Students call for amendments to the Bougainville constitution
16 July 2014
LEONARD FONG ROKA
BEFORE 1988 and Bougainville’s crisis era, politics was something belonging to the middle aged or older men.
But there is evidence in the post crisis period that youth is marching into their island’s politics as the 2015-2020 window to hold referendum to decide Bougainville’s political future moves closer.
The question: to secede from or integrate with Papua New Guinea.
Here at Divine Word University in Madang nearly all senior Bougainvillean students seem to have an accessible copy of the Bougainville Peace Agreement and the Bougainville Constitution in their laptops.
Out-of-school-hour debates on Bougainville’s future and its constitution are unceasing.
The most contested topic among these young Bougainvilleans, who mostly hail from Central and South Bougainville, is the Bougainville Constitution. As their years of study wind down, all intend to head home to secure their places in Bougainville’s public or private sectors.
But there are a few who are aiming their careers solely at the political sector.
And it is this lot who are attacking Section 91 of the Bougainville Constitution – relating to qualification for and disqualification from election as President - in their private war of words.
This is because Section 91, Subsection 1 reads: “Until a Bougainville law made by an absolute majority vote provides otherwise, a President must be not less than 40 years of age.”
One student from Buin in South Bougainville, weighing up election rivals for 2015, ranted to his laptop: “This is a bad law for it does not consider our life expectancy and health standards and so it must be changed.”
He had spotted a research paper, National Research Institute Bougainville Profile, which estimated the life expectancy of Bougainville males at 58 and females at 60.
“Our leaders love growing their bellies once in power,” one student argued. “They do not feel like even getting some physical fitness to keep healthy and so they die young.”
Another said: “Our health care is too poor to save the lives of our leaders so, some time back, we even saw President Dr John Momis going to Singapore for health treatment. Section 91 needs amendment.”
The young Bougainvilleans believe Joseph Kabui was too young to die in 2008. Francis Ona was also too young to die. And this was because Bougainville lacked the necessary health care to keep them alive.
Nearly all the students agreed with Section 56 which states that “a member of the House of Representatives must be not less than 25 years of age”.
They say that Section 91’s age cut-off must be reduced to 35 or 30 but with strict criteria on educational and work achievements, public contributions and public debate on issues affecting Bougainville to determine if a person is suitable for presidential nomination.
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