Sean Dorney:The Embarrassed Colonialist, Penguin Books, Australia, 2016. Lowy Institute Paper. ISBN 9780143573951. Softcover, 139 pages, RRP $9.99
A Review by Greg Ivey.
Few Australians have had a longer or stronger continuing relationship with Papua New Guinea than Sean Dorney. As a former journalist, he developed a keen understanding of cultural factors and of PNG’s evolving politics and economics. From living in, and broadcasting from, PNG, Dorney is also able to articulate the roles of PNG’s key figures based on his interviews and research. In this booklet, he draws on his experience to advocate for a better understanding of PNG and a better partnership with Australia.
Dorney provides a necessarily-limited account of pre-Independence history with the focus mainly on funding by Colonial powers. Nevertheless, an opportunity was lost in that account to examine the nature of Australia’s Colonial power over PNG. This book’s title would lead the reader to expect a discussion, however brief, on Colonialism – Australian Style. Here, the Lowy consultants could have played a valuable role in the book.
In surveying PNG’s challenges and strengths, Dorney returns briefly to some issues mentioned in his earlier books: the role of the PNGDF, the distinctive style of democracy, the relationship with Indonesia, economic mismanagement and provincial tensions. But there are also current topics discussed with Dorney’s characteristic insight, such as the asylum seekers on Manus Island.
The extracts from Dorney’s interviews in PNG provide information and immediacy about the thinking of key players, mainly the politicians. In Australia, Dorney offers frequent assessments of current politicians’ understanding of PNG whereas one message from this book is that PNG’s future partnerships will depend on non-government agencies. Comments by Lowy Institute consultants intrude into Dorney’s text but we need to remember that the Lowy Institute commissioned the book.
The author offers practical suggestions towards the new Australia-PNG partnership. One education suggestion on “online teaching resources” for Australian students is very relevant while another on PNG university salaries appears retrograde. Elsewhere, in suggesting strategies to improve the quality of public service leadership, Dorney appears to have overlooked the experience of the Administrative College at Waigani in the 1960s.
This timely booklet seems to suggest that international and domestic politics have shaped Australia’s relationship with PNG. If one studies the archival records, it appears that Australian, and later PNG, politicians have advanced or hindered this relationship for 100 years. As Dorney advises, it is time to change. The way forward, he implies, is to engage in well-informed and genuinely-respectful partnerships between Australia and our nearest and dearest neighbour.