DECLINE OF THE PAPUA NEW GUINEA DEFENCE FORCE

As an officer of the Australian Army who served at the Joint Services College of Papua New Guinea in 1976-1977, I am saddened by the slow decline of the PNGDF and its effects on defence force families.

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6 hours ago – As an officer of the Australian Army who served at the Joint Services

College of Papua New Guinea in 1976-1977, I am saddened by the slow ..

There was a sense of urgency in those days. The nation gained independence in 1975 and the build up of the PNGDF had begun under the command of Brigadier Ted Diro who had been fast tracked into senior office.

The training of young officers had begun with the setting up of the Military Cadet School in the early 1970s followed by the establishment of the Joint Services College to train officers of the PNGDF, RPNGC and Corrective Services. The project was discontinued within 3 years.

But the PNGDF ran along the lines of an Australian military force. There were large numbers of Australian Defence Officers at all levels in all military units.

They came on posting with their families most having attended the Tok Pisin course at the RAAF School of Languages in Melbourne, trained by an Australian officer and a PNGDF officer.

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25 Aug 2011 – This blogspot is about Positive Living in families. But the focus is

on the Australian army teaching Tok Pisin to soldiers on posting to Papua New ..

The work of the Australian Defence officers and NCOs proceeded well and there was cooperation and respect woven together by military ethics and some degree of cameraderie.

But there were times when the PNGDF officers held meetings to which Australians were not invited. And vice versa. There were disputes in the PNGDF starting with the attempted coup in 1977 that emanated from Taurama Barracks. Australians stood by.

Then there was the dispute that reached parliament surrounding the secret meeting of Brigadier Diro with the leader of the free Papua movement Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) Seth Rumkorem.

But the PNGDF went on to the civil war on Bougainville that came to a head with Sandline and the actions of Brigadier Singorok. The civil war stretched the PNGDF to the limit. But they were increasingly going it alone.

The numbers of Australian Defence advisors dropped. That has continued to the present day. But there is still a small core of Australian officers who maintain liaison and support starting with the Head of Defence Staff (HADS) at the Australian High Commission and his Deputy.

The PNGDF faces the same basic problems today that face any army in prolonged peace time. There is not enough to do. There is always a limit to peace time uses to which infantry soldiers can be put. The engineers have been put to work building roads.

With the coming of peace, there was a down-sizing exercise by which the numbers of officers, NCOs and soldiers were retrenched. That has led to inhumane and cruel delays in retrenchment packages. But it all led to a new problem.

Soldiers who have not received their retrenchment pay have nowhere to go and no money for the upkeep of families. For many, loyal service was repaid with betrayal.

But many soldiers stayed in their married quarters for many years. Despite the down-sizing, there were incoming soldiers denied accommodation. They had to take their families to live in squatter settlements and with other family members.

This is very bad for military discipline and security. The military bases ran the risk of being squatter settlements. There were guards at the gate but crowds of strangers would come and go at all hours.

There was a survey conducted by an AusAID HIV/AIDS group that visited Murray, Taurama and Igam barracks. Having an anti-man ideological bias, the AusAID advisors could only see soldiers coming back to the single men’s quarters with women for sex.

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15 Sep 2011 – ... conducted AIDS awareness on Murray, Taurama and Igam Barracks.

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They completely neglected the reality that soldiers were bringing their wives and children to live in the single barracks. There is a real humanitarian problem here.

This is the low point in PNGDF history. It provides the commander with a massive problem. What does he do with the married soldiers living in single quarters?

The PNGDF hierarchy faces a massive problem. What do they do  in a period of relative peace? Do they cut back on funding?

But there is a need to maintain or lift recurrent funding. Housing on bases is 40 years old and facing the ravages of a tropical climate.

There is always a problem with keeping soldiers motivated and stable and this will cost money. How long can training keep soldiers occupied with an artificial go-go-go weekly program? What if funding does not extend to decent meals?

It is not good for serving soldiers to see older ex-servicemen hanging around in poverty waiting for retrenchment pay or their pension. The thought must strike the serving soldiers that they will end up in the same boat.

I am an ex-serviceman from Australia and receive a pension after 21 years service. I could not imagine that the Australian Government would just cease my payments as has been done with retired corrective services officers. It would be time to die.

Or that there would be years delay in commencing the pension as we see with retired PNGDF personnel. That is criminal neglect from public servants who do not care about service people.