Bougainville Continues Its Struggle For Independence
The region voted overwhelmingly for independence from Papua New Guinea in 2019, but realizing this in practice has been far from straightforward.
Bougainville is often touted as the world’s next newest nation, set to take over that status from South Sudan. Over five years have passed since Bougainvilleans voted resoundingly to secede from Papua New Guinea (PNG), but progress on realizing this has stalled. The path to independence in this autonomous region, a collection of islands and atolls home to 300,000 people, remains strewn with political roadblocks and practical hurdles.
Bougainville’s president – Ishmael Toroama, a former rebel commander – has championed independence as his principal political project. But he faces an array of challenges. Parliamentary inertia in Port Moresby is obstructing the implementation of the referendum result. And shaping the contours of a future sovereign state is no simple feat; Bougainville must develop the institutional and fiscal capacity to function as a viable, self-reliant nation.
Strong secessionist sentiments have long flourished in Bougainville. They are rooted in the region’s distinct sociocultural identity as well as historical grievances over resource exploitation and political marginalization.
Bougainville first proclaimed independence in 1975, two weeks before PNG gained its own sovereignty from Australia. But this unilateral declaration failed, and so the region was reluctantly absorbed into its larger Melanesian neighbor, which lies across the Solomon Sea.
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Marcus Ray is an Australian working in the British Parliament. He studied at the University of Oxford and was the Michael von Clemm Fellow at Harvard University, where he wrote his thesis on South Pacific politics. His work has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Spectator, and the Australian Financial Review, among others.