Six-month holiday

By ISAAC NICHOLAS

 

PARLIAMENT has been adjourned for six months to May next year, after Treasurer Peter O’Neill was forced to assure Speaker Jeffery Nape that K20 million would be released next week for urgent maintenance work in parliament, The National reports.

The adjournment ensured the prime minister cannot face a vote of no-confidence in this term of parliament.

Before that, Nape informed the house that a notice for a vote of no-confidence, which was handed in by the opposition, was found to be defective by the Private Business Committee because three MPs who had signed the notice had withdrawn their support.

Their withdrawal reduced the signatories from 11 to eight, insufficient to uphold the notice.

The speaker’s unusual step to get O’Neill to publicly commit to releasing K20 million by next week gave the impression there was collusion to ensure parliament would meet again 12 months away from the issue of writ for the next general elections.

The opposition described it as a calculated move.

Some government MPs, like Community Development Minister Dame Carol Kidu, was caught by surprise.

“I thought we agreed in government caucus this morning to adjourn to March,” she said, questioning if resuming in May would give them enough time to address the bill of the 22 reserved seats for women.

Opposition leader Sir Mekere Morauta said the period of adjournment was interesting that parliament would resume a year before the issue of writs for the general elections in 2012.

“They have done it better in that there will be no vote of no-confidence unless parliament is recalled.”

He claimed that parliament had failed to sit the required 63 days, which would be challenged in court.

“We might as well close down parliament. It is a mockery.

“The relationship between the legislature and the executive government is very strong,” Sir Mekere said.

The opposition also questioned the move by Nape to adjourn for the refurbishment of the house from the K20 million allocation from the supplementary budget.

Opposition member and Abau MP Sir Puka Temu questioned the scheme between the legislature and executive arm of government collaborating to adjourn parliament to avoid the move to oust the prime minister.

He said the funding for parliament maintenance needed to be scrutinised.

“Will public procurement be followed?” Sir Puka asked.

O’Neill last night said the adjournment of parliament to May next year was due to the declining state of parliament facilities including air-conditioning, elevators, toilets and security.

“That is the reason why the speaker adjourned parliament because it cannot function efficiently.”

He said money would go through the normal tendering and procurement processes.

“No money will be disbursed until procurement processes are complete.”

He said the commitment was made to release the money next week through a trust account under the care of parliament.

Butibam women performing a traditional dance

Butibam women performing a traditional dance

Ahi Festival to bring together local Lae villages

By MALUM NALU

Symbol of the Ahi Festival

The inaugural Ahi Festival, a major cultural and sporting event involving the six Ahi villages in and around Lae, will be held at the Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium in Lae from Dec 12-17.

It is an initiative of Riback Stevedores Ltd, the major employer of Ahi men and women from the six Ahi villages of Wagang, Yanga, Butibam, Hengali, Kamkumung and Yalu and has their full support.

Riback Stevedores staff modeling uniforms which will be worn by the six villages during the inaugural Ahi Festival next month.-Pictures courtesy of Riback Stevedores

Sporting events include basketball, volleyball, netball, soccer, touch rugby and a number of other fun games for the kids.

The Ahi Festival – with the theme Promoting Education Through Sports & Culture - is aimed at raising funds for the establishment of an Ahi resource centre, an education facility which will have a library, computer laboratory and conference and workshop facilities.

“The Ahi Festival is an initiative of Riback Stevedores Ltd and has the full support of the Ahi community,” explains Riback general manager Peter Boyd.

“The company believes that the effects of the social problems facing the Ahi community can be wide-ranging in size anywhere from local effects on a family or a village to the Lae community and even the entire society. 

“The company therefore wants to do its part in helping the Ahi community to help themselves to take a lead now in working towards addressing some of their social problems. 

“We hope other members and stakeholders of the Lae community can also join in and help the people of Ahi in their endeavours to create an educated and orderly community that can co exist peacefully with others in the wider Lae community.”

Boyd said the social problems of the Ahi community could be addressed only if the community could unite and work together in search of solutions with the support of strategic partners. 

“The Ahi Festival can be a powerful tool to unite the Ahi community,” he added.

“It can also create awareness of the social issues and promote a team approach with key stakeholders to address the socials problems with the view to minimise its crippling effects on the people of Ahi – the current generation and also the future generation.”

Some of the main objectives of the Ahi Festival include:

•           Promoting community unity;

•           Promoting and preserving Ahi culture;

•           Creating awareness on social Issues and assistance available; and

•           Showcase local talents in culture, sports, music and business.

The Ahi villages are all located within and around Lae – the industrial city of Papua New Guinea. 

Along with the expansion and development of Lae, these traditional villages are also being forced to accept new changes and influences brought about by the changing socio-economic conditions.

The changing socioeconomic conditions have placed a high demand for land on the Ahi communities. 

This has seen most of the traditional land being taken away.

 Land was taken earlier by missionaries, then the colonial government and recently the state and industry. 

The attractions of  urban life along with government’s and industry’s demand for labour has also attracted Papua New Guineans to migrate to Lae in search for work and better living conditions.

 This unfortunately has created a need for more land.

 Consequently, customary land which used to be hunting and gardening land has all been replaced with buildings, factories and urban settlements. 

Without gardening or hunting land, most inhabitants of the Ahi community are now forced to adopt and embrace the cash economy. 

“Education of the children of Ahi is therefore important,” Boyd said.

“Without land and other natural resources, the human resources must be trained and developed if the Ahi community is to survive and live in peaceful co-existence with every other Papua New Guinean and the wider Lae community.”  

The economic changes around Lae also bring with them many tangible and intangible social problems which affect the Ahi communities. 

Tangible social problems include unemployment; law and order issues; drug abuse; alcohol problems; and school drop-out rate is high.

Intangible social problems include breakdown in moral standards; lack of ethics in community leadership – a recipe for corruption which affects the management of church groups, clans and businesses owned by the people; community disharmony; and breakdown in the family unit

Elephants for 5-Mile

PNG Gardener Justin Thatchenko continues to amaze city residents in NCD in his efforts to beautify the capital and make it welcoming for visitors and tourists as they enter the city, The National reports.
Now, with Christmas a month away, a convoy of “animals”, not normally seen in these parts, was seen being trucked yesterday to the Jack Pidik Park at 5-Mile. 
There, they stood alongside the Christmas lights put up by PNG Gardener workmen this week as NCD Governor Powes Parkop officially switched them on yesterday evening. 
The artificial animals, including giraffes, elephants and rhinoceros, drew quite a stir from the public as they made their way to their destinations yesterday. – Nationalpic by AURI EVA

Economy to grow 7.1% this year, says forecast

PAPUA New Guinea's economy grew by an estimated 5.5% last year and is expected to grow 7.1% this year, The National reports.

According to the Deloitte Touche 2011 budget alert, the economy was able to weather the global recession of last year reasonably well, with the financial sector remaining resilient due to relatively low exposure to overseas financial instruments and a strong domestic funding base.

However, the most heavily affected sectors were agriculture, forestry, fisheries and the manufacturing sectors due to declining overseas demand.

Themed Building the foundations for economic growth and prosperity, the 2011 budget in many ways can be described as a "steady as she goes" budget, which builds on planning done in previous years and takes advantage of the increased revenue stream expected to be available next year.

As in previous years, the government seeks to promote a stable macro economic and fiscal environment and to that end has announced a balanced budget.

The global recovery together with expected increased commodity prices and production will result in additional mineral revenue in 2011.

The government set out what it saw as a number of risks to the fiscal and economic outlook on which the budget is framed.

These include the fragility of the global economy in terms of its impact on PNG exports and commodity prices, delays to the PNG LNG and other resource projects, and the government diverting from fiscal discipline and adding to already strong inflationary pressures.

On the plus side, it was recognised that a number of mining and gas projects are under active consideration which would provide a boost to the PNG economy if they proceed.

As such, the government will fund its established framework, the national agriculture development plan 2007-2016 with K109 million, with support also going to other sectors of agriculture.

Fisheries will be receiving K55 million to foster investments in marine industrial zones and the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone in Madang.

It will also receive K15 million for the Coastal Fisheries Development Programme.

Forestry will be receiving support in terms of programmes aimed at, among others, support for forest research institute rehabilitation and support for sustainable forest management.

 

 

Vote notice ousted

House committee declares no-confidence motion defective

 

THE opposition suffered a double blow yesterday when its notice for a vote of no-confidence was declared defective, and three of its MPs moved to the government side, The National reports.

Parliament Speaker and chairman of the parliamentary Private Members Committee (PMC) Jeffrey Nape is expected to announce the committee’s decision, nullifying the notice, when parliament resumes at 10 o’clock this morning to deal with major government business including the women’s reserved bill.

The PMC members included Deputy Speaker Francis Marus, Usino-Bundi MP Sampson Kuli, Yangoru-Saussia MP and East Sepik Governor Peter Waranaka and Mendi MP Isaac Joseph.

They held their meeting to discuss the notice when parliament was adjourned yesterday morning.

The PMC’s main agenda was to consider the merit and the demerits of the notice of motion of no-confidence and whether it was of national importance or a parochial matter.

The PMC was also to consider, among other things, that some opposition MPs, who had initially signed the original notice of motion, had now joined the government ranks and withdrew their support for the motion.

Three MPs who had given their letter for the withdrawal of support included Simbu Governor Fr John Garia, Alotau MP Charles Abel and Kairuku-Hiri MP Paru Aihi.

Garia and Aihi were former PNG Party members who had pulled out since the change of leadership from Sir Mekere Morauta to Belden Namah.

The three MPs said in separate letters to the speaker that they had withdrawn their support as signatories.

Garia said the decision had been necessitated by his recent decision to be part of the United Resource Party following his release from PNG Party.

“Given the strong alignment that the URP has with the government and, more importantly, because URP is an integral part of the coalition government, I consider withdrawal of my support from the motion of no-confidence as in order and totally appropriate,” Garia said.

The opposition, learning that the PMC was meeting, urged it to take the vote of no-confidence motion as in the best interest of democracy and the people of PNG.

Speaking during a media conference yesterday after the parliament was adjourned, the opposition said the motion was in order and, therefore, should go ahead as submitted.

Members said that although the government might push for the motion to be thrown out on the grounds that several parties, who have been signatories to the motion, were with the government, there was nothing wrong as only the mover had the right to withdraw.

The speaker also asked the opposition to inform the house, when it sits today, who the opposition leader is and who are the members in the opposition.

 

 

Chimbu's five sum up fight for reserved seats

SYLIA Gonapa, Bepi Dom Apa, Schola Yauma, Jilla Kaupa and Dawa Sandra Terence each spent K40 this week to travel by road from Kundiawa to Lae and fly from there to Port Moresby, The National reports.

The mothers, from Sinasina-Yongomugl, came to give their support for the bill for the 22 reserved seats in parliament for women and, more importantly, to ensure their local member and speaker of parliament Jeffrey Nape did likewise.

Nape is the key man in parliamentary deliberations, they said.

They wanted to witness him supporting and passing the bill through the first reading so that they can go back and tell the women of Sinasina-Yongomugl that their MP did the right thing by them.

The mothers said: “For 35 years, we (women) have been observers and labourers while men made decisions affecting our lives,” Gonapa said.

“Now, we want to support this bill so that we can also help make decisions.

“Now, we have come to see this bill passed. We have used our own money to make sure this bill is passed.”

Schola Yauma said: “Man cannot work alone. We produce children together.

“We must make decisions affecting the child’s welfare together.

“We are not after money. We want to participate in decision-making for the betterment of our children.

“We want our MP and speaker to support this bill.”

Bepi Apa said: “We see in the newspapers the good work that Dame Carol Kidu is doing.

“She is making good decisions, but there is only one of her.

“What good we could do in this country if there were another 20 Kidus.”

Gonapa added: “In a home, both man and woman make decisions for the welfare of their family. So far, we have only seen man making the decisions.

“Decision-making in PNG is like a plane flying on one wing.”

There was another, slightly dark aspect, to this which the women said they were aware of.

Presently, only a few women were taking up the fight for reserved seats but, when the law is passed, businesswomen and educated women, who were now passive observers, would take centre stage in trying to vie for the seat, they said.

The Sinasina women said women leadership must be about bringing real change and not about wealth, power and ego trips.

They said they had seen enough of that already and that the push to get women into parliament was really to make a difference, and not to bask in personal glory.

The women went to parliament yesterday along with truckloads of other women who had also flown, trucked or sailed in from different parts of the country on the promise that the bill would be presented, but, parliament adjourned to today to do so.

Word on the bill was that cabinet had made the necessary adjustments and it was ready for presentation.

Dame Carol will present the bill to amend section 101 of the constitution, which has the personal support and blessing of Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.