Prostitution issue in Papua

Press, 24 May 1977, Page 14

Prostitution issue in Papua

By

TERRY STAYTE,

NZPA correspondent

Port Moresby An official suggestion that prostitution should be legalised as a way of creating employment opportunities for young women has sparked off public debate on the wider issue of the status of women in Papua New Guinea society. After initial outraged reaction, the question is now being asked whether women are bought and sold in traditional Papua New Guinea cultures. The suggestion that prostitution be legalised was contained in two lines buried in a lengthy report on land

shortage and unemployment problems in the town of Ravaul, prepared for the East New Britain Provincial Government by national and provincial officers. Under present laws, inherited from the former Australian administration, prostitution is not illegal in Papua New Guinea. It is however an offence to keep a brothel — known as “haus pamok” in pidgin — or to live off the earnings of a prostitute. A provincial planner, Mr John Tovue, one of the authors of the report, later explained that lack of industries in Rabaul coupled with urban drift from surrounding areas and immigration from other parts of the country left many young people unemployed and caused many young women to turn to prostitution.

Recognising prostitution would not only give these women a legitimate job but would probably mean fewer cases of rape, Mr Tovue said. The immediate reaction was a Church-sponsored protest march in Rabaul and a strongly-worded statement from the Melanesian Council of Churches describing the recommendation as the way to “slavery, the ultimate degradation of women, and a triumph for exploitation over human dignity and development.” “It is deplorable that the Provincial Government can think of nothing more wholesome for its rejected youngsters than selling their bodies,” the council said. “How self-reliant is a prostitute, who depends entirely on the sexual frustrations of male patrons? If we

wish to maintain our national traditions, then we will oppose prostitution.” But while it is true that prostitution in its commercial Western sense is alien to Papua New Guinea village life, some of its aspects have been in evidence for centuries. The peoples of a number of areas still have a form of wife swapping on festive occasions and a distinguished visitor can expect to be generously supplied with women, while female war captives used to be kept in the men’s clubhouses on Manus Island for the men’s entertainment, with their captor taking them on money-making tours from time to time.