Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) Vice President, Attorney General, and Minister for Independence Mission Implementation, Ezekiel Masatt, recently delivered a ministerial update to Parliament regarding the joint post-referendum consultations between the Government of Papua New Guinea and Bougainville.
During his address, Vice President Masatt outlined that there are three main key strategies guiding Bougainville’s political journey towards independence.
1. The Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) process which includes the referendum and ratification process,
2. The constitution-making process through the Bougainville Constituent Assembly (BCA),
3. And international lobbying.
“Any one of them can happen, however, to give confidence and trust to this preferred option,” Masatt stated. “If we go back to the motion for BCA, we can amend laws, but we will still fall short when it comes to adapting.”
Mr. Masatt added that this shows that all three strategies cannot work in this process toward independence because the preferred options for gaining independence through the BPA, were involved in the referendum and the peace agreement, which caused a lot of arguments and friction between the two governments.
That was when a moderator was brought in that resulted in the Melanesian Framework agreed to in the Melanesian Agreement signed in June 2025.
“This is the pathway forward for Bougainville Independence, now at the stage of Melanesian agreement where it is intendent to find practical model for Bougainville for independence.”
“This model must never fall under the definition that falls short of the definition that the people had voted for in the referendum, apart from crafting out a model, focus is also on power and functions, capacity and funding, finding and knowing weakness and strengths.”
He further highlighted that the national government has agreed to let Bougainville talk about and with sovereign powers; however, Bougainville still recognized the National Government as the sovereign power.
“At most of the time the National Government often says there are no funds available, well Bougainville wants sovereign power so it can make strategic economic decision to solve some money issues faced by the government”, Masatt added.
“Discussions are going very well on technical side and hope that in this current autonomous status we assume some sovereign power so we can have the power to make decisions and move peacefully through to independence and self-government.”
