Papua New Guinea in 1977: Elections and Relations with Indonesia

THE 1977 GENERAL elections in Papua New Guinea (PNG) were the first since independence was granted by Australia on September 16, 1975. Many observers had predicted that anarchy, bloodshed, and general instability would soon follow. Several indicators were very suggestive of this outcome. The country's 700 linguistic groups are not integrated notwithstanding claims by the emerging local intelligentsia that a "Melanesian 'Way" binds the population into a single national entity. The economy, built on copper, coffee, copra, and cocoa, has stagnated. The price of copper plunged to levels very close to the cost of production, and copper revenues, which provided over half of the country's internal taxes three years ago, yielded less than 20%O in 1977. To some extent this decline was offset by the existence of a copper stabilization fund and the rise in coffee prices. Foreign investment has been reduced to a trickle, while large numbers of students Nvlwo either drop out of school or graduate search unsuccessfully for jobs. The Public Service system, which over the last four years doubled in size to 50,000 employees in a country with only 2,700,000 people, has practically frozen its rate of recruitment. It is also evident that the PNG civil servant, having been raised in a traditional village based on subsistence agriculture and an unregimented routine, finds the imported Western bureaucratic structure and its insistence on efficiency boring and unrewarding. The urban population drift continues to increase at a rate of 20%, while old and new urban dwellers alike rely on foreign import sources for nearly 40% of their food needs. Endemic tribal fighting in the Highlands continues unabated, particularly in the Chimbu and Enga provinces where police intervention has become increasingly ineffective. But while these problems continue to grow, they have not intensified to the point where public order is endangered. The government machinery continues to throttle along, lubricated by a massive Aus-