Opposition plans to vote in new PM

By JEFFREY ELAPA

A NUMBER of parliamentarians from the government coalition were reportedly in camp with the opposition last night, spiking speculations that a motion to vote in a new prime minister will be tabled when parliament resumes at 2pm today, The National reports.
Although the media was banned from entering the camp, hosted by Moresby Northwest MP Sir Mekere Morauta at his Toaguba Hill residence in downtown Port Moresby, inside sources said a faction from the government coalition, including senior cabinet ministers, were among those in attendance. 
Their attendance had boosted the opposition tally to 55 members, just over half the number required for a quorum and to form government.
The motion, if moved, would rescind the extension of leave of absence for sick Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and to allow parliament to elect a new prime minister.
Sources said by law, an acting prime minister could not be allowed to govern the country for more than three months.
"We have the numbers now and the support is overwhelming," a source said by mobile phone last night.
It was also understood that the government would seek an adjournment of parliament this afternoon.
Meanwhile, the reporter who went to confirm reports of the camp in town at 10 o'clock last night was denied entry by private security guards and police.
The entire car park and streets leading to Sir Mekere's house was filled to capacity with more than 100 cars

Sir Peter: Madang has become ‘rubbish town’

 SCENIC and idyllic Madang town has been described as "rubbish town" by the man who promotes it as the best holiday destination in PNG, The National reports.
Sir Peter Barter, who owns and runs the Madang Resort Hotel and Melanesian Discoverer cruises, said the "once beautiful and clean town, known as one of the most beautiful in the Pacific, has been littered with rubbish and plastic bags" of late.
He said: "It is not only the township, the waterways in the harbour, even offshore islands are a disgrace. Plastic bags, bottles, condoms as well as effluent have created an environmental nightmare created by man.   
"Apart from the environmental damage, plastic bags are creating serious economic problems by blocking water intakes on outboard motors and larger vessels causing severe damages."
Not a man to complain without taking action on his own, Sir Peter has mobilised his own Melanesian Foundation to clean up the town. Using children from the staff compound at the Madang Resort the foundation has set about cleaning up the fish market, Rotary Park, Bates Oval are public areas around the court house and behind the Madang Medical Clinic. 
In two days the workers filled two truck loads of plastic bags. They are now targeting the waterways around Yamilon Lagoon.    
Sir Peter said: "This should not be the sole responsibility of these children, the entire community should be involved and somewhere along the line all business houses must accept some responsibility to stop or reduce the use of plastic bags and to assist in providing rubbish bins around their stores with signs telling the public not to litter the place!
"Every store in Madang is using too many plastic bags, every store could reduce the number of bags dramatically if your staff were better trained and perhaps some of the business houses could begin to provide re-usable environmental bags and hopefully in the near future the Madang Provincial Government and MULLG will introduce and implement strict litter laws. In the meantime, all I can do as a citizen is ask every business house to help reduce the use of plastic bags by whatever means available."
And Sir Peter ended his call with a thinly-veiled threat: "If you have any desire to return Madang to its former glory, you will accept this suggestion seriously.  If you do not, a campaign will be funded by this foundation to recommend to the public not to patronise your business!"

Agriculture extension system needs revitalising

Caption: Joshua Lumba of Yamiufa village, Eastern Highlands province checking his rice field. Smallholder rice growers such Lumba could be supported through an effective extension system, thus improving smallholder rice production in PNG       

By JAMES LARAKI

           

 AGRICULTURE continues to be the economic backbone of Papua New Guinea, supporting the livelihood of over 80% of the population.

In recent years, PNG agriculture sector faced many difficulties and has not fared well, except for one or two sub-sectors.

A number of factors have been identified as responsible for the lack of or limited growth and poor agricultural extension has been one of the significant factors.

The dismal performance of extension began with the decentralisation of extension services from the National Department of Agriculture and Livestock (NDAL) to the provinces soon after independence.

This created 19 extension systems without any plans and adequate resources.

This followed with the creation of commodity boards and proliferation of NGOs, church-based extension services and other service providers, all with varied plans and client base.

This resulted in extension services becoming very fragmented, with most of the providers working on ad-hoc basis.

In addition, lack of partnership, collaboration and coordination of the extension system had led to duplication of activities, leading to wastage of resources.

All these have collectively led to decline in the extension services delivery systems.

The overall result is the stagnating performance of the agricultural sector since independence.

This scenario is likely to remain unless something is done to revitalise the agriculture extension system in the country. The situation here calls for a policy intervention more than anything.

A new policy on agriculture extension system is required to focus on the development of an effective and efficient extension system.

The new policy should aim to developing a cost effective and sustainable extension delivery mechanism that is market and farmer-driven.

It will encourage  the  various  partners  and  agencies  within  the  national  agricultural  extension  system  to provide  efficient  and  effective  services  which  complement  and  reinforce  each  other,  increasing the efficiency and productivity of the sector.

Existing national policies on agriculture are becoming increasingly irrelevant to farmers and other stakeholders in the sector.

While successive strategy and policy papers have emphasised agriculture as the most important economic sub-sector, their implementations have been impractical.

Agriculture extension forms a major component of the National Agriculture Development Plan (NADP 2007 - 2016) but its credibility has been seriously questioned over allegations of the alleged misuse of the K200 million allocated for its implementations.

 It is considered as a wasted opportunity with accusation of grants under this plan made to individuals and 'paper farmers' through dubious practices.

 As with the National Agricultural Development Strategy Horizon (NADSH 2002 – 2012), the NADP has been viewed poorly by many in the agriculture sector.

Some sub-sectors have queried the government's Vision 2050, claiming the projections of these commodities as unrealistic.

They claim the plan was put together by bureaucrats in Waigani without proper consultation with respective commodity organisations and other stakeholders.

The general consensus with this scenario is that agricultural development, in general, and extension services in particular, will continue to decline.

Thus, the need to revive agriculture extension and make it effective is of great concern nationwide.

The National Extension Summit (2004) noted the seriousness of extension delivery failures and the desire of the sector agencies to revive the extension system.

This summit called for the need to improve the performance of the agricultural extension systems through better coordination and linkages between the various sector agencies.

The recommendations of the summit to set up a National Extension Steering Committee (NESC) needs to be revisited and considered as the national coordinating agency.

Such committee will oversee and provide advice, guidance and direction on national extension delivery system and needs.

Currently extension services are being promoted without any consideration for their sustainability.

The establishment of NESC will ensure extension systems and packages are environment and community friendly, and address specific needs of the farmers in each sub-sector for effective stakeholder participation, benefits and sustainability.

The NESC would have guidelines in place to monitor and evaluate the performance of the national extension system on a regular basis.

Effective extension delivery systems also require enabling environment in terms of resources, coordination and capacity building.

Lack of credit access, declining road and infrastructure and inadequate marketing infrastructure are some of the reasons for the decline in the agriculture in PNG.

Women are resources and assets for development, but they are ignored in the development planning process.

The disadvantaged position of women is considered as a key constraint in developing the agricultural sector as women play a significant role in the production of food and other agricultural products.

Effective linkages between research and extension are very essential, to ensure innovations and technologies developed from research are disseminated to stakeholders on timely basis. Except for some of the export crops sector, integration of research, extension and the farmer is weak.

These linkages need to be prioritised based on national importance and on community needs.

Agricultural information development, promotion, and dissemination and capacity building have been on the decline, and this is unfortunate in this era of information and technology advancement.

There is a need to promote access to adequate information, resources and enhance capacity to effectively implement the national extension services.

Enhancing the capacity of extension agents and farmers through increased information, knowledge and skills will equip them towards improvements in agriculture production and productivity.

Other development issues confronting smallholder households such as climate change, HIV and AIDS, and food and nutrition security calls for all stakeholders to make a positive contribution to innovative agricultural development.

It is essential that government and responsible stakeholders intervene to revitalise the declining performance of the agriculture extension system.

This is because, unless the extension services delivery systems improves, improvements in agriculture sector which supports the livelihood of over 80% of the population will remain dismal and thus compromised.

MPs to debate bills, K1.9 billion payout

 THE health status of Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare is expected to be made public soon, as parliament resumes tomorrow, The National reports.
Also on the agenda would be the debate on the reported K1.9 billion payment by National Planning.
There was also speculation that the opposition, with support from rebel MPs within government, would move for the election of a new prime minister.
People of Hela and Ji­wa­ka would also be watching closely for parliament to pass legislation for them to achieve full provincial status by next year.
The Electoral Boundaries Commission would travel to Tari this month in the first leg of a 10-day tour of the proposed provinces to gauge views on electoral boundaries.
Two weeks would be given for any objection to the proposal. 
A public inquiry would then be conducted to review the proposals.
At the end of next month, the commission would prepare the first report to be tabled in parliament.
Opposition parliamentarians were believed to be meeting in Lae and would return to Port Moresby before the sitting of parliament.
The bill to have women in parliament would also be debated in this session.

Sir Julius degrades parliament

By JAMES APA GUMUNO

FORMER prime mi­nister Sir Julius Chan says the current parliament is "shameful, shocking and a showground, with a kindergarten much better than parliament", The National reports.
The leader of the People Progress Party and governor of New Ireland told media per­sonnel in Mt Hagen last Friday that "the country is in a mess".
Sir Julius claimed this was the worst parliament he had come across in his political career.
He said there was "no fairness and justice in government; parliament is run by a dictator".
"The government system is fine but the players did not play their game properly. 
"The players have become touch judges and referees at the same time, there is hardly any control," he said.
Sir Julius said they did not discuss anything good in parliament because "the business of parliament was in a mess".
"This has created disunity."
He said the government "is for the rich and not for the poor; the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer".
He said under the World Bank and Asian Development Bank index, "more people are now living below the poverty level than in 1990".
Sir Julius said some government ministers built their own empire and set up many dummy companies at the ex­pense of ordinary people.
He named two dummy companies set up by a senior minister in his province and "run by his political cronies".
He said his deputy governor asked for an inquiry to be conducted this year into these companies but, so far, no investigation had been carried out.
Sir Julius said this was one of many companies established by people in power.
He said he and other coastal provinces were fed up with the government and "want to get autonomy for their provinces and run their own affairs".
He said there "is no bright future under this government

Ogio to receive report on PM

By SAMUEL RAITANO

THE report on the medical status of the Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare will be handed to the Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio today by Acting Prime Minister Sam Abal, The National reports.
Ogio, after studying the report, will advise the speaker of parliament on whether it is necessary to call for the appointment of a new prime minister.
The report was prepared by Prof Isi Kevau, the prime minister's physician.
Parliament sessions start tomorrow. 
It is understood that Sir Michael would remain under medical supervision in Singapore.
He had undergone three operations and is in stable condition. But, certain functions in his organs were yet to be stabilised. 
According to the prime minister's media unit, information in regards to politics and the nation had been withheld from Sir Michael pending a full recovery.
It is understood that Sir Michael would need to get medical clearance to fly back to PNG.
Being in a fragile health status, flying in an aircraft would affect his breathing and he would need a medical clearance to do so. 
Abal did not comment on the prime minister's post being an agenda in this week's parliament sitting. But, the health report he would give the governor-general today would determine the next course of action as far as the country's leadership was concerned.
Abal said he would remain acting prime mi­nister until the governor-general notified par­liament after viewing the health report.

NA party crisis deepens

By JEFFREY ELAPA

THE leadership crisis in the ruling National Alliance has deepened with a caucus meeting last weekend confirming Kandep MP Don Polye as deputy leader highlands, The National reports.
The meeting in Goroka, which did not have a quorum, chose to ignore the election to that post of Sam Abal, the acting prime minister and Wabag MP, by 11 parliamentarians in a meeting in Port Moresby two weeks ago. 
The decision to elect Abal followed his suspension for two months by the party executives for making decisions deemed to be not in the best interest of the party.
Abal and some of the parliamentarians were not at Goroka for last week's meeting which confirmed Polye, who Abal had earlier this year sacked as foreign affairs minister, as the parliamentary deputy leader of NA highlands.
However, national party president Simon Kaiwi said the Goroka meeting was called by the current deputy leader (Polye) and conducted according to the party constitution.
But, he said, there was no quorum as three of the parliamentary members were away overseas and two, including Abal, were absent. Abal was at his village to attend his brother's funeral.
Kaiwi said although there was no quorum, the meeting recognised Polye as the deputy leader while Abal remained as deputy prime minister and acting prime minister.
He said Abal was not the deputy leader of the party and had no say on any party issue because he was on suspension.
Kaiwi said the charges against Abal would be determined by the party's national executives at their meeting in Banz this weekend.
He said Abal's election in Port Moresby was null and void because his appointment was unconstitutional in that he did not have any powers under the party constitution to call such a meeting.
"Abal is the deputy prime minister and acting prime minister and not a deputy parliamentary leader of the NA highlands caucus,'' he said.
"The party has suspended him and he remains suspended as member of the NA party before he appears before the national executives later for creating divisions within the party."
Polye said he was still the deputy leader and had the support of the party executives and five members of parliament. 
The party caucus meeting had been postponed to a later date and would be called by Polye as deputy party leader.
Meanwhile, Abal claimed yesterday he was the party deputy leader after his election by the parliamentary wing of the party in a Port Moresby meeting he organised.
He said honest leadership was needed by the people, referring to the party leadership issue getting much publicity.
He said his main concern was to protect what was in the best interest of the country. 
Abal said with the LNG project envisaged to generate revenue in the millions by 2014, honest leadership and stability in government were vital.
"Since 2002, NA has proved to be a stable government and has attracted multi-billion-dollar investors like ExxonMobil,'' he said.
"That stability must continue and I thank God for the Grand Chief who appointed me as acting prime minister for this nation," Abal said. 
He said there was a lot of politicking, even within his NA party, by those who wanted to confuse the people and tarnish his name. 
He said there were power-hungry people trying to create instability and "plunder the till" for the elections.