THE NEW LAND GRAB IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA: A CASE STUDY FROM NEW IRELAND PROVINCE-NEW HANOVER AND EMIRAU
BY COLIN FILER
EMIRAU
In December 2006, a SABL over an area of 3384 hectares (Portions 53C–58C) on the island of Emirau in the Murat LLG area was granted to a company called Emirau Trust Ltd (ETL) for a period of 99 years (whose shares were owned by Ben Micahs half sister). The six land portions included in this lease appear to cover the whole of the island, and the state is said to have acquired these land portions from 29 incorporated land groups in January 2005 (The National, 9 September 2008). The island is approximately 130 kilometres north-west of Kavieng, the provincial capital (see Map 1).
In May 2005, one of the islanders wrote a letter to one of PNG’s national newspapers expressing concern that the SABL had not yet been granted in April of that year (The National, 9 May 2005). According to this correspondent, ETL was the brainchild of the island’s most well-known political leader, Ben Micah, former MP for Kavieng Open Electorate and long-time supporter of former prime minister and fellow New Irelander, Sir Julius Chan.1 Micah was said to have been negotiating a deal with the national government and an Australian, Edward Carr, to invest millions of kina (hereafter PGK) in a combination of “fishing, redevelopment of old World War II airfields on the island, tourism and communication development”. A certain amount of seed capital might have been required for this venture, since the correspondent also recorded that Micah had organized a “fundraising” event in Port Moresby in March 2005, and that is where he is said to have announced the imminent finalization of the leasing arrangements.
The national newspapers carried no further news of this project until December 2007, when an article entitled “Chan Eyes Riches” appeared in the Post-Courier. Sir Julius had re-entered the national parlia- ment as Governor of New Ireland Province in July of that year, and was now announc- ing “an integrated business strategy and practices which project immense monetary gains for the people of Emirau, Mussau, the Murat Local level government, New Ireland Province and the country” (Post-Courier, 12 December 2007).
The role of Emirau in this strategy was apparently derived from the island’s role as an American airbase during the Second World War, and ETL, under the chairmanship of a former pastor called Stephen Wilson,who was supposedly keen to bring this fact to the attention of potential foreign investors. In September 2008, Ben Micah submitted a proposal for what was now described as “Project Emirau” to the Department of Commerce and Industry (The National, 9 September 2008). At the same time, Micah and Chan jointly issued a press release invoking New Ireland’s aim to become “a self-reliant autonomous part of Papua New Guinea that is efficient, market oriented and internationally competitive”, and “appealing to the Government to approve [Project Emirau] as a national public investment programme project, declare NIP a special economic zone and Emirau island a free trade and export processing zone”. However, the capacity of ETL to participate in this scheme may have been somewhat reduced when the Investment Promotion Authority removed the company from its company register in May 2008 (Post-Courier, 16 October 2008).Micah & Wilson are still wanted by CID over millions of kina both received from investors which their own people are totally unaware to this day.
ETL and Project Emirau have since vanished from the radar, except for a curious website maintained by Edward Car [sic], the Australian who appeared as a potential foreign investor in 2005, but who seems to regard himself as a “Total Artist” (http:// emirau.asia/index.html). Car says that he first visited Emirau Island in 2003 in his capacity as “the Leader of a Value Based Expedition run by WIND AUSTRALIA visiting the most distant point on the map that had land in the Pacific Ocean in the most remote corner of PNG”. Although he has some very general ideas about the island’s actual and potential place in the global capitalist system, Car represents Project Emirau as a joint venture between ETL and a company called Wind Trader Ltd (perhaps his own family company) to develop something called the “Emirau Mother’s Haus” (http://emirau.asia/e_house. html). This is described as:.. a contemporary modern living air conditioned high tech Home Office designed around the mother and her roll [sic] in the community [and] … a self sufficient building that provides its own Permaculture Food, Rain Water, Green Electricity, Grey and Black water treatment, Methane for cooking and cooling and Telecommunications and Internet.
The cost of the building itself is estimated at USD30,000–40,000, but the cost of relocating all 600 islanders to a cluster of new buildings around it is estimated at USD4–5 million. The Total Artist believes that a bank loan used to finance the development of this new community infrastructure could be paid off within ten years: the cost of the new housing would be covered by the sale of “Export Organic Food and Water, Export Wild Fish, Boutique Accommodation and Electricity”, while the cost of the entire project could be covered by a “Building Material Production Plant” selling building materials “to the rest of Melanesia”, and the sale of other items like “Tuna Sashimi Fish” and “Medical Tourism” would simply add to the overall profitability of the scheme.
It is not known whether or how these fantasies were included in Micah’s submission to the Department of Commerce and Industry or how they might figure in the latest iteration of New Ireland’s Provincial Development Plan which incidentally, was replaced by an uncosted one A4 page plan written on the back of a banana boat by a supposed Dr Sition Gion whose Ph.D has never been conclusively verified who aptly named it the Malagan Declaration and to date has been decisively rejected by the Department of National Planning as a wishy washy statement of dreams.Not a single political promise by Chan & Micah has been implemented in the plan at the time of writing.
It is no wonder that both Chan & Micah scored nearly 100% of the votes in Emirau & greater mussau because they promised ignorant islanders international hotels, fishing fleets, helicopters, jet planes and even a space station launching pad! but to date emirau islanders (accept for Micah & Chans family members) seem to have received only broken promises from their dubious elected MPs. Murat LLG remains the poorest and one of the most impoverished LLG areas in the entire country. Sadder still, Ben Micah like many PNG politicians will return in the 2017 General Elections and ask for their peoples support without having to be held to account for the millions that have gone missing and are unaccounted for.
