There is also a special national pride in home-grown writers. Intelligent people read widely because they realise the power of knowledge. They know that ideas shape a society and the source of those ideas largely is in writers.

In non-literate societies the appreciation of writers and the written word is nowhere near as potent. Because the written word is not part of people’s day-to-day concerns they do not appreciate the latent power that lies there.

When Third World pre-literate societies began striving to become nations in their own right, they quickly realised the power of their writers. Conversely, despots in those nations suppressed writers to prevent that power from transforming society.

Papua New Guinea is an example of a country that has yet to discover the power of the written word. While there has been no conscious effort to suppress writers, the lack of assistance and encouragement by government has had a similar effect to that of a greedy despot.

Many contributors and commentators on PNG Attitude write about the failure of Australia to notice the existence of Papua New Guinea on its immediate northern borders.

One of the reasons this happens is because PNG has not allowed or encouraged its writers to develop a national narrative to lift its profile in Australia and the rest of the world.

What passes for a Papua New Guinean narrative in the Australian psyche is a distant memory of the battle along the Kokoda Track during World War II and a vague acknowledgement that PNG was once a colonial territory. There is little else to inspire Australian recognition.

The writing that is published within PNG, mainly in the two major newspapers and a few other publications, is bland and often reproduced verbatim from texts and press releases provided by the government or vested commercial interests. There is no bold investigative journalism nor much attempt at creative writing.

The absence of a writing culture in Papua New Guinea became abundantly clear when the Member for North Fly and then Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Boka Kondra (picture), addressed the gathering at the 2012 Crocodile Prize awards ceremony at the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby.

Mr Kondra read a prepared speech that had been written by Dr Andrew Moutu, the Director of the National Museum and Art Gallery.

It was a good speech but the minister, who had once been a school teacher, stumbled and bumbled his way through it. Sitting at the back of the assembly, I could see the nervous and embarrassed reaction of the audience.

Part way through the speech, the minister came to a reference to pioneering writer Russell Soaba. Russell was sitting at the front of the gathering and was to be honoured by a lifetime achievement in literature award.

He looked increasingly uncomfortable as the minister spoke.

The minister then looked up and stared at Russell, who he had been introduced to before the formal speeches and awards. Mr Kondra looked back at his speech and something clicked in his head.

He grinned broadly and pointed at Russell. “It’s him!” he said.

It was as if he had turned over a rock and found a gold coin underneath. There was a distinct murmur in the audience while the minister absorbed this amazing discovery.

That a minister in the government and an ex-school teacher knew nothing about one of Papua New Guinea’s pre-eminent writers spoke volumes.

The irony that he was reading a speech extolling and supporting PNG writers but knew nothing about them himself was not lost on the audience.

The fine words crafted by Dr Moutu had been rendered mute and meaningless. It was not unexpected.

When the speech was later published on PNG Attitude it attracted no comments.