'Don't believe in government'

 

From MALUM NALU in Kavieng

 

Young people of Papua New Guinea have been told to no longer believe in the government but in themselves if Papua New Guinea is to develop.

Former Prime Minister and New Ireland Governor, Sir Julius Chan (pictured),  gave this blunt message to graduating students, including the first-ever fisheries and marines resources degree students, from the University of Natural Resources and Environment in Kavieng last Friday (Nov 27).

And he urged them to get rid of the government if it didn't perform to their expectations.

He said it was no secret that PNG had gone backwards since 1975 and the largely-corrupt government was to blame for this.

Sir Julius, after taking the students and crowd through a lengthy talk on corruption in PNG, told them that the old guard like himself were going out and they were the ones who would have big shoes to fit in.

"The young people of the world are a force for good and a force for change," he told them.

"You have the potential to become an army of reform, a force that says, 'we will not accept corrupt and inept government any longer.We insist that the wealth of our country benefit the people – all the people – of our country'.

"So go forth to your homes and spread the message.

"Spread the message of responsibility, of hard work and of hope.

"Spread the message that government must tell the people in clear and unequivocal terms what it is doing to improve the lives of the people.

"And if it does not keep its word, spread the message that it will be cast out and replaced with those who will.

"The time of the free ride is over.

'Either provide benefits or get out!"

Sir Julius said the corruption perception index compiled each year by Transparency International spokes volumes about the level of corruption among public servants and politicians.

"Papua New Guinea has only been rated for the last five six years," he said.

"But in this short time, the country has been perceived as increasingly-corrupt and a very difficult environment in which to do business.

"In 2004, PNG was rated as 102^nd out of 145 countries.

"We were two-thirds down the list; there were 43 countries considered as more corrupt than PNG.

"By 2006, PNG was rated 130^th out of a total of 163 countries, so by then, only 33 countries were considered more corrupt.

"And in the most-recent year, 2008, PNG had slipped all the way to 151^st out of 179 countries, so only 28 countries were considered more corrupt.

"Any rational observer would have to say that this is a major contributing factor to the failure of the state to ensure that the fruits of development are shared by the people of the country.

"/though I do not like saying it, the evidence is that PNG has a shell of democratic institutions, it has had macroeconomic growth, but beneath this thin cover is a system that is working for the benefit of a few and not the masses.

"We know that wealth is distributed very unevenly, and that the public officials and politicians are seen as among the most-corrupt in the world.

"So is it any wonder that the benefits do not get to the people?"

Lae poem brings back memories of another day

Bernard Oberleuter…his heart is still in Lae and PNG

Lae boys…Bernard Oberleuter and Tony Strachan

A heart-warming poem written about Lae and Papua New Guinea in its glory days brought tears to the eyes of many former Lae residents who gathered for an emotional Lae-Markham Reunion get together in Brisbane last month.
The 2009 Lae-Markham reunion at Broncos Leagues Club, Fulcher Road, Red Hill, on Sunday, Oct 4 was a resounding success - an absolutely magical day – which brought together 350-odd people.
Many people present hadn't seen each other for 40 years or more, and the auditorium echoed with cries of recognition, accompanied by heaps of hugs and occasional happy tears.
The 2009 guest list reads like a who’s who of Lae and PNG.
As they listened to the magical words of New Guinea, a poem written by Lae boy and now Brisbane resident Bernard Oberleuter so many years ago, there was not a dry eye in the Broncos Leagues Club.
It brought back memories about a place they called “home” – that since 1975 has deteriorated from the beautiful “Garden City” to the "Pothole Capital” of PNG.

New Guinea

By Bernard Oberleuter

I know a verdant island fair, with forests, ferns and flowers rare,
Where mountains tower to the sky, and lovely fertile valleys lie.
Where flit the gaudy butterflies and hum the birds of paradise.
Where summer holds eternal sway; her people live so free and gay.
New Guinea, gem of the southern sea, what wondrous charms you hold for me.
One place upon our friendly strand is treasured more than all this land.
Tis Lae, my home on Huon shores, so fondly called the open door,
The open door to hills that hold vast quantities of richest gold.
Our buzzing dromes, our wharves, our shops With busy life forever throbs.
Our jungle nooks to hikes invite, our pools and brooks with tempting sights.
The ancient hills, the ocean blue, what grandeur great presents to you.
God bless our lovely isle and Lae, and make us more her own each day

Mr Oberleuter, a good friend of mine, admitted that he too had tears in his eyes as he heard his poem being read by another Lae boy Tony Strachan, son of Arthur Strachan, founder of the famous real estate company of Lae by the same name.
He recalls that he was getting ready for his Grade 6 external exams for a government scholarship to study in Australia when he wrote the poem.
“It was at St Mary's Primary School, opposite Lae Bowling Club,” he remembers.
“I was asked by the nun-in-charge, Sr Marinoma, to read it out to the class, who applauded me with a standing ovation.
“That year, I also excelled in my external examinations by coming second in over 1,200 students, in TPNG, only missing out by 2% in my maths tests to equal first place.
“Previous to that, I was at the old St Mary's School, next to the old Morobe Bakery.
“This school site is now where the famous Lae Rugby League grounds sit, where I use to play my junior rugby league, coached by Barry Orchard and Bill Doherty of PWD (Public Works Department).
“They both played for the mighty Comworks RLFC.
“Mr Jack Amesbury was instrumental in starting me to play rugby league, soccer, hockey and Aussie rules. I played all over the back line, including fullback. I was the youngest player to represent Lae at the senior level.
“My dad worked for Public Works Department as a builder.
“My mum did freelance dress making and then she was in charge of the Melanesian laundry facilities.
“My dad built the very first Markham Bridge.
“We later transferred to Finschhafen, where I went to Gagidu Primary T School.
“He was posted there for a couple of years, built and maintained government housing and also built the first Nasigalatu Bridge near Dregerhhafen.
“I was born at the old Malahang hausik (hospital), near the feisty waters of the Busu wara.
“This WWII hausik then moved to uptown where Morobe Pharmacy is now situated.
“Then another move further just to the left of Steamships on 8th Street and opposite the Lae Coronation Primary 'A' School.
“Mr Tony Sadgrove was headmaster then.
“The hospital made a final move down town opposite to the old Lae airport to its final resting place, where it stands today.
“I have very fond and good memories of my childhood upbringing.
“I could walk anywhere, anytime, in Lae...hail, rain or shine, any hour of the clock.
“I use to do my training by running from Rotten Row Rd, behind the Hotel Cecil, to the athletics oval and back again, every morning during the footy season.
“We were living in Chinatown near the old Lae pumping station, close to Bumbu River.

“I remember walking from Butibum Village to Kamkumung.
“I use to go swimming at Voco Point, and at the mouth of the Bumbu River.
“We used to walk along the beach all the way to Sipaia, where the old Japanese warship was beached and rusted.
“We use to climb onto it and play hide and seek.
“The old Tanyo Maru was still protruding and visible at the end of the Lae airport runway, where Crowley Airways and MAL hangared all their aeroplanes.
“We use to go in a canoe to catch the pigeons that nested on the exposed bow of the warship.
“I enjoyed my growing up in Lae, Mumeng, Bulolo, Wau, Kaiapit, Finschhafen, Madang and Port Moresby.
“I treasure those fleeting moments and memories.
“I lived and loved for my home Lae as a child growing up to 12 years old.
“I, unlike all the other ex-Territorians, have no desire to return to PNG.
“I only want to remember it, the way it was, when I left it.
“You see, the writing was on the wall for people like myself.
“We would become second-class citizens and those in the power of politics would ensure that their very own kin or clan would rise in the hierarchy, in the scheme of things to follow, after 1975.
“The proof is in the pudding.
“See for yourself now after 34 years of independence.”

First pictures of the controversial Falcon jet of the Papua New Guinea government

Pictures by EKAR KEAPU of The National, Papua New Guinea's leading daily newspaper.

Fisheries programme comes of age in Kavieng

Caption: PNG UNRE Chancellor Sir Rabbie Namaliu congratulating Augustine Galuwa, who graduated last year with a diploma in fisheries and marine resources

 

I'll be travelling to beautiful Kavieng, New Ireland province, tomorrow to witness the first fisheries degree graduation of University of Natural Resources and Environment students. Below is a preview of the event

 

By UNRE Public Relations

 

“I, Sir Rabbie Namaliu, Chancellor of Papua New Guinea University of Natural Resources and Environment, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the statutes, regulation and by-laws of the university, now confer the degrees, to those who have successfully completed the academic requirements of their course as laid down and duly prescribed by the academic board and approved by the council, and today, their names included in the 2009 roll of graduates of the university.”

These are the words that will signify the coming of age of the university’s fisheries and marine resources (FMR) programme on Friday Nov 27, 2009 when UNRE Chancellor Sir Rabbie Namaliu confers bachelor’s degrees on five FMR pioneer graduates – Christopher Binabat, Joseph Kendou, Robinson Liu, Priscilla Warambin and Jane Wungun.

While the moment will no doubt be a proud one for the five and their families, it will be a prouder moment for the university, National Fisheries Authority, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), University of Bremen’s Centre for Marine Tropical Ecology (ZMT), Office of Higher Education and all those who collectively contributed to making the academic programme a success since its inception in 2006.

Many challenges including the lack of funding and teaching staff faced the programme designers when it was on the drawing board in 2005, but with determination and perseverance; and the strong professional will to bring into the higher education training a much needed skill that was lacking, they overcame these.

The fruits of their labour are the two female and three male students who will go down in history books as not only the first degree graduands of the programme but also as the first fisheries degree graduands in the country after more than 20 years.

With the world now focusing more and more on the sustainable use and conservation of natural resources and environment, the introduction of this course could not have come at a better time for the fisheries sector in the country as well as the South Pacific and the world as it provides a skilled and better qualified workforce for an industry that is rising internationally as a mainstay in the economy.

Meanwhile, also graduating on the day will be 16 students who will be awarded diplomas in fisheries and marine resources by Sir Rabbie.

They are the second batch of diplomats under the programme, the first group of seven students graduating in the inaugural FMR graduation ceremony last year.

Since the first 20 students were admitted in 2006, there has been an increase in applications from students throughout the country wanting to gain entry into the programme.

This year’s first year students also include seven Solomon Islands students who applied for the programme to help develop their country’s fisheries and marine resources.

They move to UNRE’s affiliated campus, National Fisheries College, for their second year of study.

UNRE expects to take in more Solomon Islanders for the same course next year.

For now, however, all eyes are on the five degree pioneers who will make history for the fisheries and marine resources programme, higher education training and the fisheries sector.

Unitech agriculture functions transfer to University of Natural Resources % Environment

By UNRE Public Relations

University of Technology’s department of agriculture will be transferred to University of Natural Resources & Environment (UNRE).

This is the word from Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science & Technology Michael Ogio.

Mr Ogio made the announcement when officiating at a graduation ceremony for more than 100 farmers in Maprik last Friday.

According to Minister Ogio, the department would be placed at UNRE’s Sepik Central Campus in Maprik, East Sepik province, and urged the people of Sepik, particularly Maprik, to look after the college and state assets.

“The Agriculture Department at Unitech will be transferred to UNRE and will be moved to Bainyik (Maprik) but you must look after the campus and be proud that you will have an institution of higher learning at your doorstep once again,” he said.

Minster Ogio said by transferring the agriculture department, Unitech would have room to develop the gas and petroleum engineering training which it now has on the drawing board.

The move is also consistent with a National Executive Council Decision of 1996.

The 105 farmers who graduated received certificates for training received in sustainable livelihood, land use and soil fertility management and basic record and book keeping under UNRE’s integrated agriculture training programme (IATP).

They are the first group to receive the training outside the New Guinea Islands region.

Minister Ogio challenged the farmers to practice what they had learnt.

“You have received the training, now the challenge is for you to implement this and make a difference in your families and communities,” he said,

“We Papua New Guineans have a tendency to dream of big things but that is not necessary.

“If everyone collectively makes small changes and improvements in our own families, that is special and will go towards the development of this country.”

 

New vegetable project for Tambul

Photo caption: Farmers enjoying tubers of potato from NARI's research in Tambul.-Picture courtesy of NARI

 

By SENIORL ANZU of NARI

A major vegetable development project will be launched on Friday at Alkena in the Tambul district of Western Highlands.

Vegetable growers in the district will celebrate and witness the official ground breaking ceremony of MKL Vegetable Farming Group and launching of a project titled “Developing a Sustainable Potato and Vegetable Production in the Tambul Valley – Western Highlands Province”.

The programme starts tomorrow with church activities.

The MKL Vegetable Farming Group is a newly-established community initiative involving farmers led by Maktol Oke, a specialist potato seed grower from Aiyaka tribe in the Upper Kaugel area of Tambul.

Mr Oke, who is also the chairman of the MKL group, said the initiative was an “impact project” for the 68, 000 people of Tambul Nebilyer district which aimed to enable farmers to  increase their potato and vegetable production for cash and food to improve their livelihoods.

Mr Oke said the project received overwhelming support from Tambul/Nebilyer MP Benjamin Poponawa, Mt Giluwe local level government, district administration, Lutheran Church, local leaders and the farming community.

He said Mr Poponawa - who supported the launch preparations with K6000 - and Western Highlands Governor Tom Olga would officiate at the historic occasion.

The initiative was developed with the involvement of the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) and Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA).

 “The Alkena Lutheran Church has provided vacant land, which has been developed into a central resource centre for seed multiplication and distribution to farmers throughout the district, province and other potato growing areas in the country,” Mr Oke said,

“The centre will also be used for farmer training, demonstration and information sharing by service providers such as NARI, FPDA and provincial division of primary industry.”

Mr Oke said the development was a collaborative effort involving the community, government agencies (NARI and FPDA) and the church and stood to benefit the entire Tambul community.

He added potato was an important food and cash crop for high-altitude areas like Tambul but the industry was thrown into chaos due to the emergence of the late blight disease.

 The project is anticipated to produce clean and certified seeds to be distributed to farmers.  

Tambul district has climatic conditions favorable for vegetable production.

 It is the major producer of potato and temperate vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and carrots in the country and the major supplier of the renowned Mt Hagen market in terms of fresh produce. 

 

 

Of Papua New Guinea's nincompoops, looters and anarchists

BY ALFREDO HERNANDEZ

  

THE FACELESS anarchists of Papua New Guinea have spoken:

On December 31, New Year’s Eve, all trade shops like variety stores, mini-groceries, fast-food counters and the like which are owned and operated by Asians – Chinese, Malaysians, Indonesians, Filipinos, Indians, Japanese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Thais, Burmese, Bangladesh, Pakistanis, the Talibans, and many more that are just too many to enumerate here --- will go up in flames.

They will serve as their firecrackers and pyrotechnics to greet the coming of a better New Year – the year 2010.

It will be a new beginning for all of them, the dawning of the true business enterprises for Papua New Guinean grassroots – they, who have been deprived of jobs and business opportunities that are supposed to be theirs but have been stolen by Asian entrepreneurs.

And if they still have time and not yet too drunk to run around, and the police and the firefighters are still nowhere (maybe because of flat tires, empty gasoline tanks and dried up water tanks), they would also raze to the grounds Asian-owned business and high-financed Asian establishments in Port Moresby and in urban centers in the provinces.

After all these years, these businesses have become the menace of Papua New Guinea’s fragile society.

This wholesale conflagration is to end once and for all the presence of anything Asian in Papua New Guinea – the many Asian cultures, their alleged business corruption and influences.

The burning of Port Moresby and urban centers across the country will be second to none – not even the burning of Honiara in Solomon Islands in April 2006 which annihilated the country’s China Town during the two days of rioting and displaced thousands of Chinese residents could come close as far as destruction is concerned.

Pockets in the city and urban centers will glow like embers till the wee hours of the New Year’s Day.

The anarchists said they will do this because they have the solid backing of the Parliament – well, at least one of its parliamentary committees – the bipartisan committee now probing the Anti-Asian riots last May chaired by MP Jamie Maxtone-Graham (by the way, he was sacked yesterday after being perceived by the powers-that-be as being anti-Asian, a charged which he denied but for which many are inclined to believe).

The New Year’s Eve rampage, rioting and looting will be fully supported by all national NGOs; the prominent and patriotic PNG nationalists against Asian infiltration and corruption spreading throughout the country; the South Pacific Island countries against Asian transnational crimes and illegal business; and most of all, the Melanesian Spearhead Group of Nations.

Their funds will come from these allies; this is the only way they could carry out their own brand of anarchy in the city of Port Moresby, Kundiawa town, Kiunga, Lae Rabaul town, Alotau, Madang, Goroka, Mt Hagen and many more where Asian businesses are to be found.

In a memo-email style advisory/warning that began circulating yesterday and addressed to “ALL ASIAN COTTAGE BUSINESS OWNERS IN PNG, with Subject: All Asian-Owned Cottage Businesses Must Cease by 31 December 2009, the anarchists stressed this “is not a petition to the National Government or the Asians … it’s a simple instruction with a due date which is 31 December 2009.

“That will be the only solution. Forget the government. If it can’t do it, we will do it ourselves … no need to buy candlesticks on New Year’s Eve. Honiara did it … we can do it in PNG!”

The day of your hell is coming, amen.

Well, it’s not surprising.

They are banking on the expected findings of Maxton-Graham committee that the presence of Asians in the country is the one causing all the ills of the society – from prostitution, business-influenced corruption in all government levels, economic deprivation of the grassroots and stealing from the hands of the no-read-no-write locals the opportunity to run shops and variety stores which are right now being profitably operated by the Chinese, Malaysians and Indonesians. (There are no Filipinos in this area because they are here as professionals, experts and skilled workforce working with proper documents.)

The anarchists’ bone of contention is that “the inflow of illegal Asians are stealing business opportunities and jobs from helpless Papua New Guineans … it’s costing the country simple store-keeper jobs and denying the privilege of simple citizens by owning these businesses.

“Competition among the Asian themselves has left not a chance for would-be local entrepreneurs. One just simply needs to walk down the street corner stores at Gerehu and Erima (in Port Moresby), Kundiawa town, Kiunga, Lae, Rabaul town, Alotau, Madang.

“In every one of these locations, you will see a takka box (tucker shop) store being managed by three to four odd-looking Asians who can’t even speak proper pidgin, let alone English! What the hell is happening with the laws of this country?”

Wait! Wait! Hold it right there! It appears now that the brains behind this anarchic movement are no brains at all, if you want to know the truth.

For long, long years, Papua New Guineans had been given all the chances to take up all sorts of business activities reserved for them under the law.

This included the so called cottage industry, which, according to my dictionary, is defined as “small-scale industry that can be carried on at home by family members using their own equipment”.

But they did not bother to take advantage of this opportunity. There were simply no takers.

Why? Firstly, they don’t have the initiative and aptitude to run such kind of livelihood activities.

Secondly, they don’t have the business acumen for them to succeed.

Thirdly, they don’t have the capital to operate them, particularly shops such as variety stores, fast-food stores and the like. (By the definition of a cottage industry, takka shops are not included for obvious reason.)

But most of all, they are just too illiterate to understand the complexities of how such a business enterprise works.

No banks are inclined to lend them capital. Why? They just don’t trust them; the banks don’t feel they could successfully operate a bank-funded enterprise. Banks simply don’t want to risk their money to this group.

And even the so-called micro-finance banks now proliferating across the country are still hands-off when it comes to lending to this type of borrowers.

But first of all, this question: Who are these people being rallied upon by the anarchists to assert their rights to their rightful place in the national economy by burning down Asian business enterprises?

Judging from the whole-scale rioting last May in Port Moresby, Goroka and other urban centers, the protesters-rioters-looters were none other that the community scum, raskols, murderers, rapists, drug addicts, drunkards and simply hangers-on, the unschooled and the perennial jobless.

I don’t think they are interested in running their own businesses like that of the Chinese, and thus make themselves self-sufficient or economically-sufficient. I don’t think they really understand what the so-called “reserve business opportunities” means.

For all you know, they are just the usual dole-out crowd waiting for the government to come and drop onto their laps the goodies.

What they know is that they got to have some kina for their betel nuts, homebrew, marijuana and alcohol. They’re not interested in really sweating it out to eke out a decent living with which to feed their wives and kids.

Because if they do, how come they did not open up takka shops long before the Chinese began populating PNG and start running their trade stores, their fast-food shops and the like?

The Chinese did not steal from the locals.

Instead, they poured in their money into the local economy to operate a business, and created a market that has kept the community alive. They created some business opportunities for some enterprising locals like farmers and livestock raisers. They created a market within which the exchange of goods and services became possible, something non-existent before their coming.

The Chinese are so good at this that they can survive even in the harshest environment and make their business succeed and expand.

If the Chinese entrepreneurs did not come, I can bet that there would be no stores operating until now in these critical areas.

It is very clear that it is these faceless anarchists who actually want to steal from the Chinese. And they will do this on New Year’s Eve by looting their stores and help themselves to whatever is there for the taking while the city burns.

They will do this because they want to outdo what the Honiara looters/rioters did to the Chinese businesses there in April 2006.

But I can bet my ball that not one of them would succeed as the Chinese do in running that business, simply because they don’t have the brains for this.

There are many small Papua New Guineans who are very successful in their own line of business. They never thought of making the Chinese entrepreneurs redundant because they know that on their own perseverance and sheer industry, they would make it.

Take the case of those industrious vegetable and fruit growers who are raking in profits everyday from sales of their fresh produce that are reaching wide market across the country, the biggest of which is Port Moresby.

They are very good at what they do that the local market relies on them for daily supplies of fresh veggies. These are the people that the PNG economy badly needs and not those who want to take over Chinese enterprises.

Why can’t the anarchists tell their unschooled followers that they have better chances of success if they work the land instead?

The trouble with these nincompoops is that they are only after the money in the cash box at the Chinese takka shop and that they are not willing to stretch their bones, to sweat out under the sun and to flex their muscles and work the land.

I don’t mind if police would order a shoot-to-kill against them at their first attempt to torch one legitimate Asian-owned takka shop.

The New Year’s Eve plot would be their biggest mistake because no peace-loving person would come out to glorify them as heroes or nationalists.

To the city residents, they are just gutter rats, opportunists and plain nuisance that should be consigned to Bomana jail.

Email the writer: jarahdz500@online.net.pg  

alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg   

To see the original web posting, please visit http://www.batasmauricio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=903:of-pngs-nincompoops-looters-and-anarchists&catid=40:letters-from-port-moresby&Itemid=117

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