Condolences, Kimisopa, Olga, TV propaganda

Firstly, condolences to the family of Mike Manning the TIPNG Chairman. Very sad loss for the whole of PNG, Mr Manning was known for speaking out about corruption in PNG without fear. Unexpected deaths like this always bring out theories and this is one I heard from an employee of TIPNG and apparently is something a lot of people who knew him think: Mr Manning was apparently poisoned. Conspiracy or not, I leave that up to you.

Meanwhile, here are some interesting tidbits.

First the Bire Kimisopa case against Thompson Harokaveh. Now this case has been going on for ages. After the trial bit was over the judge, Justice Hinchcliffe, apparently fell sick and went away to Brisbane, delaying the verdict for over 4 months and now the Judge has returned but it's not clear whether he has yet delivered a verdict. By the time this whole thing gets sorted the next elections will be around and that's too long a time to have a promising leader like Mr Kimisopa out of Parliament. There must also be issues of the right to a speedy trial/delay of justice in there somewhere, i'm sure.

Staying in the highlands, Piace Wingti's case against Tom Olga was won and has now gone to an appeal. Meanwhile, the general feeling in WHP is that Mr Olga is doing nothing and cashing up big time. Olga is a tribesmen of Minister of Internal Security, Sani Rambi, who apparently contributed some some to Olga's election campaign and is now reaping the rewards with a huge number of his hire cars (Mountain Hire Car) being used by the WHP provincial government and Olga minions with million dollar checks being made out to Mr Rambi. Meanwhile a few other smaller car hire companies are still waiting on payment from Mr Olga for cars he used during his campaign and some he has continued to use. Apparently Mr Olga made a lot of promises during his campaign and is now busy writing the checks before an untimely end to his term through the courts. What I want to know is why in the hell the WHP provincial government needs so many cars when there is so little in terms of development going on.

The National Court has also ruled against Sir Arnold Amet but he has asked for a review of the decision by the Supreme Court so fingers crossed.

Oh and the government tv station...Maybe I'm over reacting but wouldn't this be such a great propaganda tool? Think Suharto's Indonesia with the Government TV station and regulated media. Hmmm.

OC,RH & the National, money tricks, violence against women

Ok so I put the wrong address down for letters to the PM so correction it’s; pmsmedia@pm.gov.pg NOT pmsmedia@pm.gov.AU , as you may well be able to tell ‘.au’ is a prefix I drop behind a lot of my emails for work and family purposes. (Thanks Peter)

Now back to Moti. I found one of the drafted letters to the PM published in the Post, of course with their editions and nothing at the end asking the PM to adhere to the laws of this country which he himself implemented but I’m happy it was published anyway. I was also a bit surprised to find out that the Ombudsman Commission has been conducting an investigation into the Moti issue since last year (navigate to "News" tab). Yes, it begun around the same time as the Defence Force Board of Inquiry and the inquiry by the office of the Chief Secretary but is apparently still on-going though I fail to see how a small incident, time and logistics wise, could take such a long time to investigate. Maybe they’re hoping we’ll forget about it but thanks to the Post for printing this, we now know it’s still around.

I’ve drafted a letter (posted below) asking the Ombudsman Commission to basically hurry-up with their investigations. If any of you agree with this please feel free to copy and paste the letter and email or airmail it off to the Ombudsman Commission. I’m still not on to that letter for the Defence Minister requesting he table the Moti Report in parliament.

On the grapevine, notable sources have told that members of the former Somare Government entered elections with K3 million each, which was supplied from a fund initially set aside for resolving possible land-owner problems with the (now failed) proposed Australian gas pipeline project. Now I read that Patrick Pruitich is siphoning off a certain K500 million to a different trust account for future gas projects. My question is does the whole K500 million still exist? Or could this be the same money that was used for elections and is now being publicly announced (true or otherwise) as being stored away, to ward off any requests for its possible re-distribution or questions as to why it hasn’t been re-distributed yet?? Maybe I’m totally off the mark but only time will tell.

In other news I truly laughed at The National printing this crap. What they fail to inform readers is that this consulting firm is employed by RH to write these reports and has been employed by RH to do so for the last few years. Selective reporting indeed. I have no doubt RH employs PNGeans etc… but at what price are they “contributing” to this nation, and what is their NET contribution once social factors including: government and public sector manipulation, environmental damage and the fact that they “govern” certain remote areas of PNG are taken into account.

Please send a letter to the Ombudsman Commission and the papers if you agree with the drafted letter below and return to this site for a letter to the Defence Minister. We should not be prepared to let the Moti issue die, especially since it is unclear whether Somare has in fact appealed the decision of the National Court, and if not are we all expected to sit around in limbo?

Before I sign off I heartily endorse Lady Kidu’s campaign for zero tolerance on violence against women, the women of PNG who are standing up to the “norm” of violence against women in PNG, and The Post for championing this campaign! I don’t know if the petition is still doing the rounds, if it is, please sign it!

Update: I recieved a prompt reply from Mr Ila Geno, the Chief Ombudsman, which is posted below.

Keep it alive and make it right

K700 million missing from the Treasury and no one says anything really. (I'll be glad for more info on this if anyone is in the know)
The Sandline Inquiry is floating about (PNGscape News Board) but who really cares anyway...i mean Chan had a convincing win.

Again the same old same old with PNG and corruption. "We ignore it/accept is as part of PNG and life (bulk of the population)/blame anyone but the people responsible, preferably the Aussies- not just for their part of it but for the entirety of the problem/get in amongst it/talk, talk and talk about it some more- well hey look who’s talking (I try)/ try to fight it but fail (cast your mind to UPNG student demonstrations 2001)/ try and keep on trying and trying (NGOs)…what a choice eh."

Independence is around the corner and I think it is about time that PNG and PNGeans made a commitment to themselves and to their country to care even when it seems hopeless, even when it seems that there is really no point. To send a message out there to all those at the top that someone out there is watching them and WILL hold them accountable for their actions even if holding them accountable amounts to very little.

The most effective way to change the whole culture of corruption in PNG is to work from the top down. Ideology is a solution that can only be successful if once the incubated are out in the real world, their society emphasis and maintains the values they have been instilled with. I can only hope that no one will let the Moti issue die until a final and just resolution is reached. Let's make this the symbolic case that indicates a change in the tide for PNG and its attitude towards corruption. Keep it alive and make it right.

It's 31 years since Papua New Guinea got independence.
Up until today, nothing much has been achieved. I still eat kaukau and drink cold water from the bamboo.
I walked many miles to catch the next donkey to get into town. While in town, intimidated by street boys and robbed of my only K5 meant for a packet of rice and a can of fish.
On my way back home, gun wielding criminals threatened and robbed me of my only clothes.
At home my wife is in labour.
No nearby aid post, we had to transport her on a stretcher miles into the nearby clinic.
Upon arrival told that the medicines were run out or I have to pay a fee up front first. While waiting she dies.
The story goes on. Good leaders of this great nation — When will I see electricity into my kunai house? When will I see a road into my village? When will tribal fighting stop in my village?
It's 30 years since independence and I haven't seen any real development taken place yet.
What I read every day in the news- papers are the stories of corrupt politicians misusing public funds, travelled overseas on regular basis, passed parliament bills to suit their own interests, appoint their own political wantoks to head government offices, deals under the table for exploiting of our resources by foreign companies, etc.
Leaders, whose country are you destroying and whose interests are you serving?
You must know in you heart that you are representing the interests of the country, not yours.
Always do what is right to protect the interests of the country and its people.
If it means to sacrifice your own life, please go to the extreme. You can go to another country for medical treatment if you are sick.
But when you die, your body will never leave the shores of Papua New Guinea to be buried in another country. You can change your face by plastic surgery. You can change your skin colour. You can change your appearance.
You can do anything to your body as long as you don't want to be called a Papua New Guinean or recognised as one. But remember, blood is thicker than water.
Deep in your heart you will still know that you are a Papua New Guinean by birth. Leaders of this beloved country of Papua New Guinea, I'll die rather than live to see you destroy our beautiful country.

– Lucas Kiap
UNITECH, Lae


On the side: And again the Post is caught out with its unsubstantiated reports. As I thought. It seriously needs to lift its game, PNGeans are again driven into a tight corner, here where they have no choice but to 'support' The National while its owners plunder our forests in the background.

It's not done till it's done

So I was going to start of this blog with a huge write-up on Moti. Yes, yes I know apparently it is a ‘done’ issue but how can something be ‘done’ when nothing has been resolved. Since I’m waiting to clarify on some matters concerning it and after I read this article from the Post I thought, what better way to start of this blog then to talk about the most pressing issue in PNG today which is not Moti, or Australia’s ‘interventionist’ Government, or Digicel, or Arthur, Bertha and Michael Somare but rather HIV/Aids.
http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20070827/mohome.htm
Yes, I too sometimes forget we have an epidemic in PNG, you know with all the election hoopla going on and me, you and everyone else’s concerns about Digicel and its license. But it’s there, it’s more than a problem and I really can’t say the Government of PNG is doing enough about it.

Now I’m not sure how accurate this article is- the Post is not always the most credible source of info- but it seems statistics of people dying of Aids is not enough to make news anymore, it’s old, it’s ‘done’ instead what makes news are desperate unimaginable stories like this. HIV/Aids (in all its capacities) is occurring in PNG on such a wide-scale that it has become accepted as just another facet of PNG life, moved to the side and ignored. Just like corruption. Yes they’re comparable because they truly represent not only the mind-set of PNGeans but the hopelessness of it all. The ‘done’ (though half-way and not even) nature of PNG and PNGeans.

Let’s brainstorm these issues.

Corruption: Illegal, a problem, rife, accepted, acceptable, the norm, unprotested, ignored, side-tracked, not front story news, no solution indicated, systematic, protected, inaction, high NGO scrutiny (pretty much always indicates that there is a huuuge problem).
HIV/Aids: epidemic, accepted though not acceptable, rife, unprotested, ignored, side-tracked, not front story news, lack of commitment, inaction, high NGO participation, systematic.

Similar much????

Corruption is rife, nothing much is done about it, PNGeans do not feel empowered to do anything about so instead they ignore it/accept is as part of PNG and life (bulk of the population)/blame anyone but the people responsible, preferably the Aussies- not just for their part of it but for the entirety of the problem/get in amongst it/talk, talk and talk about it some more- well hey look who’s talking (I try)/ try to fight it but fail (cast your mind to UPNG student demonstrations 2001)/ try and keep on trying and trying (NGOs)…what a choice eh. This my friends demonstrates PNG and PNGeans in just about every situation of difficulty on a national scale. And this can be applied to the HIV/Aids situation in PNG.

Is it our fault, society’s fault or the Government’s fault that we find ourselves in this position? Who/what disempowered us, and if they/it could do that can they/it also empower us? Are empowerment and disempowerment an external force or can we as a people empower and disempower ourselves? And if we can empower ourselves how do we go about it, how do we get PNGeans to unite and have a clear coherent voice, to say what we want and mean it, to end desperation or learn to deal with desperation so we can look beyond the K2 today for the schools, hospitals and effective governance of the future.

It’s difficult and I have no magic solution though I do have one idea. Ideology. To preach it, teach it, embed it in children’s minds, basically to brain-wash them. Teach children all through their schooling years to have national pride, care for the nation, do what is best for the nation, to have a social conscience. Have them rhyme it, sing it, repeat it, turn into a motto, a subject, an important part of their learning and you will turn out committed citizens. Take Indonesia and the pancasila- unity, unity, unity- because unity was important to them as an ‘invented’ nation. Cuba and socialism. USA and rights. Is there a bad side? Of course, if you teach it in an intolerant manner but there is also the good. Indonesia is still a united nation, Cuba has one the best health-care systems in the world and a 97% literacy rate and Americans will do anything to protect their rights.

This isn’t such a new proposal for PNG, right before and after independence there was a lot of national pride, a want to benefit the nation, a sense of opportunity, hope, a love of this country that went beyond the current ‘ples ya’ which implies that whilst there is so much wrong with PNG we love it because it’s home. This shouldn’t be the case, we should love it because of all that is right, not for purely sentimental reasons but because it is a land of opportunity because it is the land of the ‘free and the brave,’ because we built this nation and we are proud of what it is and because we follow through with everything. Because nothing is ever done until it’s done. Because we have an accountable and transparent government. Because we are not downtrodden desperate people but a proud forward-looking nation. That should be why and if this feeling isn’t going to come around naturally then we create it, we teach it and we preach it. We embed it in the minds of the next generation and along the way we come to believe it ourselves. It could happen.



On a side-note: All hail Powes Parkop for getting in there and showing people how it should be done. This my friends, is what a politician in a democratic system is about, just in case anyone needed clarification on that point.