PNG\'s official unemployment rate in 2014 was only 2.6 percent. However, the statistics do not reflect the situation at Port Moresby, where more than half of the young people appear to be out of work.
By
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
·5 minutes read
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Residents of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, spend time hanging out and playing. Many of the city\'s residents have complained of difficulty finding work.
The conditions found in Papua New Guinea is unusual. Prices are high, wages are low, but people are just wasting time on the streets. How are they able to make a living?
Jo, a resident of Koki village in Port Moresby, complained about the country’s inflation. The price of an areca nut a few years ago was 20 toea (less than 1 US cent), now 1 kina (28 cents), up five times.
On the other hand, finding work is very difficult. Jo, a physics student, said many university graduates sit on the side of the roads all day because there is no work. This is ironic because Port Moresby is filled with foreign workers doing various simple jobs.
"Why do they recruit Filipinos to open cashiers’ locks in supermarkets or serve as foremen for coolies? We can do that kind of work, too!” said Jo.
PNG\'s official unemployment rate in 2014 was only 2.6 percent. However, the statistics do not reflect the situation at Port Moresby, where more than half of the young people appear to be out of work.
Helen, Jo\'s mother-in-law, added: “We are just slaves in our own land.”
She works as a receptionist in an Australian company.
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
One of the corners of the city of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Many of the modest jobs in the city were filled by foreign workers.
***
I once spoke with an Indonesian worker, Santi, who has lived in PNG for four years. She is a manager of SVS supermarket, which sells a lot of Indonesian products. Santi conceded that the manager-level jobs in this country were rarely done by local PNG people. She estimated that out of 100 managers, only one or two were local.
"Recruiting local staff is cheaper than foreigners, but it is not efficient," she said. She gave an example: The task of wrapping parcels carried out by two PNG people only completed one in a day, while one trainee from Indonesia could complete eight.
I used to hear similar stories from people at the Indonesian Embassy about an Indonesian construction company that brought in hundreds of workers from Indonesia to build a modern building in Port Moresby, and the project was completed in just two months. The efficiency of the work was astonishing to local residents.
Santi also disagreed by claims that PNG was a place to make one’s wealth. The security risks in the country are high, making expatriate life very difficult. Her company employs a standard protocol that all foreign staff must travel by private cars. They are also prohibited from driving after 8 p.m.
“Even if they have to go out at night, they must never stop in the middle of their journey. If someone steps in the way [of their car], just hit them first, worry about other things later," Santi said.
Santi believed procedures that seem inhumane should be carried out because raskols (criminals) can appear in unexpected places, times and ways.
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
A local resident of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, shows a bottle containing a drink. The relatively high crime rate is one of the problems in the city.
***
The actual target of raskols’ attack is not only foreigners but also local residents.
Jo used to be robbed by raskols. That morning, he was assigned by his office to bring 300,000 kina in cash to the bank. Just as he was out of the office door, a car suddenly pulled up and three raskols jumped out, pointing guns at him. Jo handed over the money, the raskols ran away. The police caught Jo and the company fired him.
"Why was I accused? Why weren\'t the raskols arrested and punished?” he complained.
Local newspapers released a World Bank report that business in PNG was being hampered by high costs due to crime and violence. More than two-thirds of companies spend 5 percent of their annual budget on private security services. The companies also reported a loss of $59,000 per year due to theft by their own staff. These costs will be burdened by consumers in the form of high prices, limited product selection and the absence of new services. In the end, everyone in PNG has to pay heavy prices for the crimes.
Just a day later, former prime minister Peter O\'Neill claimed that during his term in 2012-2019, crime in PNG had fallen dramatically, pointing out that the number of prisoners had decreased from 1,000 to 450.
Of course this leaves the question: Does the reduced number of prisoners really prove that crimes have decreased, or does it actually indicate a decrease in the ability of the police to eradicate crime? Currently, throughout PNG, there are about 5,000 police officers or just 65 policemen for every 100,000 inhabitants.
I see a vicious circle here. The price of goods and the high unemployment rate have led to rampant crime. On the other hand, crime has also caused the prices of goods to soar and unemployment to worsen.
