Noah Anjo, Here Is Why I Won’t Join In Your Anti-Corruption Demonstrations
Port Moresby activist Noah Anjo has been around for some time now. He has always preached against corruption. He first became famous when Michael Somare had Anjo kidnapped while Somare was PM and was slapped around at Somare’s house. He has continued to protest against corruption ever since.
I have been to 2 of the protests he organised and was considering more. I’m very much against corruption and disheartened to see what Peter ONeill is doing who has become far worse than Michael Somare. Our country is going to the pigs with the amount of money stealing boing on from top to bottom. I am infuriated at the destruction of PNG by these thieves of which peter ONeill is the most cunning.
But I will no longer come to protests of Noah Anjo. He knows I am not alone in my feeling. On Thursday I heard that he was complaining at the poor showing to his first legal protest. That should have been a day when thousands, free from fear of police arrest or blockage would have joined him. Others can stand next to him if they want but I will not.
My reasons are very clear. Noah Anjo lets himself be associated with corrupt people. Belden Namah is always getting next to Noah and anyone with a lick of sense who has investigated the matter knows that Belden Namah is a far from being a role model for ethics and got his money through unethical means that hurt a lot of people and will continue to hurt for generations.
Noah Anjo also lets himself being associated with Sonja Barry Ramoi who is married to a former MP Gabriel Ramoi who spent 2 in prison for misappropriating his Electoral Development fund money when he was MP. Sonja Barry tops it off by supporting Belden Namah as a politician.
I also finally realised what it really meant when Noah Anjo contested the Port Moresby seat in 2012. It meant that he was a politician like all the rest. My Uncle who is from Goroka, told me the story about an organisation called Melanesian Solidarity that seemed to be for fruitful progress and no corruption in PNG and elsewhere in the Pacific. MelSol as it was called was a magnet for activists for good. One of the most prominent of these activists in PNG was a guy by the name of Peti Lafanama.
Peti Lafanama went on from being a MelSol activist to becoming a politician. He was voted in and became governor of Eastern Highland Province. Within very short time he was owning multiple houses and driving very luxury vehicles which could not possibly have been bought off his salary as governor. Peti Lafanama was corrupted by the system in the same way that Powes Parkop has gone from human rights lawyer for the poor to authorising his reserve force to kick the asses of the poor on the streets of Moresby.
Anyone who goes inside the system to reform it will become corrupt. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi alll knew that. That is why they remained outside the system, would never become politicians and continued to be effective until they died or their battle was won. Mandela eventually went inside the system but only after he was an old man and 28 years in prison had put in place the stubbornness necessary not to be corrupted by that system.
Even to this day, Noah Anjo does not understand any of that. For him to allow association with people of the likes of Belden Namah is disappointing to say the least. His movement against corruption has become hopelessly corrupted by such poor role models added to Noah’s own political intentions.
People who are easily motivated by charismatic talk will still be attracted to Noah’s movement but not the people who critically evaluate and think. Gabriel Ramoi may have reformed and less likely but I guess theoretically possible even Belden Namah may have stopped making money in a way that is as bad or worse than stealing from taxpayers. It doesn’t matter if they have become good people are not. They are tainted by their past, they can be forgiven but their past will never be forgotten, just like is shown by my uncle still telling the story of former governor Lafanama. No person who really wants to be seen as a genuine fighter against corruption and have a strong spirit and character which will enable them to resist their own temptations should ever associate with any tainted person. Noah Anjo has never figured that out.
Anyway, now Noah has few people willing to go to his demonstrations. I am one of the people who will not attend a Noah Anjo meeting again and I have explained myself.
