By DANIEL KUMBON
How Grand Chief, Sir Peter Ipatas
rebuilt the old PHQ Office complex
Yesterday Chinese businessman Joe’s
three-story building was burned down at Keas.
Today this story has appeared in
PNG ATTITUDE which is published out of Australia. It highlights how the old PHQ
office complex which burned down in March 1993 could not be saved because there
was no fire service.
The story also highlights how Grand
Chief Sir Peter Ipatas replaced that gutted PHQ with a modern one.
And how Governor Sir Ipatas has
built other million kina projects in fighting zones, maintain stability and to
export strawberries over 26 years later.
Please read on….
Nobody believed the people of Enga Province would one day export premium
strawberries. To outsiders, it seemed their main achievement was to involve
themselves in tribal warfare.
That perception will hopefully be erased now that a market has been
established in Singapore for Enga strawberries and possibly other agricultural
products.
This is the result of hard work put in by Governor Sir Peter Ipatas who
encouraged Israeli company Innovative Agro Industries to partner with the Enga
Provincial Government to establish a K23 million vegetable project at Taluma in
the Sirunki area of Laiagam.
Many people felt the project would fail because the local Makol tribe
was involved in tribal fighting. But now strawberries are produced there for
export as well as potatoes for Port Moresby.
To increase production, a second vegetable project has been established
at Yogos in the Tsak Valley of Wapenamanda, an area also the scene of intense
tribal warfare where hundreds of men died and millions of kina in property were
lost including everything the Catholic Church owned at Tsak Pumakos.
It was risky to take multimillion kina projects to fighting zones but
this direct challenge to the people has been a trademark of Sir Peter.
Enga School of Nursing, Mulitaka Secondary School, Tsak Secondary School
and the multimillion kina provincial hospital under construction at Aipus are
other major projects.
Where did Sir Peter draw the strength to provide visionary leadership,
maintain political stability and establish projects that directly impacted on
the lives of ordinary people?
I’ll go back to the time when Cr Peter Ipatas was president of Wabag
local level government in the 1980s, when Enga experienced a dark period of
political instability and social tension that nearly tore the province apart.
On 9 February 1984 the provincial government was suspended and premier
Danely Tindiwi gaoled for seven years for misappropriation. Tindiwi was
re-elected in 1992 but, after being in office for only a year, was suspended a
second time on the same charges.
An old kiap, Bill Bates, was appointed administrator to run the affairs
of the province, which did not please a lot of people. On 26 March 1993, the
provincial headquarters complex was burnt to ashes in broad daylight.
Then people from Laiagam, Kandep, Porgera, Paiela and Maramuni
threatened to break away to form their own province –West Enga. Other people
pushed to re-establish the provincial headquarters in a new location at
Wapenamanda or Laiagam.
In August 1995 provincial government reforms were introduced and Enga
regional MP Jeffery Balakau was sworn in as governor. Tindiwi became his
deputy.
On that historic day, all five open members and council presidents were
also sworn in as provincial assembly members. Cr Peter Ipatas was one of them.
Jeffery Balakau and Danely Tindiwi, who had been elected in 1992, were
not to complete their full terms: Jeffery Balakau was suspended, and later
dismissed, by a leadership tribunal and Tindiwi was replaced by Peter Ipatas as
acting governor.
In that capacity, Sir Peter moved quickly to rebuild the provincial
headquarters office complex and invited then prime minister Sir Julius Chan to
a ground-breaking ceremony in late 1996.
The following year he was elected by an absolute majority to serve a
full term as governor and in the national parliament.
And in that first term, he rebuilt the PHQ administrative complex and
has remained in office since.
I wrote an account of this turbulent period for Enga Nius in 1993 and
here are some extracts that shed light on how the people felt.
__________
The very foundations of Enga Province shook when the main provincial
headquarters office complex was burnt down by arsonists in broad daylight on
Friday 26 March, 1993.
At exactly seven minutes past four, I locked our office and went for a
drive in my bus intending to return to complete some typing. As I drove back
after half an hour, somebody at the main market waved me down and said the
Bromley and Manton supermarket was on fire.
He warned me not to go in case I might receive injuries in a riot that
had started. But I drove on, hoping that the Bromley and Manton shop in town
did not burn down a second time.
The company had lost thousands of kina worth of goods when arsonists
torched the wholesale building they were renting from the Wabag Local Level
Government when late Malipu was shot in Mt Hagen in 1989.
But soon I discovered to my horror that the finance and management
services as well as the upstairs commerce office were engulfed in flames. The
fire was spreading fast to all parts of the complex which housed almost all
government divisions including the provincial government offices, Air Niugini
office, two court rooms and two conference facilities. The only divisions saved
were social services, the secretary’s office and my own media unit which were
housed in separate buildings.
I stood and watched hopelessly for four long hours as the complex burnt
to a shouldering ruin. No sane person dared to venture close to the hot flames
while the dark smoke never ceased to billow skywards to merge with dark shadows
as night emerged to cover the small township as if to conceal the wanton
destruction.
It was sort of strange but for a moment I laughed to myself - not the
kind which expresses joy and enlightenment but the type that comes with hate
and total despair as tears begin to well up in your eyes.
I heard a lone local leader from the Lanekep tribe, one of the original
tribes that owned the Wabag town land shout repeatedly: ‘Why are you burning
this office which belongs to everybody in Enga?” There was no response from
anybody – only the flames roared on.
I came to my senses when I saw a brave men climb to the roof of my
office to prevent it from catching fire. It used to be the main colonial
administration office building during the colonial administration period
located near the Air Niugini office on the eastern end of the PHQ complex now
in the grips of a consuming inferno.
I hastily opened the main door of my office and grabbed whatever I could
– my word processor, the office type writer and a few files and rushed out.
Outside, I saw police beat up two looters who attempted to carry away office
equipment from the Secretary’s office which was still safe.
One policeman from the Eastern Highlands explained to me why they were
beating up the looters. “I don’t see any reason that prompts these people to
loot state property. I don’t know if they realise that with those flames goes
Enga Province,’ he said. ‘People don’t seem to see the long term implications
for Enga.
“I think what normal people should do is rub mud on their bodies and
mourn like they do when somebody is killed in a tribal fight. This province is
burning in that fire.” In Enga society one cannot burn or destroy public
property like a hausman (men’s house) or excrete near water springs that
belonged to everybody.
The crowd kept growing but nobody spoke except some brave men who stood
on the roofs to prevent the fire from spreading to the social services
building, the secretary’s office and my own office. Most people just stood with
their mouths agape staring at the flames doing its destructive work.
The silence was broken from time to time as police fired teargas to
discourage looters. I came across one public servant who dared say something
and his message was clear: ‘I hate to be an Engan. Everything about this place
is always negative...negative. I hate to have been born here.’
With those words lingering in my mind, I left the smouldering ruins,
never once looking back.
__________
Now, over 26 years later a more modern office complex stands on the old
ruins with the national court house beside it.
An overseas market has been established which will encourage people to
produce more strawberries, onions, potatoes and other cash crops which thrive
so well in Enga.
And Governor Ipatas has recently announced the provincial government
will promote tourism as the next major step to boost economic activity. He
continues to challenge the people, seeming to say: “Either you keep the
projects, look after them, benefit from them or destroy them again. It’s all
yours to keep or lose. I’m just doing my duty.
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| Old PHQ office complex – mid section seen from current post office |
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| West Enga advocate late Paulus Kandakasi sadly examining the old PHQ after it was burnt down in March, 1993 |
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| New PHQ complex as it is today with the National Court House by its side |
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| Prime Minister at the time Sir Julius Chan with acting Governor Peter Ipatas during ground breaking ceremony to rebuild PHQ complex |
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The Keas fire yesterday |
First appeared on Daniel Kumbon facebook page
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