Madame Lu re enters the courtroom, regally. Rosa keeps an eye.
James Yali and Karumbukare Landowner Assoc Pres David Tigavu watch eagerly during the afternoon break.
After a stream on insults at me, concerning my 'adventurousness' at taking photos and my need to go back to the bush and shoot tree kangaroos instead-- echoed by approving sneers from a clutch of Raikos women who were later disciplined by the Judge for laughing out loud at a comment by the plaintiff (behavior we have come to expect from the MCC, but not Papua New Guineans!), David T has me talk to the hand.
Yesterday the courthouse became ground zero for a vortex of unseemly things: the mysterious disappearance of the 3 plaintiffs over the weekend, only to have them appear for court by police escort, absolutely mum for the day; the bashing of plaintiffs' supporters; the complete disappearance of one of the plaintiff's staunchest and most public supporters; the threatening of one plaintiff's family to the effect that if the case goes forward he will reap dire consequences; the greasing of tens of palms in the past few months alone; and the circulation of one heinous email by MCC's Press Officer slandering the plaintiff's lawyer, only to result in an embarssed retraction and apology.
These are the early days, the teething period, for Chinese investment in this aggressively egalitarian, parliamentary democracy. All too many Papua New Guineans, both local and nationwide, have misconstrued the court case to be against the mine itself--or against development itself, when it is most importantly against the deep sea tailings disposal method as planned. It is currently a battle between Madang people, mainly Rai Coast, and the company that just recently posted great profits over why they refuse to consider any other form of tailings disposal. And a battle between having a low paying job versus having clean water for the future (a dilemma repeated across PNG thanks to ineffectual government and an absence of infrastructural development). People have now come to equate any kind or quality of development as the sole opportunity to get ahead.
Because more money has circulated in the last few days than anyone ever thought possible, for a company that claims to be teetering on bankruptcy (and blaming its failed commitments to creditors and employees alike on the court injunction), this is new territory for many of us. Not the jurisprudence most of our lawyers and judges have been trained into; and not the freedom to litigate their objections that most Papua New Guineans have been raised to expect. This is Chinese 'investment' of another order: that is, the purposeful recalibration of the justice system in PNG to respond to money over morality.
Today we will finally learn from the plaintiffs where they were the past few days and how their minds were dramatically, astonishingly, changed.
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