PNGBLOGS

THE WATCHER I REFER to the letter “Chief failed to groom young leaders” (The National, May 23). I would like to thank the writer, L. Lai, for the response to my observations. The Grand Chief could have allowed Don Polye to assume the position in his absence but he did not for reasons only known to him and possibly his inner circle. He would have carefully consi­dered the consequences before ma­king that decision. Polye’s ambition has been an open secret and many would agree that while he possesses admirable leadership qualities, it is too early for him to assume control. Ambition, ego, maturity and neutrality are factors which would have been considered by the prime minister. The writer’s reasoning that the decision stemmed from greed and desire to cling to power is weak in that the Chief has, in fact, handed it to Sam Abal. Is the Chief still in power or in a Singapore hospital? Furthermore, it implies that had Polye been appointed, the Chief would have been ousted due to some hidden

THE WATCHER I REFER to the letter “Chief failed to groom young leaders” (The National, May 23). I would like to thank the writer, L. Lai, for the response to my observations. The Grand Chief could have allowed Don Polye to assume the position in his absence but he did not for reasons only known to him and possibly his inner circle. He would have carefully consi­dered the consequences before ma­king that decision. Polye’s ambition has been an open secret and many would agree that while he possesses admirable leadership qualities, it is too early for him to assume control. Ambition, ego, maturity and neutrality are factors which would have been considered by the prime minister. The writer’s reasoning that the decision stemmed from greed and desire to cling to power is weak in that the Chief has, in fact, handed it to Sam Abal. Is the Chief still in power or in a Singapore hospital? Furthermore, it implies that had Polye been appointed, the Chief would have been ousted due to some

OP.ED It is rather unfortunate that pre-eminent lawyer and former diplomat Peter Donigi, too, will support leaving the decomposing body of a landowner leader without proper burial rites until certain matters of interest to him and others have been attended to. Has PNG arrived at a stage where the dead would be used as a tool to beat and banter a reluctant government into submission for something the living wanted? The decision to leave the body of Himuni Homogo of the Tuguba tribe in Port Moresby until the government gives in to certain demands of the landowners is nothing short of blackmail. Such attitudes should have no room in PNG society. It is utter disrespect in the ancient traditions of our society as it is in our modern state. When the body first arrived in Port Moresby, it was taken in a convoy past government offices in a great show of force by landowners. Himuni’s fellow Tuguba clan elders and relatives wanted certain outstanding commitments by the state to be paid before hi

OP.ED It is rather unfortunate that pre-eminent lawyer and former diplomat Peter Donigi, too, will support leaving the decomposing body of a landowner leader without proper burial rites until certain matters of interest to him and others have been attended to. Has PNG arrived at a stage where the dead would be used as a tool to beat and banter a reluctant government into submission for something the living wanted? The decision to leave the body of Himuni Homogo of the Tuguba tribe in Port Moresby until the government gives in to certain demands of the landowners is nothing short of blackmail. Such attitudes should have no room in PNG society. It is utter disrespect in the ancient traditions of our society as it is in our modern state. When the body first arrived in Port Moresby, it was taken in a convoy past government offices in a great show of force by landowners. Himuni’s fellow Tuguba clan elders and relatives wanted certain outstanding commitments by the state to be paid befor

JOHN CONROY In a move that might strike some observers as rather odd, Papua New Guinea recently adopted a national policy intended to stimulate ‘informal’ economic activity. Last November, PNG’s National Executive Council endorsed a policy document put to it by Dame Carol Kidu, Minister for Community Development. The ‘National Informal Economy Policy 2011-2015’ is the result. Why should such a policy be thought odd or unusual? This view arises because most governments, with the active backing of international institutions such as the IFC and ILO, are trying to diminish the size of ‘informal’ sectors. ‘Formalizing the informal’ or, in other words, absorbing the micro-scale economic activities of the poor into the formal, regulated and tax-paying part of the economy, makes sense in situations where the informal economy has become bloated (as is the case, for example, in much of Latin America, as well as closer to home, in Indonesia). But in PNG, as I’ve argued elsewhere, the informal eco

JOHN CONROY In a move that might strike some observers as rather odd, Papua New Guinea recently adopted a national policy intended to stimulate ‘informal’ economic activity. Last November, PNG’s National Executive Council endorsed a policy document put to it by Dame Carol Kidu, Minister for Community Development. The ‘National Informal Economy Policy 2011-2015’ is the result. Why should such a policy be thought odd or unusual? This view arises because most governments, with the active backing of international institutions such as the IFC and ILO, are trying to diminish the size of ‘informal’ sectors. ‘Formalizing the informal’ or, in other words, absorbing the micro-scale economic activities of the poor into the formal, regulated and tax-paying part of the economy, makes sense in situations where the informal economy has become bloated (as is the case, for example, in much of Latin America, as well as closer to home, in Indonesia). But in PNG, as I’ve argued elsewhere, the informal

Ronald J. May Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare has been a member of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) National Parliament since 1968, and for 18 of his 43 years in Parliament he has been chief minister/prime minister, as head of a coalition government. In the country’s most recent general election, held under a recently introduced limited preferential voting system in 2007, Somare was re-elected to his East Sepik Provincial seat, gaining 38 per cent of first preferences and enough second and third preferences to carry him over the line, albeit only after the final elimination. As leader of the party with the greatest number of MPs (the National Alliance, with 27 of the 109 seats in the National Parliament) he was returned as prime minister by a vote of 86 to 21; he leads a coalition of initially 14 parties. Under an Organic Law on Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC), introduced in 2001 primarily to prevent constant ‘party hopping’ by MPs, shifts in party coalitions, and recu