DISCIPLINE IN THE PNG SERVICES

I am writing as a past officer of the Australian Army who served two years (1975-1977) at the Joint Services College of Papua New Guinea that had an abortive plan to give joint training to the RPNGC, PNGDF and CS.

It failed badly within 4 years due to an inability to design and implement a common curriculum for three services. The problem may still exist with the return to joint training.

Police did not want to have their cadets trained in search and destroy techniques when they just wanted them to raid a night club.

The discipline of the PNGDF and RPNGC has severely declined in the last 30 years for reasons that are not the fault of any one person.

There is a serious lack of discipline the result of the officers and non-commissioned officers being unable to control the rank and file in military units and police posts.

They set up their own justice system implemented with violence and destruction in the community.

Very few convictions result giving the signal to the rank and file that their actions are acceptable.

Some attacks on the public and police have been carried out at the hands of officers who may be trying to show they are fight leaders to be respected in an era of no wars. The PNGDF may suffer from daily boredom.

There was a semblance of order with Australian officers and NCOs holding command posts but all that disappeared in later decades as positions were taken over by the PNGDF and RPNGC. 

There was once strict security on service bases and control over use of weapons and vehicles.

The early commanders were given a rush training experience that complied with the demands for independence by the United Nations from the mid-1960s.

With no criticism intended, Lt Diro became Brigadier within 6 years. Soon after that he was visiting the commander of the Papua Merdeka General Seth Rumkorem who was flown to Moem Barracks in Wewak for talks. That caused a political crisis.

The Bougainville conflict began the break-down of discipline as soldiers pursued their own private wars and vendettas against the civilian population.

To the credit of certain officers, the Sandline campaign was scrapped, preventing wholesale massacres of innocent Bougainville people. It was a plan the nation would prefer to forget.

But there is now a practice of any soldier or policemen in calling out his mates for vengeance on some civilian, police officer or organization. It is a matter of resentment for the PNGDF that all rank and file police have the power of arrest.

A soldier may be evicted from a nightclub for drunkenness or violence. So he goes back to his barracks to raise a group of soldier mates to come back to bash the security guards at the nightclub and wreck the establishment.

So much of this violence is ignored by the PNGDF which may give the impression that such breach of discipline is acceptable. Some soldiers conduct themselves with the viciousness of the Idi Amin goon squads. The media recently reported no disciplinary action in past breaches.

It is a problem that most soldiers of the PNGDF and Australian Army have never been to war. 

There was a serious incident at Igam Barracks several years ago during the Bougainville conflict when PNGDF officers refused to participate in combat training by Australian officers who had never been to war when most PNGDF officers had suffered on Bougainville.

Today, most Australian officers have never had combat experience. There are now serious discipline problems reported in the Australian media particularly on sexual violence.

There are more serious problems in the PNGDF with the old animosity against the RPNGC remaining deep despite a return to joint training at Igam Barracks.

The CS are just the poor cousins who like the other services suffer on retirement from a lack of pension money. 

It is sad that serving officers are required to retire on the date set down but are not given pensions and required to leave their married quarters to live in poverty. Families starve.

It may be the wantok system is the major cause of break-down of discipline within the rank structure. Officers and senior NCOs are afraid to discipline soldiers for fear of reprisal for them and their families.

In earlier times, there was a formula for recruitment province by province. This may well have gone by the wayside with recruitment from a few favoured provinces.

We used to be told that if there was a serious external threat, a battalion of Australians would arrive to take command. That may now be an aging pipe dream.

We read of the slow jihadist moves in Indonesia. Radical high school and university students are starting to support a jihadist caliphate in Indonesia. Sharia law exists in the province of Aceh.

Time will spread the jihadist message over the Indonesian nation within a decade and push through West Papua to Papua New Guinea. Moem Barracks in Wewak may be a prime target.

A major problem in the PNGDF and RPNGC is the level of domestic violence. So many married servicemen do not have accommodation. 

In the past, soldiers would bring families and girl friends to live in the soldiers' quarters at Murray Barracks. That would be hell on earth with violence and sex abuse throughout the quarters. Sons of police have been known to be criminals.

Major Bruce Copeland

Australian Army (retired)

Training Officer Igam Barracks 1975-1977