IS AUSTRALIA TRULY PAPUA NEW GUINEA’S FRIEND?

By Paul Amatio

Opinion on this is divided. I was once naive enough to think that Australia was the one and true friend that we have who can be counted on to provide good guidance, helpful advice and strong admonition if we strayed off the path they had set for us. As a good friend, they would have respected our right to explore other options and ways to ensure that we all advanced in the same direction even if we shoes differing paths to the same outcome. But then, in those days, I did not understand the differing views as to the national interests and long term outcomes and aspirations of different countries, especially an Anglophile society like Australia that has historically viewed blacks as second or third class people.

𝗦𝗶𝗿 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗲: 𝗗𝗿𝘂𝗺𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀

 𝘉𝘺 𝘙𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬 - 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯

Michael Somare, bearded, eager, proud and secure within his own remarkable culture, became the face of Papua New Guinea to the world from the time the first daring troublemakers there began to dream of independence in the 1960s. Even more extraordinarily, he remained to his own people the face that mirrored their national aspirations over almost 50 years.

Other prime ministers came and went — Julius Chan and Paias Wingti, twice each — but when Somare returned to the top job in 2002 after a 17-year gap, he began his longest term in power.

He was knighted, and was awarded the top honour, a member of the Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu, after PNG also introduced its own honours system under his prime ministership in 2005. But he was ubiquitously known as “The Chief”.

His political longevity was principally owed to three chiefly skills: as a public speaker, both in the national language, Tok Pisin, and in English; as a chairman of the board, maintaining his fissiparous ministers in some kind of order; and as a parliamentary coalition builder and political numbers man, keeping track of the countless trade-offs required to maintain a majority in the PNG political bearpit.

Celebrating 40 years as an MP, Somare said: “I know what PNG politics tastes like.” And to ordinary Papua New Guineans, he remained the embodiment of their bright hopes, which he articulated at independence.

AN IPILI STORY

Fraser Liu

April 26 at 2:53 PM

I am one of 24 brothers and sisters. We own a large piece of land, which has an abundant natural occurrence of a mineral. One day someone came and told us that the minerals under our land are valuable and that we can be rich beyond our wildest dreams. His name was Mr Developer. He sold us tales and promises of wonder, we could not resist.

He came with a familiar looking neighbor who knew my language, and another bloke who told me that he was Mr. Government and that we had a duty to listen to him because despite us owning our own land; anything below six feet belonged to him. This was all very confusing to my family and I, but they looked much wiser and smarter than us, so we listened.

They introduced us to Mr Lawyer, who wrote up a paper called a Special Mining Lease. Mr Lawyer said that this paper was the agreement between ourselves, Mr Developer, and Mr Government. We asked him what the details of the agreement were.