highlands region security operations, operations were under way for the entire country.

Commissioner Baki said the police hierarchy was confident that the launching of the communications command centre would have police connect to the rest of the country.

This would boost the successful progress of this year’s election.

The communications centre is in the Konedobu police headquarters.

Joint security forces parade
Vasinatta Yama of EMTV News reports that the Highlands joint security forces parade was the largest in the country.

Police Commissioner Baki hosted the parade and Chief Secretary Lupari was the reviewing officer.

Heads of the three disciplinary forces were joined by other heads of department, election managers of the seven Highlands regions and also provincial police commanders.

Baki told the parade forces to take pride in their uniforms and ensure the 2017 National Election did not fail.

Brigadier-General Gilbert Toropo told EMTV News that the PNG Defence Force had committed 500 personnel to support the Electoral Commission.

Torop said thorough preparation, training and planning has already been done by PNGDF and deployments of soldiers had already started this week to the Highlands, Yama reported.

The soldiers will provide transportation, including aircraft and ships for air and sea patrols.

Before and after the counting, the PNGDF will transport the ballot boxes to and from the polling and counting areas.

Correctional Services Commissioner Michael Waipo said that the main focus would be on the prisoners, but they would assist the mobile squad with manpower.

At least 500 CS staff would be deployed to help provide security.

Prisoners eligible for voting were those of voting age and who had been living in prison for more than nine months.

By Annette Kora in Mount Hagen

Papua New Guinea’s Highlands region election operation is set to be launched today in Mount Hagen, Western Highlands Province.

Police Commissioner Gari Baki is currently in the province to observe preparations of each of the Highlands provinces leading into the launch.

More than 300 officers from the Highlands region are expected to attend the election security launch. This includes all provincial police commanders of the region and their police station commanders.

Baki said a lot of manpower would be based in the Highlands region considering that the region posed a lot more challenges than other main centres in the country.

He said directives had been followed so far with strict guidelines in place to make sure the 2017 election runs smoothly, safely and fairly.

It is anticipated that the launch of the security operations is expected to bring in a lot of local attention and the commissioner is urging the general public of Western Highlands to respect and understand the due process of the election

“We need the general public to work together with police so we produce a safe, free and fair election in the Highlands region and the same goes for the rest of Papua New Guinea,” Baki said.

The two-week Papua New Guinea general election is between June 24 and July 8.

A group of United States security contractors engaged by Papua New Guinea’s police chief to give firearms training have been stood down from their duties, ABC’s Pacific Beat reports.

Only a day earlier, Commissioner Gary Baki had said the men — from the US firm Laurence Aviation and Security — were in Port Moresby investigating what type of training PNG police needed ahead of next year’s APEC summit.

But Baki revealed the men – described by former prime minister Sir Mekere Morauta as “mercenaries” — as also having conducted police operations, something that may be illegal according to PNG’s Constitution, reported Pacific Beat.

As a result, there had been calls for the police commissioner to resign and be investigated.

National Broadcasting Corporation News reported that 15 contracted men would be deported.

ABC Pacific Beat’s Joy Kisselpar reported that Commissioner Baki said five men currently in PNG with Laurence Aviation had been stood down until the National Security Advisory Committee considered his submission.

Intense speculation
The identity and purpose of the armed security men have been the subject of intense speculation and conflicting reports since social media reports and images of their presence last weekend, reports Pacific Media Watch.

In February 1997, the Sandline affair involving foreign mercenaries threw Papua New Guinea into turmoil.

The PNG military arrested 44 mercenaries brought into the country from Australia, Britain and South Africa to be engaged in the Bougainville war by the Sir Julius Chan government.

Chan was forced to resign the following month. The crisis was named after Sandline International, a British-based private security contractor.

• Armed men ’cause confusion’ in PNG capital
• Listen to ABC Pacific Beat
• Reports around PNG security questioned

Following the awkward debacle of suspended military cooperation with Australia, in another maverick moment, General Gatot Nurmantyo told the press he might soon be replaced as chief of the Indonesian Military (TNI), hinting that he had somehow fallen out of favour — but later explaining that at any rate, he was nearing retirement.

He then made an “exposé” about how little power the TNI chief had in the procurement of military hardware under a 2015 law that grants the Ministry of Defence sole responsibility for such acquisitions.

Ruing his loss of control over procurement, he said: “If this [erosion of the TNI chief’s prerogatives] continues, then the commander will have no authority whatsoever.”

The new law must have come as a great disappointment to the armed forces, just when they were expecting significant rises in defence spending.

In the 2017 state budget, defence is one of the 10 biggest spenders at Rp 104.4 trillion (US$7.85 billion), compared to the Rp 72.4 trillion allocated to the National Police. The figures are expected to increase as the president has made a promise to jack up defence spending to around Rp 250 trillion a year.

The figures must have been music to the generals’ ears, since defence procurement in the past was an area in which the top brass of the military could make significant economic gains through “commission fees” from defence contractors as well as other “markups”.

By relocating the procurement responsibility to the Ministry of Defence, the government effectively closed off another significant “economic access” previously enjoyed by military grandees.

Brash indiscretions
In airing his disappointment, Gatot was perhaps being true to his brash indiscreet self, a side Jokowi had evidently missed, or underestimated when considering him for the top job. However, the general’s penchant for talking to the press and delivering incendiary lectures – in one of which he described feeding hypothetical Chinese refugees to the sharks – may also suggest that he is trying to craft a careful image of himself as an all-action patriot ready to embark on great things.

Judging by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s political success story, former army generals with popular appeal can still do well electorally.

It is also noteworthy that Gatot’s unbosoming to the press came after the police scored an important political triumph in shoring up the president’s authority during the populist Islamist rallies in November and December last year.

The rallies, purportedly against Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahjaja Purnama – a Christian of Chinese descent who is accused of blaspheming against Islam – were on the verge of turning into protests against the government and ultimately, the president.

With a turnout of hundreds of thousands, the Islamist protests represented the first real challenge to Jokowi’s presidency. To blunt the blow, the police duly arrested several “agitators” on treason charges on the morning of last year’s December 2 rally.

National Police chief General Tito Karnavian, handpicked by Jokowi in July last year, threw his weight behind the president and proved to be in his element by being seen to contain the possible excesses of the rallies through a combination of negotiations and strong-arm tactics.

In contrast, the armed forces did not seem overly eager to come to the president’s aid during the turbulent months. Instead, Gatot expounded his pet theory to the press, arguing that radicalism and “pitting Indonesians against one another” as evident in the gubernatorial election campaign, was another proxy war designed by foreign powers.

Hardline Muslim links
More seriously, Gatot is said to have strong links to hardline Muslim groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which served as the field operators for the recent Islamist rallies against the government.

Seasoned Indonesia correspondent John McBeth considers the allegation to have some merit. He quoted a retired general in an article, writing: “Playing games with Muslim groups is a result of a rotting situation … They want to show that the Army is still needed and they have no concerns about the problems it creates.”

If true, then Tito, with the president’s blessing, deftly turned the tables on the cabal Army group wishing to create an untenable situation, which would have necessitated military intervention. Far from humiliating the police for their inability to control the masses, it allowed them to swoop in and save the day for the president.

The triumph of the police in securing the president’s gratitude took place at the expense of the military. Yet, this temporary political setback for the military does not mean the end of rivalry between the forces.

The police, being the most involved with civilians, inevitably has the advantage over the TNI in post-Reformasi Indonesia.

However, in its interaction with the people also lies the police’s weakness. A 2015 survey by Transparency International, for instance, placed the police as one of the most corrupt government agencies as perceived by the public. Apart from taking and demanding bribes, police officers are also known for operating strictly illegal “businesses” on the sidelines, such as “security money” demanded from businesses and individual officers commandeering lucrative urban “parking spaces” in conjunction with gangsters, or preman.

Now that the president is indebted to the police, it remains to be seen if Jokowi can push through further reform within the force to combat rampant corruption. Failure to do so might just provide the military with another avenue to power. The president certainly has his work cut out for him in balancing between the forces.

The spectre of the armed forces’ tentacles in Indonesian politics is real enough to warrant vigilance, although the country’s democracy has fared better than its Thai counterpart in this respect.

The dwifungsi may have been formally abolished, but its roots are buried deep. Corny as it may sound, a military uniform tends to inspire confidence in the country, so much so that President Sukarno, who never had military training, spent the last years of his life wearing his military honors in the most conspicuous manner.

If Gatot truly has political aspirations after he retires, and provided he can secure enough political backing, we may see him compete in the 2019 presidential election, alongside Prabowo Subianto and perhaps Yudhoyono’s son Agus Harimurti.

Indonesia’s days of pseudo-military leaders are apparently not over yet. Not by far.

Johannes Nugroho is a Jakarta writer, political analyst and history aficionado and a columnist at the Jakarta Globe. This article was first published in the Globe. Part 1 in this series was published yesterday.

Some New Zealand government ministries risk being damaged in the long term by their refusal, at times, to engage with the public over alternative viewpoints on defence and foreign affairs.

That comment came yesterday from investigative journalist Nicky Hager in an address to more than 100 people at the University of Otago’s 51st annual Foreign Policy School.

Hager spoke out over moves by ministries to use public relations strategies and deliberately refuse to comment, to deny some potential controversies any “oxygen”.

This approach had also been combined with a refusal, in some cases, to provide information in response to Official Information Act requests.

His talk was titled “The use of public relations and secrecy to exclude the public from foreign policy, military and security issues”.

Hager had spent five years researching and writing his 2011 book Other People’s Wars, an investigation into New Zealand’s role in the “War on Terror”.

Some foreign policy, military and security information deserved to be kept secret from the public.

‘Avoiding scrutiny’
“More often, however, secrecy and PR are convenient ways of avoiding public and political scrutiny and criticism,” he said.

His book had highlighted the difference between what New Zealanders had been told about its role in Afghanistan and Iraq, and what was shown by a host of “sensitive” official documents he had obtained.

He noted that Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade chief executive Dr Brook Barrington had indicated in an earlier speech at the school that diplomacy was an art that was often practised “in private”.

Hager argued for a wider, more inclusive and more transparent approach, and said it was in the wider public interest and in the long-term interests of the two ministries to engage more with alternative viewpoints.

When his book was published, the two ministries declined to comment on all aspects of it.

But unless the ministries responded to alternative ideas, they could become a cosy “club” in which only “self-confirming ideas” were welcome and “there’s a price on your head if you say something different”.

An Mfat staff member emphasised during a question and answer session that she was also mindful of her role as a New Zealand citizen in undertaking her work.

No-comment ‘culture’
She was working in the country’s interests and many factors, including laws, affected the ministry’s ability to comment at times.

Hager said he was not being critical of any individual staff members at Mfat, but was questioning aspects of a wider “culture”.

A panel earlier in the on the “Panama Papers and whistleblower journalism” also featured Hager.

Speakers at the Foreign Policy School included Panama Papers investigative journalist Luke Harding of the The Guardian, TV3’s Mike McRoberts; Maori Television’s Maramena Roderick; and Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie.

This article has been republished with the permission of the Otago Daily Times.

• The 51st Otago Foreign Policy School
• ‘New media’ calling journalism into question

At the request of the university council, Turi said officers entered the Waigani campus around 4am yesterday to ensure that students and properties were safe, and students were free to move about without being intimidated by others.

“We will be here as long as it takes, according to the wishes of the [university] senate. We are doing our duty to protect lives and property,” Turi said.

He said police used no force to enter the campus.

But a student leader said police presence at the campus was intimidating.

Mamose region students’ representative Stanley Warren said they respected what the police were doing but they would continue with their boycott of classes until they achieved what they were fighting for.

“We’ve been right behind our SRC (student representative council) in this fight for the past two weeks,” Warren said.

“Given the current situation of police in the campus, it will be a little intimidating and a threat to our students especially the first-year (students) and girls. But we managed to talk to them and calmed them.”

No to ‘awareness’ protest
The students asked Turi if they would stage a peaceful awareness protest but he said it would be illegal.

For more than two weeks, the students have been boycotting classes and calling on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to stand down and face police investigation of corruption allegations.

Michael Guba is a journalist with The National daily newspaper.

• Lupari warns ‘agitators’ against hijacking student protests in PNG

Report by Ryan Dagur in Jakarta

While countries consider their climate change options for the future at COP21 in Paris, forest fires and the ensuing pollution have been growing problems in Indonesia.

For the most part, the scorched forest issue was isolated to the western Indonesian islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra. However, this year, the issue has plagued both Papua and West Papua, which raises concern among activists about the future of forests in these easternmost provinces.

“If it is not seen as a serious threat. It is a scourge for the future,” said Franciscan seminarian Yulianus Freddy Pawika of the Francisan commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation in Papua.

According to the National Agency for Disaster Management, from July to October this year, fires struck 2.6 million hectares of forest.

Papua, which had 353,191 hectares of land burned, stands behind Sumatra (832,999) and Kalimantan (806,817).

The number of fire hotspots in Papua, according to Purbo Sutopo Nugroho, the agency spokesman, reached 584, with the majority in Merauke district, which had 346, while Mappi district had 117.

Fire triggers
Nugroho said forest fires are a new problem for Papua.

The government, meanwhile, placed the blame for the fires on indigenous people.

“If the forests are burned and rain falls after that, grass will grow back and become green and animals will come. It will become a hunting ground for nomadic groups. These aspects are being investigated by us,” Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar told The Jakarta Post.

However, activists like Pawika believe the fires are triggered by the activities of multinational corporations, which have increased their presence in Papua over the past decade.

In Merauke, a fire hotspot, the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate megaproject converted about 1.6 million hectares of land used by indigenous Malind people into a food, timber and biofuel production plantation.

The project was initially announced in 2009 by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, with the goal of helping the country raise production of crops like rice, corn and soybean.

In May, President Joko Widodo announced plans to relaunch the project and said that the allocated area would be expanded to 4.6 million hectares.

According to Pusaka, a nongovernmental organisation focusing on indigenous rights, the government so far has granted permits to 41 plantation companies to operate on 1.5 million hectares of land.

Pusaka spokesman Yosafat Leonard Franky said three companies were responsible for the fires.

“We do not believe the Papuans are the perpetrators of forest fires,” he said.

“We are more inclined to think that there are other parties who deliberately set fire to the forest, because perhaps in the future they need land for oil palm plantations and other agriculture.”

According to Franky, culturally, Papuans never burn their forests, preferring instead to preserve the land.

“In general, if Papuans want to open new fields, they use machetes and axes to chop wood. If it is said that people burn forests to clear land and then hunt animals, that is not at all in accordance with their traditions,” he said.

Pawika said that in the Papuan mindset, the forest is their friend.

“So it is impossible that the perpetrators of forest fires are indigenous Papuans.”

Nugroho, the disaster agency spokesman, said he would not rule out corporations’ culpability. However, he said the effects of the El Nino phenomenon, which have wreaked havoc on developing countries dependent on agriculture, is the principal cause of the prolonged drought that has left the region vulnerable to forest fires.

Local concerns
Attention to this issue is already emerging, especially from local governments.

Lamadi de Lamato, spokesman for Papua Governor Lukas Enembe, said that in addition to taking steps to extinguish the fires, the government has urged all parties, including companies, to not set forests on fire.

The plantation corporations maintain that they are not responsible for the forest fires; placing the blame on the prolonged drought leading to arid conditions. Indeed even de Lamato said the corporations’ involvement in the fires would be difficult to prove, given the worsening drought.

Meanwhile, Franky said he hopes the local government will remain consistent in its attempts to preserve the forests, noting that many government officials are more concerned with short-term profits rather than preserving forests for long-term benefit.

Zenzi Suhadi, forest protection campaigner for the Indonesian forum for the environment, said the government must control the activities of corporations working in the region. He accused government officials of passing out concessions too easily to various companies.

From 2007-2011 for example, he said 14.7 million hectares of land were awarded to plantation companies.

“The granting of licenses should be tightened and law enforcement must be carried out on those negligent of their duties,” he said.

Weak church
Pawika lamented the weak role of the church in speaking out forcefully on the destruction of Papua’s forests, in comparison to the corporations who are backed by security forces that suppress resistance from local people.

“Concern over this issue is still limited in certain circles. It has not been a concern for the five dioceses in Papua,” Pawika said.

“We have not heard of one bishop in Papua speak firmly about this issue,” said Pawika, a Papua native.

He said the church must unite against forest destruction, given that this is a major threat to the indigenous Papuans’ survival.

“The indigenous people depend on the forest. If this problem is not solved soon, then this also means Papuans will be increasingly marginalised,” he said.

Report by the UCA Catholic News Service.

Source: Pacific Media Watch 9499