The TARI TARZAN, Swinging from Scandal to Scandal Without Ever Landing

by PAUL L. KEBAIJA

After more than fifty years of independence, Papua New Guinea remains a country without a settled direction. Instead of a steady march toward accountable governance, we have a Tarzan routine. One day Marape swings out on the international vine, calling on global superpowers to respect the Pacific as an “Ocean of Peace” after China’s ballistic missile test. The next moment he is in Brisbane signing a fifteen-year Memorandum of Understanding with Queensland University of Technology to bring artificial intelligence, digital identity systems and cybersecurity to the public service. He speaks passionately about eliminating bureaucracy, rewarding merit and cleaning up recruitment and procurement. Then, just as quickly, he swings toward the next photo opportunity, leaving the previous promises swaying in the breeze.
Meanwhile, on the jungle floor, the real problems remain untouched. The K200 million SME funding programme continues to be dogged by allegations of political capture and diversion to connected interests. The national census tablet procurement still stands as a textbook case of overpriced tenders and questionable processes. Questions persist around PNG Defence Force acquisitions. Nepotistic appointments continue to signal that loyalty matters more than competence. These are not isolated incidents; they are the daily reality that ordinary Papua New Guineans navigate while their Prime Minister swings overhead.
The tragedy is that Marape never grips any single vine long enough to pull the nation upward. He demands swift rollout of the QUT partnership and tangible progress before the fifty-first Independence Anniversary, yet the same administration has presided over years of institutional inaction by the Ombudsman Commission and the National Executive Council. He champions digital transformation, yet shows little appetite for dismantling the patronage networks that thrive in the current opaque environment. A central biodata hub for real-time monitoring of contracts and appointments does not require another foreign MOU; it requires the political courage to make powerful people uncomfortable. That courage has been absent.
Instead, the swinging continues. Each new announcement serves as another vine that lifts him above the mess for a while. The Pacific peace call distracts from domestic accountability failures. The Brisbane digital deal generates headlines about modernisation while transparent procurement and merit-based recruitment remain broken. The people are left in the shadows, watching the spectacle, wondering when their leader will finally plant both feet on the ground and start cutting away the vines of graft and institutional decay that have grown thicker with every passing year.
PNG does not need a Tarzan who swings dramatically from crisis to crisis. It needs a leader willing to stay in one place long enough to do the hard work of building institutions that actually function. The jungle is not going to clear itself. Until Marape stops reaching for the next convenient vine and commits to clearing the path beneath him, the nation will continue to watch impressive aerial displays while the rot spreads unchecked on the forest floor. The swinging must stop if PNG is finally to move beyond fifty years of drift into a future where institutions serve citizens rather than shield the connected few