The changing allegiances of Mr Micah Vines during Unitech Saga and possible implications.
By UNITECH CONCERNED STUDENTS
Last year after Dr Albert Shram was stopped from entering PNG, Mr Micah Vines got on EMTV demanding resignation of OHE minister David Arore. This showed that Mr Vines was a strong supporter of our vice chancellor Albert shram. For some reason he has now changed his tune. This month alone (March) Mr Vines has switched his allegiance twice. When the boycott began, Mr Vines came out supporting the current administration, headed by Prof Pumwa (Acting VC). He strongly urged students to go back to class and abandon efforts to bring back Dr Shram on their own.
This made the students wild. They wondered why Mr Vines was now supporting the views of an SEM that was slack at working genuinely for the return of Dr Schram. These fears about the SEM were later confirmed when the story came out about Prof Pumwa’s deal with the prime minister ONeill to take Dr Shram’s place. Prof Pumwa was only pretending to support Dr Shram.
Why did Mr Vines change from supporting Shram to supporting Prof Pumwa? In investigating this mystery, some interesting things have come to light:
First is the trip to Texas, USA that Prof Pumwa and Mr Vines took in October 2013. To have them make a trip that was supposed to benefit civil and mechanical engineering departments was strange since neither is the head of those departments. Mr Chris Kobal is Acting head of department of Civil engineering department which Micah Vines is only a lecturer 2, with senior lecturers and professors above him. Mr Brian N’Drelan is acting head of department of Mechanical engineering, of which Prof Pumwa is a member and former acting HOD but no longer.
Why did Prof Pumwa specifically bring Mr Vines along with him and why all the rumours that this trip to America had lots of personal shopping?
We believe that Prof Pumwa invited Mr Vines in a successful effort to buy his support and make him abandon Dr Shram. Having HODs of the engineering department come along would distract from that objective. Prof Pumwa would want the support of Mr Vines because that would eliminate what was then the only outspoken voice supporting Dr Shram (Mr Ken Polin had not yet appeared as a public supporter of Dr Shram). This would strengthen Prof Pumwa's position to take over as permanent VC.
Mr Vines spoke out strongly on behalf of the administration not once but twice. The second time was more than one week later. Again Mr Vines did not explain why he no longer seemed to support Dr Shram, but now took th side of the discredited senior executive management led by acting vice chancellor Pumwa .
After Mr Vines made his first big presentation to students, everything blew up in the face of Prof Pumwa when the secret deal he made with the prime minister became known as people found out what he had told the congregation of his church. We demanded that Prof Pumwa and rest of SEM step down as they were now obvious liars and not to trusted anymore. That is when Mr Vines may have started to see that he was supporting the losing side if he continued to support Prof Pumwa.
Over the last week, a strange new shift has occurred. First was the story went around that Mr Vines was contacting Chancellor Bogan, trying to be appointed as one of the new SEM if the current SEM stepped down. Suddenly he was talking to students and saying nice things about Dr Shram. He presented himself as if he were some kind of representative from the national academic staff association. All this was a 180 degree change of heart. What caused it?
It seems that Micah Vines supports whatever side he thinks will win. When Prof Pumwa brought him on the trip to America and tried to get his support, followed by the meeting Pumwa had with the prime minister in January or February 2014, Mr Vines must have decided that Pumwa would be the winner of Unitech saga. When we students held strong to our stand of no negotiation and more students and staff were demanding resignation of Prof Pumwa and the rest of SEM, Mr Vines woke up, saw he was supporting the losing side, and moved back to Dr Shram's side, hoping he would become acting Pro vice chancellor of administration to replace Mr Maquin Maino.
Against the main drama in Saga where both sides have been unyielding on who they support and why, the switching back and forth of Mr Vines stood out. Why would he do this? Two possible reasons:
1-Mr Vines is a politician (contested 2012 elections but lost). The loyalties of most pollies is expressed as “Today’s enemy is tomorrow’s friend”. Politicians think differently from people who have strong principles like fighting for the truth. Pollies tend to support the side that will give them the most access to power and money. Most pollies have no strong beliefs they are willing to fight for except if it benefits themselves personally. A pollie would only support Shram if they saw this as benefiting them personally. For example, only now that it looks like we students might win this war have MPs such as Kelly Naru, Sam Basil and Gary Juffa come to our side. None did it previously in fact a few weeks ago Sam Basil told students it was not within his jurisdiction.
2-Mr Vines seems to enjoy living a lifestyle that costs more money than a lecturer 2 position could support. This means he needs extra income to keep his nice car and other standards of the high life. He may stand to gain financially through consultancies and maybe even secret kickbacks if Unitech has more construction projects. Up to the time Dr Shram was deported Mr Vines saw how Dr Shram had secured funds for much increased construction projects at Unitech. Thus as a civil engineer seeking extra money it was to Mr Vine’s benefit to support Dr Shram, being that when Baloiloi was VC there was little new construction. Prof Pumwa tried to continue where Dr Shram had left off and by the end of last year had secured a big increase in PIP monies. This showed Mr Vinas that Prof Pumwa could deliver as well as Dr Shram and seemed to have O'Neill's support too. This would have attracted Mr Vines to switch loyalties from Shram to Pumwa.
When you look at the whole picture and where all the bits and pieces of evidence point to, the implication is that Mr Micah Vines switches allegiances according to what side he thinks will give him more benefits. This means he is not a person to be trusted as he may say one thing to your face and something else behind your back. Personal profit may be involved in back of the switching of allegiance of Mr Vines, that we don't know. However all this is enough to strongly urge Chancellor Bogan to request immediate investigation of these suspicious circumstances. It may be a new piece of corruption now operating at Unitech.
The following questions must be answered by the investigation (terms of reference):
1-Why would the acting vice chancellor Prof Pumwa take off so much time from managing the entire university for this overseas trip when it was clear that it would only benefit 2 departments and not the entire university?
2-Why take the trip now and not sometime later?
3-Where did the money come from to pay for this trip and who authorised it?
4-How much money did Prof Pumwa and Mr Vines use for personal spending on this trip and where did it come from?
5- Why were the 2 departments that were supposed to benefit from this trip not represented by the heads of these departments but instead were represented by Pumwa and Vines?
6-In what ways might Mr Vines stand to benefit personally (financially) if there were more construction projects taking place at Unitech?
7-What is the talked about connection and blood relationship between Mr Vines and Richard Maru (who was part of the recent mediation team coming to Unitech) and possible financial benefits that could come to Mr Vines from this relationship?
We smell a rotten fish. We urge Dr Shram upon his return not to trust either Prof Pumwa or Mr Vines. Neither one seem genuinely committed to bringing back Dr Shram. Both seem to shift their allegiance to whatever direction is most likely to bring them power, prestige and money. Sorry to say but the moment the expatriate left it seems that we are back to playing politics and strange deals at Unitech.
This made the students wild. They wondered why Mr Vines was now supporting the views of an SEM that was slack at working genuinely for the return of Dr Schram. These fears about the SEM were later confirmed when the story came out about Prof Pumwa’s deal with the prime minister ONeill to take Dr Shram’s place. Prof Pumwa was only pretending to support Dr Shram.
Why did Mr Vines change from supporting Shram to supporting Prof Pumwa? In investigating this mystery, some interesting things have come to light:
First is the trip to Texas, USA that Prof Pumwa and Mr Vines took in October 2013. To have them make a trip that was supposed to benefit civil and mechanical engineering departments was strange since neither is the head of those departments. Mr Chris Kobal is Acting head of department of Civil engineering department which Micah Vines is only a lecturer 2, with senior lecturers and professors above him. Mr Brian N’Drelan is acting head of department of Mechanical engineering, of which Prof Pumwa is a member and former acting HOD but no longer.
Why did Prof Pumwa specifically bring Mr Vines along with him and why all the rumours that this trip to America had lots of personal shopping?
We believe that Prof Pumwa invited Mr Vines in a successful effort to buy his support and make him abandon Dr Shram. Having HODs of the engineering department come along would distract from that objective. Prof Pumwa would want the support of Mr Vines because that would eliminate what was then the only outspoken voice supporting Dr Shram (Mr Ken Polin had not yet appeared as a public supporter of Dr Shram). This would strengthen Prof Pumwa's position to take over as permanent VC.
Mr Vines spoke out strongly on behalf of the administration not once but twice. The second time was more than one week later. Again Mr Vines did not explain why he no longer seemed to support Dr Shram, but now took th side of the discredited senior executive management led by acting vice chancellor Pumwa .
After Mr Vines made his first big presentation to students, everything blew up in the face of Prof Pumwa when the secret deal he made with the prime minister became known as people found out what he had told the congregation of his church. We demanded that Prof Pumwa and rest of SEM step down as they were now obvious liars and not to trusted anymore. That is when Mr Vines may have started to see that he was supporting the losing side if he continued to support Prof Pumwa.
Over the last week, a strange new shift has occurred. First was the story went around that Mr Vines was contacting Chancellor Bogan, trying to be appointed as one of the new SEM if the current SEM stepped down. Suddenly he was talking to students and saying nice things about Dr Shram. He presented himself as if he were some kind of representative from the national academic staff association. All this was a 180 degree change of heart. What caused it?
It seems that Micah Vines supports whatever side he thinks will win. When Prof Pumwa brought him on the trip to America and tried to get his support, followed by the meeting Pumwa had with the prime minister in January or February 2014, Mr Vines must have decided that Pumwa would be the winner of Unitech saga. When we students held strong to our stand of no negotiation and more students and staff were demanding resignation of Prof Pumwa and the rest of SEM, Mr Vines woke up, saw he was supporting the losing side, and moved back to Dr Shram's side, hoping he would become acting Pro vice chancellor of administration to replace Mr Maquin Maino.
Against the main drama in Saga where both sides have been unyielding on who they support and why, the switching back and forth of Mr Vines stood out. Why would he do this? Two possible reasons:
1-Mr Vines is a politician (contested 2012 elections but lost). The loyalties of most pollies is expressed as “Today’s enemy is tomorrow’s friend”. Politicians think differently from people who have strong principles like fighting for the truth. Pollies tend to support the side that will give them the most access to power and money. Most pollies have no strong beliefs they are willing to fight for except if it benefits themselves personally. A pollie would only support Shram if they saw this as benefiting them personally. For example, only now that it looks like we students might win this war have MPs such as Kelly Naru, Sam Basil and Gary Juffa come to our side. None did it previously in fact a few weeks ago Sam Basil told students it was not within his jurisdiction.
2-Mr Vines seems to enjoy living a lifestyle that costs more money than a lecturer 2 position could support. This means he needs extra income to keep his nice car and other standards of the high life. He may stand to gain financially through consultancies and maybe even secret kickbacks if Unitech has more construction projects. Up to the time Dr Shram was deported Mr Vines saw how Dr Shram had secured funds for much increased construction projects at Unitech. Thus as a civil engineer seeking extra money it was to Mr Vine’s benefit to support Dr Shram, being that when Baloiloi was VC there was little new construction. Prof Pumwa tried to continue where Dr Shram had left off and by the end of last year had secured a big increase in PIP monies. This showed Mr Vinas that Prof Pumwa could deliver as well as Dr Shram and seemed to have O'Neill's support too. This would have attracted Mr Vines to switch loyalties from Shram to Pumwa.
When you look at the whole picture and where all the bits and pieces of evidence point to, the implication is that Mr Micah Vines switches allegiances according to what side he thinks will give him more benefits. This means he is not a person to be trusted as he may say one thing to your face and something else behind your back. Personal profit may be involved in back of the switching of allegiance of Mr Vines, that we don't know. However all this is enough to strongly urge Chancellor Bogan to request immediate investigation of these suspicious circumstances. It may be a new piece of corruption now operating at Unitech.
The following questions must be answered by the investigation (terms of reference):
1-Why would the acting vice chancellor Prof Pumwa take off so much time from managing the entire university for this overseas trip when it was clear that it would only benefit 2 departments and not the entire university?
2-Why take the trip now and not sometime later?
3-Where did the money come from to pay for this trip and who authorised it?
4-How much money did Prof Pumwa and Mr Vines use for personal spending on this trip and where did it come from?
5- Why were the 2 departments that were supposed to benefit from this trip not represented by the heads of these departments but instead were represented by Pumwa and Vines?
6-In what ways might Mr Vines stand to benefit personally (financially) if there were more construction projects taking place at Unitech?
7-What is the talked about connection and blood relationship between Mr Vines and Richard Maru (who was part of the recent mediation team coming to Unitech) and possible financial benefits that could come to Mr Vines from this relationship?
We smell a rotten fish. We urge Dr Shram upon his return not to trust either Prof Pumwa or Mr Vines. Neither one seem genuinely committed to bringing back Dr Shram. Both seem to shift their allegiance to whatever direction is most likely to bring them power, prestige and money. Sorry to say but the moment the expatriate left it seems that we are back to playing politics and strange deals at Unitech.
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