The Ben Moide Story

Nameless warriors describes the life of one of Papua New Guinea's last remaining WW2 veterans.

This book aims to reflect on the experiential side of writing political lives in the Pacific region. The collection touches on aspects of the life writing art that are particularly pertinent to political figures: public perception and ideology; identifying important political successes and policy initiatives; grappling with issues like corruption and age-old political science questions about leadership and ‘dirty hands’. These are general themes but they take on a particular significance in the Pacific context and so the contributions explore these themes in relation to patterns of colonisation and the memory of independence; issues elliptically captured by terms like ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’; the nature of ‘self’ presented in Pacific life writing; and the tendency for many of these texts to be written by ‘outsiders’, or at least the increasingly contested nature of what that term means.

Lahui Ako, a former diplomat, and PNG APEC Senior Official, recounts the complex, difficult, and sometimes treacherous path he faced in the world of multilateral diplomacy, both by himself, and his country, when it committed to host and chair APEC in 2018. He tells of the political barriers, the diplomatic innuendos, the financial hurdles, and the organizational complexity he encountered, from the planning phases in 2012, right up to being in the cross-fire of the nationalistic Trump officials, and China's aggressive "wolf warrior" diplomats where hard choices had to be made in November, 2018. Ultimately, there wont be a consensus APEC 2018 Leaders' Declaration, but Lahui and his team will acquit themselves well; simply, because, their God knows best.

Lahui Ako, a former diplomat, and PNG APEC Senior Official, recounts the complex, difficult, and sometimes treacherous path he faced in the world of multilateral diplomacy, both by himself, and his country, when it committed to host and chair APEC in 2018. He tells of the political barriers, the diplomatic innuendos, the financial hurdles, and the organizational complexity he encountered, from the planning phases in 2012, right up to being in the cross-fire of the nationalistic Trump officials, and China’s aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomats where hard choices had to be made in November, 2018. Ultimately, there wont be a consensus APEC 2018 Leaders’ Declaration, but Lahui and his team will acquit themselves well; simply, because, their God knows best.

Papua New Guinea’s general election in 2007 attracted particular interest for several reasons. Not only did it follow what was widely acknowledged as the country’s worst election ever, in 2002 (in which elections in six of the country’s 109 electorates were declared to be ‘failed elections’), it was the first general election to be held under a new limited preferential voting system. It also followed the first full parliamentary term under the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates, which had been introduced in 2001 in an attempt to strengthen political parties and create a greater degree of stability in the national parliament, and was the first to embrace a ‘whole-of-government’ approach to electoral administration, through an Interdepartmental Electoral Committee. This volume provides an analysis of the 2007 election, drawing on the work of a domestic monitoring team organized through the National Research Institute, and several visiting scholars. It addresses key issues such as voter education, electoral administration, election security, the role of political parties, women as candidates and voters, the shift to limited preferential voting, and HIV transmission, and provides detailed accounts of the election in a number of open and provincial electorates. It is generally agreed that the election of 2007 was an improvement on that of 2002. But problems of electoral administration and voting behaviour remain. These are identified in this volume, and recommendations made for electoral reform.

The production and distribution of film and audiovisual works is one of the most dynamic growth sectors in the world. Thanks to digital technologies, production has been growing rapidly in Africa in recent years. For the first time, a complete mapping of the film and audiovisual industry in 54 States of the African continent is available, including quantitative and qualitative data and an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses at the continental and regional levels.The report proposes strategic recommendations for the development of the film and audiovisual sectors in Africa and invites policymakers, professional organizations, firms, filmmakers and artists to implement them in a concerted manner.