Violence and Governance in Melanesia

VIOLENCE AND GOVERNANCE IN MELANESIA

Violence and governance in Melanesia

Sinclair Dinnen

The concept of violence is highly problematic, with percep- Sinclair Dinnen is a tions of what it is varying across time, between cultures and Fellow in the Depart- between different groups. Representations of growing ment of Political and violence in the Melanesian countries need to be looked at in Social Change, Research the light of the enormous diversity within and between School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the particular countries and their different histories. The broader Australian National context of rapid and pervasive change and its impacts on University. older practices of self-regulation are an important part of understanding the nature of current concerns in the region. State-making in societies lacking traditions of an overarching polity is itself often a violent process. While there are no easy solutions, there is a need to move beyond the focus on symptoms to analysis of the various and complex social, economic and political processes that underlie them. There is also much to be learnt from informal forms of Melanesian conflict resolution and the manner in which these can be articulated with more encompassing formal systems.

It is hard to think of a more challenging matters to which it can be applied. What is concept than violence. While we all violence to one person, may not be to recognise it when we see it, it is another another. It is, in part, a question of perception. thing when it comes to trying to explain As individuals, how we see violence varies what ‘violence’ is. The term is commonly according to the prevailing ideas and used to denote a negative quality on the values of our specific time and place. The part of something or someone. When we cultural context of violence is clearly say that a particular act is violent, we are critical, and looking at it across a number projecting the quality of violence onto it, of different cultural contexts can be a rich rather than violence being intrinsic to the source of insight. As Riches reminds us, act itself. In practice, there is little consensus violence is ‘understood best when it is as to what this quality is or the range of examined over a range of cultural settings,

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and in a full variety of cultural settings’ rapidly changing environment, and one in (Riches 1986:vii). which pre-colonial and colonial pasts Although neither new nor unique to remain deeply implicated in the experiences Melanesia, violence has become a source of of the post-colonial present. While there are growing concern in parts of the region in significant differences between and within recent years. At the same time, there are particular countries, many external many different ways of thinking about it representations of Melanesia are still and there is little to be gained (and much to premised on an undifferentiated notion of be lost) by prescribing a single approach to region, one that assumes uniformity within this complex and multi-faceted topic. and between the constituent countries. The dominant images of pervasive violence in contemporary Papua New Guinea, for Violence in Melanesia example, imply a degree of uniformity that is not evident in practice, and which is For most of its history, Melanesia has quite inconceivable in such diverse comprised a shifting patchwork of relatively surroundings. Much of the media and autonomous, small-scale, kinship-based external focus on that country is on what societies dispersed across a variety of happens in the larger towns, while the vast landforms. These societies were ‘stateless’ majority of Papua New Guineans live in in the sense that they lacked any centralised rural villages where experiences of violence political or administrative organisation are quite different. equivalent to a government that could weld While there are enormous technical together those sharing a common language and logistical problems in quantifying and culture. Various indigenous political crime in Papua New Guinea and in patterns existed, ranging from the expansive drawing comparisons with elsewhere, it hereditary, hierarchical polities of eastern has been claimed recently that violent Fiji to the competitive systems of male crime there ‘matches or even surpasses the leadership of Highlands Papua New worst seen anywhere in the world’ Guinea and many island polities, typified (Levantis 1998:101). For many observers, as ‘bigmen’ and ‘greatmen’. The timing of including many of its own citizens, the contact with the outside world also varied country is beset by a seemingly intractable widely, as did indigenous experiences with problem of violence, one which formal and labour recruiters, traders, missionaries and informal strategies of control appear different colonial regimes. Most of the former incapable of containing. Concern with colonies and territories attained political personal safety is most evident in Papua independence from the early 1970s—Fiji New Guinea’s major towns, as manifested became independent in 1970, Papua New in the elaborate security surrounding Guinea in 1975, Solomon Islands in 1978, commercial premises and the homes of the and Vanuatu in 1980. Although moving wealthy, reluctance to visit certain areas towards greater autonomy, New Caledonia and to venture forth after dark. The tone of remains an Overseas Territory of France, these concerns is illustrated in the following while Irian Jaya is a province of Indonesia. excerpt from an Australian news magazine. High levels of social and linguistic In the space of two decades, the diversity are evident in most parts of capital Port Moresby has gone from a Melanesia. In combination with the sleepy Australian colonial town to a profound impacts of recent transformations, violent Melanesian city. These days it this diversity makes for a fragmented and isn’t just expatriats who live in

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barbed wire compounds but anyone security situation in the same status who can afford to. This underlines as that of Port Moresby in a few years the sense of siege that pervades the (Pacific Islands Monthly, December city which, with its graffiti-splashed 1998:6). compounds, is in parts beginning to Police in Vanuatu recently blamed a 15 resemble a South Pacific version of per cent rise in recorded crime between 1990 South Central Los Angeles (The Bulletin, 27 June 1995:14). and 1997 on rising levels of unemployment, urban drift and low school retention rates The predatory and violent activities of (Radio Vanuatu, 19 January 1999). A 1996 criminal gangs, known locally as ‘raskols’, Human Development Report claimed that have become a major source of personal Vanuatu is starting to experience insecurity. These gangs have emerged over some of the symptoms associated a relatively short period of time to become with too-rapid urbanisation noted in the most notorious of Papua New Guinea’s other developing nations, such as contemporary ‘folk devils’, and are widely unemployment, poverty, breakdown viewed as the perpetrators of the most of customary sanctions, lack of family brutal acts of inter-personal violence. The supervision and also the increasing urban-centred newspapers are full of disaffection of youth (United Nations alarming accounts of the latest raskol 1996:94). outrage. Raskols have become a recurrent These concerns appear to have increased target of policing and law enforcement in Fiji since the 1987 coups (Adinkrah 1995; operations, as well as providing the impetus 1996; Veramu 1994). The Fijian Finance behind the rapid growth of private security Minister recently stated that in recent years. However, violent behaviour We are all concerned about the rising in Papua New Guinea is by no means lawlessness in this country. In recent confined to gangs of street criminals or, for weeks we read in the newspapers the that matter, to the towns. Other forms increasing instances of robberies and violence. This is a serious develop- include so-called tribal fighting in parts of ment that we must address immedi- the Highlands, conflicts around large-scale ately (quoted in Pacific Islands resource-development (most dramatically Monthly, December 1998:31). in the protracted Bougainville conflict), state Colonial violence has became prominent violence, electoral conflict and, significantly, again in the course of Kanak resistance to violence against women. French authority in New Caledonia in the While usually regarded as being less 1980s, and continues to be so under prevalent than in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia’s suppression of indigenous growing levels of criminal violence dissent in Irian Jaya (see Chanter, Douglas attributed to urbanisation and economic and Ondawame 1999). The broader politics change have also been noted in Honiara of violence in post-colonial Melanesia were (Solomon Islands), Suva (Fiji) and Port Vila also raised during Fiji’s military coups in (Vanuatu). A recent editorial in the Pacific the late 1980s, set against a background of Islands Monthly commented that rising ethnic tensions between indigenous [s]ome observers say that Fiji looks Fijians and Fiji Indians. Bougainville’s nine- much like Papua New Guinea used to many years ago—before the rascals year secessionist war, precipitated by started dominating Port Moresby. If landowner grievances over levels of that’s the case, then it would be wise compensation for foreign mining develop- for Fijian officials to seriously con- ment, provides the bloodiest and most template if they wish to see Fiji’s protracted political conflict in an

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independent Melanesian state (Regan 1998). order’ problems, diminishing resources, On a lesser scale, there have been disputes low morale and poor discipline, and high over land ownership in many parts of the levels of impunity, have all contributed to region, compensation demands by the militaristic character of contemporary traditional landowners against the state policing practice (Dinnen 1997). These and private enterprise over the use of local developments, in turn, have aroused resources, and ethnic tensions aggravated growing disquiet among many leaders, by increasing mobility, population growth churches, communities, and non- and widening economic divisions. Conflicts government organisations, as well as of this kind have been a source of mounting attracting critical scrutiny from international concern in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and, human rights agencies. John Momis, a most recently, in the Guadalcanal province prominent Papua New Guinean political of the Solomon Islands. leader and former catholic priest, has Events in Fiji in 1987 provide the only complained that case of a fully-fledged military coup among [s]ome of us are getting sick and tired the independent Melanesian states. of reading about our disciplined Although falling short of a coup, Papua forces engaging in a culture of vio- New Guinea’s 1997 ‘Sandline Affair’ is lence in which confrontation and the another illustration of military intervention use of brute force to maintain law and in the political arena and of its potential for order is the norm, rather than the fomenting serious social and political exception (Post-Courier, 9 May 1997). discord. In this case, the Chan government’s Violence on the part of the ‘disciplined’ extraordinary decision to use South African forces raises important questions about the mercenaries to eliminate Bougainville extent to which Melanesian states secessionist leaders (literally) precipitated themselves have become implicated in the a dramatic rebellion by the Papua New reproduction of violence. Guinea defence force, a rebellion that The emphasis in policy debates inside attracted considerable popular support the Pacific island countries has been on after its leaders claimed to be acting against violence occurring in the public realm. government corruption (Dinnen, May and Amongst other things, this stems from the Regan 1997; Dorney 1998). In Vanuatu, artificial distinction drawn between elements of the Mobile Force and police domestic and public spheres. Although kidnapped the President in October 1996 in this separation has been problematised a spectacular attempt to force the government elsewhere, it remains central to how to pay outstanding wages. A leading violence is represented and responded to Solomon Islands scholar has recently in the Pacific islands today (Jolly 1999). warned that the ‘politicisation of the security Hence the focus in media and official forces is a significant trend in Melanesia in discourse on the ‘public’ violence of the last decade’ (Kabutaulaka 1997:134). criminals, aggrieved landowners, Violence by members of the security secessionist rebels, security forces and forces (military and police) in response to tribal warriors. Violence that takes place crime and public order disturbances, has beyond this realm, as in the case of much been another source of concern in many violence against women and children, parts of the Pacific islands. Allegations of continues to be relegated to the ‘domestic’ human rights abuses have become or ‘private’ realm. This ideological sleight- commonplace (Mitchell 1999). The legacy of-hand has important practical of colonial traditions, escalating ‘law and consequences, most notably in terms of

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official reluctance to ‘see’ this type of understandings of sexuality and violence violence and, once seen, to treat it seriously. in cross-cultural settings. There are also the ‘Public’ violence is highly visible and, in implications for ‘domestic’ violence of the theory at any rate, attracts state attention, increasing involvement of women in the whereas ‘domestic’ violence remains largely commodity economy and the greater invisible and is deemed the appropriate autonomy this gives them from their male subject of private resolution. Originally partners. What is the relation of custom and promulgated by colonial administrators Christianity to this form of violence? How and Christian missionaries, this division effective have legal controls been and how into two distinct spheres has always been have these connected with the informal difficult to sustain in the Melanesian social responses developed by womens’ groups environment, notwithstanding the impact and other non-government organisations? of recent social and economic change (Jolly nd). There is a serious, and growing, problem Violence and governance of violence against women in many parts of Melanesia. In Papua New Guinea, the Although ideas of governance have a history Law Reform Commission has provided at least as long as that of the state itself, it substantial data on the prevalence of has recently become a pivotal concept in ‘domestic’ violence among both rural and the discourse of aid and development in urban households (Toft 1985, 1986; Toft the Pacific, as elsewhere in the developing and Bonnell 1985). Reported rates of rapes world (Leftwich 1993, 1996). Rather like and other sexual assaults in Papua New violence, it is a term with many different Guinea exceed that in many industrial and meanings (Larmour 1996, 1998a). As applied developing countries (Zimmer-Tamakoshi to the Pacific islands, the concept is part of 1997:538). The security of women in other a larger, external framing of the region and Pacific island countries is also a source of inevitably comes with its own set of concern. In Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu ideological assumptions and practical and Papua New Guinea, womens’ groups prescriptions (Fry 1997). and other non-government organisations Some analysts have defined governance have been energetic campaigners in raising normatively, in terms of idealised models of awareness about violence against women parliamentary democracies and open and children and in the formulation of democracies. The World Bank, the leading innovative and socially appropriate international proponent of ‘good responses. The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, governance’ today, has been more concerned to take one notable example, serves as a with efficacy. In its view, governance model for anti-violence education and includes the management of a country’s programs throughout the region. economic and social resources, and the There are many issues of practical and policymaking and implementation capacity theoretical interest raised by the gender of of governments (World Bank 1993). A less violence in Melanesia. As well as empirical prescriptive and more accommodating questions about the extent and pattern of approach would take into account broader violence against women and children in issues of legitimacy and address the the region and how these compare with structure and activities of states in their other parts of the world, there are questions particular cultural and historical contexts. about what constitutes sexual violence in It would also extend the notion to include Melanesia given the different the role of non-state entities in the

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governance of societies. In Melanesia, the countries, many of which have in recent discourse of governance raises important years sought closer economic ties with their questions about how to establish and northern neighbours. More generally, some sustain effective states in societies lacking economists have questioned the long-term traditions of an overarching polity, the viability of these small, mainly agricultural, range of functions that states can be economies, that are remote from major realistically expected to perform in such markets, with a largely ‘unskilled’ labour environments, and the implications of state force. Large-scale resource exploitation has weakness for social and economic generated serious social, environmental development. and political problems, most tragically on The immediate context of governance Bougainville. The already fragile capacity debates in the region is the perception of a of post-colonial Melanesian states has been growing crisis of governance in the further eroded by the demands of growing Southwest Pacific. While the language of populations, diminishing resources and the governance has foreign origins, many of spread of corruption and mismanagement. the concerns it raises are shared by citizens The quality and delivery of basic government of the Pacific islands, as well as by officials services, like health and education, have in Australia and in the international deteriorated markedly in many parts over development agencies. Despite dire the past fifteen years. Disillusionment with predictions of collapse from those who political leaders, the decline of government viewed the timing of independence as services, growing economic hardship for premature, the early experience among the many, and deepening social and economic newly independent island states was divisions, provide the macro-context for generally positive. Over the past 15 years, rising levels of crime, conflict and popular however, there has been evidence of disaffection. As is often the case, external growing social, economic and political representations of this crisis tend to be pressures in many parts of the region. This based on the worst-case scenario, which at has included Fiji’s coups of 1987. Papua this time is widely seen as Papua New New Guinea has its escalating ‘law and Guinea. Australia is a major source of these order’ problems—the Bougainville rebellion representations, reflecting it’s proximity and, most recently, the Sandline debacle and standing as a significant regional with its, still unfolding, political and player, aid donor, and source of foreign economic fallout. Solomon Islands and investment. According to Fry, the pessimism Vanuatu have also experienced their share of many current depictions of the region is of political instability. Government informed by ‘an Australian official, corruption is a major issue in each of these academic, and media perception of Papua countries. While negotiation and accord New Guinea writ large’ (1997:324). appear to have replaced violent anti-colonial An integral part of this generalised struggles in New Caledonia, political picture of crisis is the spread of violence conflict has, if anything, increased in Irian and ‘law and order’ problems and the Jaya in the turbulent and uncertain post- limited effectiveness of state responses. Soeharto era. These examples draw attention While practical issues of personal security to the persistence of serious internal political provide the main concern for individual divisions and the fragility of Melanesian citizens, the perceived economic and states. developmental impacts of violence have The East Asian financial crisis has been the major preoccupation of political impacted adversely on the Pacific island leaders, businesses, aid donors and

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multilateral agencies. These impacts relate indicator of state strength, then the states to the costs of crime and violence to in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands particular businesses and industries, to and Vanuatu tend to be viewed as weak, national economies as a whole and, even, while that in Fiji is generally not (Larmour to the integrity of Melanesian states 1998b:78). Institutional weakness in this themselves. They include the expense of sense has been most visible in the public security (policing, prisons and other performance of law enforcement agencies. criminal justice expenses) and the diversion In Papua New Guinea, for example, the of scarce public resources from essential police are increasingly overwhelmed by a services, maintenance and development combination of escalating demands and work. Additional costs to business include diminishing resources, while the country’s insurance premiums, high staff turnover, prisons are incapable of providing secure loss of productivity, and the expense of custody. For aid donors and multilateral private security. Most significant of all, bodies, a common response to this aspect from this perspective, is the threat to of the perceived crisis of governance has investor confidence and the implications been to emphasise the need for capacity- for national economic development. In a building among legal, judicial and penal recent letter to the Employers Federation, institutions. representatives of Fiji’s tourism industry Much of the policy discourse about stated ‘the problem’ as follows violence in Melanesia has been highly The Fiji Hotel Association’s concern state-centred. There is often an implicit pertains to the magnitude and view that ‘law and order’ and ‘peace’ are increase of criminal activities in our conditions to be imposed upon society by country and the somewhat ineffective the state (Clifford et al. 1984:15). This view deterrents imposed by the Police derives from older Western theories of social Force and other relevant authorities control that privileged the state in the in retort to this unlawful disorder. constitution and reproduction of social These issues appear to be affecting investor confidence, a decline which order. State law, in this formulation, is simply cannot be afforded in the accorded a central role in the definition current economic state and the of what constitutes illegitimate force impending ramifications that may (that is, ‘violence’), while the coercive arise if this problem is not addressed instrumentalities of the state provide the promptly (quoted in Pacific Islands institutional framework for controlling this Monthly, December 1998:30) kind of behaviour. An important aspect of The economistic bent of these concerns the ideal of modern statehood is the state’s is evident in much of the official discourse claim to monopolise the legitimate use of of violence and governance. coercive power within defined territorial For many observers, the seemingly boundaries. unchecked spread of violence in recent The difficulties in sustaining state- years denotes a serious lack of institutional centred perceptions of order in the recently capacity on the part of the Pacific island independent Pacific islands countries are states (Dauvergne 1998). Rising levels of self-evident. In particular, there is the fact violence and societal conflict are viewed as of the recent and colonial origins of the an indication of the fragility of state state in Melanesia, and its imposition in authority and its institutional controls. If near-total disregard for the pre-colonial compliance with the writ of centralised affinities and loyalties of Pacific peoples. authority is taken as a fundamental For citizens in countries as socially

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fragmented as Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu particular (Banks 1999, Borrey 1999). A and Solomon Islands, there are, in practice, major report on ‘law and order’ in Papua many competing sources of authority and New Guinea found that allegiance at local levels, with the claims of …in most rural Papua New Guinea the state being merely one among many. In societies the legal offences of sodomy, this context it is misleading to speak of an bestiality, homosexual dealing and absence of authority or order. There is, if bigamy are not regarded as offences anything, an excess of authority and order. at all, while adultery is regarded as a The problem from a state perspective is the serious offence. A recent survey of attitudes to legal offences found that way in which they are dispersed throughout rural Papua New Guineans regarded the national society rather than being adultery as more serious than mur- concentrated at state level. Many aspects of der, although in terms of legal penal- violence in Melanesia relate to the ties murder is ranked first and fundamental struggle to centralise power adultery twelfth. The view of urban by wresting it away from local levels. This respondents, however, fitted the process took hundreds of years to achieve ranking of legal penalties more in the original European states and was a closely (Clifford et al. 1984:11–12). profoundly turbulent and contested process While few would deny the need to (Tilly 1997). In short, ‘a significant amount improve the capacity of state agencies in of political violence in new states is a the control of violence, capacity building function of the conflicts inherent in the needs to occur at both state and non-state process of… central state power levels and greater emphasis placed on accumulation’ (Cohen et al. 1981:902). developing effective linkages between these The existence of many different sources levels. For many Melanesians, the state of legitimacy, while by no means confined to system remains remote, both in terms of its Melanesia, is particularly marked in parts physical concentration in urban centres of the region owing to the particularities of and in terms of its Western orientation. their social and political histories. Legal This physical and social distance from the scholars would view this situation as one everyday lives of many citizens lies behind of legal pluralism, with customary forms of the growing emphasis in policy discourse authority and social regulation existing on the need to decentralise criminal justice alongside, and interacting with, introduced and to incorporate informal mechanisms of state law. It is a situation where significant social control. Unfortunately lack of differences are likely to arise both over resources and implementation capacity has what is viewed as violence and what limited any significant reform in this area. should be done about it. Although relations In theory, there are many different between custom and state law are often forums available to those aggrieved by complementary, at other times they generate inter-personal violence and conflict in divided loyalties. Disputes between Melanesia. In addition to the formal traditional landowners and large mining institutions and processes of state law, companies over land use provide an there may be less formally structured obvious example. In some circumstances, forums operating through a mix of state compliance with ‘custom’ may entail law and custom, as with Papua New breach of state law and vice-versa. Guinea’s village courts. There will be a Differences between custom and state law range of informal processes for settling are apparent in many areas of criminal conflicts at village level, including those law, and in relation to sexual behaviour in drawing on traditional authority

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structures, such as chiefs or elders. Church ameliorating violence. In addition to their groups and other non-government work in local communities, many such organisations have also been active in groups have developed elaborate networks conflict resolution work at local levels throughout the region, allowing for the (Lacey 1998). Individuals are likely to sharing of experience and dissemination of engage in ‘forum shopping’ in practice, successful homegrown strategies. As well choosing the option most appropriate to as monitoring state actions, they can also their particular circumstances. provide an important educative role for The experience of Papua New Guinea’s state institutions. The Fiji Women’s Crisis village courts provides important insights Centre, for example, has been active in into the prospects for state-sanctioned providing awareness training to several community approaches to conflict resolution. regional police forces. These courts are founded on the need to Womens’ groups have been powerful provide an accessible forum for dealing agents of peace and reconciliation in the with minor disputes and infractions, one Bougainville Peace Process. The remarkable that is responsive to the needs of particular story of the Kulka Women’s Club (Rumsey local communities. In some places they 1999) and their successful intervention in a appear to work extremely well, as in many tribal conflict in Papua New Guinea’s coastal, island and urban communities (see Western Highlands is another, albeit unique, Goddard 1999). However, in other places, case. Amongst other things, these cases notably parts of the Highlands, they show how the best prospects for restorative reinforce the subordination of women by solutions to violence in Melanesia are condoning ‘domestic’ violence and other those that draw upon the best from abuses, and regularly exceed their powers indigenous and foreign traditions and (Garap 1999). In this situation, the courts deploy them in creative ways. While there is have been too responsive to local power no denying the scale of current challenges, structures. The broader policy challenge is there is no shortage of ingenuity and how to avoid the capture of such institutions innovation among Melanesian peacemakers. by sectional interests while allowing them It is from these cases, the successes and the to remain responsive to local circumstances. failures, that we have most to learn. Part of the institutional solution in the case of the village courts is to ensure effective supervision as provided for under their References enabling legislation. Adinkrah, M., 1995. Crime, Deviance and The proliferation of non-government Delinquency in Fiji, Fiji Council of Social organisations engaged in human rights Services in association with Asia Crime work, including in areas of gender equity Prevention Foundation, University of and conflict resolution, has been welcomed the South Pacific and Fiji Prisons by some as the flowering of a nascent civil Service, Suva. society. While these organisations are by ——, 1996. Violent Encounters: A Study of no means immune from internal division Homicide Patterns in Fiji Society, Fiji and external pressure, they do offer the Council of Social Services in association prospect of organisations that can transcend with Asia Crime Prevention Founda- parochial loyalties while remaining tion, University of the South Pacific and independent of the state. There is much Fiji Prisons Service, Suva. evidence of important work carried out by Banks, C., 1999. ‘Contextualising sexual non-government organisations in violence: rape and carnal knowledge in

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