by A.P. Power, Wewak, Papua New Guinea 07/2003
| return to Part 1 of this article | return to PNGBUAI.com home page
Property Effect
|
|
|
---|---|---|
No. 1Fixing the economic potential of assets |
Alienated land:
|
|
|
Customary land:
|
|
No. 2Integrating dispersed information into one system |
Alienated Land:
|
|
|
Customary land:
NB Information available only to experts and indirectly to land owners.
|
|
No.3Making people accountable |
Alienated land:
|
|
|
Customary land:
|
Incorporated Land Group Certificates Natiowide birth certificates Adult ID “smart” cards Squatters become tenants with ILG issued lease title Mortgages on “public clan land” Liens on “private" clan land
|
No.4Making assets fungible |
Alienated land:
|
|
|
Customary land:
|
|
No.5Networking people |
Alienated land:
|
|
|
Customary land:
|
|
No 6Protecting transactions |
Alienated land:
|
|
|
Customary land:
|
|
Do we really need to go to all this trouble?
Certain groups are lobbying against land registration using a variety
of half-truths and some outright lies cranking up a scare mongering
campaign manipulating NGOs and students. Over the years not one iota
of understanding of the full depth of the problems we are facing has
emerged from this lobby. Not one idea to assist PNG go forward. The
evident fact that for 27 years the owners of the country are being
left behind seems to be an acceptable price to pay for their view of
what it takes to protect customary land ownership. The increasing
level of angst and aggravation round the country; the move to oust
“squatters” from urban centers by ol asples
frustrated by the rising tide of urban migration; increasing tribal
fighting; the unsatisfactory management of landowner participation in
exploitation of forests; can all be related to poor participation in
“development”. We desperately need to move to create Melanesian property rights for several reasons.
The problems are real and the need to act is urgent. Landholders are frustrated.
Land holding angst
Whenever there is talk of a new project even a new road project the landholders ramp up anxiety. A lot of outside people come into their land. They are exposed directly to the capitalist system with money flowing like water. They have no idea where this money is coming from.
Angst arises because of lack of definition, lack of security and creeping incursions into their land that was dealt with in the past by warfare. Recall property effect No.6, “the right to security.” Under the imposed state, Papua New Guinea today, the obligation of the provision of security assumed at Independence is not guaranteed. The concept of eminent domain that “nationalists” react to so forcibly is of course a foreign concept as it is part and parcel of statehood. The problem is that the state assumes the rights but does not accept the obligations.
There is a relationship between corruption and the frustration of the movers and shakers, entrepreneurs, leaders, ol bigman. They can’t be accommodated within the moribund customary system so they feed on the wealth created in and on the modern sector. Any wealth in the modern sector is fair game be it government revenue, foreign aid, savings by the workers, accumulated landowner money in escrow or future generations - any pool of money belonging to anyone at all!
The dual economy
From time to time we have complaints made relating to the so-called dual economy operating in the country. Usually the complaints come from workers in the modern economy complaining about a dual wage structure, comparing local to expatriate wages. The dual economy really refers to the fact that only a small portion of the wealth of this country is participating in the modern capitalist open market economy and that the vast majority of the country is only marginally involved. Economists also refer to this situation as enclave development. The capitalist enclaves are surrounded by a gigantic barricade of sharpened yar tree posts woven with kanda and bamboo. Inside the barricade capitalist business drives up to the barrier and turns back on itself. On the other side of the barrier the village man walks up to the barrier and is turned back often mystified and frustrated.
The capitalist then seeks to create a new enclave where there is access to the land and resources facilitated by our existing mining, petroleum, forest and fishing laws. There is nothing evil or underhand about this. It is simply the operation of capitalist free market economic activity. Our challenge is to pull down the yar pole barrier to allow the people to access the benefits of modern commerce on their terms and allow modern commerce to facilitate expansion to embrace the entire country.
Landowner problems and compensation demands
There is a great deal of angst among landowners today because they see themselves as being impotent in the face of any modern development. They are outside the yar pole banis. Whenever there is a new banis round a new enclave they agitate to try to get themselves included. This is entirely understandable. Because there is no clear direction and policy and programme to empower the resource owners and surrounding landowners to participate in the development they tend to develop unrealistic expectations. These are incorrectly called “landowner problems”. The are really development problems associated with unsuitable or missing legislation and ill informed economic policies.
The response to these problems differs from industry to industry. But at the centre of it all is a total lack of understanding of what is really happening with a corresponding lack of direction towards trying to remedy the situation. The mining and petroleum industries try to develop landowner capability as contractors and service providers in the non-core side of their business. They employ business development officers, establish and support landowner companies and over time some of the landowners develop into businessmen. The forest sector does practically nothing so the LANCOs fail to deliver benefits to the landowners and no real empowerment of potential partners occurs.
Property rights at the time of the exhaustion of the clan commons
Landless people already exist. Many land groups round the country have already reached the stage where the clan commons is exhausted or where the remaining mountainous land is unsuitable for subsistence. Such land groups exist in Mt Hagen, almost certainly in Chimbu, probably in Tari, and probably in Gazelle Peninsular. Already there are landless people overflowing to other parts of the country. As the above graph illustrates this phenomenon is inevitable for many parts of the country. Of course there are other parts of the country that have vast areas of land and smaller population. Failure to create formal property rights will have significant results.
Creation of property rights for a land group that has already exhausted its clan commons will be a very challenging operation. It is incumbent on the land groups that still have adequate land to begin now to create property rights that will facilitate the development of a modern commons that will facilitate benefits to all members of the land group regardless of where they reside.
The first steps would involve the following:
This problem has been addressed by me several times before.4 The following diagrams explain the inevitable exhaustion of the clan commons in high-density areas and the eventual situation all over the country. Unless the land group work hard to convert some of their assets into property and then business to produce a modern commons not curtailed by the physical dimension of the group land holding, then the group will be under great stress and may collapse.
From custom to commerce
Asset development – how to bring out the surplus value in assets by representations of capital? The following table illustrates the restricted options that are now available to customary owners and what will become available under a formal property system.
References
De Soto, H. 2000 The Mystery of Capital Black Swan Book
Honore. A.M. 1961 “Ownership” in A G Guest (Ed) Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence, London, Oxford University Press pp. 112-128
Lea, D. 1997 Melanesian Land Tenure in a Contemporary and Philosophical Context University Press of America
Power, A. P. 1986 "The Future of Clans in Papua New Guinea in the 21st Century". In Ethics of Development: Choices in Development Planning, eds. C. Thirwall and P. Hughes, Port Moresby, UPNG Press 1988.
Power, A. P. 2001 “Land Mobilization Programme in Papua New Guinea”, Valuers Conference Lae 2001 1 A.P.Power Executive Director Ivin Enterprises Ltd PO Box 772 Wewak powerap@daltron.com.pg 2 A.P.Power Executive Director Ivin Enterprises Ltd PO Box 772 Wewak powerap@daltron.com.pg 3 Honore as quoted by David Lea 4 See Power Please note: other articles on Land Development [by A.P. Power and others] can be found at www.pngbuai.com Papua New Guinea's web site for research level PNG Books, Useful Articles & Information published by John Evans, PNG |
| return to Part 1 of this article | return to PNGBUAI.com home page