Graham Osborne ejected from Papua New Guinea today

Businessman Graham Osborne who was controversially deported from Papua New Guinea last December was refused entry into the country by immigration officials this afternoon, NBC news reports.

Orborne was detained by Immigration officials at the airport premises until he was put back on a plane to Cairns late this afternoon. 

This was done despite efforts by his lawyers to get PNG immigration and other officials to adhere to an existing court order for his return to the country. 

Close family friend Bertha Somare described this act as "irresponsible".

She said Orsborne was deported and dumped in a foreign country where he was forced to live in a hotel. 

The deportation is in defiance to an existing court order for his return to PNG to attend to legal proceedings.

Graham Osbourne refused entry into PNG today

Ela Beach Hotel restaurant proprietor Graham Osbourne has been refused entry into the country, NBC news reports on its 4pm bulletin.
Osbourne was last month deported from the country on the orders of acting Foreign Affairs Minister Jamie Maxtone-Graham.
It said Osbourne had his passport confiscated by customs and immigration officers after arrival at Jackson Airport in Port Moresby this afternoon.
NBC news reported that the officers were now looking at getting Osbourne out of the country.

Clan members shut down Hides gas plant

THE Pina clan in Hides PDL 1 have shut down the Hides Gas to Electricity power plant, The National reports.
As 2am yesterday, the power plant site had been inaccessible as frustrated clansmen dug a deep ditch into the access road that leads from Juni Technical College to Kulu and onto the plant site.
The frustrated landowners had resorted to this action in view of the state’s continued neglect of their log of claims.
Unconfirmed reports say power pylons carrying electricity transmission lines to Porgera Gold Mine had been felled. No feedback had been received from Porgera as yet.
Pina leaders in Port Moresby, Chief Tabita Malamu and Komo LLG vice-president Peter Pureni Hagu, were prevented by Pina clansmen at Jackson International Airport from boarding a flight to Tari as a result.
The two leaders were invited by developer Oil Search to travel to the plant site to help resolve the conflict.
The leaders are adamant that the K40 million commitment as per the Bluff Inn MoU be paid.
They claim they had submitted a K500 million claim at the meeting but Petroleum Minister William Duma committed only K42 million to them. K2 million of that commitment has been paid, with K40 million still outstanding.
They wanted the promised golden handshake to the chiefs in Hides to be effected quickly as well.
Pina issues committee chairman Labe Kinali, backed by other Pina leaders Andrew Katia, Kojupa Malupa, Arua Kinali, Kurabia Upa, Tatape Adilo, Rex Agori and John Tumania and more than 30 others physically restrained Malamu and Pureni from entering the airport terminal.
An angry Kinali wanted to know why the two leaders were trying to travel to Hides to defuse the conflict when they knew that the state had demonstrated it had no intention of ever honouring its commitment to the Pina.
“Our land has been used in an illegal operation as the site is demarcated outside PDL 1 boundaries. We have waited in vain for the past 19 years for recognition and due compensation,” he said.
He said Duma and his department were well aware of their concerns and Treasurer Don Polye was briefed on the issue when delivering the K16 million to Hides 4 landowners.
 “We have signed copies of the two ministers’ correspondences but no actual actions have eventuated,” the chairman said.
He said even though the matter was screened by the Gabriel Pepson-chaired Independent Issues Committee, the State’s continued negligence had resulted in the plant shut down.
 “They paid out K76 million to dubious people on the streets of Port Moresby and think we will just sit quietly and allow them to continue to exploit us as they have been doing for the past 19 years? The power plant will remain shut until all our issues are resolved once and for all,” Kinali said.
Thomas Tala Ora, chairman of Habono Block in PDL 1, supported Kinali’s stand and said the State kept on dishonouring its promises.
He said the leaders of the six identified blocks in PDL 1 had delivered on the respective agreements and stood by what they signed.
“The Pina Issue was on the agenda and it was discussed and appropriate agreements signed. Even the other three blocks, JP Karai, Tugu-Tapiria and Habono, are still awaiting their K1 million State commitment each,” he said.
Tala Ola said the State was well aware of the recognized leaders in the six blocks and it would do well to work closely with these leaders or face escalation and spread of similar actions in other PDLs

Dame Carol Kidu calls it a day

By JEFFREY ELAPA

THE only woman parliamentarian and the sponsor of the 22 women’s reserved seats, Dame Carol Kidu announced her retirement from active politics during the Melanesian Alliance Party fundraising dinner last Friday evening, The National reports.
Dame Carol has served in parliament for the past 14 years and has been the minister for community development for the past nine years, making significant contributions to the department by turning it from small ministry into a major one.
She said she was leaving politics satisfied she had made significant contributions to the nation, “something women and children, the disabled and youths can be proud of”.
Dame Carol commended her party executives for continuing to keep one of the oldest parties alive.
Staunch members of the party were the Somare family and founding father John Momis, while Dame Carol was the only woman member of parliament to survive the past three terms.
She said she had a good time working with the National Alliance party which had the same vision for PNG, led by Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare who trusted and allowed her to continue to be a minister in his coalition government.
She said the future alliance of the party laid in the hands of the young generation and she urged her party executives to rope in young people to bring back a vision for the future.
Dame Carol is the second person after Madang businessman Sir Peter Barter to retire after holding several key and senior ministries for the past three terms.
Sir Peter did not seek re-election in the 2007 general election.
A senior citizens among the group that attended the dinner said Dame Carol’s action set an example for many PNG indigenous politicians to do the same rather than continuing to hold on to power.
Those who attended the fundraising dinner were Mul-Baiyer MP Sani Rambi, non-parliamentarian Wari Vele and Sir Michael’s daughter Betha Somare, who pledged support to the party and made contributions.
The Narokobi family pledged their support and donated K10,000 to the party.
Many other party supporters and sponsors attended the functions, which raised more than K89,000

National Alliance no more!

By JAMES APA GUMUNO

The National Alliance party, which had\s led coalition governments for the past nine years, is being dismantled, The National reports.

In its place will be a new political party spearheaded by Finance Minister Don Polye, who leads the NA faction in government.
The move to deregister the NA was one of the resolutions passed at the Highlands regional convention in Mt Hagen last Friday.
The Highlands and Islands blocs constitute the biggest faction, with 24 MPs, which supported Polye as leader of the parliamentary wing instead of Sam Abal, the Wabag MP, who had also laid claim to leadership, a dispute currently before the courts.
Last Friday, one of the many resolutions believed to have been passed was to create a new political party with a new name to replace the divided National Alliance party.
The Highlands bloc came up with possible names of the new party which Polye said would be discussed as a matter of formality at the national convention on Jan 22-24 in Port Moresby.
He told a media conference he would deregister NA as soon as the new party, which he had already formed, was in place and "the old one will be kicked out".
Polye invited the NA faction led by founder Sir Michael Somare to join his new party.
He added that he was prepared to go to court to defend his action.
The Highlands bloc meeting was attended by party executives in the seven Highlands provinces.
Among those present were Western Highlands Governor Tom Olga, Correctional Service Minister and Kainantu MP Silon Besseo, Finance and Treasury vice-minister Yawa Silupa, Lands Minister and Guminea MP Lucas Dekena and North Wahgi MP Benjamin Mul.
Highlands deputy leader James Kond said they had invited 13 NA members from the Highlands to attend.
Polye said other MPs like Philip Kikala and Speaker Jeffrey Nape did not make it because of their committments and sent their apologies.
He thanked Olga and Mul and welcomed them back into the group.
Polye said their goal was to retain their 24 parliamentary seats with him and select the best candidates to contest other seats under the new party.

The legend of Sinake Giregire

By MALUM NALU

I first met legendary Highlands politician and businessman, Sir Sinake Giregire – who passed away recently - one fine morning in July 2000.

That beautiful Goroka morning, while I was working with the Coffee Industry Corporation in Goroka, I drove up to his coffee plantation at Asaroka outside Goroka, where I interviewed this iconic member of the first House of Assembly in 1964, a story which was published in The National.

Sir Sinake Giregire in his coffee garden at Asaroka, outside Goroka, in 2000.-Picture by MALUM NALU

Giregire just recently had been awarded a CBE in the 2000 Queen’s Birthday honors list for services to politics and the country.

Until his fall from political grace in 1977, Giregire’s at times larrikin feats became the stuff of legend, stretching from his humble hamlet in the verdant Asaro Valley of Eastern Highlands across the mountains, rivers and seas of this beautiful country.

He was a self-made coffee tycoon and gold miner who hired an expatriate manager (unheard of for a national in the 1960s) to run his affairs, a hard-drinking politician who didn’t budge an inch in the House of Assembly, a man who was once interrogated in Tokyo for having no visa, and a staunch supporter of Australia who fiercely resisted independence.

In the first House of Assembly, he mixed it with the likes of John Guise, Sepik crocodile hunter John Pasquarelli (three decades later to become infamous for leading Pauline Hanson’s One Nation campaign in Queensland), Goroka planter Ian Downs, Sepik war hero Simogun Peter, Finschhafen’s Zure Makili Zurenuoc, Maprik’s Pita Lus and many other colourful personalities who have since passed on.

My late father, a school teacher in the Asaro Valley in the early 1960s, often thrilled us with stories of Giregire, who lived just a stone’s throw away from him.

Later, growing up in Goroka in the 1970s, I heard and saw so much of the man that I have always harbored a fascination for him.

Australian newspaper and author, Keith Willey, who was assigned by Mirror Newspapers in 1964 to cover the changing face of New Guinea during election year in 1964, was also a fan of the Highlands icon and relates his feats in his books Assignment New Guinea and New Guinea.

Wiley tells of the fiery debates during the first House of Assembly on impending independence.

“Sinake Giregire predicted it would be three or four thousand years before the territory of New Guinea could rule itself,” Wiley writes in Assignment New Guinea.

When I met him in 2000, 36 years after the first House of Assembly, Giregire remained unapologetic, and when I visited him at his Asaro coffee gardens, he remained convinced that independence came too early.

Not, perhaps, the overstatement of “three or four thousand years”, but maybe by “five years”, meaning PNG should have waited until 1980 to attain independence.

That’s why, Giregire asserted, PNG has gone backward since independence.

“The foundations for the country and educational qualifications were not there,” he told me then.

“That’s why I didn’t want independence to come too quickly.

“When white men were here, things were okay.

“When white men were here, they used to work with the villagers.

“Now we don’t see this.

“Papua New Guineans (in towns) are not concerned about villagers.

“They’re drifting apart from the villagers.

“Business firms should have stayed on after independence but there were no clear investment policies.

“Company taxes were too high and they took off.

“Electricity bills were too high.

“Many moved to Indonesia because of attractive policies and cheap labour.”

The day we drove into Giregire country that day in 2000, he was his usual charismatic self, leading his tribesmen and women in discussions about coffee and agriculture, and the effects of ongoing tribal war further up the valley, which has tragically claimed so many lives.

He took me first on a multi-coloured tour of PNG history starting in the 1930s and then his coffee spread – which includes his original trees of 1955 that propelled him to greatness.

Moreover, he had a lot to tell!

Buai-stained teeth, bare feet and white hair matted by dust belied the ice-cool intellect of this pioneer PNG politician.

He made no secret that he would have been a very, very rich man if only his managers hadn’t ripped him off.

Giregire estimated that he was born about 1937 at Gimisive village, Asaro Valley, and did his early primary school at the Asaroka Lutheran School.

In 1946, after WW11, he left for further education at Heldsbach Lutheran School in Finschhafen, Morobe province

“I came back to Asaro in 1955,” Giregire tells me.

“The same year, I started planting coffee, starting off with 125 coffee trees.

“Today, I have 28,000 coffee trees.”

He claims that coffee was first brought into the Highlands by Lutheran missionaries in 1932, and was of the German Blue variety.

Later, Giregire adds, the Australians came and renamed this same variety Blue Mountain.

The Department of Agriculture, he says, came much later onto the scene with the experimental station at Aiyura, from where coffee was distributed throughout the Highlands and PNG.

“We took coffee into the Asaro area,” Giregire says.

“There were a lot of us from Asaro who ventured into coffee growing.”

From here, coffee ventured further into Chimbu and Western Highlands provinces.

“Ex Australian soldiers were given the first priority for growing coffee while we the nationals were overlooked,” Giregire claims.

“I fought hard for the right to grow coffee in Asaro.

“I joined forces with farmers from Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands (both expatriates and nationals) and we created the Farmers’ Association in 1956.

“I was the first secretary.

“We were the ones who started the Farmset company.

“Now I am the current chairman of Eastern Highlands Farmers Incorporated.”

Giregire says that under the colonial administration, agriculture officers were very proactive, walking long distances by foot and actually living with the villagers.

“With didiman in the past, agriculture extension services were No. 1,” he says.

“Apart from coffee, the didiman also assisted with things like pineapple, avocado, chicken, pigs and cardamom.”

The 1950s saw the introduction of local government councils in the country, and the budding Giregire was one of the first members of the Asaro council, which was introduced in 1962.

He used this as the springboard to become one of the first members of the House of Assembly in 1964, representing Goroka.

“In 1964, I was the under secretary for ministerial services,” Giregire remembers.

“Later, in ’68. I was ministerial member for agriculture, stock and fisheries, because I was an experienced farmer in PNG.

“I took a delegation from Samarai (Milne Bay) and Cape Hoskins (West New Britain) to Malaysia in 1968.

“We visited oil palm experimental stations and brought back seeds.

“Later, I went to Australia and ordered rice machinery costing A$2 million in 1969, which we used to start factories in Bereina (Central) and Maprik (East Sepik).

“I also brought back with me from Australia Brahman bulls, which were distributed throughout PNG.

“I was the one who invited the Rothmans company to Goroka.

“I also went to the Asian Development Bank and supported the Indian sugar industry moving into PNG, which has eventuated in Ramu Sugar.

“In 1969, I became Minister for Posts & Telegraphs.

“We used to have very poor telecommunications in PNG before.

“I hopped around looking for A$20m from the World Bank in Washington.

“This was approved by the bank.”

He then travelled over the North Pole, from New York to Japan, where disaster struck when he was caught red-handed with no visa.

“I had no visa and was arrested for 10 hours in Tokyo,” Giregire laughs.

“I appeared before an international border crossers’ court.

“Another time, I led a delegation to the United Nations in New York to talk about poor education in PNG.

“They financed the Vudal Agricultural College, Popondetta Agricultural College and the Goroka Teachers’ College.

“Later, I went to Australia and talked to Australian Prime Minister, John Gorton.

“I asked him for a big hospital and he agreed to build the Goroka Base Hospital.”

Giregire’s baby is agriculture, and he argues that because of the downfall of this sector, the country has basically gone to the dogs.

He says appalling extension services have seen farmers without a “father” to lead them.

“Our government should employ only experienced people who have knowledge of the field,” he said.

“Political appointments are spoiling the economy of this country.”

Giregire says coffee has the potential to make a lot of money for the country, and all it needs is a bit more assistance to farmers, including finance and their own export company.

In 1977, Giregire contested the Daulo Open Seat and lost to Gai Duwabane, ending a colourful era in PNG politics.

Undaunted, he continued to look after the Farmers’ Association in Asaro, as well as support the cause of agriculture in PNG.

To talk with Giregire is to go through PNG’s history from the colonial days until now.

To the young, the uninitiated, he may look like just another of those old men in Goroka.

Nevertheless, as I found out, he is a walking encyclopaedia.

Age cannot wither, nor custom stale, his infinite variety,

Manus MPs asked to provide proper boat facilities

The two Manus MPs have been challenged to provide proper boat stop facilities for the people of outer islands of Manus.

A concern Lou islander and TV producer, Reuben Pokanau, said this after the New Year’s Eve boat incident which saw three lives lost. 

Reuben Pokanau

“Loniu Bridge, on Los Negros Island, is used by the south coast sea travellers but does not have any proper shelter, sanitation and water supply for the growing population,” he said.

“ Twenty thousand people, just under half the population of Manus,  live on the south coast of Manus province which includes the Islands of Rambutso, Lou, Baluan, Pam, M’Buke, and coastal areas of West Point,Timonai,Werei,Pere,M’Bunai and Lawes.

“Manus, as a maritime province, has more people living in the coastal areas and smaller atolls who commute by sea to seek government services and conduct business in Lorengau on a daily basis but our elected leaders and provincial government turn a blind eye to providing the basic infrastructure.

“Are we not citizens of this province?

“There have been a lot of unreported incidents at sea and we cannot continue to face this dilemma every day.”

Pokanau said he had already talked with Manus Open MP and Fisheries Minister, Job Pomat, about negotiating with Loniu landowners to build proper transit facilities last year but nothing had eventuated to date.

He said North Coast sea travellers should also have such facilities.