Positive progress being made at University of Goroka

By KATE GUNN of UOG

 

Positive progress has been made in the months following the student boycott earlier this year at the University of Goroka.

The UOG council has begun implementing recommendations of the independent investigation committee’s (IIC) report.

From the report compiled by the ILC who investigated the boycott, the UOG council standing committee has initiated improvements to help the overall effectiveness of the university in two key areas.

The first key area will involve the restructure of the university.

 This will involve a major overhauling of the university’s organisational structure to establish a model more relevant to the needs of the institution, in accordance with the organisational and academic re-structures already in place. 

Special focus will be given to the areas of senior academic staff appointments and remuneration. 

This will be undertaken by a specialist group composed of a consultant, UOG staff, and stakeholders who will work on the restructure as a matter of urgency.

The second key area to be undertaken as per direction from the council standing committee will concern staff salary increases. 

The UOG is taking steps to address this issue by reviewing the current wage structure for academic and non-academic staff by re-implementing the existing staff development programme, and by re-introducing annual increments for staff appraisals. 

This will be executed by the acting management team working together with representatives of the national academic staff association (NASA) and non-academic national staff association (NANSA) bodies to design a performance-based salary structure which will be adopted and implemented by the university.

Chancellor of UOG Benais Sabumei said: “The university has been long overdue for staff and academic reorganisational reviews and I am pleased that the IIC report has focused on these important areas. 

“The university foreshadows many significant changes to the higher educational system, and these decisions will ensure UOG is prepared and ready to accept the challenges ahead.”

 

Airport shooting leaves 3 injured

An armed policeman and an airport security standing guard over the wounded gunman as he lies on the ground after he was wounded and disarmed.

 Suspect turns on public after missing target

THREE people were wounded in an attempted murder drama that unfolded at the Jackson Airport last Friday morning, The National reports.

Four gunmen, allegedly from the rich Moran oil project area in Southern Highlands, went to the domestic terminal to challenge a landowner chairman and his officers who were scheduled to board a plane for Moro to attend the launch of the Moran Special Purpose Authority (MSPA).

Finding their target gone, the suspects turned on the public, wounding two before police also wounded one of them.

Among the delegation travelling to Moro that morning was MSPA chairman Tony Kila, local MP Francis Potape, deputy commissioner of police operations Anthony Wagambie, journalists and government officials.

The National was also at the airport bound for Moro when the incident took place.

The MSPA is voted into office by the Homa-Pawa and Baguale people through their 33 incorporated land groups.

Recently, a new board headed by Kila was elected into office, replacing that of former chairman David Mulungu.

While it was alleged that the airport shooting could have stemmed from the changes within the authority, it could not be confirmed with police and local authorities.

Reports said the attackers had gone to the airport armed with three firearms.

At the airport, one of the gunmen produced a handgun from a side bag and shot a bystander on the chest in front of the domestic terminal entrance. He then fired another shot into the air.

Another suspect, armed with an assault rifle and a shoulder-link belt filled with cartridges, stood up from the back of a Ford Ranger parked at the public car park and shot at the public.

A lone policeman within the vicinity of the incident retaliated and fired two warning shots at the gunman, urging him to surrender. Instead, the shooting continued and another man from the Highlands was shot just below the shoulders.

The gunman then alighted from the vehicle and took cover behind another car, believed to belong to PNG Gardener Justin Tkatchenko, and more shots were fired with a total of 27 bullet holes counted on the vehicle.

The drama lasted for about 20 minutes before the suspect was shot just below his knees and disarmed.

The gunman, after being disarmed and in agony, kept shouting that he was prepared to die for his land and for his brother.

He was later sent to the Port Moresby General Hospital.

Two people, believed to be a father and son, apart from the wounded gunman, were taken into police custody.

Police at the scene also retrieved the assault rifle, 27 live cartridges and the shoulder-link belt and a handgun used in the attack.

Police believed the weapons used in the attack were registered to a landowner company.

Police bail was denied yesterday.

ACP Wagambie tagged the airport incident as “politics of economy” where, he said, the landowners were fighting over who should

control the funds.

Air Niugini’s Jack Pidik blamed Civil Aviation Authority for the incident after a similar incident took place last month when a gold buyer was murdered inside the terminal.

He said that there had been many calls to improve security at the main entrance to the airport but nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, reports from Homa-Pawa said many pigs were killed and the planned celebration went well without any disturbances despite the incident.

Government cops the blame for airport shooting

THE national government has been blamed for last Friday’s shooting incident at the Jackson Airport which left three people wounded, The National reports.

Among those wounded was a gunman who acted in a Rambo-style manner, firing at random at the public before he was shot, wounded and disarmed.

Police also arrested an alleged father-and-son gang at the airport while confiscating a handgun, an assault rifle and a gun belt with 27 live cartridges.

Police have refused them bail.

Authorities have attributed the airport shooting incident to landowner issues and differences.

Civil Aviation Authority chief executive officer Joseph Kintau has brushed aside claims by Air Niugini that last Friday’s incident was an airport security issue.

He said the incident was a sensitive landowner issue which the government did not address properly.

“The government must be blamed for the actions of landowners, because these issues must be addressed properly,” Kintau said.

His comments came after Air Niugini corporate affairs manager Jack Pidik blamed CAA for lack of security at the airport.

He said several requests and meetings had been held to improve security at the airport’s main entrance but nothing had eventuated, resulting in several internal security threats at the airport.

Early last month, a gold buyer was shot dead by armed criminals inside the terminal.

But, Kintau did not agree with Pidik, saying that the government must be held responsible for what happened last Friday.

Several landowner leaders at the airport also levelled the blame at the national government.

They said this was only the beginning of many more to come, explaining that landowners were already frustrated.

An expatriate at the scene last Friday said this was the start of worse things to stem from the liquefied natural gas project if not addressed properly by those in authority.

Meanwhile, assistant commissioner of police operations Tony Wagambie, who was at the crime scene when it unfolded, rated it as a security issue.

However, he said “it was the politics of money and power by landowners” in their fight to have access to landowner funds.

 

 

Somare settles for Aussies

AUSTRALIANS were asked to help with the management of the large inflow of revenue from the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project because Papua New Guineans do not trust each other, Public Enterprises Minister Arthur Somare said, The National reports.

“I’ve invited the Australians to look over my shoulders,” Somare told The National at Brisbane airport en route to Melbourne for the PNG-Australia LNG ministerial meeting last Thursday.

The meeting was held to discuss the establishment of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as a vehicle to manage revenue flows to the government from the PNG LNG project.

He said Papua New Guineans were quite capable of managing the inflow of large amounts of revenue from 2014 but, for purposes of accountability and transparency, Australians were invited to “look over our shoulders”.

“The involvement of Australians would also help to further boost PNG’s international credibility rating.

“Papua New Guineans also did not trust each other to manage the funds. Therefore, the involvement of Australians should allay fears of inappropriate application and expenditures ... I may not be around by then,” he quipped.

The official delegation to Melbourne included Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Sam Abal, National Planning Minister Paul Tiensten, Public Services Minister Peter O’Neill, Commerce and Industry Minister Gabriel Kapris and a team of senior bureaucrats.

In a pre-talks statement, Somare said the ministerial delegation would discuss possible Australian assistance for the creation of a transparent governance regime covering taxes and dividends received by the PNG government from the LNG project.

“The government needs to have these measures in place before the LNG revenue starts to flow in about five years’ time,” Somare said.

Under a joint understanding signed with the Australian government late last year, PNG requested that Australia help set up an effective and transparent governance regime for the LNG project revenue to provide international credibility for a challenging undertaking.

A strange story about missionaries, cannibals and colonial officers

By MALUM NALU

Writing the article about missionary James Chalmers and his tragic end at the hands of Goaribari Island cannibals in Gulf province, which appeared in The National’s Weekender last Friday, made me recall a book which I read some years ago on the same subject.

 James Chalmers

The book is titled Missionaries, Cannibals &  Colonial Officers – a dog-eared copy of which is still on my bookshelf - and is one of the most-fascinating history books about Papua New Guinea I have ever read because of its novel-like writing style.

 Cover of Missionaries, Headhunters & Colonial Officers

It touches on the Goaribari incident in 1901, the subsequent killing of Goaribari islanders in retaliation by the British administration, and how then-governor Christopher Robinson – who ordered the punitive expedition – then took his own life under the flagpole at government house in Port Moresby.

It is the Goaribari incident that lies at the heart of Peter Maiden’s extraordinary history of what was then British New Guinea.

The second half of Maiden’s history focuses on the career and tragic end of the very first Australian-born governor of British New Guinea, the Brisbane solicitor Christopher Robinson.

 Christopher Robinson

He arrived in BNG in May 1903 and soon afterwards witnessed a savage conflict between the native constabulary and Papuan warriors.

In March 1904, Governor Robinson committed a catastrophic error in the Goaribari affray.

June 9th, 1903, was a proud day for Queenslanders in general, but most particularly for the people of Brisbane, for that day the Australian Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, had appointed a local man, 30-year-old Christopher Robinson, as acting-governor of British New Guinea (BNG).

However, it was a difficult assignment and despite his legal skills Robinson was quite inexperienced.

 For this shortcoming he was to pay a terrible price.

In 1903, Britain was in the process of passing control of BNG to the Australian government and the colony’s administrators, operating on a shoestring budget, faced fearful difficulties.

Sorcery, cannibalism and headhunting were endemic in Papuan society.

Sorcery was a criminal offence but still it flourished.

Its practitioners “spoke” directly to the Spirit World and could simply frighten a Papuan to death.

 A sorcerer had only to tap his victim on the shoulder, tell him he would soon die and within a week the unfortunate native would be in his grave.

And these magicians seemed omnipotent.

In 1903, for instance, a disgruntled sorcerer in eastern New Guinea announced that within three days he was turning every man in the village into a woman, and every woman into a man.

The men were panic stricken, New Guinea being such a male dominated society, but, as the investigating white magistrate observed, “the women viewed the threat with supreme complacency”.

Headhunting was another obsession.

To possess a skull collection was to enhance one’s standing in the spirit world.

In 1901, on Goaribari Island in the Gulf of Papua, a missionary, Harry Dauncey, found 10,000 skulls in the island’s Long Houses.

Even as late as 1957, Australian government officials on one occasion confiscated 78 skulls on Papua’s Casuarina Coast.

Fortunately, cannibalism was not quite as widely practiced.

As one writer, Wilfred Beaver, pointed out, “the population would eventually be reduced to small proportions”, if everybody was a cannibal.

The weakest tribes were most vulnerable.

West of Port Moresby the Mohohai tribe, according to Beaver, was regarded as “a kind of larder” for the predatory Ukiaravi warriors.

Elsewhere, the Scottish missionary, James Chalmers, newly arrived at Suau in 1878, was pleased to be invited to his first tribal feast – before learning that a terrified young boy was on the menu.

Chalmers, the so-called “Livingstone of New Guinea” was a star in the London Missionary Society’s firmament.

For 34 years he served in the South Seas islands as a near-perfect example of “muscular Christianity”.

 Chalmers was a physically impressive man with a commanding presence and he possessed a cool head in a dangerous situation.

He liked whisky, loved exploring the magnificent countryside and had a genuine, albeit paternal affection for the Papuan people.

But for a white man, life in New Guinea was anything but a sinecure.

Numerous lonely miners and missionaries met with a grisly end, most notably in 1901 when the Reverend Chalmers’ party of 12 was lured into an ambush on Goaribari Island.

There they were beheaded and eaten by natives.

This atrocity demanded revenge and more than 20 Goaribaris were killed in a government reprisal raid.

Soon after arriving in BNG, Christopher Robinson joined a government patrol along the Yodda River and saw at first hand the savage conflict between the native constabulary and Papuan warriors.

This patrol appears to have soured Robinson’s attitude towards the Papuans.

Afterwards, Robinson seemed to show little sympathy to the indigenous population.

He once declared that he had “an intense loathing” for these “inhuman creatures”.

 He had no friends among the colourful Port Moresby expatriates and he was overwhelmed by a monumental backlog of work.

Robinson was capable and one local identity described him as “one of the most promising officers New Guinea ever possessed”.

Others, though, believed he was arrogant, and even frightened by the very people he was supposed to be protecting.

In March 1904 Robinson led a strongly armed commando to Goaribari, intent on arresting those responsible for the Chalmers’ missionary massacre.

Unfortunately, his serious mismanagement of a confrontation with the Goaribaris became the subject of a sensational Royal Commission in Sydney in July.

While the native bowmen fired only a handful of arrows in anger, Robinson’s men replied with a murderous fusillade of 250 rounds.

At least eight natives were shot dead and two European witnesses testified that the governor had shot at least three of the Papuans.

Robinson’s career prospects were in tatters.

The lonely young governor, now afflicted with a severe bout of malaria lost heart and fell into a mood of deep depression that worsened as the date of the Royal commission approached.

Finally, on June 20th, 1904, Robinson took his own life under the flagpole at government house, Port Moresby.

This is a history that makes the clash of the proselytising white colonials with the Papuan warriors come vividly alive.

It is a story of dedication and courage, but also a story of tragic failure. A riveting read.

Sir Rabbie Namaliu is new Badili Club patron

After six years without a patron the professional networking organisation the Badili Club yesterday secured the patronage of former Prime Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu. 

Sir Rabbie Namaliu (seated, centre) with Badili Club executives and former presidents

The executives and members of the club had over the last year debated the type of patron that could build upon the strong foundations established by its founding chairperson the aate Sir Anthony Siaguru. 

Although Sir Anthony passed away in 2004, as a result of his tremendous influence and out of respect for this great man the club had not sought to fill the vacancy until last year when the matter was seriously discussed.

 The executives and members of the club took over a year to debate if it was the right time to seek a new patron, these discussions also included the type of person who would be able to add real value to the membership and assist the club to continue to expand its network and areas of influence. 

After much debate and searching, the members agreed the most -suitable person and indeed the only person who could fill the large shoes left by Sir Anthony was Sir Rabbie.

Sir Rabbie when accepting the invitation said: "It is an honour being asked to be patron of the Badili Club. 

"I have been aware of the work of the club over its 13 years of existence, and have indeed participated as a speaker at the annual PWC and Badili Club budget breakfast. 

"I look forward to supporting the club’s executives and adding value to its membership as required"."

Sir Rabbie added: "I must say when first asked I felt a little daunted given the founding chair was my dear good friend Tony (Siaguru).

"He and I in our early days were thrown in to the deep end in the public service and you had to either sink or swim.

"I am thankful that a club such as the Badili Club has been building that bridge between our current leaders and the next generation of leaders, and will gladly support its development."

 In another milestone for the club, at its 14th annual generall meeting the club installed its new executives: Data Nets CEO Sundar Ramamurthy as president, PNGFM general manager Adrian Au as vice president, Gorethy Semi brand manager South Pacific Export Lager as secretary and Paul Harris CEO of Pacific Wealth Management as treasurer. 

Ramamurthy becomes the eighth president and will serve a two-year term, supported by his vice president and executive.

 The Badili Club is a professional networking organisation that encourages membership from individuals aged between 25 and 45. 

Its objectives are to encourage and promote best practice within the work place and establish a network of committed individuals who are able to uphold high levels of integrity and who bring positive change to the organisations and industries they operate. 

The club was established in 1997 and as part of its charitable work continues to donate urgently -needed medical items in short-supply to National Capital District urban clinics.

Falling in love with Daru

By MALUM NALU

Daru, the once-thriving former capital of Western province, has sadly become a forgotten backwater despite all the riches from the Ok Tedi mine.

It is a dismal-looking town covered by bush, potholes and very basic services such as health are wanting, as exemplified by the town’s hospital.

 Fishing canoes at Daru

The sad story of Daru, perhaps, epitomises what has happened to all of Papua New Guinea since independence in 1975.

People from Daru and the South Fly area – long neglected by the PNG government - are known to cross the Torres Strait regularly to Australia to seek treatment in such places as Saibai and Thursday islands.

 Rundown Daru hospital, which has been recently plagued by allegations of mismanagement

Saibai Island is the closest part of Australia to another country.

Lying in the Torres Strait, off the tip of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, the mangrove-rimmed mudflat is only 4km from PNG - a mere 20 minutes in an outboard dinghy, but a journey from poverty to plenty in terms of health care for residents of the palm-thatched villages of South Fly, PNG, north of Saibai.

I know this only too well because my late wife, Hula, was from Irupi, one of the southern-most villages of PNG in the Torres Strait and I have heard so many stories from her as well as from my in-laws.

Mothers bring their sick children to the primary health care centre in Saibai, and who can blame them?

The PNG government gives them next to nothing!

But before the rot set in, in the pre-independence days, Daru was an exotic melting pot of expatriate traders, planters, crocodile hunters and even missionaries.

Former kiap (patrol officer) and Member of the first House of Assembly Graham Pople, whose first posting was Daru in 1956 as a 21-year-old, tells me that Daru is still the love of his life and his all-time favourite place in PNG as a kiap.

 Graham Pople

This is despite it being disparaged in the past as “Siberia” – a place where kiaps who did the wrong thing were exiled there and forgotten.

From Daru, Pople served the whole of the massive Western district (now province), including crossing the border to the then Dutch New Guinea.

These included Kiunga (now the capital of Western province), Lake Murray, Balimo, the Star Mountains and many more.

In his yet-to-be-published autobiography, The Popleography, Pople writes about arriving in Daru on a Qantas Catalina flying boat in 1956 and how he fell in love with the place.

“At the time of my arrival in Daru,” he recalls, “the expatriate population consisted of the DC (district commissioner) and his wife, an assistant district officer, a patrol officer with wife, medical officer and wife, European medical assistant, and agricultural officer and family, and a clerk also married.

“There were we three cadet patrol officers – all single.

“There was Lenny Luff who owned a store, who was married with grown children and their families; the Maidments who were both in their 80s but hale and hearty, and running another store; and Peter Day, who ran the BNG Trading Emporium.

“Off the island, there was a floating expatriate population of traders, planters, crocodile shooters and even missionaries.

“In addition, Australian Petroleum Company (APC) was working in the area and their boats and personnel often dropped into Daru.”

Pople remembers that the indigenous population living on the island consisted of about 250 people classified as mixed race (and thereby entitled to drink) and about 200 villagers who were not entitled to partake of intoxicating beverages.

However, this did not stop them from making their own local beverages, which are known as gamada and tuba.

“The people living at Daru are a most-polyglot group,” Pople adds.

“Daru is only 14 hours sailing from Thursday Island and has been a port of call for pearling luggers and like, since the pearling industry began in the Torres Strait.

“The Kiwai were always hospitable and therefore a population has grown that traces its ancestry back to Portugese, Australians (original), and Australians (recent), Japanese, Malays and many others.

“Also, when Lieutenant Governor McGregor arrived from Fiji, he brought his senior NCO policemen from there, and some of them settled at hospitable Daru.

“The Tabua clan are the descendants of one such family.

“These people, being the first I had anything much to do with in PNG, have a special place in my memory and affections.

“One such was Badia Travertz, who was an old man in those days.

“He was a shipwright and was in charge of the slipway and the basic workshop associated with it.

“He was a most-interesting person and I used to enjoy sitting down in his workshop and listening to his stories.”

Pople talks fondly about his old mates such as George Tabua and Arthur Wyborn, originally from the British Islands and who later become a Member of Parliament, and whose family still live in Daru.

There is also Ebia Olewale, who “later became a very-eminent politician and was one of the founders of the Bully Beef Club along with Michael Somare, and a leader of the nation into self-government and independence”.

“He was rightly knighted for his efforts.

“I remember Anzac Day in 1956 and the school children marching and saluting the Australian flag.

“I have photos of this ceremony.

“Ebia appears in some of them as a very-young and fresh-faced young man.”

Daru, being an island, had a jetty, but because of the shallowness of the water it extended for some 200 metres or so into the channel.

“To make unloading easier, there was a railway line laid out between the end of the jetty and the government store building,” Pople says.

“Several carts were used to transport goods backwards and forwards, being man-powered (usually prisoners).

“This jetty was a favourite night fishing spot where the police and other government workers made their assignations with the local maidens.

“Daru was a prison island where the worst of the prisoners from throughout Papua New Guinea were sent to serve their terms, it being reasoned that no one could escape from there and remain at large.

“There was a very well-attended church on the island, the London Missionary Society (LMS), headed by a very-dedicated but sensible Gordon Price.

“He had a very good following from among the residents and each Sunday, the church was packed”

Apart from the hard foot slogging, Pople also spent a lot of leisure time fishing and shooting crocodiles – two things for which Daru is famous for – after which there was always a plentiful supply of beer.

 The barramundi, probably the finest eating fish anywhere in PNG, abounds in Daru and Western province.

 Fish being sold at Daru, including the prized barramundi

But the area’s real wealth lies in crocodile hides; Daru may be the only place in PNG which lives ‘on the crocodile’s back’.

In 1959, while on leave in Australia, Pople was advised that his request to return to Daru and the Western district had been refused and he was to be posted to Western Highlands.

Despite his pleas to go back to a place he had grown to love, he was advised to go to the Highlands and broaden his experience.

Daru, to this day, has a special place in the heart of the now 75-year-old Pople.