Pasquarelli decries loss of House of Assembly

By MALUM NALU
A former member of the first House of The House of Assembly in 1964 has decried the selling its selling to Lamana Development Group to be turned into a hotel.

An Australian newspaper cutting from 1964 show from left John Pasquarelli, Simogen Peter, Sinake Giregire and Graham Pople.

John Pasquarelli, MP for Angoram Open Electorate from 1964-1968, said today that building should have been preserved because of its historical significance.
He said, however, that the history of the first House of Assembly should be reflected in the new building.
“The site is, of course, very prominent in the Moresby CBD and to be honest it has no outstanding architectural features that would warrant preserving it,” Pasquarelli said.

Opening of the first House of Assembly in June 1964.

“But it is the birthplace of PNG's democracy and the new building to be erected must feature clearly that history.
“I don't know about the new building being a replica of the old - I would have to see an architect's model first and the design, I assume, would be debated by the government and the people.

Members of the first House of Assembly in 1964.

“The entrance foyer and environs would be the obvious place to illustrate the history of the site and, at the risk of appearing vain, maybe a plaque detailing the names of the members of that first House Of Assembly should be included in any recognition.”

Joe Leahy's Neighbours: A parable for mordern-day Papua New Guinea

By MALUM NALU


Joe Leahy shot to fame as the star of internationally-acclaimed movies, Joe Leahy’s Neighbours and its sequel Black Harvest, which have also been widely shown on local television.

Joe Leahy manages a smile amidst all his problems.-Pictures by MALUM NALU

Today, at age 72 but still sprightly as ever since the filming of Joe Leahy’s Neighbours and Black Harvest in the 1980s, Leahy is desperately looking for money to revive his rundown Kilma coffee plantation in the Nebilyer Valley of Western Highlands province.

At age 72, and fit as ever, is Joe Leahy in boots, jeans, jacket and hat.

I met him in Goroka, Eastern Highlands, on Tuesday, April 12, when he and other Western Highlands coffee growers had travelled there for the launch of the World Bank-funded coffee project, and we got into a lively conversation.

A perennial coffee farmer…Joe Leahy (fourth from right, backrow) with other Western Highlands coffee growers in Goroka.

If Joe Leahy’s story is a parable for modern-day Papua New Guinea, more so our coffee growers and those living in the highlands, perhaps everyone takes his own meaning from it and reads his own life into it.
Having watched both movies several times, unrehearsed documentaries which can make you laugh one moment and drive you to tears the next, I was keen to know how Leahy’s coffee business had prospered since.
Joe Leahy’s Neighbours traces the fortunes of Joe Leahy, the mixed-race son of Australian explorer Michael Leahy, in his uneasy relationship with his tribal neighbors.
He built his coffee plantation on land bought from the Ganiga tribe in the mid 1970s.
European-educated, raised in the highlands, freed by his mixed race from the entanglements of tribal obligation, Leahy leads a Western lifestyle governed by individualism and the pursuit of affluence.
While Leahy may live in Western grandeur, he is still surrounded by his subsistence-level Ganiga "neighbors," who never let him forget the original source of his prosperity.
He spends much of his waking hours just keeping the lid on things.
Australian filmmakers Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson lived for 18 continuous months in 1985 and 1986 on the edge of his plantation, in the "no man's land" between Leahy and the Ganiga.
Their lively, non-judgmental narrative eloquently captures the conflicting values of tribalism and capitalism.
Black Harvest, the final film shot in 1989, charts the progress of Leahy in convincing the Ganiga tribespeople to join him in a coffee-growing venture.
He provides the money and the expertise; they supply the land and labor.
But on the eve of success, world coffee price collapses and tribal warfare erupts in the valley, as the Ganigas team up with the Ulgas to fight the Kulgas.
Always suspect because of his mixed-race status, Leahy is in deep trouble with the tribespeople when his promises of riches fail to materialise.
As he organises to emigrate with his family to Australia, he is a saddened man with an uncertain future.
So much has happened since then, Leahy remaining in his beloved Western Highlands – the Promised Land discovered by his father and uncles in the 1930s and eloquently captured in First Contact – while his Central province wife and children have settled permanently in Australia.
‘The plantation (Kilma), since the movies were shot in the 1980s, has closed, that’s why I’m in Goroka,” Leahy tells me.
“I’ve been trying to get money from the NADP (national agriculture development plan) to revive the plantation; however, all that money has been siphoned elsewhere.
“The plantation has all gone bush.
"I’m still living there.
“I applied for NADP funding but I got nothing, so I’m here to see if the World Bank can help us.
“The government has the ideas in place; however, it is the implementing agencies that are not making it happen
“What I’m doing now is looking for cash to revive the plantation.”
Such was the intensity of the fighting between the Ulgas and the Kulgas in the Nebilyer Valley that it continued unabated, for more than 10 years, claiming countless lives.
"Everything’s been destroyed,” Leahy tells me.
“The infrastructure, everything’s there, and all I need is the money and things will be back again.
“Before the fighting erupted, the plantation was fully operational.
“We borrowed money from the PNGBC (PNG Banking Corporation) and were paying it off.
“Then the fighting broke out and we were in debt with the PNGBC
“I started the plantation in the 1970s.
“In 1975/1976, the plantation was in full production.
“The fighting started in the 1980s and continued for more than 10 years.
“Now is the time to pump money into rural areas so that people can look after themselves.”
After the daylight robbery of the NADP by the infamous “paper farmers” of Waigani, Leahy, and coffee growers in the highlands, see the World Bank project as manna from heaven.
“The World Bank project is a blessing from heaven,” he says.
“The system is there but the people who are there should make it work.
“Bureaucrats live if a dream world.
“They are not looking at reality.”
A look of sadness appears on Leahy’s face as he talks about Kilma plantation, his wife, and seven children, two girls and five boys.
“The plantation’s not operational,” he tells me.
“It’s all bush now.
“Thieves are going there, stealing.
“I just live on the place and do bits and pieces.
“What we need is money and law-and-order.
“My children have all left and are looking after themselves.
“They’re all married and have got kids.
“During the fighting, my wife asked me to leave.
“I said I will never leave this place.
“She’s in Australia with the kids.”
Leahy says the warring tribes now realise the economic development’s they’ve missed out on for all these years because of tribal fighting.
“They accused me of stealing their money and their land,” he adds, forlornly.
“Now they look back and see that they’ve done wrong.
“They’re living a miserable life."

Hidden Valley mine supports Coffee Industry Corporation objectives

The Hidden Valley Mine is implementing the Coffee Industry Corporation’s (CIC) plans to improve coffee production in the country.

A coffee farmer from Biawen attends to one of his coffee trees during the pruning practical session.

The CIC is focusing on adding value in the marketing chain for farmers to increase export volume and quality.
Its strategy includes rehabilitation of all aging senile coffee trees, expansion into new growth areas and establishment of nurseries, mobilisation of smallholder coffee growers, promote marketing systems which revolve around quality.
Hidden Valley is helping to achieve these objectives in partnership with Mainland Holdings Limited (MHL) through a coffee training programme.
The mine is funding the trainings which are conducted by MHL for villages located in the footprint of the mining operation in the Wau/Bulolo district of Morobe province.
The objective of the programme is to enhance the income of the rural people through coffee production.
The first training was conducted for Biangai villages in Wau from July to August, 2010.
It involved six Biangai villages including the two principal landowners of the Hidden Valley Gold Mine: Kwembu and Winima.
The training was aimed at enhancing the income of the Biangai community through improved coffee management practices.
It focused on improving the skills and knowledge of farmers on, coffee nursery establishment and field planting, coffee garden management, basic garden rehabilitation and pruning practices, coffee quality improvement through improved harvesting and processing techniques and basic financial management and cash handling practices and Marketing.
The training was conducted in two phases, theory and practical.
It attracted a huge turnout with a total of 95 participants in attendance.
Five came from Winima, 10 from Kwembu, 58 from Biawen, 10 from Werewere, 10 from Elauru and three from Kaisenik and also comprised of 16 females, two of whom were ward councilors, seven church pastors and a grade 11 female student of Grace Memorial Secondary School.
The participants were presented with shade cloth for nursery and drying beds, secateurs and saws for pruning, nails for the nursery buildings, yellow cover cloth for the drying roofs, and topped it off with 17 coffee cherry pulping machines to assist them to continue to take care of their coffee gardens.

Miss PNG sees real life in remote Nabak

By ELLEN TIAMU

MISS Papua New Guinea Rachel Sapery James visited a remote village in Morobe last Friday morning, describing it as the highlight of her visit to the province, The National reports.

She visited Sakarang village, Nabak district, as part of her Red Cross Miss PNG duties to spread the word on the work of the organisation.
She told villagers of the importance of keeping clean, using clean water and keeping food clean to combat cholera and tuberculosis.
James encouraged the villagers to take care of their environment, saying it was their livelihood and any destruction of the eco-system would mean possible threats on their lives.
Helicopter company Manolos Aviation assisted her with transport to the inland village, which highlighted to her the plight of many women in the province, and country, who needlessly die because they could not easily access health centres and hospitals.
Manolos Aviation flies women, men and children from remote areas of Morobe needing urgent and life-saving medical attention into Lae’s Angau Memorial Hospital.
James described her visit to the village as the best part of her visit to Morobe.

Attorney general: State owns all resources

ATTORNEY-General Sir Arnold Amet is adamant the state owns all resources found six feet or deeper in the land, The National reports. This included minerals and oil, he said.
Refuting ambassador Peter Donigi of Warner Shand Lawyers, who claimed that the state did not own natural resources, Sir Arnold said the Petroleum Act and Mining Act vested ownership of minerals and petroleum resources with the state.
The former chief justice said, as such, the state was the proper party to the gas agreement and it had validly executed the gas agreement (PNG LNG Agreement of May 22, 2008).
“Both the Oil and Gas Act 1998 and the Mining Act 1992 vest ownership of minerals and petroleum resources with the state,” Sir Arnold said in a statement last Friday.
“These two acts adopted state ownership rights for minerals and petroleum resources from pre-independence laws.”
Sir Arnold said Donigi had previously raised the issue in the National Court on a number of occasions and, each time, the court had ruled ownership rested with the state.
“Donigi has and continues to incite landowners from the LNG project areas with his vague argument, instead of pursuing legal redress through the higher courts to have the matter resolved,” the attorney-general said.
Attempts to get comments from Donigi failed as he was said to be in Hela.
The relevant laws state that all minerals and petroleum resources lying six feet below the surface of the land belong to the state.
There is a private member’s bill promoted by North Fly MP Boka Kondra that seeks to amend those particular clauses to vest all ownership of minerals and hydrocarbon resources in the owners of the land on which the resources are found.
It is yet to be made into law.

House of Assembly sold

By JUNIOR UKAHA

THE first House of Assembly in downtown Port Moresby is to be turned into a hotel, The National reports.
The state sold the site to the Lamana Development Group which plans to turn the historical building into a modern hotel.
The one-time seat-of-power is located in downtown Port Moresby, next to the AON Building on McGregor Street.
How the land was obtained and why this iconic building was sold to the developer is not known but contractors began demolition work last week.
David Western Constructions Ltd managing director David Kini said they were contracted by Lamana Development Group, the new owner of the area, to clear up the place.
He said his company had been hired to demolish the old House of Assembly and build a replica of the building that would serve as a hotel.
“We have been instructed by our client to demolish the old building and build a replica of it,” Kini said.
The National visited the site last Friday and saw workmen erecting a fence around the property to stop public access.
It is understood that the national government, through the National Museum and Arts Gallery (NMAG), was owner of the land before its acquisition by the Lamana Development Group.
Nine families who lived in the area were paid K200,000 by the developer and told to move out to make way for construction work to begin.
John Sine, from Chimbu, who has lived in the area for the past 35 years, thought it was a joke when he first saw the contractors.
“It looks like the government does not care about the cultural and historical significance of this place,” he said.
“I will not be surprised if the government and other selfish politicians and people in authority sell the country to foreigners in their greed to acquire more money and wealth.”
The state and concerned parties did attempt to restore the old parliament as a national heritage and former governor-general Sir Paulias Matane headed a committee which attempted to raise funds to restore the building.
Money was committed by government but it is uncertain where these funds might be.
The building was formerly a “whites only” hospital in the 1950s and was turned into a House of Assembly in 1961 when at the insistence of the UN and Australia decided to prepare the former territories of Papua and New Guinea for self-governing status.
Attempts to get comments from NMAG and the Lands Department were unsuccessful.

Chinese murdered after killing youth in Goroka

Asian, two local women escape after car accident

By ZACHERY PER and JOHN SUPA

A CHINESE national was set upon by a mob and murdered soon after he shot dead a youth of Chimbu origin in Goroka over the weekend, The National reports.
The Chinese, identified as Alex Seng Da, was in the company of another colleague and two females in a vehicle that ran off the road at Asariufa section of the Highlands Highway on Saturday evening.
When curious youths approached the accident scene, the Chinese man allegedly took out a pistol and shot dead a young man, named as William Morea of Gunagi area in the Sinasina area of Chimbu.
Relatives of the youth regrouped and attacked the Asian and murdered him while his accomplice and the females escaped.
The body of Seng Da and Morea are at the Glenrowen Funeral Home. The incident occurred at around 8pm on Saturday.
Eyewitnesses, who gave accounts of the incident, said Seng Da and another Chinese were driving into Goroka town with two PNG women passengers when the vehicle ran off the road about 100m from the Zokizoi River bridge at Asariufa village near Goroka main market.
When bystanders rushed to the scene of the accident, Seng Da allegedly pulled out a pistol and shot the youth in the head.
The villagers retaliated and beat the Chinese national to death. There were also cuts on his body, indicating the use of sharp objects.
The vehicle involved in the accident was burnt.
The deceased Asian was an employee of Seng Da Supermarket.
Opportunists from the Council Camp and Banana Block capitalised on the situation and ransacked the Bintangor store at West Goroka.
However, quick action by Goroka police prevented further lootings.
Eastern Highlands provincial police commander Supt Augustine Wampe, when confirming the incident, condemned the actions of looters.
He said what occurred on Saturday night was being treated by police as criminal in nature and police were investigating.
He warned opportunists that police would come down hard on them.
Wampe could not establish whether the firearm was licenced or not.
The small Chinese community in Goroka was mourning the death of Seng Da.
Wampe said police knew the identities of those involved in killing the Chinese and would soon be making arrests.
Investigations are continuing.
Wampe also praised Goroka Rural LLG president Jeffery Sasuo for his handling of the situation.
Sasuo had warned potential looters that all buildings in Goroka were owned by locals but were leased to other people such as the Asians and any attempt to vandalise these assets would be met with extreme retribution from the locals.