Most observable in this respect is the emergence of a wealthy elite, much of its prosperity built on corruption.

Why worry about declining public enterprises such as health services and education when you can jet off to Singapore for an appendectomy or to Brisbane for a couple of years at a grammar school.

Corruption has been a growing and persistent problem since PNG’s independence from Australia in 1975.

The country has a high level of nepotism in politics and the bureaucracy, with political families and their wantoks dominating the leadership positions and using this power to enrich themselves and their associates.

The cost of corruption is staggering. The World Bank estimates that corruption costs PNG around K115 billion a year, about 12% of its annual GDP.

Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index constantly ranks PNG as one of the world’s most corrupt countries in the world.

Corruption manifests itself in various ways including bribery, fraud, embezzlement, bid-rigging and plain old theft.

The country's natural resources are a honeypot – the prime target for corrupt activities with foreign companies often making deals with unscrupulous officials to gain access to the country's mineral, gas and forest reserves.

Australian companies are not immune from this thievery, like the 2014 scandal in which several high-ranking officials were found to have received bribes from an Australian company in exchange for the granting of a mining licence.

This led to public outrage and the resignation of the mining minister which, when you give it a moment’s thought, is not much of a punishment.

But this and so many similar cases (PNG Attitude has score upon score of them here) struggle to gain convictions in court and even the wrath of the citizenry is insufficient, unsustained and poses little or no fear of punishment amongst the elite.

Corruption also impacts infrastructure, with roads, schools, hospitals, airstrips and other public works falling into disrepair and even being abandoned due to embezzlement.

And it contributes to PNG’s high poverty rate, low workforce competency and the continuing disaster which are the education and healthcare sectors.

Compounding the curse of corruption is a political situation marked by volatile strategic alliances that shift without blame or shame depending upon the interests of the individuals and parties involved.

PNG is by name a parliamentary democracy but its governance is characterised by unscrupulousness, theft and disrespect of the Constitution.

And its justice system, once considered beyond reproach is now thought of as almost irrelevant.

Political alliances, mostly forged on an opportunistic search for wealth instead of a shared vision of a progressive and stable nation, result in fragile coalitions that collapse easily.

And prime ministers do not primarily seek to govern the nation but to acquire personal plenitude.

Hardly surprising, then, that there is a scarcity of effective governance, policy-making and authentic national development; that is, development for the people not the bank accounts of the elite.

PNG’s leadership at political and bureaucratic levels too often has no relationship to the capabilities the country requires. This lack of good faith, competency and social equity has undermined institutional capacity and led to a lack of continuity and inclusivity in development projects.

Since taking office in 2019, the Marape government – comprised of many of the same officials as the prior O’Neill government – has blamed O’Neill for PNG’s poor financial position, lack of infrastructure, high cost of transport, breakdown of law and order, underachieving public service and floundering state-owned enterprises.

The ‘capacity-building’ often claimed to be the goal of projects handsomely funded by Australia’s foreign affairs department serves no purpose other than to provide overpaid consultants and desperate ministerial speechwriters with an opportunity to dip into the growing mountain of jargon that is a substitute for clear thinking.

I write this condemnation of PNG as it confronts what is apparently its greatest challenge since independence in 1975, or perhaps the Imperial Japanese Army’s invasion of 1942.

The country’s influential external actors, those with which important strategic alliances were formed, until comparatively recently were Australia and a bevy of United Nations’ agencies.

Then, as Xi Jinping progressively transformed his presidency of the People's Republic of China into a fully-fledged imperial reign, his Belt and Road Initiative - established to finance infrastructure projects worldwide - became an increasingly important player in PNG’s development.

The weight of Xi’s Xue cavalryman’s leather boot (靴), on China’s throat, rapidly exposed itself with an unchallenged expansion into the South China Sea followed by greater intervention in the south-west Pacific, including Australia.

China is now the third largest foreign investor in PNG and the fifth largest in Australia.

The Times of India recently ran a news story about how ‘the rest of the world’ envied PNG as Chinese money ‘poured in’.

Meanwhile, Down Under, a nervous media was reporting how this increased Chinese investment in PNG was “sparking security fears for Australia”.

But it was early last year that the game got interesting, when the United States, who had appeared quite relaxed about China’s Pacific Islands adventures, suddenly turned the dialup to 11 when the Solomons signed a defence agreement with the People’s Republic.

Immediately concerns were raised about debt levels and potential loss of sovereignty, with accusations that China was using ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ to gain control over PNG's resources.

Since then, the US has been busy signing defence cooperation agreements in the region, and last week it was PNG’s turn.

On the other hand, Australia has historically been PNG's largest aid donor and has very close economic, political, social, cultural and familial ties with the country.

The relationship had become a little tense in the last few years over Australia's use of Manus Island as a virtual prison for asylum seekers and our continuing concern about corruption and consequential desire to hypothecate aid money to specific projects rather than the more wide-ranging ‘budget support’.

But both countries understand and are keen to maintain the mutual dependence underpinning their association – PNG is dependent on our generous aid and Australia is dependent on keeping PNG closer to us than China.

And just last week, the US underpinned this by signing its own defence cooperation agreement with PNG (Australia was in full support of course).

Well done, Joe and Albo, but the deal has certainly complicated PNG’s relationship with China and dented PNG’s rather tired foreign policy dictum of being ‘friends to all and enemies to none’.

And beyond the US-China manoeuvers, the volatile politics, webs of corruption and never-ending Highlands tribal warfare will continue to hinder PNG’s development and probably keep raising the domestic temperature.

There’s no law stating that the people of PNG, who have so far taken - at best - a detached interest in national politics, will remain in this condition of ignorant bliss.

Corruption and high level ineptitude have impacted the degradation of PNG’s infrastructure, weakened its services to communities and not taken the best advantage of its splendid natural resource base.

Frequent political upheavals have contributed to a lack of effective governance.

Addressing these issues and other will require at least these steps:

• ensure the development process becomes more appropriately integrated with the needs and capabilities of the population,
  
  
• emphasise expeditious planning and synchronised implementation,
  
  
• harmonise collaboration between the national government and international community,
  
  
• commit to transparency, accountability and action against high level corruption
  
  
• make a concerted effort to ensure the people are politically educated
  
  
• build closer relationships with South-East Asian countries as a counterbalance to detrimental US and Chinese competitiveness in the Pacific Islands

It’s a complex and fascinating scenario that confronts PNG and the Pacific Islands at this time. It makes me feel a little relieved that whatever practical contribution it was mine to make, happened way back then and not now.