By James Stiefvater * Opinion - Discussions about decentralisation have been a central feature of Papua New Guinea (PNG) politics since before independence. The highly centralised nature of Australian colonial governance led to the creation of PNG's provinces. This effort was spearheaded by Bougainville's leaders who had many longstanding reservations about being a part of PNG, even before the development of the Panguna mine.
Since their establishment in 1976, laws regarding how provinces function have been passed, amended, or repealed several times, most notably in 1995 with the passage of the Organic Law on Provincial Governments and Local Level Governments (OLPGLLG). Since then, the term "special autonomy" has become popular, but not much has been done to unpack the meaning of it or what the implementation of special autonomy might mean for people in the cities, towns, and villages of PNG. Despite this, leaders in the provinces of East New Britain (ENB), Enga, and New Ireland continue to aspire to this status, while Bougainville received it as part of a peace agreement in 2001.
I recently spent time in Bougainville and East New Britain as part of my PhD fieldwork to learn what special autonomy means to leaders and local people. The Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) is based on three pillars, namely: autonomy, weapons disposal, and a referendum. Autonomy allowed for a locally created Bougainville Constitution and granted the province's parliament rights and powers that wou.
