Papua New Guinea has told Australia to butt out of its internal politics after Australia demanded stricter controls over how its multimillion dollar aid budget is spent in the near-bankrupt and corruption-riddled Pacific island state.
Analysts say the snub is symptomatic of wounded national pride among South Pacific leaders over a tough interventionist approach in their affairs adopted recently by Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
Once accused of ignoring the Pacific, Howard now says Australia should be allowed to dictate how its aid money is spent in an impoverished region he fears could become a haven for terrorists.
This week, the prime minister of Papua New Guinea, Michael Somare, canceled a visit from Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Downer was to have insisted that Australian officials be placed in the Papua New Guinea bureaucracy to oversee programs financed out of Australia's A$330 million (US$210 million) annual aid budget.
"A sovereign state has the right to decide what type of people we would have to help us out," a defiant Somare told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio this week.
Last week, Somare ordered a review of the Australian aid program and said officials had been asked to prepare "an Australian aid exit strategy for further deliberation and consideration by the Cabinet."
"It has become apparent that the approach to management and delivery of Australian aid to PNG cannot continue under the present arrangements," he said.
Relations between Australia and its former colony, which gained independence in 1975, have soured since Howard used a recent regional forum to demand better government in the South Pacific as a condition for continued aid.
"It's being viewed in the Pacific as neocolonialism, there's a lot of negative reporting going on already," Ron May, an expert on Papua New Guinea politics at the Australian National University, said.
A sprawling nation of 5 million people, Papua New Guinea is Canberra's largest aid recipient. Despite having huge mineral reserves, it, like many of its Pacific island neighbors, is plagued by social problems generated by poor political leadership, bad economic management and corruption.
Howard yesterday said Australia was determined to have a say in how its aid money was spent.
"We want to make certain the assistance we do give is wisely used and we obviously want to see that the people of Australia get a proper return on what, after all, is their money," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
Somare took over as prime minister a year ago for the third time since he led the nation to independence from Australia. Despite his political experience, he has failed to pull his country out of its economic tailspin.
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