More developed PNG

[La Rouge Beret]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papua_New_Guinea#mediaviewer/Fileapua_New_Guinea_map.png

Papua New Guinea was granted independence in 1975 and has a sizable amount of natural resources. How can PNG be more developed post independence?

 

[BigSteve]

You would need to delay independance for a decade or more, PNG has the problem of being a state cobbled together from thousands of disparate, isolated or warring tribes who rarely speak the same language. On top of this, many of the resources are in the highlands, which are nigh inaccesible from the more developed coastal regions, and again, with the amount of tribal animosity, the highlanders aren't exactly OK with letting the lowlanders (or any other tribe really) come and develop and mine their country. Even today getting approval for development is a nightmare, and most workers need to be armed at all times on site in case of violence.
So yeah, a decade or more development on the part of Australia to connect the highlands to the coast and a greater emphasis on national education would go a long way to enriching PNG.

 

[La Rouge Beret]

You would need to delay independance for a decade or more, PNG has the problem of being a state cobbled together from thousands of disparate, isolated or warring tribes who rarely speak the same language. On top of this, many of the resources are in the highlands, which are nigh inaccesible from the more developed coastal regions, and again, with the amount of tribal animosity, the highlanders aren't exactly OK with letting the lowlanders (or any other tribe really) come and develop and mine their country. Even today getting approval for development is a nightmare, and most workers need to be armed at all times on site in case of violence.
So yeah, a decade or more development on the part of Australia to connect the highlands to the coast and a greater emphasis on national education would go a long way to enriching PNG.

I have always been firmly of the opinion that independence was granted far too early and this had a detrimental impact on the development of PNG. The question is, could Australia in the political climate of the 1970's delay independence for another decade?

I would suspect the first POD would be for PM Whitlam to not make a decision regarding independence and for this to be delayed until PM Fraser assumes office. PM Fraser then establishes a conference to discuss the transition to independence with key stakeholders etc.

 

[BigSteve]

I guess one way to do it would be if Indonesia went red, that way you'd have the incentive and political support from the US to remain in PNG and develop it against the threat of Indonesia.
The problem of this is that by the time communism collapases PNG might be so profitable that Australia wouldn't give it up. The only workaround I can see is if in this red Indonesia scenario, Indonesia balkanised with the collapse of communism and West Papua was incorporated into PNG, which ould make it too much of a burden for it to be worth Australia hanging on to the developed half and leave it to PNG to develop into the new millenium.