That’s the problem. Where to, now, Oz? With a driver who has really only taken the car out on sunny Sundays so far?? First days in commuter traffic have resulted in dents and embarrassment. Good neighbour SBY doesnt appreciate the big "detention centre" scrape on his friendly parked vehicle, but he's keeping quiet, hoping his Aussie counterparts grow up and learn manners and respect sometime soon. Remember the Lombok Agreement, Julia?
And you have further impoverished Australia's standing in the Pacific by taking such a clumsy, insular, pedantic stance over Frank Bainimarama's regime and its ongoing management of Fiji. Confrontation will produce nothing positive in Melanesia and Pacific society. This culture is - and this is a weakness as well as a positive element- one where Winston Churchill's famous admonition to “Jaw, jaw, not war, war," is the basic rule of the game. A game which will be played out regardless of big-daddy intervention from the two regional metropolitan nations.No skill, no savvy,no street-smarts at all, in the official Australian relationships with Fiji and with PNG.
Gillard looked good on TV despite the gratingly “Melbourne painter-and-docker" variant of our normal Australian accent. In practice she is making the same sort of errors as Kevin did, firing from the hip without consultation. Is this the product of supreme self-satisfaction as it was in Kev, or simple naivety? Gillard herself was intimately concerned in the design of some of the most damaging projects of Rudd's time at the wheel.Only implemented a few short months ago, like the home-insulation scheme resulting in the deaths of installers, and the scandal-ridden schools building program- these matters are still reverberating loudly
So it’s hard to be at all enthusiastic about Labour this time round, let alone supportive when it is born in mind that Labour is cosying-up bigtime with the Greens for preferences, ushering in the spectre of Green control of the Senate. May providence not allow this!!
Any ideology of the faith-driven, "handed-down as immutable truth" kind is a proven curse to humanity - and we in Australia need the Greens and their patronising " just do it like we say, theres a good boy/girl" attitude just like we need the crazier versions of guitar-driven evangelical Christianity or militant Islamists as political leaders and opinion -makers.
Neither of the major Australian parties has any good, solid, experienced front-row forwards, nor any dazzling wingers. Very ordinary, unexceptional and almost entirely unproven in real-world matters.Once upon a time the two main parties were driven by beliefs derived from life-experience. labour was powered by experienced union officials, socialist lawyers and activists in left-wing causes. Liberal/National conservatives were led and pushed by everyday business people from small to very big, capitalist/business-minded lawyers and an occasional academic who had the guts to stand up and speak out in an environment domibnated by socialist thinkers.
Today, all any of them care about is getting their shiny bums on the seats inthe big house in Canberra.Power and the chance to rule is what turns them all, almost without exception, on.
So the only way for us voters, one step forward at the risk of half a a step back, is to vote for the Mad Monk's Mob.Regardless of our feelings about hairy little men who run around in tiny underpants and nothing else.
So as to avoid an unproductive period of subjection to social-engineering originating in a Green-influenced Senate. Let’s hope this era is not a long one. Talk about Hobson's choice!
A soldier of the Papua Infantry Battalion in January
1941. It was a patrol of the PIB that on July 23 1942, at Awala, first
encountered the Japanese advancing from the north Papuan coast up the Kokoda
Track. Picture by AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
Papua New Guinea carriers on the
Kokoda Track in August 1942. Captain GH ‘Doc’ Vernon, the medical officer for the carriers
on Kokoda wrote: “…the immediate prospect before them was grim, a meal that
consisted only of rice and none too much of that, and a night of shivering
discomfort for most as there was only enough blankets to issue on to every
man.” (Vernon, quoted by Victor Austin, To Kokoda and Beyond: The Story of the
39th Battalion, 1941-1943). Picture by AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL
Papua New Guinean
stretcher bearers tending Private A Baldwin 2/33rd Battalion, on the
Kokoda Track, October 1942. Of the care of the bearers, Captain Henry ‘Blue’
Steward, Regimental Medical Officer, 2/16th Battalion, wrote: “With
four men each side of a stretcher, they took it in turns to sleep and to watch, giving each
wounded man whatever food, drink or comfort there might be. “ (HD Steward,
Recollections of a Regimental Medical Officer). Picture by AUSTRALIAN WAR
MEMORIAL
Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel
statue at the war museum at Kokoda.-Nationalpic by MALUM NALU
By MALUM NALU
Remembrance Day falls tomorrow (Friday July 23) - a public holiday - but surprisingly few Papua New Guineans continue to know the significance of the day.
Thousands of young people do not seem to know the sacrifices of their grandfathers during World War 11 and ensuing conflicts such as the recently-ended one on Bougainville.
Remembrance Day is held on July 23 in recognition of the first engagement between PNG troops of the native Papua Infantry Battalion and Japanese troops on that day in 1942 at Awala near Kokoda.
The PIB fought in Buna, Gona, Sanananda and Kumusi in the Northern Province alongside Australian soldiers.
Tomorrow marks the 68th anniversary of the first engagement by PNG and Australian forces against the invading Japanese in WWII.
Out of the chaos and death that followed came the enduring heroism of the Kokoda Trail, and the special relationship that has bound PNG and Australia ever since.
It was on this day, in 1942, that Japanese troops landed on the northern coast of New Guinea and unexpectedly began to march over the OwenStanleyRanges with the intent of capturing Port Moresby.
Had they succeeded, the mainland of Australia would have come under dire threat.
Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of the first engagement between the opposing troops, and from that engagement, as the Australian force was progressively outnumbered, began the long fighting withdrawal over the Owen Stanley Range.
The 21st Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Potts DSO MC, was rushed to New Guinea and within days, its 1, 500 men were closing in on the precarious OwenStanleyRanges in an attempt to position themselves to stop the advance of the Japanese forces - now building up to over 10, 000 men.
The brigade also engaged the ill-trained but gallant militia 39th Battalion at Isurava in the foothills on the far side of the range.
In 1942, a seldom-used track climbed from the small village of Buna on the north coast of Papua, over the OwenStanleyRanges and on to Port Moresby.
The track was fairly easy up the slopes through Gorari and Oivi to the village of Kokoda, which stood on a small plateau 400 metres above sea level, flanked by mountains rising to over 2000 metres.
It then climbed over steep ridges and through deep valleys to Deniki, Isurava, Kagi, Ioribaiwa, Ilolo and, at Owers’ Corner, linked with a vehicle road leading from plantations in the hills above Port Moresby down to the coastal plains.
Between Kokoda and Ilolo, the track often climbed up gradients so steep that it was heartbreaking labor for burdened men to climb even a few hundred yards.
Much of the track was through dense rainforest, which enclosed the narrow passage between walls of thick bush.
At higher levels the terrain became moss and stunted trees, which were often covered in mist.
From July to November 1942, this was the setting for a bitter campaign to prevent the fall of Port Moresby.
On January 23, 1942, the Japanese landed at Kavieng on New Ireland and at Rabaul on New Britain where they quickly overcame the Australian defenders.
On March 8, the Japanese established themselves firmly at Lae and Salamaua in Morobe.
But the famous Battle of the Coral Sea from May 5 to 8 averted a Japanese sea-borne invasion of Port Moresby.
The American success at the Battle of Midway in June not only destroyed Japan's capacity for undertaking long range offensives but also provided the Americans with the opportunity to move from the defensive to the offensive.
The Japanese, who were regularly bombing Port Moresby with 20 to 30 bombers with fighter escort, decided on the overland attack across the OwenStanleyRanges.
On the Kododa Trail the Australian 7th Division resisted the Japanese General Horii's overland attempt to capture Port Moresby, and the advance was halted within 30 miles of the city.
A small force of Australians known as ‘Maroubra Force’ arrived at Buna on July 21, 1942, as the first Japanese force of 15, 00 men landed at Gona, eight miles to the west.
The first engagement between the opposing troops was on July 23, 1942, and from that engagement, as the Australian force was progressively outnumbered, began the long fighting withdrawal over the Owen Stanley Range.
Kokoda is a small plateau on the north-east slopes of the Owen Stanley Range and possessed a small airstrip the retention of which, for at least as long as it would take Australia to fly in supplies and reinforcements, was of great importance.
However, the remnants of Maroubra Force, exhausted by a month's constant fighting, were unable to achieve this.
Valiant though their effort was, even recapturing the plateau after being driven out, the Japanese need was of equal importance.
They needed a forward base at Kokoda for their drive over the ranges along the Kokoda Trail to Port Moresby and they struck before the Australians were able to muster sufficient strength.
The initiative now remained with the Japanese and Australian withdrawal began again -through Isurava, Alola, Templeton's Crossing, Myola, Efogi, Menari and Nauro until at Ioribaiwa Ridge, beyond which the Japanese could not be permitted to penetrate, a final stand was made.
From August 26 to September 16 in 1942, Brigadier Potts's Maroubra Force, consisting of the 2/16th Battalion, together with the 2/14th, the 2/27th and the militia 39th and scattered elements of the ill-trained 53rd Battalion - outnumbered and outgunned by an estimated five to one - fought the Japanese to an eventual standstill on the ridges overlooking Port Moresby.
Two main battles were fought during that period (Isurava August 26 to 29 and Brigade ‘Butchers' Hill from September 6 to 8).
In general, the desperately tired but determined force kept themselves between the Japanese Major General Horri's South Sea Force and Port Moresby - defending, retreating and then counter-attacking in a masterly display of strategic defence.
Conditions were almost indescribable.
It rained for most of the time, the weary men endured some of the most difficult terrain in the world and they were racked by malaria and dysentery.
But they kept on fighting, making the enemy pay dearly for every yard of ground.
They bought time for those being prepared to come up from Port Moresby to relieve them.
The Australians, however, had a surprise in store for the enemy.
This was in the form of 25-pounder guns brought from Moresby to the road head at Owers’ Corner and then laboriously dragged into position at Imita Ridge, opening up on the enemy's barricades.
It was now the turn of the Japanese to suffer what the Australians had suffered in the preceding two months.
Australian shelling smashed Japanese defences and aggressive patrols inflicted severe losses.
On the morning of September 28 the Australians were closing in and it became evident then the Japanese were withdrawing.
The chase, with the Australians the pursuers, was now on.
The Japanese, despite sickness and hunger, were still formidable and tenaciously defended all the places in their withdrawal as the Australians had in their retreat some weeks earlier.
Kokoda was entered on November 2 and this was the beginning of the end of Japanese hopes in Papua.
The campaign now entered a phase known as ‘The Battle of the Beaches’.
The Japanese were bottled up in the area from where they had begun their drive against Port Moresby some months previously - Buna and Gona.
This final campaign began on November 19, 1942, and ended on January 22, 1943, when all organised resistance by the Japanese in Papua ended.
Lt Col Honner DSO MC, who commanded the gallant 39th in the campaign, later wrote of these men in the foreword to Peter Brune's book 'Those Rugged Bloody Heroes': "They have joined the immortals."
Of those that did not survive, he wrote: "Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free."
In his usual combatitive rapid-response style of firing from the hips to a recent Admiral's commentary, our intrepid Moses does not quiet answer his own question, the title of his article: How will Julia Gillard help Papua New Guinea become independent and fight corruption through good governance? There are many answers to this question.
John Fowke either avoids answering the big issue questions stimulated by the article: "What should Australia do about PNG", or denies that AusAid is an ongoing problem. He does not quiet say What Australia should do about PNG, but right away gets stuck into so-called PNG's middle-class, as if such a class system exists at all. Not now, but maybe in the future.
The response would have been helpful if it touched upon certain key areas requiring some change in future. So do we still keep AusAid considering its ineffectiveness to date ('boomerang aid'), or do we try to make it better, hoping it brings good results in future.
Some previous attempts in recent times resulted in unsatisfactory outcomes. So do we scrap AusAid by substituting it with Trade (AusTrade) in a partnership arrangement between the two countries in future? I think so too.
What Australia should do about PNG makes the suggestion for new PM Julia Gillard to rethink Australia's current aid arrangements with PNG and it is time to make a major paradigm shift in its policy towards PNG (and smaller Pacific Island Countries or PIC). In future, Australia would better serve PNG by implementing a new strategy of doing more bilateral trade relations with PNG. Ms Gillard must now consider increased trade relations with PNG than just the gesture of giving aid away to PNG.
Presently, AusAid has come under much criticism that much of it boomerangs back to the donor country with recipients not having much to show for it over time. In reality, many PNGeans see AusAid more of a one-way handout approach and is at best materialistic. More over, AusAid must not be seen as the only way Australia can help PNG by delivering AusAid materially, with advice and instruction.
I agree with Moses for the educated middle-class working together to turn the country around is agreed with, but this is every citizen's job from PM Somare to the villager in rural PNG. This collective nationwide strategy of getting everyone working together and not just the middle-class doing an honest day's work will take a long time, but change; no matter how hard and long will eventually come to PNG.
But it is only one approach. To improve good governance, PNG's national workforce must work in synergy. This will be a long-term strategy and must be consolidated over time from a domestic resource-base than externally from Australia though its aid program.
On the other hand, the solutions to political corruption are many. What PNG needs today and in future is a more multi- strategy approach. Unlike AusAid, a new policy strategy must be designed by both PNG and Australia's input for mutual benefits.
While AusAid has worked to an extent for many years, its long-term effectiveness is being questioned more and more in recent years following complaints by recipients in the Pacific. For years PNG raised many concerns to the Australian government about AusAid's shortcomings ('boomerang aid'), and how it can be improved in future.
Despite DFAT's best efforts over the years to improve AusAid's inherent deficiencies, recipients like PNG are still complaining that AusAid effectiveness needs to be improved with locally targeted projects planning being directly factored into the government's own development plans, so it can be better managed and progress monitored and tracked along pre-determined milestones.
However, there is a much bigger problem with AusAid for a long time so what are needed are helpful insights and suggestions.
hope DFAT planners reads this for Foreign Minister Stephen Smith to some good policy advice to Julia Gillard on alternative ways to help PNG more than her predecessors by making a major policy shift from 'Aid to Trade'.
Today, AusAid is seen more a one-sided policy that could be contributing one way or another to political corruption in PNG. Getting AusAid right has proven somewhat elusive for many years despite several AusAid reviews with proposed solutions, with a view to getting some good results.
A new trade policy between PNG and Australia under a partnership framework is very much needed, because it will have more added benefits than the current aid arrangements. I have confident Julia Gillard will go one up from where both John Howard and Kevin Rudd left off.
PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare has rewarded the highlands region with five new faces in cabinet for helping him fight off a spirited bid to remove him from office, The National reports.
The prime minister ended a tumultuous week by appointing eight new ministers to an expanded cabinet, and promoting National Alliance party highlands region leader Don Polye to deputy prime minister.
In a week of uncertainty which saw Deputy Prime Minister Puka Temu and Minister Belden Namah (Forest) and Charles Abel (Tourism) walk out to join forces with the opposition to topple the prime minister, all eyes were on Polye and his group.
The highlands bloc held the key to the government’s survival, and were talking to the opposition while negotiating with Somare.
When the notice of a motion of no-confidence was lodged with the speaker yesterday morning, they decided to remain with the prime minister.
They were rewarded with the appointment of Polye as deputy prime minister and Benjamin Poponawa (Tambul-Nebilyer, NA), Lucas Dekena (Gumine, NA), Guma Wau (Kerowagi, URP), John Pundari (Kompiam-Ambum, PP) and Francis Potape (Komo-Margarima, URP) were made ministers.
The other new ministers were Timothy Bonga (Nawaeb, NA), Moses Maladina (Esa’ala, RDP) and Fidelis Semoso (Bougainville, NA).
Bonga takes the forestry portfolio vacated by Namah, Wau replaced Abel and Semoso is Minister for Bougainville Affairs.
The portfolio of the other five ministers will be made known today.
The prime minister said he would work on the determinations for the new ministries being created, and then announced them before he leaves for Fiji today for a regional leaders’ meeting.
He said this was only a precursor to a major cabinet reshuffle to be announced in two weeks time.
He described the new ministers appointed as well credentialed men who were well versed in politics.
Sir Michael said the additional ministries would come out from the more-than-one portfolios looked after by individual MPs such as mining, lands, physical planning and civil aviation.
Polye will be acting prime minister when Sir Michael leaves for Fiji.
THE opposition will do everything within its powers including seeking court redress and rallying for 55 signatures from members to force an early recall of parliament, The National reports.
The opposition, led by former ministers Sir Puka Temu, Belden Namah and Charles Abel, Sir Mekere Morauta and Bart Philemon, in a joint media conference, stated that the motion would be followed through to rally 55 MPs to sign a petition to force the speaker to recall parliament.
The opposition made this known after the notice of motion to oust the prime minister was not entertained in parliament.
The notice was handed over to speaker Jeffrey Nape, the chairman of the committee on private business which he indicated would meet at 2pm but walked into the chamber before the appointed time to entertain a motion for adjournment to November.
Sir Puka said the wish of the people for the prime minister
to step aside was not entertained by the speaker.
He said the opposition had 45 MPs and were talking to 15 MPs in government who wanted to move but dare not because they might lose their privileges as ministers and were also
afraid that the government might not release their project and district funding.
“We will get the 55 required signatures to recall parliament,” Sir Puka said.
“There are 15 in the government side who have made commitments to us and, between now and November, they will move to us.
“The game is not over because the motion was not entertained.”
Sir Puka said the government was run by the “kitchen cabinet” that was controlled by three ministers, the prime minister, Arthur Somare and Paul Tiensten while other ministers were just being used as rubber stamps.
Namah supported Sir Puka, stating that he had declared war on the government.
“They have now won a battle, but I will win the war,” Namah said.
He said the strategy now was for the opposition to go to court seeking to recall parliament and, secondly, to secure signatures of 55 MPs to force the speaker to recall parliament.
“It’s a dictatorial government. That is the reason why we left the government. Ministers are rubber stamps.
“We will employ every strategy to change the government,” Namah added.
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare reacted angrily to comments by Bulolo MP Sam Basil by threatening to “kill” him, The National reports.
Opposition MPs became angry and agitated when the speaker ignored their call for a vote on a motion to adjourn Parliament.
After Speaker Jeffery Nape left the chamber of parliament, and as the mace was taken out, Basil fired off some insulting words at government MPs, saying in tok pisin “yupla olgeta kaikai pekpek blong Arthur”.
This angered the prime minister, who pointed at Basil and said: “Mi warnim yu nau. Yu go arasait mi bai kilim yu.”
Members of Parliament and the media who heard this were stunned that the prime minister would use such language.
Angry Morobe MPs including Governor Luther Wenge and Markham MP Koni Iguan slammed the comments, saying Morobeans did not deserve this from the prime minister.
“My life has been threatened. We do not expect that from a prime minister,” Basil said.
Wenge said the prime minister had stooped so low with those comments.
“We, Morobeans, have supported Somare for a long time. This time around we will not,”
The prime minister told journalists later that people should not take it literally that he would kill Basil.
He said what he meant was he would campaign in his Bulolo electorate to make sure he (Basil) was not returned to Parliament in 2012.
He admitted that he was hurt by Basil’s comments at his son, Arthur.
“Mi man mi gat feelings too,” he said. “What I meant was I’ll go to the polls and fix him up. I don’t kill. I’ve never organised gangs. I always fix them at the football field (political arena).”
But some MPs said the words used by the prime minister were inappropriate and inflammatory, given the recent situation in Bulolo involving two ethnic groups.
A session of Papua New Guinea's parliament has ended with an extraordinary outburst by prime minister Sir Michael Somare, who threatened to kill an opponent.
After a ceremony in parliament to swear in the governor-general, the leader of government business moved to suspend parliament until November 16. When the speaker called for 'ayes' and 'no's', the no's were noticeably louder. But the speaker said "the ayes have it" and adjourned parliament without calling for a division to count the numbers. As members were leaving the house, Sir Michael walked towards the opposition benches, pointed at MP Sam Basil and yelled in pidgin: "I'm going to kill you outside". Only hours earlier the opposition gave the speaker notice for a motion of no confidence in Sir Michael.
