Displaced Manam islanders rejected

By MALUM NALU

Refugees in their own land...a recent scene from a Manam displaced persons camp in Bogia, Madang province.-Picture courtesy of NATIONAL DISASTER SERVICE

Manam islanders displaced by the recent volcanic eruptions over the festive period may find it hard to be resettled.
This is because landowners on Bogia - on the mainland where three care centres for displaced Manam islanders totaling about 14, 000 are - do not want any more refugees on their land.
Only about 3,000 people remain back on the volcanic island.
The three care centres are at the site of three former plantations which are Potsdam, Mangem and Asuramba.
Potsdam landowner, Raymond Brossueau, said last Friday that the three plantations had been purchased by a former Bogia MP, Tim Ward, and sold to the state to be converted into care centres for displaced Manam islanders without the consent of the traditional landowners.
Former politician and Madang businessman Sir Peter Barter, when contacted today, confirmed the plight of the Manam islanders and added that it was a “national disgrace” which would be heard by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, in May this year as the government continued to turn a blind eye to it.
Sir Peter also confirmed the animosity of the mainland people towards the islanders because of their land and suggested that the government, which had failed miserably to consult them first before allowing their land to be used as care centres, compensate them properly for this.
Brossueau said there had been major eruptions in 1997, 2004 and over the festive period but unlike 1997, when Manam islanders only stayed for a short time, they had settled at Bogia permanently since 2004.
“In terms of the Manam settlement, the governments knows the land belongs to the people and needs to be given back,” Brossueau said.
“This is particularly in relation to the Potsdam care centre.
“Manam islanders have been there since 2004.
“The government told us that after five years, they would be resettled elsewhere.
“Since then, nothing has happened.
“We landowners have exhausted our land resources to cater for them, with has come with costs in terms of denial of business, social problems, loss of vernacular, ethnic problems and no services because the government regards everyone in the area, including us landowners, as disaster-affected people.”
There have been massive social problems, including fighting and murders, since 2004 at the three care centres as tensions flared between landowners and Manam islanders.
In one of the most-horrific cases, a Manam islander was chopped into pieces and his body parts placed in a bucket, while several of the islanders’ houses have been burned.
Many such incidents have gone unreported by the media since 2004.
“The main impact of dysfunction started in 2004 after they came in,” Brossueau said.
“We know there is ample land available to help these people, but not at these care centres.
“The state says they will give back the land as soon as they find an alternate site to resettle the Manams.
“All these arrangements expired in 2009, and to us, we consider them as illegally settling on our land.
“This year, with all these issues outstanding, the state needs to address the landownership and transfer all the land titles back to the landowners.”
Sir Peter, who has helped the Manam people for 45 years through seven volcanic eruptions, said the whole sad saga would never have happened not it not been for a litany of inept politicians and ineffective public servants.
“I’m disgusted, absolutely disgusted,” he said.
“I strongly believe that the Manam people have been abused by the government.
“The whole thing is absolutely disgraceful.
“There are problems all over the place.
“It’s a breach of human rights.
“Very soon, the United Nations Human Rights Commission will bring it up in Geneva.
“It’s aggravated by people who will not help.
“I suggest that the prime minister (Sir Michael Somare) go and sit down with the Manam islanders and the landowners.
“It’s a story which should never have been necessary to tell.
“It should have been resolved six years ago.”

Papua New Guinea must have good leadership now

By REGINALD RENAGI

Many Papuan New Guineans would agree that despite its shortcomings in a lot of governance areas in recent times, it is probably not the best time to change the present government wholesale, but only change its leadership.

Many political observers here and abroad see our government as appearing incompetent and indecisive in recent years. 

The problem PNG has today is its weak and indecisive leadership.

PNG really deserves a better leadership now, and we don’t have the right leadership these past few years.

Today, the real problem with our government is it does not have a good ‘succession plan’ in place for many years.

Consequently, this has now been found most wanting in that the country is about to be thrown into a constitutional and leadership crisis. 

Moreover, the government will be hard-pressed to find the required quality leadership PNG desperately needs now from within the National Alliance party, or its NA coalition mix.

Right now, the government can't even find amongst itself, according to Francis Huluapmomi in a popular blog PNG Attitude "a highly intelligent and qualified politician who is able to strategically manoeuvre PNG in the age of globalisation and changing pattern in international politics to attain national objectives".  I agree.

That is why for years the ruling regime is still keeping the same driver in the driver's seat, despite its many mistakes.

It does this to keep covering up and making useless excuses for a leadership that is not only unsuitable, but now clearly ineffective to lead PNG in future.

There are still some good quality MPs sitting in the middle benches and in the parliamentary opposition to be made a part of a new and good government.

This whole thing may work if a proper regrouping is done immediately now within parliament.

We can keep the few good MPs in the coalition and merge them with the middle and the opposition to form a good government with experience and credibility.

A government that the citizens of PNG can wholly put their total trust in to protect our national interest.

Today, our people do not trust their government at all for all the broken promises since independence.

This is important and will give PNG a fairly good quality mixed government until the country goes to polls in 2012.

But there is a major snag here.  Who is going to take the lead? No, not Sam Abal.

And there is no one except for one MP in the current coalition party who has what it takes, to take this required leadership initiative in the national interest.

The deputy PM and acting PM is a nice quiet guy, but from all his public utterances so far since being in the job all indicates he is only warming the chair for the return of the real prime minister.

Hence, he will not be making any real solid commitments, one way or another.

The MP lacks the typical highlands' aggressiveness that former deputy PM, Don Polye has to be able to pull off such a spectacular stunt.

I studied leadership and strategy for over 30 years, and I can say here on record that Don Polye can make a good PM in a new-look government with a good team of political change agents.

This will no doubt move this country forward from its comatose state.

As far as I can see, Don Polye is no doubt the one political leader standing out to do something now about totally cleaning up the PNG government inherent corruption; as recently stated publicly that the government must directly tackle.

The problem PNG has today until the next elections in 2012 is that our government leadership lacks the guts to get its act together, and lead PNG as it should be led in the national interest.

So they colluded and sacrificed a very good deputy PM and potential future PM, Don Polye, for an MP who lacks the member for Kandep’s aggressiveness and drive to now ‘clean up the house’.

If we do not change the status quo now, PNG will still not have any real degree of a good competent government and parliament; until the 2012 national elections.

It’s all just a waste of the people’s time and resources to put up with the current nonsense and political bullshit for so long now.

But what choice do the people of PNG have, than to wait and silently suffer a few more months before they completely change the whole mob in 2012.

It’s time for a real change.

Reginald Renagi

Gabagaba-Kemabolo

 

Beijing’s motives behind rare-earth metals

Opinion & Commentary

Beijing's motives behind rare-earth metals

John Lee | Forbes | 03 January 2011

The announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce that it will cut first half export quotas of rare-earth metals by about 35% will cause further angst for many American and Japanese companies relying on these metals. But far from an isolated policy, the restrictions will add weight to a growing suspicion amongst its trading partners that Beijing is increasingly taking a zero-sum rather than 'win-win' approach to open markets and free trade.

'Rare earth' metals consist of about one dozen metals that are used in a range of increasingly important commercial products such as energy-efficient applications from hybrid cars to wind turbines, in addition to mobile phones and iPods. They are also essential used in the radar systems and lasers required in weapons such as America's advanced arsenal of 'smart bombs' and other precision-guided explosives.

These metals are not actually all that rare. But through a combination of cheap loans to its state-owned miners, as well as cheap labor and poor but cost-efficient working and environmental standards, China now supplies more than 95% of the global market. For example, the United States has some reserves but imports 87% of its needs from China.

China's status as the dominant supplier has not been an accident. Realizing the growing importance of these metals, Beijing has spent the best part of the past sixteen years attempting to control the market in the supply of these materials. While state-owned Chinese mines were able to mine these metals at much cheaper prices than foreign competitors – in the process pushing these competitors out of the market – foreign governments and corporations were content to increase their reliance on Chinese suppliers.

Even before the current announcement to cut export quotas by 35%, Beijing had been cutting export quotas of rare earth metals to regional 'strategic competitors' such as Japan by an average of 6% each year over the past decade. In 2009, China only sold 38,000 metric tonnes to Japan--the approximate amount that Japanese manufacturers Toyota ( TM - news - people ) and Honda ( HMC - news - people ) needed in all of 2008. The country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released a white paper in 2009 proposing to severely scale back, or even halt all exports of rare earth metals. Subsequently, China made a decision to slash exports of all rare metals by 72% in the second half of 2010. The decision to slash export quotas in the first half of 2011 means that only 14,508 tonnes will be sold to foreign markets from January to June.

Beijing knows that governments and mining companies around the world will respond by reopening existing mines and developing new ones outside China. Indeed, the production of these metals is being accelerated by miners operating in countries such as Australia, Mongolia, Thailand and Ukraine. But reviving defunct mines and opening new ones require significant capital and will take several years. As Wang Caifeng, a former senior official with MIIT recently boasted, China is well positioned to hold its bellwether position in the global rare-earth industry in the long-term.

This all begs the question of why Beijing is pursuing these policies in the first place. In September 2010, Ministry of Commerce officials claimed that it was all about meeting spikes in domestic Chinese industrial demand for rare earths metals. Following the current announcement to slash quotas, Chinese officials have cited concerns over environmental degradation associated with mining these metals. Even if there is some truth to these two justifications, there is troubling evidence that Beijing is attempting a bigger strategic play than it is letting on.

For starters, it is well known that Beijing pursues a policy of developing domestic champions that can compete with the leading international firms. When it comes to increasingly lucrative sectors that rely on access to rare earth metals, China seeks to give these domestic champions a head-start against established foreign giants. For example, Chinese automobile companies such as Chang'An Motors seeking to thrive in the booming low-carbon hybrid engine car industry have privileged access to rare earth metals needed for the production of hybrid batteries. Meanwhile, competitors such as Toyota have to largely make do with Chinese suppliers who are effectively selling these metals to Japan at black-market prices.

Moreover, given the number of years needed to mine enough rare earth metals from sites outside China, Beijing is attempting to force foreign companies who want access to large quantities of rare earth metals to form joint-ventures with local firms and base their manufacturing operations within China. Revealingly, any foreign company in such a joint venture is not subject to any quota restrictions.

This is where it gets murky. With Beijing's encouragement, many of China's commercial champions are understandably seeking to move up the technology chain. Foreign manufacturers are compelled to engage in joint ventures with a local firm. To be sure, legitimate technology transfer from joint ventures between local and foreign firms operating within China is one thing. But large scale industrial espionage and theft, especially when it is initiated by state-owned giants is another.

A glaring example is BMW's Mini which, when sold to Chinese consumers, must be manufactured in China. The Lifan 320 by the Chongqing based Lifan Group has virtually identical technology and design. Ditto the Nobel made by Shuanghuan Automobile Co, which is a clone of the Smart model made by foreign joint venture company Daimler. The German engineering company ThyssenKrupp have videotapes showing Chinese partners secretly examining parts of their revolutionary Transrapid magnetic levitation train. Not long after, Chinese companies developed their own working prototype of a magnetic levitation train. After all instances, senior Chinese officials have denied industrial theft and have refused to seriously investigate any of these allegations. Neither has Beijing changed the rules on the necessity of foreign high-technology manufacturers forming joint ventures with local firms when manufacturing in China.

The problem is that many products requiring rare earth metals are in lucrative and cutting-edge sectors. The suspicion is that illegitimately optimising imported technology has become one primary strategy for many of China's domestic champions – an approach that is condoned by the Chinese Communist Party. If so, this goes to the heart of whether China is emerging as a responsible stakeholder in the global economic system.

Dr. John Lee is a fellow at the Center for Independent Studies in Sydney and the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. He is the author of Will China Fail?: The Limits and Contradictions of Market Socialism.

Namah queries troop deployment to Vanimo

A plan to deploy a joint PNG Defence Force platoon of soldiers and two police mobile units contingent to Vanimo, Sandaun province has been queried by leader of PNG Party and Vanimo Green MP Belden Namah.

Namah said the security situation along the PNG-Indonesia common border had returned to normalcy after border incursions last year by Indonesia soldiers.

“The security situation does not warrant the deployment of extra army and police personnel,” he said.

“There has been no request from the provincial police commander in Vanimo for extra manpower.”

Namah said 15 troop carrier vehicles (10-seaters) from a hire car company in Port Moresby were dispatched to Vanimo over a week ago together with three outboard motors for an operation.

He said the troops were to arrive in Vanimo on Tuesday, but deferred to yesterday.

“As a matter of courtesy, I as the Member of Parliament representing that electorate have not been informed of the operation,” Namah said.

“I’ve helped and have good working relations with police and other law-enforcing agencies in the province.

“I should have been informed so that I could assist.”

He said the secretive nature of the deployment of security forces raised questions as to what was the real purpose of the joint operation.

“I’ve been reliably informed that the operation was commanded from Port Moresby and is being funded by National Planning,” Namah said.

“I’m aware that the joint army and police operation is not security-related, but to do the work normally done by Labour and Employment, Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Customs.”

He said it was a total waste of substantial amount of public funds to hire vehicles from a private company in Port Moresby and send security forces to do the work of other state agencies.

“This costly joint operation has sinister motives,” Namah said.

“The security forces are being used by certain politicians to check the operations of my private companies, their staff and families.

“Is this the same method used to check on the operations of private business throughout PNG?

“Why can’t the relevant state agencies do this work?”

 

Basil asks why no action on Taiwan diplomatic scandal

Bulolo MP Sam Basil is asking why there have been no criminal investigations into Papua New Guinea of politicians implicated in the Taiwanese cash for diplomatic recognition scandal.

His call follows news that the authorities in Taiwan have announced new charges against a middleman in its failed bid to buy diplomatic recognition from PNG by using the Taiwanese people’s money.

"Why have authorities in PNG not investigated the sideline Prime Minister Michael Somare, Planning Minister Paul Tiensten, and Forests Minister Timothy Bonga,  who are all alleged to have met with the Taiwanese middlemen?” Basil said today.

"If Taiwan can investigate, charge, prosecute and convict people involved in this scandal at their end, what is the excuse for our own authorities not to have acted at this end?”

Prosecutors in Taiwan have indicted Wu Shih-tsai on breach of trust charges and recommended he be sentenced to four years jail for embezzling US$29.8 million in government funds.

The money was wired to a Singapore bank held by Wu and Ching Chi-ju in September 2006 to be used to establish diplomatic ties with PNG.

The funds were completely removed from the bank account between November and December 2006.

Wu is already serving a 30-month sentence after being convicted in 2008 on charges of forgery and making false accusations in relation to the PNG matter.

Investigations into other suspects in Taiwan, including the secretary-general of the national security council and a former minister are still ongoing. “The Taiwanese deal adds to other many issues such as the Moti saga, National Provident Fund saga and the list goes on,” Basil said.

 “Today many Papua New Guinean have lost faith in our own institutions and

are now asking many questions, even suggesting a neutral Police Commissioner or Chief Justice from abroad to come and take control of our institutions.

“I believe that there are politicians who are supposed to be prosecuted, dismissed or locked up in jail are now actively serving in parliament and that the situation itself is very scary, and the citizens must be concerned of this too.”

 

A giant leap for the Papuan movement

By MALUM NALU

Haurahaela (left) with his motley crew raise the Papua flag at the northernmost point of mainland Australia on Cape York

When Neil Armstrong became the first man to land on the moon on July 20, 1969, he uttered these now-famous words: “That’s one small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind.”
Not quite so extra-terrestial, back on Earth, more than 40 years back to the future on December 22, 2010, a small group of eight Papuans made a small step for themselves but a giant leap for the Papuan movement when they landed at the northernmost tip of Australia on Cape York and raised the Papuan flag before being detained by Australian customs and towed to Horn Island to be detained.
This group of eight was the only one of a flotilla of 16 dinghies, carrying 122 people, which made it to Terra Australis – the great southern land - in an evasive cat-and-mouse game across the Torres Strait which ended in all of them being detained and sent back to Daru.

One of the band of Papuans pointing out the signboard at Cape York

Australia, needless to say, had egg on its face because of this serious breach of security by a bunch of amateurs from north of the border, who just wanted to point out that they were “Australian citizens”.
Eka Haurahaela, 38, from Ihu in Gulf province, was one of that motley crew in the dinghy which made it to Cape York.
“There were eight of us in that dinghy,’ he tells me.
“There were seven men and one woman.
“We managed to get to the Australian mainland because we travelled through the eastern side of Torres Strait, while the rest travelled on the western side, which is Saibai Island.
“Eight dinghies left Daru before us.
“We were the ninth dinghy which left.
“We left at about 7.30am.
“We travelled through the reefs, cut across through Tudo Island, Picnic Island and Waraberr Island.
“From there, we cut across to the mainland.
“We were at Cape York at about 3.30pm.
“There was security, but they were so late, because we had already passed through.
“We were heading to Bamaga (an Aboriginal and Torres Strait town on the mainland), but due to low fuel, we turned back.

A giant leap for Papua…the only dinghy to touch down on mainland Australia lands at Cape York

“We had already landed on the main (Cape York) when Australian customs arrived.
“They towed us to Horn Island and took us to the detention centre, where we were held for four days.
“On Saturday (Christmas Day), they flew us back to Daru.
“We told the authorities there (Horn Island) to send the rest of the team back to Daru and lock us, the leaders, so that we could defend our rights in court.
“They never accepted the offer.”
Haurahaela says they evaded all Australian security vessels until they were spotted by a helicopter.
“We were spotted by the helicopter between Waraberr and Picnic Island,” he recalls.
“They must have radioed those on the ground; however, they were slow in reacting.
“It was fortunate for the Australians that we ran out of fuel; otherwise, we would have made it to Bamaga on the mainland, a township of Torres Strait islanders and Aboriginals.
“It was an excellent route we took, one which was clear of security vessels.
“I was the first person on the dinghy to put my foot on the mainland.”

We are Australian…Papuans celebrating their arrival on mainland Australia at Cape York

Back in Daru, the Papua border crossers’ leader Jonathan Baure, was apprehended and flown to Port Moresby in an Australian plane where he was arrested and locked up by police.
The irony was that he never crossed the border to Australia, being in Daru all the time.
It was only on Tuesday this week, after 10 days including New Year’s Day in the lock-up, that he was released on K1, 000 bail to await his next court appearance next month.
On Wednesday this week, when I had a rendezvous with him, he looked a bit worse for wear because of an excruciating toothache which had been bothering him since his arrest.
“Jail was good!” he laughs.
“It was the best Christmas and New Year present I could have asked for.
‘My physical body was in the cell, but my mindset was that I’d already won.”
Baure – very much a photo-shy person - says up to 1,500 people could have crossed to Australia from Daru in a tour-de-force; however, various factors including shortage of dinghies because of the festive period stopped this.
They came from Northern, Milne Bay, Central, Gulf, Western and even Southern Highlands provinces, paying their own airfares and boat fares, as well as contributing generously to a cause they fervently believe in.
“There were close to 500 people ready to go across on that day,” Baure tells me.
“Priority, however, was given to Port Moresby people so there were only 122 people.
“Also, because it was Christmas, most of the dinghies were in their home villages.
“We could easily have mustered up to 150 canoes and dinghies, and put potentially about 1,500 people across.
“We could have had two boatloads, with up to 500 people from Moresby; however, MV Danaya was out for Christmas.”
Baure, 46, was born of a part Rigo (Central) and Tufi (Northern) father and part Ihu (Gulf) and Kalo (Central) mother.
“I spent 22 years of my life in Australia, schooling and working,” he says.
“I didn’t start this Papua issue here, I started it in Australia.
“In 2000, I went into the Melbourne Library.
“I saw a couple of books, including one called Australian Citizenship Instructions, a booklet from the Australian Department of Immigration.
“There’s a different section for different countries.
“I decided to look for the section that dealt with PNG.
“PNG became independent on 16th September, 1975.
“Prior to that date, Papua and New Guinea were two separate territories.
“Papua was a territory of Australia and people born in Papua acquired Australian citizenship by birth.
“New Guinea was a trust territory and people born in New Guinea were Australian-protected persons.
“The sentence that jumped at me was that 'people born in Papua became Australian citizens by birth’.
“I wrote to Australian Immigration asking about how I got my Australian citizenship and how I lost it.
“They wrote back and said I was an Australian citizen, but when PNG became independent, I lost it.”
Baure dug deep into colonial history, dating back to 1884, when Queen Victoria first took Papua as a British protectorate.
In 1901, when the federation of Australia came together, Papua was accepted as the seventh state of Australia
“On the citizenship issue, it’s a personal right; each individual’s got to make a choice,” Baure argues.
“On sovereignty, the question for Australia on uniting with New Guinea, or being a separate Papua, must be dealt with by the Papua people through a plebiscite.
“Both Australian and PNG parliaments did not have the legal authority to decide if Papua stayed with Australia or united with New Guinea.
“The Papua MPs in the House of Assembly did not have the right to decide for Papuans, and certainly, the New Guinea MPs did not have the right to decide for us Papuans.”
Baure started the Papuan movement in 2004 and its popularity has grown in leaps and bounds in Northern, Milne Bay, Central, Gulf, Western, and even ‘Last Papua’ in the Southern Highlands.
He fires a salvo at Papua politicians and lawyers, especially the latter, who he says have not helped and he has had to resort to engaging an Engan lawyer.
“I want to talk to all Papua politicians and leaders to introduce this Papuan citizenship issue as a private members’ bill on the floor of Parliament,” Baure says.
“I want to say to all Papua lawyers: ‘Shame on all of you!’.
“You have not guts to handle this Papuan cause.
“An Engan is handling my case.”

Dead fish washed ashore at Pari village

By ANGELINE KARIUS

Dead fish scare ... Pari villagers in Moresby South yesterday morning woke up to find dead fish along their beachfront. Concerned village elder Gaba Momoro wasted no time in getting his relatives to contact The National, fearing pollution from industrial wastes or dynamite fishing in the area. NCD health officer Wesley Kame and his colleagues went to the village yesterday and collected samples, with the help of village children, for testing at the National Agriculture Research Institute laboratory to determine what had caused the fish to die and washed ashore in large numbers. – Nationalpic by EKAR KEAPU

PARI villagers were shocked to find dead fish washed ashore at their village along the Joyce Bay area yesterday morning.
Concerned elder Gaba Momoro had relatives contact The National, in fear of sea pollution or dynamite fishing in the area.
“Dead fish was seen washed ashore and floating up shore this (yesterday) morning.
“We don’t know why this has happened.
“This is the first time this has happened,” he said.
Gaba said he alerted his sister in the city to raise the alarm to authorities concerned including NCD health authorities to find the cause of dead fish in the area.
It is understood that NCD health division sent a team into the area to assess the situation and taken samples to relevant authorities for laboratory testing.
According to NCD officials until results are received then it will be known as to what was the cause of fish to die in the area.
The fish washed ashore ranged from the smallest shoreline fishes to others found further into the sea.
Meanwhile, families in the village were advised not to eat the fish after young children were seen collecting them along the shoreline.