Transcript
JAMES TANIS: There should no longer be any doubt in the minds of Bougainvilleans or Papua New Guineans or the international community, about whether the referendum will take place or not. It is now too late to argue over or debate. The referendum is now guaranteed. The implementation is now guaranteed, but the referendum will definitely take place on Bougainville. That is what it [signing of the Charter] means to me.
DON WISEMAN: What about what is actually in the referendum because there are going to be a number of questions for people, aren't there? What sort of information is going to them about the various options, or is it going to be one simple question?
JT: That is an issue that is still outstanding between the two governments to resolve, and to make the job of the Referendum Commissioner easier to move towards doing administrative things like printing ballot papers. And that is a decision that needs to be made on deciding on the options, or the questions to be put in the referendum. There are a few things I can say early. In terms already of what people expect is that the war on Bougainville has been over the independence of Bougainville. So already in the Peace Agreement and also the Constitutional arrangements the option of separate independence for Bougainville is, in my view, and as the law says and as the agreement says, it is an agreed option. For now I am not aware of any other option that is mentioned in the Peace Agreement. There are other points added to it - the Peace Agreement says that the question needs to be simple so that it does not cause confusion in the minds of Bougainvilleans. So because of that the Bougainville Executive Council has made a decision, and it is no secret, that they would want to see, Bougainville's preference is that they would want to see a simple question asked, Yes or No, for independence of Bougainville. And of course there are capacity issues that Bougainville needs to think of. But the thinking of Bougainville's leadership is that the capacity issue should not be used to confuse people, to make a choice about the future. And finally, as a peace builder, my personal view is that if the war on Bougainville was on independence [then] let's answer that question, instead of creating other questions that Bougainvilleans never fought for. So it is best that the two governments meet to boldly, and without fear, tackle the question of independence for Bougainville and put it in a way that can be put into a question that can be put. What I am saying Don is that that is the decision of the ABG, that they would want to see a simple Yes or No on the question of independence, but again, this is a negotiated process and that option of what must be put in the referendum has to agreed by the governments of Papua New Guinea and Bougainville, and hopefully in the next meeting with PNG we need to put that on the table and time is now short and we can no longer continue to circle around the issues.
DW: The thing is independence can mean a wide range of things can't it, in terms of just what you mean. Are there going to be continuing links with PNG in terms of education and so on, transport and all those sorts of things.
JT: That is exactly what I was alluding to. The two governments need to address the question of independence for Bougainville. Of course what ever form it takes, whatever processes it takes is something the two governments need to negotiate.
DW: You have talked about the capacity issues and these have been talked about for a long time, and things have not changed much have they. Are you confident that there is going to be some degree of improvement by 2019?
JT: Don you and me know very well that in the next 12 months Bougainville cannot meet the level of fiscal self reliance that Bougainville can be left to stand on its own, but the point that the Bougainville leadership is making now, is let's not try to cloud the issue of making a choice about a certain destiny that they would want to achieve now, and then work on a process of developing their capacity to achieve that status that they would choose in the referendum. That is why, for us, we have been very cautious but in my department we are beginning to think more about post referendum steps, so that we do not just stop at the referendum, because, in my view, how successful we are in planning in this referendum will be tested by what happens five years down the line, after the referendum. And that is to make sure that Bougainville is still peaceful, Bougainville is united and that there is no resumption of armed conflict and that Bougainville still has the strength to implement the process for that outcome that people desired in the referendum.
