The Great Game: Pacific Islands Style
22 September 2024
PAUL OATES
‘When everyone is dead the Great Game is finished.
Not before. Listen to me till the end’ - Rudyard Kipling
CLEVELAND – Are you one of the history buffs who still remember reading about the days when Rudyard Kipling held sway.
When the world map on the schoolroom wall contained innumerable blotches of red or pink to designate the colonies of the British Empire (“this vast empire on which the sun never sets” – George Macartney, 1773).
If you were a fully-fledged, genuine buff you would have come across this term - ‘The Great Game’.
The term was coined in the 19th century in reference to the political and diplomatic confrontation between the British Empire and the Russian Empire.
In 1878-80, British-Indian forces fought a war against Russia which was pushing south through Afghanistan to gain a warm weather port for its navy.
The Russians were successfully resisted and had to settle for a port much further north at Vladivostok.
Today we see Russia and Britain involved in another Great Game in the struggle between Russia (assisted by China, North Korea and Iran) and Ukraine (assisted by the NATO countries including Britain and the United States of America).
In this short essay, however, I apply the term to a smaller Great Game as it operated in the latter half of the 20th century in rural Papua New Guinea.
Any former field officer (kiap if you prefer) in the then Australian territory would remember situations where PNG villagers would play off the kiaps against religious missionaries whenever they could.
It was considered fair game and those expatriates who were ‘newbies’ and didn’t understand the rules would frequently come unstuck.
But these little games have become rather bigger and more complex in PNG and the Pacific Islands.
That said, some of the current players in The Great Game in the Southwest Pacific, have little or no game experience.
But they’re learning quickly as China and the USA (through Australia) strive to exercise their influence over PNG and the Pacific Islands.
China will build a sports ground and Australia will allow a PNG team in its national rugby league competition.
Meanwhile India and Japan ponder over their role, if any, in this Great Game, Japan leaning towards the USA and India seeking to operate independently.
The role of PNG, and other Pacific countries, in this Great Game is to understand that they can extract benefits from both sides.
They are in the right place at the right time, ‘Em kas bilo em laga?’
Last month Australia’s Lowy Institute held a forum on what it termed “the rapidly evolving regional security environment”.
“China’s outreach and activities in the Pacific Islands region appear indefatigable,” the Institute stated. “From deals on policing in Solomon Islands to building parliamentary complexes in Vanuatu.”
It quoted the words of Australian foreign minister Penny Wong, who said that Australia and its partners are locked in a "state of permanent contest" with China as to who gains the greatest influence over the region.
Lowy referred to PNG and the Pacific Islands as “previously undervalued by larger powers [but] now grappl[ing] with the realities of a region subjected to intense geopolitical competition.”
So, as the The Great Game builds in our own region, the opportunities to play one side off against the other(s) expand.
Countries can benefit from this, and so can clever and wily politicians.
Be that as it may, there is an old Chinese idiom that should be borne in mind.
‘Those who ride the tiger need to be very careful not to fall off.’
Once players begin to participate in The Great Game, great skill and caution must be exercised to keep riding the tiger.
It is difficult to get off the tiger without being eaten. And heaven help those who fall off.
It also makes us wonder about how well PNG, and Australia, will compete in the southwest Pacific’s version of The Great Game.
Can we can comfortably ride these tigers?
Or will one or the other eat us?
Dear Paul,
The following link provides access to a rather interesting article on the Declassified Australia website:
https://declassifiedaus.org/2024/08/30/no-peace-in-the-pacific/
Posted by: Bernard Corden | 22 September 2024 at 05:49 PM