What next for Kabui’s dream?

Lisa Williams-Lahari
The month of July features an auspicious date for the people of Bougainville who are still mourning the recent death of President Joseph Kabui.

It was this month, 11 years ago, that a peace deal was struck in Burnham, New Zealand, formally signalling the end of the decade-long crisis which had closed down the mining jewel in Papua New Guinea’s economic crown and left tens of thousands men, women and children dead, displaced, or traumatised.

Since July 1997 and the return of peace to Bougainville, the two names of Bougainville-based leadership have passed on, leaving the certainty of their passion and love for their people, alongside what can only be described as a challenge-packed future for the land dubbed ‘Sankamap’ for its early sun rises.

In October 2004, Kabui was much like an early sunrise himself—enthusiastic about a brand new day for his people, willing to welcome anyone with two hands and a heart to help heal his region, and mindful of the challenges left behind by ten years of conflict.

His thoughts at the time on a newly-autonomous nation still raw from its wounded history, with an emphasis on women taking a stronger role in Bougainville’s future, remain as relevant now—or perhaps even more so-as Bougainvilleans step up to lead on from Kabui’s legacy.

Here’s some of his thoughts:

On the rift between him and Francis Ona:
“In fact this war started off over a killing, murder of one of our own Bougainville women, a nurse. She was murdered by non- Bougainvilleans, plantation workers. I remember when this nurse was fighting for her life at Arawa hospital—they had life supporting equipment to help her breathing. I walked up into the jungles around Panguna and met with Francis Ona. He had already knocked down the pylons and he was up in the jungles (in 1989). I knew the death of that nurse was going to have an immense bearing on how Francis and the boys who were with him were going to take up the fight. The moment the woman was pronounced dead, I got word from Francis Ona saying; “I’m no longer listening to you. I’m no longer going to be listening to the Provincial Government and also the National Government. This war is now going to become a war for independence. We cannot allow people outside of Bougainville coming and murdering and butchering our own women and making people of Bougainville feel as if they are strangers in their own homeland.” That was the word I got from Francis Ona. So this (the death of a woman) acted as a catalyst to start off this war, to start off the real aggression of Francis and the boys, who were militants at that time, turning into Rambos. Then they became BRAs later on, and the fight took on from there.”

On the numbers of those who died during the Bougainville war and helping the survivors move on:
“I have no actual numbers. A rough estimate of the total deaths is between 15,000 to 20,000 men, women and children. It is important that truth be told. Truths have to be revealed. And our society supports that sort of an approach. That’s why we have our reconciliations and this is why reconciliations have been the number one priorities for the people of Bougainville, to able to free yourself of what was bugging you inside, to  pour it out—share it out and let some kind of justice be done. In some cases, we’ve had reconciliations involving probably 20 men and women being killed in one spot. In some places, we’ve had reconciliations for 10 people; 6 people; 4 people and we’ve been able to sort all that out because of the process of reconciling.”

On the women and children of Bougainville who suffered most during the crisis:
“As the war went on for quite sometime you could see young mothers now becoming widows, kids becoming orphans, their fathers killed in the battles. Or the deaths from preventable diseases because of no medicine, or perhaps a mother dying from birth complications (which could have been solved in theatre or hospital). The more the  numbers began to increase, it began to dawn on us that we are going to have a problem here. It really struck home when peace was brought about. The whole war ended and we were able to make comparisons of people in the care centre and those of us who were in the jungle and were now able to see who had died, and who was alive. Yes, we have a problem on our hands of our own making and we have to do something to make sure widows must be helped; and orphans must be helped. It’s reflected in our constitution. We decided that the political leadership just cannot leave it to the extended or immediate families to handle.”

On women and leadership:
“The decision (to guarantee women a minimum of 3 seats in Bougainville’s 30-seat government) reflects the respect of the role of women. In traditional times and during the whole conflict women played a very powerful role in appealling to the hearts of the fighting men. It was the women appealing to the husbands, to sons, to uncles to stop fighting and talk about peace. I see a woman president in Bougainville’s future, probably within the next 10-15 years. I make this prediction and I’ve been saying that all along. Look at the academic performance of our kids now going into all levels of education. For girls, their performance on average has been superior to boys. And I can foresee that these girls, who are now topping their classes in the respective levels of education, are the leaders of tomorrow. In 10 to 15 years time, perhaps 20 years time, it is going to be these women, these girls today who will be the leaders of tomorrow. I’ve got no doubt in my mind that what New Zealand has today, where it has the Prime Minister and has seen an Opposition leader and Governor General being women, that is going to be Bougainville. I think it’s a reality one has to accept.”

On history repeating itself:
“As a Bougainvillean and going back to our traditions, I am more than satisfied we will not dig up that past again. Once the past is buried, it is buried forever. In our traditional society, when wars were fought, when women said okay, let’s make peace, we bury it, all the grievances, all the past, all the wrong doings are buried in stones, symbolically saying let’s bury this and forget about it. It is reflected in the way the peace process has moved on in here. If we had deviated from the way that our fore-fathers who fought their wars made peace and tried to do something else, I don’t think this peace process would have been a success. The root causes of all the grievances that have led to this war, those root causes must be addressed head-on. And I think with the way that we are approaching this, I can confidently say that what we have buried is something of the past and we are going to move forward, to look forward, to build a better Bougainville, a new Bougainville, a new spirit.”

On his wife, Rose Kabui:
“My wife is the boss. I may be the President of the Bougainville Peoples Congress but my wife is the boss.”
On his daughters, and being a Bougainvillean:
“I come from a family where I am surrounded by women. My children are all girls. In what I do, I’m conscious everyday to ensure these daughters of mine, once they are fully grown up can have that role that is rightfully theirs. There’s the prominent role that their mother is playing. They can carry on with that. And every now and then, when ever we get together I encourage them to get the best education possible. ‘Whatever little funds that I can be able to get, I’ll give you the best education possible but always remember to know your roots. Always remember you know where your roots are. And your role and you must always remember that in our traditional society, you have a very prominent role. The land and everything comes to you. You know it’s in your hands.’ I tell them that we cannot be Australians, we cannot be Americans, and we cannot be anybody else. We have to be Bougainvilleans. And Bougainville is a Bougainville that is a very strong matrilineal society. And I hope that can go on even when I’m dead or when I’m out of politics. I tell myself that as long as I can while I’m breathing the air that the good Lord has given me, I can do the best that I can and at the end of the day go to sleep and say, ‘yes, I’ve done my best’ and you get a satisfaction from that.”