ANZAC Day address in Madang

By Brother Andrew Simpson

Vice President Student Affairs

Divine Word University

The term ANZAC stands for the Australia New Zealand Army Corp.   

It was on 25 April 1915 that armed forces representing both Australia and New Zealand fought together as one unit at Gallipoli in Turkey in defence of freedom and the rights of others within the global community.

 Since coming together as a fighting force in 1915, the spirit of ANZAC has developed a close bond of friendship and respect between the peoples and countries of Australia and New Zealand. 

 Papua New Guinea has also shared strongly in that ANZAC spirit and both Australia and New Zealand value very highly the bond of friendship with Papua New Guinea and we share a respect for each other.

 ANZAC Day is celebrated particularly in Australia and New Zealand and broadly commemorates the lives and beliefs of all who died and served for their countries in military operations.   

ANZAC Day is also a major commemoration in the South Pacific Region, particularly in Papua New Guinea and other nearby countries, where many severe battles of war took place. 

 Here in Papua New Guinea we also celebrate Remembrance Day on 23 July to commemorate our own special memories for our loved ones who fought for the belief of freedom and responsibility within PNG.

 Whilst that day in 1915 was our first coming together in the ANZAC tradition, Australia has been involved in many theatres of war. 

The Boer War in Africa, the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Vietnam were engagements of the past. 

 Today we have Afghanistan and Iraq and we also participate in peace-keeping forces in a number of countries.  

 We acknowledge and thank those who have suffered in any way in these conflicts, and we pray for the challenge of finding peace in our world and of being able to resolve our conflicts in a non-violent manner.

 The history of the Dawn Ceremony grew out of the ANZAC tradition. 

 The Dawn Ceremony on ANZAC Day evolved from the comradeship experienced by those ANZAC soldiers in the quiet moments before dawn on that first ANZAC morning in the ditches of Gallipoli as they waited to enter into battle.   

The Dawn Ceremony also reflects our Christian belief of Resurrection that as we await the dawning of a new day and new life, we remember those who have suffered and died in military conflicts.  There is the vision of new life in front of us today.

 And it is fitting that we celebrate the Dawn Ceremony on both ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day each year here at Kalibobo Point.  

 This lighthouse was built as a special Coastwatchers Memorial to the many allies and Papuan new Guineans who lived in the hills behind the hinterland and reported the movement of Japanese planes and boats along the coastline – these soldiers, plantation workers and villagers were known as the Coastwatchers and played a significant role in the success of the Battle of the Coral Sea.

 Today in Madang we remember those who suffered and died in the past for our freedom.   

We are challenged with new opportunities to maintain the freedom of our future generation.

We Will Remember Them – Lest We Forget

PNG fallen honoured at dawn service in Rabaul

From SKY NEWS

The suffering of Papua New Guineans during World War II has been recognised at an Anzac Day dawn service in Rabaul. 

More than 250 people, including many Australian visitors, attended the service, which also commemorated the Japanese invasion of the New Guinea islands and the sinking of the prison ship Montevideo Maru in 1942.

President of the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society, Mr Phil Ainsworth, told those gathered that many Papua New Guineans had lost their lives in a war that was not of their making.

'They loyally supported the Allies in many endeavours, as soldiers, policemen, carriers and labourers,' Mr Ainsworth said.

'As a result, an unknown number of Papua New Guineans were murdered by the Japanese.'

The service was attended by two former Australian coastwatchers - Matt Foley, 91, from the Gold Coast, and Jim Burrowes, 89, from Melbourne.

Both had volunteered during World War Two to serve in Japanese-occupied New Britain and report on enemy activity in the region.

Mr Burrowes said it was only the wonderful support he received from Papua New Guineans that made it possible to operate behind the lines.

Mr Burrowes lost two brothers during WWII, including one who died on the Montevideo Maru.

The prison ship was transporting 1053 Australian prisoners of war and civilian internees from Rabaul to Hainan Island when it was sunk by a US submarine near the Philippines.

All prisoners perished in what remains Australia's worst maritime tragedy.

A monument to those who died is due to be dedicated by the governor-general at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on July 1 this year, 70 years to the day that the Montevideo Maru was sunk.

'Politics of pig' now rule ANC

By  MPUMELELO MKHABELA in Sowetan Live

SOMEWHERE in the Pacific Ocean there is an island called Papua New Guinea. It is populated by tribes called Wantoks, a pidgin version of "one talk" or people who speak the same language.

 Ruling party warns that it is racked by increasing strife 

Francis Fukuyama, the American philosopher, has written about this island in his tome, The Origins of Political Order. Papua New Guinea, Fukuyama observes, has hundreds of mutually incomprehensible languages.

Most citizens of the Papua New Guinea highlands have never left the small mountain valleys in which they were born.

Their lives have revolved around the wantok populated by each tribe, in competition with other neighbouring wantoks.

The Wantoks people are led by a Big Man. No one is born a Big Man, nor can a Big Man hand that title down to his son. Rather, the position has to be earned in each generation.

The title falls not necessarily to those who are physically dominant, but those who have earned the community's trust, usually on the basis of ability to distribute pigs and shell out money and other resources to members of their tribe.

The Big Man must constantly be looking over his shoulder, because a competitor for authority may be coming behind him. Without pigs to distribute he loses his status.

If the Big Man, according to Fukuyama, can get elected to parliament, he uses his or her influence to direct government resources back to the wantok, to help supporters with things like school fees and burial costs.

From the standpoint of many foreigners, Fukuyama writes, this behaviour looks like political corruption. But from the standpoint of the island's traditional tribal social system, the Big Men are simply doing what Big Men have always done: to redistribute resources, including pigs, to their kinsmen.

The net result is that Papua New Guinea is now worse off in terms of development than it was under Australian colonial rule.

The people of Papua Guinea are enjoying an empty shell of freedom. They have failed to sustain democratic institutions.

Generation after generation, citizens of Papua New Guinea are socialised into the politics of influence peddling through the currency of the pig. It is easy to laugh about this country and ask: what kind of citizens give so much political weight to an otherwise filthy animal? Well, it's classic pork barrel politics.

Key societal decisions, including the election of political leaders, are dependent on the distribution of patronage.

The politics of pigs look literally too far from the southern tip of Africa, where our Republic is situated. But the truth is that the politics of pigs are increasingly dominant in our country. You could swear we are playing catch-up with Papua New Guinea.

We have our own pig transactions. Simply replace the word "pig" with "bribe", then you realise the extent of the rot.

We may not have reached the point where an individual or a political party can bribe a large part of the country to keep a government position. But we are getting there. We seem to be travelling that road faster than we realise.

In fact, it is already happening, albeit indirectly. The ANC is used as a middle man or a political merchant organisation through which the patronage transactions are done. One does not need to prove their worth in terms of the values they stand for in order to be elected to positions of power.

All that people and their groupings do is structure deals to enable them to milk state resources once a member of the group has taken over power in municipal, provincial and national government.

Judging by concerns raised by the ANC about the conduct of its leaders and factions, there is no doubt the politics of the pig have infected the ruling party.

The party's organisational renewal document makes some interesting observations to this effect.

Under the sub-heading "subjective weaknesses", the document states that the political life of the organisation revolves around "permanent" internal strife and factional battles for power.

This strife is about the "contestation for power and state resources". It has nothing to do with how to implement policies of the party. This situation, the document says, has shifted the focus of the ANC members away from societal concerns and people's aspirations.

"These circumstances have produced a new type of ANC member, who sees ill-discipline, divisions, factionalism and infighting as normal practice and necessary forms of political survival," the document says.

The document advocates "drastic measures and consistent action" against these negative tendencies to "restore sanity and root out anarchy".

What the document does not say is that ordinary citizens are affected by the desecration of state institutions.

The poorest of the poor, the most in need of a capable and compassionate state, are now victims of a state that has basically been goggled out by the politics of pigs.

Like the ill-discipline in the ANC, the strange conduct of our political leaders in abusing state institutions and threatening the Constitution has become "normal".

And when some leaders are told they are a "strange breed", they threaten those who speak the truth, all in an effort to suggest that our political situation is the best, it's "normal".

This kind of behaviour finds its expression in all corners of our society.

And so when Corruption Watch releases statistics that show that one in four Joburg drivers have been asked for a bribe by the city's cops, this is met with denial.

But dig deeper, and you will find that the denial is not genuine. The authorities are just surprised that someone sees anything wrong with what they regard as "normal"

ANZAC Day in Madang

By SIR PETER BARTER

The Madang people remembered ANZAC with a Dawn Service at the Coastwatchers Memorial Lighhouse this morning. 

 It was attended by hundreds of residents including Col Alby Hughes representing the Australian government, a number of New Zealanders the PNG Maritime College principal Captain Richard Teo and students,  and contingents from Divine Word University and other educational institutes in Madang.   

 Wreaths were laid by Pastor Barry Lang, Bruce Barter, Maureen Hill andCol Hughes.

Special thanks to Sibona Mani and all the business houses and churches, staff of the Madang Resort that helped make this event possible.

Smith honours war dead in PNG

By Eoin Blackwell, AAP Papua New Guinea Correspondent

Defence Minister Stephen Smith has paid tribute to the 32 Australians killed in Afghanistan as the Anzac Day dawn service in Papua New Guinea remembered the many who died in the region during World War II.
Mr Smith, along with more than 1000 people, gathered at Port Moresby's Bomona cemetery on this morning to remember armed service men and women who have died in service to their country.
"We remember today that 32 young Australians have fallen in Afghanistan," he said.
"We honour their memory and share a tragic sense of loss.
"Like the Anzacs and the men who served in Papua and New Guinea during World War Two, these 32 took on tough, dangerous and vital work, away from home."
Captain Bryce Duffy, Corporal Ashley Birt and Lance Corporal Luke Gavin were shot and killed in October last year in southern Afghanistan, becoming the latest Australian soldiers to die in that country following a decade of war.
Mr Smith was joined by PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, who said those who had died in World War II died for freedom, for Australia and for Papua New Guinea.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign, as well as the battle of Milne Bay, considered the first Pacific battle where the allies decisively defeated the Japanese.
"Many things bond our two countries together, but none more so than what was strengthened during 1942, the darkest year of the war for the allies in the Pacific region," Mr O'Neill said.
The Japanese had tried to cut supply lines to Australia, and made it to within 48km of the PNG capital Port Moresby; so close, they could see the searchlights from the city.
Following a minute's silence and a solemn wreath-laying ceremony as the sun came up, musician John Williamson sang a slow, mournful version of his song, True Blue.
As darkness lifted, the soft morning light highlighted Bomana and its staggering amount of graves.
Among the 3,280 burials, 700 are unidentified servicemen