The Editor's attempt to
answer
the question:
For
those visitors to this site who are wondering what is a "Kiap" I advance
(whilst welcoming any correction, modification or fine tuning by my peers) the
following explanation:
"Kiaps" were multi-functional
administrative field officers who worked in Papua New Guinea
usually from remote or semi-remote locations. They were
also often referred to as "patrol officers" by outsiders
when in fact a "patrol
officer" was only one of many levels of seniority within the ranks of the
"kiaps".
Chapter 1 of the Australian Institute of Criminology's paper "Women
in Transition, Social Control in Papua New Guinea by Cyndi Banks" provides
a fairly reasonable historical background to the "Kiap" concept.
In the context of the Australian administration of PNG "Kiaps" were
mostly
Australians with Papua New Guineans being recruited into the "service" from
the 1960's onwards (I first thought that Jack Bagita may have been the first PNG kiap
however a colleague suggested that it was Phil Bouraga and upon reflection I
think he is correct).
I would like to think that timing of recruitment of
Papua New Guineans was more a function of the political and educational
maturation of the country in that the educational system had reached a stage
where it was graduating sufficient numbers of students at a level of education
necessary for entrance into the public service. Others may contend that it was
a result of external and internal pressures forcing the issue and that there
was a paternalistic or racial element in the equation. As the saying goes, the
truth is most probably somewhere in between, it's all in the eye of
the beholder.
Linguistic Derivation:
It is my understanding that "kiap" is a "tok pisin" (pidgin-english)
corruption of the German word for Captain, "Kapitän" and is a legacy of the
German colonial era in New Guinea. It's also interesting to note that "Kapitän"
is the nautical form of the word as opposed to "Hauptmann" which is
the military equivalent, refer
the following on-line English-German dictionary. I'm thankful that I was
called a "kiap" and not a "hap man", there are too many
contextual meanings to the latter.
Glossary: multi-functional
Carried out
many or most of, if not all of the following functions:
-
geographic/demographic exploration (patrols);
-
police (exercise the powers of as well as management of police
personnel) and
magisterial (prosecutor, defender, judge & jury) duties;
Readers should note that this rolling up of police and magisterial
functions all into one made for a
very efficient judicial unit; one didn't waste time arresting a person and
putting him through the magisterial process if he wasn't guilty however it
should be noted that this judicial efficiency can only be achieved if all
this authority is vested in one man then all you need is one good man but therein lies the rub.
-
corrective institutions (including asset and staff management);
-
treasury (payment and receipt of public monies);
-
postal & telegraphs (radio based);
-
banking (agency function);
-
civil works (roads, bridges, building construction including schools, aid
posts, housing, markets, bush saw mills, water wells);
-
area planning & co-ordination of other government functions such
agriculture, health, education, co-operatives, social welfare;
-
outstation management (construction, maintenance, stores & supplies)
-
census (collection and analysis of demographic data);
-
electoral including
political education;
-
local government (electoral, administrative, by-laws, financial, taxation &
works including equipment);
-
aviation (airstrip construction, maintenance & strip reporting);
-
security;
-
Transportation (vehicles and equipment management and maintenance);
-
Lands (dispute resolution, demarcation, titles & alienation);
-
Labour (regulatory and recruitment);
-
and
last but not least, that wonderful ubiquitous phrase that was in all
duty statements" any other duties that may be directed to be carried out
from time time" or words to that effect.
Neil
Lucas:
Apropos the article “What is a Kiap”, I have
unearthed from the yellowing personal files some comments made, at 50 year
intervals, which may be of further interest.
C .A. W. Monckton, Resident Magistrate,
Northern Division, Papua. 9th.August, 1906:
“There seems to be a popular impression that
any man is capable of acting as a patrol officer in New Guinea, but the
following list of what a patrol officer is required to know and his duties will,
I think, show that such is far from the case.
Such officers must have a working knowledge of
the Justices Act of Queensland (adopted), the various Small Debts Acts, an
exceedingly complicated Mining Act. The New Guinea Laws and Ordinances, the
Criminal Code, the Intestacy Act, the Native Regulations, the Postal
regulations, book-keeping, infantry drill, bone setting and simple surgery,
medicine, road making, surveying, building, boat sailing and the Motuan
language.
He must learn the attitude of the different
tribes towards the Government and towards each other, and their peculiarities,
he must be physically capable of resisting malaria and dysentery, and of keeping
pace with the (native) Constabulary in long rough marches, also of maintaining
discipline in the gaols and the station, as well as among the two or three
hundred crude savages employed as carriers and labourers.
He must also be prepared to spend weeks alone
with the natives, spend most of his pay on living expenses and at the end of a
few years to have his health shattered and then be useless for any other
occupation, and to be the recipient of a constant stream of abuse both locally
and in the public press, with the prospect that unless he is lucky enough to get
killed or die before he is incapable of any longer doing his work he can starve
in Australia or New Guinea at the end.”
To this impassioned acclamation was added in
1955, by a person with the nom de plume of “MAVARU”, the following refinement:
“Changing times have necessitated field staff
officers to have further qualifications. Now he must also be a typist, storeman,
mechanic, radio operator, driver, agriculturalist, coroner and undertaker,
police investigator, anthropologist, security agent, hotelier and diplomat;
stevedore, shop and factory; hygiene, labour, industry and prices inspector;
airfield, wharf and bridge construction expert; census taker, electoral
returning officer, economist, re-afforestation officer, social surveyor, defence
counsel, departmental liaison officer, electrician, mayor and social organiser,
local authorities propagandiser and organiser.
In addition to these normal qualifications, for
an officer to remain in the service, he must practice monastic celibacy; to
remain free of public stigma and humiliation he must remember that ‘a defence of
an attack’ is now ‘ a defence is an attack’; he must be prepared to live in
sub-human habitation, give his undying, unquestioning, unrecognised,
unreciprocated loyalty, and for any hope of promotion possess certain academic
qualifications, and to remain sane, possess a sense of humour”
Keith Jackson's
(ex-chalkie and current Sydney "A" list spin doctor, see Keith, I've now
learnt how to spell that word) disrespectful little ditty from a Kundiawa review circa
1965:
Kiaps here, Kiaps there,
Bloody Kiaps everywhere,
PO1's, PO2's,
CPO's can POQ.