Our Parliament was manipulated

Parliament was recalled and nine Acts were amended to legitimate the flawed LNG Agreement. I read a lot that wherever this oil giant company goes with money bag, democracy succumbs and legislations are done to their favor. It is called ‘Oil money makes messy politics’. Many of our MPs do not know this fact.



Since the hydrocarbon will be extracted from Hela, I wish to put these comments on record for the future generations to see and make their own judgments. Whether many of you knew it or not, one of the consortium of the LNG project is known around the world for giving corporate political campaign donations and taking millions of dollars in taxpayers’ (Americans) subsidies for environmentally and socially destructive projects.



This oil giant gets away with its outrageous activities through buying government influence in many countries it operates. Since 1997 it had spent $47 million in lobbying government officials mostly in USA. In the 2000 USA election cycle, this oil giant and its employees donated $1,375,250; 89 percent of which went to Republican candidates, helping to ensure that, then fellow Texan and oil executive George W. Bush got elected to the White House.



It was not surprising to read on The Sunday Chronicle of 10 August 2008 that both current USA presidential candidates, McCain and Obama are in the pockets of this oil giant. For those of you who are following the US Presidential Election closely, you would have read the story. Believe me or not this is the same corporate force that took the USA to war in Iraq in the deception that Saddam Hussein has Weapons of Mess Destruction (WOMD). Did they find any WOMD after occupying Iraq? No, they just want Iraq’s Oil and Gas.



As it has been doing for many years during elections in US, its investment has paid off during George W. Bush’s term. This oil giant lobbied hard against the Kyoto Protocol, the only international treaty to address global warming of which Papua New Guinea is a signatory to. Last year, the Bush Administration pulled the US out of the Kyoto Protocol. Earlier this year Bush announced that the US response to climate change would be voluntary reductions of carbon dioxide, and that under this plan emissions will be allowed to significantly increase. In the US Senate, its extensive lobbying with its fossil fuel allies has ensured a US energy policy that increases our dependence on polluting fossil fuels, instead of moving the world toward energy security based on renewable energy sources. Indeed, its action is contrary to what our Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare has been lobbying for.

ENRON the American corporate giant that collapsed in 2001 taught Americans how corporations and government are intertwined. Similarly, this corporate oil giant guarantees its influence over public policy by investing millions in campaigns and lobbying. In return, it receives access, which leads to millions in taxpayer subsidies that are provided by the US government and other public finance agencies, including the World Bank.

Many concerned Americans demand that this oil giant must stop sabotaging international efforts (like PNG’s efforts) to address global warming and support mandatory reductions in global warming pollution. Why can’t Papua New Guinea demand the same from this company in the LNG Agreement if we are truly going to address the global warming? May be our Prime Minister can elaborate further on this.

The company denies any responsibility for climate change and openly funds climate skeptics, spent millions on a misinformation campaign to mislead the public regarding the Kyoto Protocol Treaty, and successfully lobbied the Bush Administration to reject it. While some oil companies have taken first steps to invest in clean renewable energy, the oil giant remains the dinosaur of the industry, investing virtually nothing in renewable energy. It has attempted to discredit the overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. That is the technique it employed here in PNG by using our own politicians to discredit any genuine arguments either by landowners or any citizens. No one institution should have the right to determine government policy in a democracy. But in Papua New Guinea, this oil giant has already manipulated our politicians leading up to the signing of the LNG Agreement and now it has used our government to recall the Parliament to amend certain sections of the Tax Act, Oil and Gas Act, Work Permit Act and the Central Bank Act.

Back to the USA, a classic example of manipulation was in February 2001 when this oil giant sent a letter to the Bush’s White House and asked if the United States' could help unseat Dr. Robert Watson, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's scientific authority on the issue. In April 2002, just as the note was made public, Watson was removed with the help of the US government delegation.

Even by oil company standards, this oil giant’s human rights record is appalling. It is being sued for complicity in human rights violations in Aceh, Indonesia, including allowing its facilities to be used for torture and interrogation. What guarantee is there that this oil giant won’t do the same in Papua New Guinea especially against the Hela people or the pipeline landowners in Gulf?

In Chad and Cameroon citizens opposition to the environmental and social consequences of this oil giant’s Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline has been met with brutal government suppression. How will the Papua New Guinea government deal with the Hela and the Gulf people if similar situations arise here?

In Colombia, an entire village was forcibly relocated to make way for the expansion of South America's largest open pit coal mine, majority owned by the oil giant’s wholly owned subsidiary Intercor. The oil giant company then sold Intercor to its minority owners.

Some places of irreplaceable natural value, like the Arctic Refuge, should be off limits to oil and gas development. Yet this culprit spent a staggering $7.9 billion last year on exploration and development, with much of it in pristine ecosystems, such as the Arctic Refuge and the sensitive habitat of the endangered Western Pacific Grey Whale off the coast of Sakhalin Island, Russia. Some of West Africa's last untouched rainforests are threatened by its Chad Cameroon pipeline, which is partially financed by US taxpayer dollars via the World Bank, while the company's proposed McKenzie pipeline may jeopardize important forests in Alaska and Canada. Thirteen years after the devastating Exxon Valdez catastrophe, this oil giant continues to betray the public trust by fighting at every turn payment of clean up costs for the tragedy. Last year it successfully overturned the punitive damages awarded against it. This oil giant must pay up and clean up for the ecological and human destruction it has caused world wide. What if similar destructions are done to my Hela land or the Kikori delta in Gulf Province or even the Konebada Petroleum Park here in Port Moresby? How will PNG government respond if we are faced with similar problem? Have landowners’ interests being covered in the LNG Agreement? My reading of the agreement found nothing.

In USA where it belongs to, this oil giant’s refineries are often located near poor communities of color, who have little recourse against the devastatingly high levels of respiratory illnesses, cancer, and the resulting impoverishment of their communities. The refining of oil and the manufacture of gasoline, plastics and chemicals is the most polluting industry on the face of the earth. From cradle to grave, the oil and chemical industry uses and produces a wide variety of some of the most health destroying substances known to humankind. Under proposals now being considered by the Bush administration and supported by this oil giant, refineries will be able to dramatically increase their emissions by avoiding requirements for pollution controls. It operates the largest and most polluting oil refinery in USA located in Baytown, near Houston, Texas. It has been investigated for violating a portion of the US Clean Air Act that the company wants changed.

How can a corporation get away with these kinds of environmental and human rights abuses that this oil giant is guilty of? Two simple facts explain a lot and I want every concerned Papua New Guineans to take note of them; first this oil giant spends more money on lobbying than any of its competitors; second, this oil giant gives more campaign contributions to politicians than any of its competitors. This culprit is a leader in using its oil profits and its power to buy political influence and if it can do to the US government, PNG government is no problem.

In USA, this oil giant has spent more than any other oil company on lobbying because it wants to see USA government enact legislation and adopt positions that are favorable to the corporation. Don’t we Papua New Guineans see this has already been happening here? I will quote one of our senior ministers’ statement on Monday 1 September’s Post Courier when explaining the government’s reason for recalling Parliament to amend certain sections of the Tax Act and the Oil and Gas Act. He said; ‘we are basically trying to harmonize the laws’. Harmonizing for whose interest? Minister, if the LNG Agreement is not in harmony with the existing laws, why did the government sign it?

Like I have said, big money has been in politics a long time wherever this oil giant goes. What's new is how this oil giant uses its sheer size to wield vast influence over democracy. With more Americans than ever feeling disenfranchised by government, and suspicious of bureaucracy and corporate power, the world's largest oil company plays a leading role in the subversion of the democratic process in any democratic country. It was not surprising to see our Parliament was recalled to clean up the mess created in the LNG Agreement. So, may I finish with this question; did anyone of you MPs on the Ministerial Gas Committee receive some favors either in cash or kind (even just as little as U$10 for a packet of cigarette) from this oil giant before the signing of the LNG Agreement?



Jacob Sekewa,

General Secretary

Hela Gimbu Association Inc.

Port Moresby

I have a politician friend (not from Highlands Province) who keeps in contact with me and this is what they think about the LNG Project.
The LNG Project support was made with the following considerations;
1. PNG Corportate Image & Credibility
The previous deal that fell through (PNG-Aust pipeline to Mackay) was given a much taught as if this fell through then PNG's global corporate reputation dealing with similar developments will hold no trust from the corporate investors, therefore a bipart/approach is neccesary.
2. The HELA MPs did not tell the other MPs of what their Land Owners wanted.
Therefore, the other MPs took the first reason to support the changes on the floor of parliament. Anderson Agiru and other Mps where split and didn't come clear of what their L/O's demands are, like the equity & busines the participational aspects.

The HELA LEADERS are the ones to be BLAMED if the L/O's are unhappy.
Your Leaders have failed you.

This is a good insight however it is obvious that some of your ideas here are of an environmentalist point of view. Very true I support you as it is known world over that corporatism is one of the influencing factors in Government policy besides society, the problems is that it is an international company playing a major influence in our government and that is a concern.

Furthermore what are the real benefits that the landowners and the country as a whole will benefit from, all i hear from the news now and than is just about creating job opportunities. Does the government of the day have a long term sit back plan after this million dollar project is done and gone? This is a major concern. I do agree and am also concerned about the policy changes they are making to make this project a success, the fear now is that will we regret it.

On the other hand this project is a dire need for a young economy with out a stable source of revenue. this project would definitely boost the economy but the implications are of concern whether the government will be able to take this opportunity to invest and develop a sustainable economy.

These are my concern as a country man from Hela...