It is not a beggar because it is our government; it is a beggar because of its massive bureaucracy constructed for us by the consultants forwarded to us by our region’s hegemonic power, Australia.

Some studies into the Chinese revolution disclose that its bureaucracy developed in stages in response to economic, social and political advances. But for us Bougainvilleans, the consultants designed a bureaucracy suited for something economically and educationally bigger and stronger.

The decade-long conflict on Bougainville interrupted education and also took down our economy. Thus many of our people are not educated to levels required by the bureaucracy. The consultants knew that. They also knew our internal revenue was in trouble.

But they had an eye on the wealth at Panguna as well as our cocoa, copra and other produce of land and sea.

So with that love of our natural resources they had tasted before 1990, they engineered bureaucratic machinery that needed money to function.

Now the Panguna mine reopening is being pushed by Panguna New Generation Leaders with the support of Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) through the Panguna negotiations office, or ‘BCL pay office’ as the anti-mining public refers to it.

My fear is that any money that derives from this will fund only the bureaucracy and not provide service delivery for our people’s development.

Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and many tiny independent Pacific island countries have much smaller bureaucracies than the ABG’s public service but their peoples’ living standards and cultures are better.

Just take a boat across from Buin or Kieta to the Solomons and prove me right.