Loujaya Toni keeps the Lae fire alive

By ARMSTRONG SAIYAMA

Divine Word University Journalism Student

LONE female candidate Loujaya Toni is the new member elect for the Lae Open seat.

Toni has polled 7,364 votes ahead of the businessman Fred Wak with 5,842 votes and sitting MP Bart Philemon trailing third with 4,680 votes.

The horse trading has already started and new Lae MP Elect Loujaya Toni is no exception, as this picture of her being courted by Peter O'Neill's People's National Congress this morning shows. PNC sent a plane to whisk her out of Nadab Airport this morning.-Picture by MICHAEL J EARLEY

Toni has won over the 50 +1 majority of 6,004 votes in this male-dominated race.

Former journalist, teacher, poet cum gospel singer Loujaya Toni is running under the ticket of Indigenous People’s Party.

The Masters Degree in Communication Development Studies graduate from the PNG University of Technology said she could use her knowledge and experiences to bring holistic development in her Lae electorate. 

Toni told The National in an exclusive interview earlier in this year with her at her residence at the Busurum Compound. 

“I understand human beings and basics of not only to look after people within Lae electorate, I also understand how we can develop together our human resources and how to communicate development,” she said.

“I’m confident with the level of qualifications that I have and that confidence that I am delivering to the voters.

“I’m pressing people to take ownership of my policies and seeing them as theirs."

Toni has challenged 30 male candidates including the veteran Minister of Public Service Bart Philemon.

The Butibam villager said she has ousted her grandfather Philemon to show a new type of leadership in the Lae Open seat.

 “I am working with all the candidates in the Lae Open seat, I see all of them as my brothers and except Bart Philemon who is my grandfather,” Toni said.

“I’m banking on the fact that I see all candidates as brothers and Philemon as grandfather, I’m very confident that I’m in every body’s three leaf combination."

Her winning is the manifestation of her creative drive to tap into second and third choices of this male dominated race.

Toni has been running under the banner of “Make a difference: Vote for a woman".

“I never support the reserve seats and I’m excited in the prospects of running this election," she said.

“Male candidates can’t handle women’s issues, men deal with big issues and women’s issues are not on men’s agenda.

“A woman is qualified in home economics and in human resource development.

“Naturally, women are interested in talking of human resource development and want our children to have good education, good health and good life.

“We, the women are practicing real home economics and human resource development in the home governments, and we women are expanding our areas of governance into the next level,” she said.

Toni says that her policies are to touch the people and changed the people’s lives.

“I would empower and up skill the customary Ahi land owners, squatter settlers, women, old people, orphans, youth, people living with HIV/AIDS and people living with disability,” she said.

“ I have  plans to organise pensions for old people, create sheltered workShops for people living with disability, Improve alternative healthcare and homecare for people living with HIV/AIDS, employment and training programmes for youth, programmes for orphans, develop cottage industry for women, downstream processing of local products and establish a council of chiefs for the  Ahi people,” Toni said.

She said her push is for PNG to meet the 2015 United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals.

“I will provide a report card of my electorate to the United Nations in 2015," Toni said,

 “That involves providing a report card to make myself accountable to the Lae voters and transparent to the international community.

“I have 100 days in office plan and a  five-year development plan for Lae Open electorate."

This is her second time to contest the Lae Open seat to win this seat.

Toni came fifth out of the 25 candidates in the 2007 national election and she came third in the 2008 Ahi local level government presidential race.

Loujaya Toni unseats Bart Philemon in Lae

By MATHEW KEPAS

NBC, Lae

Woman leader LoujayaToni is the new Lae MP, unseating Bart Philemon, who has been in the seat since 1992.

Toni celebrates her win yesterday.-Picture by JOANNE PENNINAH KARO

Toni yesterday polled 7,364 votes ahead of her closest rival , businessman Fred Wak, 5,842 to win.  She is the second woman candidate to be declared over the weekend, after Delilah Gore unseated  Anthony Nene, for Sohe Open Seat in Oro (Northern) province on Saturday. 

 Toni has pledged to the people of Lae that in her term as their member for the next five years, her biggest aim would be to fulfil the United Nations agenda of poverty alleviation.

She says she will honour God and join the Government of the day and work towards providing a report card to the UN General Assembly by 2015, to say that Lae District is serious in dealing with poverty alleviation.

And in order to achieve that the member elect says Lae district must first of all develop a biometric data base to keep an accurate account of its population firgures including other important statistics to match development trends.

Toni revealed these in her victory speech after her declaration at 2.30 yesterday afternoon at the Sir Ignatius Sporting complex in Lae.

She polled 7, 364 votes going past the absolute majority vote of 6,000-plus to beat the runner-up Fred Wak who scored 5842 votes.

The 29th and final exclusion in the race was that of sitting member and New Generation party leader Bart Philemon. 

 Philemon had been the member for Lae for the last 20 years and it took a relative and a woman to unseat him in this general elections under the Preferential Voting System.

Lae MP Bart Philemon fighting for survival

By MATHEW KEPAS
NBC Lae

The Leader of the New Generation Party and sitting member for Lae Open Bart Philemon is fighting for his political survival as counting slowly winds down in the Lae Open seat.

Philemon...fighting for survival

This follows the 27th elimination late this afternoon and the consequent suspension of counting until tomorrow morning at the Sir Ignatius Kilage stadium in Lae.
After the 27th exclusion Mr Philemon is running third with 4297 votes.
Lae businessman Fred Wak has skipped away with 5151 votes while, in second spot is woman candidate Loujoya Toni is on 4801 votes.
Constitutional Democratic Party candidate Micah Parimani Vines is fourth and the tail end of the field with 4234 votes.
Parimani will be the 28th exclusion when counting resumes tomorrow morning.

First woman elected in PNG elections

Delilah Gore has just beaten her former boss and, Anthony Nene, for Sohe Open Seat in Oro (Northern) province.
Gore has just been declared winner as a member of Don Polye's Triumph Heritage Empowerment (THE) Party.
Since the start of the polls she has maintained a very good lead over all challengers for the Sohe Open Seat.
"When I left office I went to all four districts," she told NBC Radio.
"I went out empowering women and youths.
"I told women to vote for women, and that's what they did."
She said her focus would be on rural development.
"We have lacked government services for a long time," Gore said.

Cebu top business, tourism hub

By MALUM NALU
 

Cebu City, where Air Niugini is commencing twice weekly flights, is the oldest city in the Philippines.

Filipino dancers welcoming the PNG delegation to Cebu on Monday night

It is part of Cebu, a province in the Philippines, consisting of Cebu Island and 167 surrounding islands.

Cebu is one of the most-developed provinces in the Philippines, with Cebu City as the main centre of commerce, trade, education and industry in the Visayas.

IT Park, Cebu City, a place of great shopping, cafes and restaurants

 Condé Nast Traveler Magazine named Cebu the 7th best island destination in the Indian Ocean-Asia region in 2007, 8th best Asian-Pacific island destination in 2005, 7th in 2004 and in 2009.

A colourful jeepney along the streets of Cebu City

 It is located to the east of Negros, to the west of Leyte and Bohol islands. Cebu is a long narrow island stretching 225 kilometers from north to south, surrounded by 167 neighbouring, smaller islands, which include Mactan, Bantayan, Malapascua, Olango and the Camotes Islands.

Mactan-Cebu International Airport, where Air Niugini is flying to, is located in Mactan Island, and is the second busiest airport in the Philippines after Manila.

The Air Niugini Boeing 737 being welcomed at Cebu City Mactan International Airport on Monday night

Cebu businessman Mel Oplimo, who has business links with PNG, said Air Niugini could not go wrong as Cebu was the business and tourism hub of the Phillipines.

Ayala Centre, one of the biggest shopping malls in the Philippines

“We enjoy the splendor and beauty of Cebu,”he told The National in Cebu.

“Cebu is known for its semi-conductor industry, furniture industry, shipping, travel and tourism.

Oplimo (right), me and video cameraman Tapusi Kone outside the Ayala Centre mall

“Cebu is known as a rest and recreation area and most entrepreneurs and Chinese tycoons come from Cebu.

“Cebu is known as a tourism hub.

“It has been declared as one of the best destinations for tourism in Asia because of its pristine white beaches and hotel services.”

Telikom eyes retail service

TELIKOM PNG will be restructured and refinanced to become a national telecommunications retail service provider, Public Enterprises Minister Sir Mekere Morauta announced last night, The National reports.
 Speaking at the launch of the information “Super Highway” in Lae, he said the National Transmission Network  (NTN) was  essentially an integrated optical fibre, satellite and microwave network to be controlled by a new company called DataCo, which was recently set up as part of the NTN plan.
DataCo will own and operate the network as a wholesale provider of telecommunications.
 “This role will become increasingly important, given the need to provide strong competition to Digicel, and to meet growing mobile phone demand in rural and remote areas,” Sir Mekere said.
“It is estimated that capital funding of K500 million will be required under the NTN plan to cover the cost of assets owned by Telikom and PNG Power, repair and maintenance of existing infrastructure, the building of new infrastructure and the restructuring and recapitalising of Telikom.
Sir Mekere said K5 million of that funding has already been supplied by IPBC to get this K5.6 million “missing link” project completed.
“Telikom did not have the funds to pay, so IPBC paid, in order to complete this much-needed link.”
Sir Mekere said DataCo would be required to meet community service obligations, for which a policy was being developed, and funding may be needed to cover the CSO-driven extension of telecommunications services into areas of the country that may not be profitable.
“I am hopeful that the incoming Government will see the wisdom and enormous benefit of providing some of the total K500 million required for the NTN through the Sovereign Wealth Fund, through a funding cell created to recapitalise and rehabilitate SOEs, a concept I developed and recommended to the government with exactly this sort of application in mind.
“This plan represents a new start for telecommunications, which is one of the most important drivers of national development.
“Telecommunications has been an obstacle to growth and prosperity, and the NTN plan is a way to remove that obstacle and spur new growth.”

Information ‘super highway’ launched

PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Sir Mekere Morauta says the launch of the K5.6 million information “super highway” in Lae last night should serve as an example of how the incoming government should do business, The National reports.
He said when launching the project at the Lae International Hotel that the government clearly had the tools to provide critical national infrastructure and affordable, reliable and efficient services, and more so when the Sovereign Wealth Fund was in place.

Telikom acting chief executive officer Charles Litau (left) and National Planning Minister Sam Basil looking on as Sir Mekere unveils the plaque marking the launching of the information "super highway" in Lae last night.-Nationalpic by LARRY ANDREW

The “super highway” will provide the link to allow the expansion of high-speed internet, data and voice services to private and corporate customers across the nation.
It fills in what is known as the “missing link” in PNG’s telecommunications system between Lae and Madang, where the international submarine cable comes ashore.
Sir Mekere said the activation of this cable was part of a transformation of the social and economic landscape of PNG – the telecommunications revolution.
“The take-up of mobile phones and internet services since then has revolutionised our personal and business interactions,” he said.
“Our relationship with the rest of the world and to each other will never be the same owing to our new and broad-based ease of access to knowledge and ideas, to money and resources, to new organisations and interest groups, to different cultures.”
“The telecommunications revolution, most visible in the form of mobile phone towers, is spreading into some of the most remote parts of the country.”
Sir Mekere said revamping the national telecommunications network would make a significant contribution to national economic development and to improved delivery of services, especially to rural and remote areas.
“The National Transmission Network  (NTN) is essentially an integrated fibre optics, satellite and microwave network to be controlled by a new company called DataCo, which was recently set up as part of the NTN plan,” Sir Mekere  said.
“DataCo will own and operate the network as a wholesale provider of telecommunications.”
It will consist of:

• Telikom’s existing domestic microwave, satellite and fibre optics network, with the international gateways (Port Moresby and Lae) and optical fibre submarine cable international links;
• PNG Power’s fibre optics ground wire throughout PNG (to which Madang link is part) and;
• The government’s interest in a 750km optical fibre cable being built to support the PNG LNG project.

“Other elements will include upgrades of existing telecommunications infrastructure and investment in new infrastructure,” Sir Mekere said.
“A feasibility study into how DataCo will manage the system has already begun.
“DataCo will be required to meet community service obligations, for which a policy is being developed, and funding may be needed to cover the CSO-driven extension of telecommunications services into areas of the country that may not be profitable.
“I am hopeful that the incoming government will see the benefit of providing some of the total K500 million required through the Sovereign Wealth Fund, through a funding cell created to recapitalise and rehabilitate SOEs, a concept I developed and recommended to the government with exactly this sort of application in mind.”