WILL NEW INTERIM SRC PRESIDENT AHENG LEAD UPNG STUDENTS FIGHT AGAINST GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION?
A person can have a PhD yet remain childishly immature and lacking in wisdom. A high level university administrator can have education, wealth and status, but lack personal integrity.
All this is becoming selfevident through the continuing saga of former UPNG SRC president Bobby Yupi. Last week, Yupi was lead actor in a self-created primitive action movie we might entitle “Return To The Stone Age”. The event was witnessed by thousands as Bobby led a group of knife and gun wielding wantoks to attack peaceful, unarmed students attending a UPNG forum. What Bobby Yupi did was beyond reprehensible. It was criminal. It was also the kind of event that outsiders love pointing to as evidence that PNG is a perpetually uncivilised nation. Yupi’s actions did immense damage to UPNG’s reputations and that of the students.
What on earth inspired UPNG students to elect as their SRC president an individual with such obvious character flaws and capacity for misbehaviour? Was it because they blindly voted along provincial or ethnic lines instead of voting for the candidate who had the best qualifications?
Even more puzzling, what on earth would make law student Bobby Yupi do something that would virtually guarantee that his reputation would be forever tarnished on the internet and in the memories of thousands of people? This looks like suicidal behaviour!
Answering the second question is easy. Some months ago, Bobby Yupi either joined O’Neill and associates, or he agreed to let O’Neill and associates proceed with their evil deeds without UPNG student interference. Either way, Bobby’s position became more difficult as more of UPNG’s ethical students cried foul and asked questions Bobby didn’t want to answer. The strengthening voices of good people finally pushed Bobby into a tight corner. The stress built, the explosion finally occurred.
We don’t know for certain whether Bobby Yupi sold out to Peter O’Neill. What we do know is that he never proactively demanded an investigation to clear his name, as an innocent person would do. We also know, with 100% certainty, that Bobby Yupi has a childish backwards thinking personality that makes him unfit to practice law or serve as any kind of leader in 21st Century PNG.
The power given to any UPNG SRC president is immense. All over the world, uni student power has not only ended evil processes, but brought down corrupt leaders, even entire governments. Uni students naturally take the lead in analysing situations accurately and distinguish good from evil. In the past, UPNG students have stopped evil in its tracks. For example, in 1994 uni students stopped Julius Chan’s World Bank structural adjustment (land grab) attempt.
Bobby Yupi inherited this special UPNG power and its legacy. He then proceeded to screw up the chance of a lifetime. His inactivism sucked the energy out of the earlier UPNG student movement to force out the truth about the UBS loan scandal. In doing this, he gave all PNG the image that UPNG students were unconcerned about the nation and worried mostly about themselves. Yupi was unfit for providing the right kind of leadership in a time of crisis and opportunity.
Above all, Yupi committed the ultimate sin of any SRC president. He became the willing stooge of the UPNG administration instead of putting the nation and his student constituents first, as any ethical, visionary leader would do.
Specifically, Bobby Yupi became VC Albert Mellam’s friend. Who is Mellam? To begin with, he is far from being a visionary. He functions better as a lapdog. There are continuing rumours that he took kickbacks with respect to South Pacific Games facility construction on campus. Better documented is his special indebtedness to Ohe Director General David Kavanamur, who ignored the recommendation of the hiring committee and hired fellow UPNG academic Mellam over the winning expatriate candidate. The last thing Albert Mellam wants is for UPNG students to give him embarrassment or headaches.
Last Friday, Bobby Yupi was formally removed as President by the SRC Council. Yet, they haven’t provided any details on what SRC has done to ensure that Bobby Yupi is arrested and questioned by the police. Have they done anything at all? For its part, the UPNG administration carried out a “let’s forget about the crime” peacemaking ceremony that any criminal would beg for as a replacement for prosecution. VC Mellam has not reprimanded Bobby Yupi nor made any statement about Yupi’s undeniable role in that fight. Why the silence, Prof Mellam? Are you trying to obstruct justice or merely avoiding it, on whether Bobby Yupi is prosecuted for what thousands of students saw him do?
VC Mellam is desperately trying to keep UPNG students from effectively speaking out. He and his buddy David Kavanamur have sternly told the students to return to class. They ignore that a strong majority of UPNG students have already voted for action in a referendum. Their attempts to do whatever is necessary to keep any student protests ineffective plays into the hands of evil. It’s time to start holding these administrators accountable. Mellam and Kavanamur say they will protect student’s rights of free speech. If that’s true, why have the pro-boycott banners at UPNG been removed? What Mellam and Kavanamur really meant to say was “we will allow free speech, but only ineffective free speech.” Mellam and Kavanamur are frauds. They speak democracy but use dictator tactics.
Our future right now as a nation lies in the hands of the truly vibrant and truly youthful, not the wannabes and pretenders, nor the Mellams and Kavanamurs who corruptly protect their income sources and comfortable lifestyles.
The future of our nation lies in the hands of PNG’s university students. They, not our corrupt politicians nor even the anti-corruption movement with its own shady characters, have the power to force our government stop its constant deceptions, obstructions, and outright lies.
Throughout PNG our ears are being filled with more and more “rumours that make a lot of sense” concerning large sums of PNG government monies being stolen or used unethically through illegal kickbacks (especially related to South Pacifics game construction in Moresby and road construction throughout PNG), outright bribes, fake payments for services, and middlemen commissions for giant overseas loans. We must have a very broad, high level anti-corruption task force created that is given even more authority than what Sam Koim had. The expanded task force must have adequate financial resources to investigate overseas money laundering by our corrupt politicians. Assistance of Interpol must be assured.
The government will agree to none of the above without pressure. Corrupt politicians will never pass laws or set up structures that can effectively reduce their abilities to steal. The people must speak and put as much pressure as it takes to make the government back down. UPNG students are our best hope to create the strongest voice possible. One that can inspire an entire nation and finally end the continuing circus at Waigani.
No one can put pressure on the government like our uni students can. Interim UPNG SRC President Diddley Aheng, can you resist pressure, perhaps even bribery by higher ups? Are you smart enough to know that you should never meet with authorities unless you bring along plenty of witnesses? Has VC Albert Mellam already met with you and offered to be your friend? What about O’Neill?
Don’t aspire to be the lapdog that your predecessor Bobby Yupi became. Be like your counterpart over in Lae. Eddie Nagual, Unitech’s SRC President, faced down the Unitech administration, then faced down even greater pressure from high level ministers of the government. He was unyielding until the job was done and there was justice. Mr Nagual achieved this only because he enjoyed the support of most students. He developed this support through repeated forums, handouts, and other means that got the information out. Unitech students ended up being well educated about the issues and the special role in history they would earn by fighting for justice and winning.
Didley Aheng, start networking immediately with the SRC presidents of our other PNG universities to create a nationwide university student voice that can stop the circus in Waigani. Will your time at the helm become your finest hour? Will you earn a reputation for bravery or a reputation for cowardice over the coming days?
Readers who are not UPNG students, please join in praying to our Almighty Lord that UPNG students, freed of Bobby Yupi obstructionism, will use their freedom to rise up peacefully but firmly, irrespective of what VC Mellam and Ohe Director Kavanamur want, and help stop the circus that the O’Neill government has become.
Pray for the students. But after your prayers have ended, start being an activist! There are many ways in which any individual, anywhere in PNG, can give tangible support to UPNG students so that they can stand up against the evils of our government. It has been said many times before that right now in PNG we are truly in a fight of good versus evil, David versus Goliath. Stop being a spectator. Take the side of good David by doing everything possible to help our university students, not only in POM, but throughout PNG.
