The State is just a spectator

Guns proliferate in Papua New Guinea and are a major contributing factor to the country’s ongoing massive law and order problem. The National, Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper, was on the dot again with this frank editorial today.

 

THE State’s authority as the enforcer of the rule of law and adjudicator of justice has come under serious threat because of its failure to adequately address the issue of the proliferation of illegal guns and their use in PNG.

There are arms races happening in communities throughout the country as men jostle each other to acquire the latest guns in order to protect their families and communities.

It is not merely an issue of crime. Guns have become a deeply ingrained social issue involving entire communities and the leaders of PNG.

The Guns Committee was established in 2005 with retired Brig Gen Jerry Singirok as chairman. It immediately undertook a nationwide assessment of guns proliferation and related issues.

The team spoke to a large cross-section of the population in all 20 provinces. Papua New Guineans and expatriates spoke passionately about guns and the cost to the nation of their illegal use. Out of the concerns came a huge report with 244 recommendations which was presented to the Prime Minister.

This report is yet to be presented to Parliament. This inaction by the Government is worrying and even suspicious. It is almost as if the Government wanted the status quo to persist.

Guns have become more than just a criminal problem.

In the Highlands, the presence and use of illegal guns is felt greatest. Where once tribal fight was pitting men against each other on the open battlefield, today it has been reduced to a merciless killing spree.

In the old days, tribal fight was itself a conflict resolution method, albeit the last resort. When all else failed, the conflicting parties decided to test their strength on the battle field to see who would be the ultimate winner.

Today, it is a merciless war of attrition in which opponents gun each other down from hiding, in ambushes and raids. Opponents mean to completely wipe out the existence of the other.

Entire villages have been wiped out as a result and whole communities have been displaced permanently, most of whom are to be found in urban settings such as Lae and Port Moresby – adding to the squatter problem. Often the animosities follow these migrants into the cities so that the nation had witnessed gruesome payback killings right in the centre of towns in broad daylight.

The gun has transformed most Highlands societies so that today its influence is on par with pigs, money and four-wheel drives as a tool of status, power, wealth and intimidation.

Guns have also tilted the balance of power. Now real power rests in the hands of the person or group with the most powerful gun.

The gun’s role in society is not lost on politicians. Many politicians, both in power and those aspiring, have easy access to guns if they do not themselves own them now.

Many have financed purchases of guns and ammunition, particularly in preparation for general elections. Perhaps there is resounding silence in Parliament and lack of action on the recommendations of the Singirok Committee because many of the politicians cannot be seen to go against the very source of power which might have got them into Parliament in the first place.

Only two politicians – Enga Governor Peter Ipatas and Attorney-General Dr Allan Marat – have spoken out often about this important issue.

Speaking for the Highlands, Mr Ipatas told fellow governors last March in Manus: “A frightening aspect of the guns issue is that in most rural parts of the Highlands provinces, the rule of law is being replaced by anarchy, chaos and the rule of the gun. Mercenaries and gunmen are thriving and ruling using fear and intimidation, and State institutions, which are not equipped to deal with such cases, are reduced to playing the role of insignificant spectators.”

Mr Ipatas said the current state of affairs was a catalyst to promote arms races in communities around the country to procure guns at all costs to protect their families, homes, lands, way of life and the right to life.

This desire to own guns has provided fertile ground for an alternate illicit industry – trading in guns, drugs and other high paying illicit goods – which threaten the lawful industries.

The Government’s failure to act on the Guns Summit recommendations has dissipated all hopes and confidence in the State to effectively address the problem. If anything, if would appear the arms race is racing ahead unimpeded, undermining the State’s authority to enforce the rule of law and adjudicate justice in the country.

 

 

Hold-up drama in Kandrian

Mark J Reichman from the New Tribes Mission in Kandrian, West New Britain province, writes this dramatic report of an attempted hold-up by armed criminals at remote Kandrian airstrip on Monday this week. Masked bandits dramatically forced the pilot of a New Tribes Mission plan to abort landing.

 

ON Monday, at 11am on my way to the Kandrian airport, I stopped and picked up four guys (two of whom wanted to fly to Hoskins, Andrew and Pius).

I then picked female passenger (name withheld) and her brother from the Peter PNG store in Kandrian.

Afterwards, I went to the hospital and picked up a sick man, Lukas, his wife Ana and the HEO Kaspar.

We drove to the airport and waited for the New Tribes Mission plane. While we waited, many of the passengers sought shade in the terminal building. Only myself, the female passenger and her brother were in the truck.

At 11:30am, we heard the drone of the airplane engine. At the same time, my son Jared, who was standing outside the driver’s door said “there’s trouble”.

I turned around and saw masked men with long barrelled guns coming out of the tall grass and walking towards the truck.

I don’t know why, maybe it was because my truck was stolen last July by a drunk or because of being assaulted in September by another drunk or because Johnson Trading in Gasmata was held up by armed robbers or Peter PNG held up in December by armed robbers and the Tiana Spirit being stoned by drunks and having no police in Kandrian to report incidents to, instinctively made me start the truck and take off.

I sped away while six armed, masked men chased me down the airstrip.

As I sped away I said a little prayer of “is there a chance I could end my missionary career today?” but had a peace that wasn’t going to be the case.

I turned to the left to find a side road that would bring me back to the airport apron but the armed men also turned and I saw they would be able to intercept us so I straightened out and continued down the centre of the airstrip.

At this time the female passenger said she had a lot of money with her.

Looking in my mirror, I counted six men chasing us and we were getting away. I also saw the NTM plane making his final turn so I slowed the truck down and flashed my lights repeatedly at the plane as the pilot made his final approach. He saw my signal and aborted his landing.

I proceeded to the end of the airstrip but having nowhere further to drive, I turned the truck around and stopped.

The armed men were continuing to walk down the centre of the airstrip towards us so I asked the female passenger if “she wanted to give up her money?”

Before she could answer, I told my passengers to lay down across the backseat. I waited thinking if I sped past them it would be unlikely they could hit a fast moving vehicle and as they were getting closer, I took off back down the airstrip heading straight towards the assailants.

They were waving their guns defiantly in the air. I last saw my speedometer reading 60kph as I veered right at a group of three armed men who quickly fled. I then saw an armed man on my left with a long barrelled gun so I turned the truck towards him.

As I bore down on him, he ran to the side and I continued my pursuit leaving the karanas and onto the grass. When I got about 50 feet away, I swerved to avoid the armed man at which time he lowered his gun. I swerved to the right and laid down across the seat. I heard the gun fire which sounded more like a .303 than a shotgun.

Believing he only had the one bullet, I quickly sat up as the truck was now speeding across the karanas on the strip. I fish tailed to the right then got the truck under control and saw another man on the left side of the strip waving something in the air so I aimed for him as well.

He was way off to the side of the centre of the strip in the grass so again I left the karanas and aimed for him which sent him fleeing. I did not chase him very long and returned to the centre of the strip. I then made my way back to the apron area looking in my mirror and seeing the armed men were not in pursuit of me any longer, I relaxed.

(I was told later by Jared that he saw them follow a path to the east side of the airstrip towards the village of Amungsong. He remembered seeing one pump action gun, and one home- made gun without a butt. He also saw a cloud of black smoke that he believed was the gun that had fired.

(Although the truck was spewing out black smoke as well, he said this was a “puff” of black smoke he saw after I passed the armed man. He then saw the truck swerving and thought the bullet had hit a tyre but that is not the case. We checked the truck and there were no bullet holes.)

A bunch of people had gathered on the apron as the NTM plane flew overhead. We cleared the apron and the NTM airplane landed. We unloaded the plane at which time three trucks full of men came up to the apron area. Amongst them was the female passenger’s husband and he was carrying a 9mm pistol. Six passengers loaded the plane and four trucks went up and down the airstrip before stopping alongside the airstrip while the plane took off. At 1pm all the trucks came down the hill in close procession.

We did not report the incident to any police in Kandrian because there are no police here to report it to.

The pilot later commented: “Getting closer, I could see that the men chasing the truck were waving their bush knives in a murderous fashion. Wait! Is that a shotgun? He is aiming it at me! I banked the aircraft sharply to the right toward lower terrain. I think I’m still too far away for an effective shot if he pulled the trigger, but I pushed hard for distance and altitude.”

Latest update: On Tuesday, at 7pm, “more than four” armed men broke into the female passenger’s residence and demanded that her husband come out of his room. A man was holding a shotgun and when the husband opened the door, he fired his 9mm.

The man ran and fired his shotgun back hitting the wall leaving a 4-inch hole in the plywood. Another shotgun was fired low and pellets hit another person in the house in the calf, causing minor injuries. The husband fired another shot. The armed men fled leaving a trail of blood on the verandah.

The townspeople mustered around the residence but the gunmen had already fled.

Power sector needs competition

Since last December, we’ve been having constant electricity blackouts, water cuts, etc, etc, and the people of Port Moresby – and the whole for Papua New Guinea for that matter – are getting absolutely fed up. We want – and demand – better services! The National newspaper, PNG’s leading daily newspaper, hit the nail on the head (or rather, coffin) with this head-hitting editorial yesterday, which basically sums up the frustration of all Papua New Guineas.

 

MOROBE Governor Luther Wenge is not alone in directing his anger at PNG Power Ltd.

The intermittent power outages throughout the country are getting worse.

The aggregate cost to the economy of lost production, damaged electronic goods and purchase and maintenance of back-up power supply units is substantial.

Put another way, if interruption to electricity supply were not as frequent as they are now, the economy would be far better off than it is at present. The cost of doing business would be lower.

It is unimaginable for us at The National to operate without a back-up generator.

Almost every other business in PNG has to have a generator. Investing in back-up power, in uninterrupted power supply (UPS) units, and in power guards might be optional in other places. In PNG, these items are an essential cost of doing business.

Last year, PNG Chamber of Commerce president David Conn told a breakfast gathering attended by Deputy Prime Minister Dr Puka Temu that chamber members were contemplating taking class action against the electricity supplier.

One member had lost K500, 000 worth of an electronic component of a press plant, which he had installed only one week earlier. It would be difficult to estimate just how much electrical and electronic equipment had been lost as a result of power outages or power surges.

Some of the power surges are so massive that they rip through power guards to blow up power boards of sensitive equipment.

Apart from loss of expensive equipment, loss of production as a result of interrupted work flow and loss of business are immeasurable.

One power surge in Waghi Valley last December took out every computer, television set and electronic gadget that was connected to a power socket. More than K100, 000 worth of equipment was lost.

Mr Conn said he had to operate out of hotel business centres for 26 weeks during power outages. “This is no way to conduct business anywhere,” he told that breakfast gathering.

It certainly isn’t.

Anywhere else, this farce would not be tolerated. The entire board and management would be sacked and a new team named only after a few months of intermittent power outages.

We have had to put up with this nonsense for years. And there appears to be no end to it.

Port Moresby’s electricity needs are supplied through three different sources.

The Rouna Hydro grid, which takes power through three different stations, supplies part of the capital’s power needs, while the Korean Hanjung diesel generated power at Kanudi supplies the balance. The Moitaka diesel generators are normally operated as back-up power but it is said they are now, more or less, operating full time.

Despite these different sources, power outages in Port Moresby are a fact of life.

It is not only Port Moresby that experiences blackouts. Lae, Madang and the Highlands, which are served by the Yonki Hydro facility, experience frequent power cuts too.

Some of the townships, such as Madang, have diesel power back-up, but even that does not seem to hold up when the Yonki power supply is interrupted.

What makes it doubly frustrating is that nobody, not board members, not management, not the public affairs office of PNG Power, is coming forward to explain what exactly is the cause of the power outages.

Any concentrated class action against PNG Power, were it contemplated and even taken up, stands a good chance of winning. This is because losses due to power outages are measurable. Power outages are so frequent that “accidents” as a defence in court would be laughable.

It is time the Government took serious stock of the power situation in the country. If PNG Power has capacity problems, perhaps it is time to bring in other power suppliers to help out.

We can suggest, for instance, that a tender should be let for expressions of interest for supply of power to towns outside the Yonki power grid such as Wewak, Vanimo, Kimbe, Kokopo, Rabaul, Lorengau, Kavieng and Buka. This will allow PNG Power to concentrate its resources on improving electricity supply in the capital and to those towns connected by the Yonki Hydro power scheme.

If PNG Power cannot improve services at that point, direct competition should be introduced in these centres as well.

Competition, as we have seen with the telephony business, is sure to wake PNG Power up.

Papua New Guinea gets BlackBerry, thanks to Digicel

DIGICEL has finally launched the BlackBerry cellphone technology in Papua New Guinea to cater for the needs of businessmen and professionals, The National  reports.

A first in the country, this means Digicel, which is still on 2.5 Generation System, is now using GPRS technology that supports e-mail, voice and text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services.

GPRS refers to general packet radio service, a packet oriented mobile data service available to users of the 2G-2.5G cellular communication system called global system for mobile communications (GSM), as well as in the 3G systems.

GPRS enhances 2G and 2.5 systems to work close to the performance of 3G networks.

With BlackBerry, the user can check Hotmail, update FaceBook, IM Friends on Skype, Google Talk, or read the news online.

BlackBerry, a wireless handheld device, is used by more than 20 million subscribers across the world.

“It is a mobile office for the dynamic professional,” was how John Mangos, Digicel PNG chief executive described their new offering.

This new product comes after the Digicel launched its mobile internet (Port Moresby only).

However, the new service would be rolled out to other parts of the country in the coming months.

Subscribers with internet-capable handsets can access the web via their Digicel handset, starting in the National Capital District and Lae next week.

Digicel says it will roll-out BlackBerry and GPRS services across PNG in coming months.

“Blackberry will allow the users manage their business and online activities, while away from the desk, and on the road,” Mr Mangos said.

“Digicel has set another mobile telecommunications landmark for PNG, with the introduction of Blackberry. Now users will be able to work on the go, with their email and office functions on their Blackberry smart phone.

“Digicel believes this will add to the ease and efficiency of doing business in PNG, which would in turn boost overall economic productivity and development in this country,” Mr Mangos said.

Digicel’s Blackberry roll-out comprises three handsets (pictured above): the Bold (K1, 799); Curve (K1, 399); and Pearl (K1, 199) and are available to Digicel’s post-paid subscribers only.

Blackberry Silver has 20MB with monthly fee of K70; gold, 100MB (K155); and platinum, 500MB (K335).

 

Top agriculture meeting in Madang

A top-level agricultural meeting is scheduled to be held in Madang from March 23 – 27.

The National Agriculture Council is an important agricultural forum attended by all the chairpersons of the provincial agriculture and economic portfolios, including agricultural commodity boards under the chairmanship of National Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, to deliberate on major agricultural polices and strategies.

Stakeholders including relevant government agencies, private sector, institutions and donor partners are usually invited as observers.

Among the key issues expected to be discussed at the Madang meeting are ways to work together to promote growth in agriculture and the effective implementation of the National Agriculture Development Plan.

Presentations will be made on the country’s agriculture sector, food security, human resources development for agriculture, public sector reforms for agriculture, challenges of climate change on agriculture and food security, bioenergy and biofuels prospects, agriculture credit, land mobilisation, district services improvement programme and others.

The Department of Agriculture and Livestock is busy making preparations for the meeting.

 

 

Rice galore in Morobe

By DOREEN POLOH WAIM

 

RICE farming in Morobe province has gradually gained momentum with rural communities seeing its economic potential (picture above shows a rice growing display at the 2005 Morobe Show).

According to the Morobe division of agriculture and livestock production summary of 2008, Morobe produced more than 16,000 tonnes of paddy rice compared to 780 tonnes in 2003.

Provincial food and livestock coordinator Amos Buieba said many prospective rice farmers were realising the importance of rice.

“People can grow not only grow rice for own consumption and supplement for other staple food but can be able to sell the surplus,” he said.

Mr Buieba said that most of the current small holder rice farmers were from Markham, Huon Gulf, Bulolo and Finschhafen.

He said farmers from Tewai-Siassi and Nawaeb were beginning to grow rice after discovering that it was convenient to grow and store.

Generally rice farming in the province is on a small scale, supporting household consumption

 However, Mr Buieba believed that with accessible facilities and technologies, rice farming had a potential of becoming commercially-viable on a large scale.

He said most smallholder farmers had less than 1 hectare of rice field that was manually dug and prepared because they did not have access to tractors.

 

 

 

Papua New Guinea vanilla farmers expect improved prices

Papua New Guinea farmers have been urged to produce high quality vanilla in anticipation of increased prices in the near future.

The PNG Spice Industry Board has predicted a demand for our vanilla due to an expected short supply on the world market.

Chief executive officer Michael Waisime has called on registered spice exporters to advice farmers to reactivate and rehabilitate their vanilla farms as prices were expected to increase favorably during this harvest season.

More awareness and training amongst farmers is needed to maintain proper curing practices to improve quality.

Exporters were reminded to coordinate with their farmers to produce high-grade vanilla to maximise on this market opportunity.

Mr Waisime said this week that the world’s major supplier of vanilla, Madagascar, has had 80% of its vanilla plantings affected by an underground incurable crop disease.

Civil unrest in the country has also affected vanilla production.

He said supply of vanilla on the world market was down by 60 per cent and the shortfall needed to be met by other vanilla producing countries including PNG.

He said PNG, the fourth-largest producer, stood to gain with increased demand for its vanilla and subsequently prices for organic vanilla was expected to rise worldwide.

Mr Waisime said according to information received by the SIB, there might be massive government intervention including appropriate research work to revive the vanilla industry in Madagascar.

 It was estimated that world supply of vanilla would face a shortfall for the next five years or more.

Mr Waisime said his office had detailed a number of measures that registered spice exporters needed to adhere to.

These include submitting 2008 export returns and statements, review of forward contract sale for 2009, and review of farm gate prices.

He urged exporters, producers and interested people to contact his office for more information.

However, observers in the spice industry have cautioned the vanilla producers and farmers nationwide not to get excited like what was experienced several years ago when PNG had a vanilla boom.

PNG producers must not get carried away and should seek more information from the SIB and agricultural agencies.