PNGBLOGS

By NATIONALIST FIRST His legal exile officially ended almost two weeks ago.   Nothing in the newspapers or television mention any extension.    Dr Albert Schram should be back in the VC seat at unitech. But he’s not. Early on Judge Sevua told the Post Courier it would be an injustice for Schram not to be allowed to come back and testify in his defence in the investigation he heads.  The Sevua investigation is nearly done taking evidence.    Schram tried to come back.  The government deported him again.   He never testified in his defence according to those working in the investigation. Students at unitech want their graduation diplomas and degree certificates to be signed by a full VC not some acting VC.   Students want a real diploma or certificate, not an acting one. Schram cannot sign because he is in involuntary exile. Unitech graduation is this Friday 12 April.  Peter ONeill will deliver a typical politician speech.    That is another term for many words with little content.   Of

By NATIONALIST FIRST His legal exile officially ended almost two weeks ago.   Nothing in the newspapers or television mention any extension.    Dr Albert Schram should be back in the VC seat at unitech. But he’s not. Early on Judge Sevua told the Post Courier it would be an injustice for Schram not to be allowed to come back and testify in his defence in the investigation he heads.  The Sevua investigation is nearly done taking evidence.    Schram tried to come back.  The government deported him again.   He never testified in his defence according to those working in the investigation. Students at unitech want their graduation diplomas and degree certificates to be signed by a full VC not some acting VC.   Students want a real diploma or certificate, not an acting one. Schram cannot sign because he is in involuntary exile. Unitech graduation is this Friday 12 April.  Peter ONeill will deliver a typical politician speech.    That is another term for many

By PNG EXPERT Papua New Guinea will be without its founding political party, the PANGU Pati as it heads into its 40th year of independence in a couple of years’ time. And for the next four and a half years, it will not have a voice on the floor. Its house is in tatters, split apart by two disputing administration executives The once dominant Pangu unfortunately lost its only sitting member of parliament and Member for Angoram Ludwig Shulze a couple of weeks back due to illness. Except for the late Shulze, it did not fare well in the national elections since the 90’s following the fall-out with the Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, its founding leader who took Papua New Guinea to independence in 1975. The grand chief is still around but is aligned with the National Alliance, the only political party to have ruled for a solid nine years until the political impasse of 2011. In the 80’s under Sir Michael, it almost brought in the numbers for a one-party rule. In the 90’s to mid-2000, it was

By PNG EXPERT Papua New Guinea will be without its founding political party, the PANGU Pati as it heads into its 40th year of independence in a couple of years’ time. And for the next four and a half years, it will not have a voice on the floor. Its house is in tatters, split apart by two disputing administration executives The once dominant Pangu unfortunately lost its only sitting member of parliament and Member for Angoram Ludwig Shulze a couple of weeks back due to illness. Except for the late Shulze, it did not fare well in the national elections since the 90’s following the fall-out with the Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, its founding leader who took Papua New Guinea to independence in 1975. The grand chief is still around but is aligned with the National Alliance, the only political party to have ruled for a solid nine years until the political impasse of 2011. In the 80’s under Sir Michael, it almost brought in the numbers for a one-party rule. In the 90’s to mi

FOR most of the first decade of this century, lady luck, and the Christian among us would say God, has been smiling upon Papua New Guinea. Between 2003 and 2012, the economy has been growing in leaps and bounds. For the first time too, a global economic crisis failed to put a damper on PNG’s economic fortunes. In that time the budget has grown in size from a mere K1 billion to K10 billion and it is growing. For most of those years of plenty, the government has had to bring down two or three supplementary bud­gets to factor in revenue in excess of budget forecasts. The global economy is expected to remain weak in 2013 reflecting the ongoing debt crisis in the Euro zone and slow recovery in the rest of the advanced economies such as Japan and the United States. Despite that, PNG’s economic fortunes continue untrammelled. Although the economic growth is forecasted to shrink from 9% to 4% this year, this is far bigger growth than PNG has experienced since 1975 when annual growth, whenever

FOR most of the first decade of this century, lady luck, and the Christian among us would say God, has been smiling upon Papua New Guinea. Between 2003 and 2012, the economy has been growing in leaps and bounds. For the first time too, a global economic crisis failed to put a damper on PNG’s economic fortunes. In that time the budget has grown in size from a mere K1 billion to K10 billion and it is growing. For most of those years of plenty, the government has had to bring down two or three supplementary bud­gets to factor in revenue in excess of budget forecasts. The global economy is expected to remain weak in 2013 reflecting the ongoing debt crisis in the Euro zone and slow recovery in the rest of the advanced economies such as Japan and the United States. Despite that, PNG’s economic fortunes continue untrammelled. Although the economic growth is forecasted to shrink from 9% to 4% this year, this is far bigger growth than PNG has experienced since 1975 when annual grow

My Dear Prime Minister, It is almost 9 months since your legitimate rise to Power through the Ballot Box putting behind a tumultuous reign of political brinkmanship that brought our country to the verge of collapse – because you used Parliament wrongly to flout the laws of the land. However you are a smart man and it was indeed clever of you to get your new Attorney General to start the process to undo the damage done to our parliamentary democracy; and the separation of power doctrine that you conveniently discarded during the political impasse. History has shown us that nations and particularly the younger generation do not judge their leaders lightly on charges of abuse of power and political corruption. Mubarak in Egypt and Musharraf in Pakistan are the two latest leaders in a long line of Presidents and Prime Ministers hauled before the courts after leaving office to face charges of abuse of power. For you Prime Minister O’Neill that time is still light years away. In the 9 months

My Dear Prime Minister, It is almost 9 months since your legitimate rise to Power through the Ballot Box putting behind a tumultuous reign of political brinkmanship that brought our country to the verge of collapse – because you used Parliament wrongly to flout the laws of the land. However you are a smart man and it was indeed clever of you to get your new Attorney General to start the process to undo the damage done to our parliamentary democracy; and the separation of power doctrine that you conveniently discarded during the political impasse. History has shown us that nations and particularly the younger generation do not judge their leaders lightly on charges of abuse of power and political corruption. Mubarak in Egypt and Musharraf in Pakistan are the two latest leaders in a long line of Presidents and Prime Ministers hauled before the courts after leaving office to face charges of abuse of power. For you Prime Minister O’Neill that time is still light years away. In th

Vanilla Farmer Alan Bird talks about his 2002 Election experience, this article was first published on the National Newspaper's editorial section on the 2nd of July 2002 Being a strongly ideological person, I entered this election race not only confident of winning the seat but also of being a catalyst to the dawn of dramatic, positive change to the economic and social fabric of my Sepik society. My high-minded ideals have taken a real battering in the last three months of electioneering. As we neared the end of the campaign, I became much more philosophical, as the reality of the depths of the corruption that pervades our society dragged me out of my dreams. On the one hand I wept at the total lack of interest that had been shown toward Sepik people on the other side of the Sepik River between our borders with the Highlands and West Sepik. On the other, I was shattered by the attitude of people on my side of the river whose sole drive in life appears to be to live off government

Vanilla Farmer Alan Bird talks about his 2002 Election experience, this article was first published on the National Newspaper's editorial section on the 2nd of July 2002 Being a strongly ideological person, I entered this election race not only confident of winning the seat but also of being a catalyst to the dawn of dramatic, positive change to the economic and social fabric of my Sepik society. My high-minded ideals have taken a real battering in the last three months of electioneering. As we neared the end of the campaign, I became much more philosophical, as the reality of the depths of the corruption that pervades our society dragged me out of my dreams. On the one hand I wept at the total lack of interest that had been shown toward Sepik people on the other side of the Sepik River between our borders with the Highlands and West Sepik. On the other, I was shattered by the attitude of people on my side of the river whose sole drive in life appears to be to live off gov

AAP The government of Papua New Guinea will restructure the management of the Ok Tedi copper mine to ensure its funds are managed in PNG and not in Singapore, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says. In a two-page article written by the PM in Port Moresby's Post Courier newspaper on Tuesday, Mr O'Neill vowed to end what he termed "secret arrangements" between the mine's former owner, BHP Billiton, and the PNG Sustainable Development Project. The PNGSDP was created by BHP in 2002 to manage OK Tedi's profits on behalf of the people of Western Province, following massive environmental damage caused by the mine. OK Tedi's mining lease expires at the end of 2013. "When the lease expires, the national government will put in place management arrangements that end any secret arrangements, and ensure that the people of Papua New Guinea, including the local landowners, have a say in the mine's future and its management," Mr O'Neill said. "We wil

AAP The government of Papua New Guinea will restructure the management of the Ok Tedi copper mine to ensure its funds are managed in PNG and not in Singapore, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says. In a two-page article written by the PM in Port Moresby's Post Courier newspaper on Tuesday, Mr O'Neill vowed to end what he termed "secret arrangements" between the mine's former owner, BHP Billiton, and the PNG Sustainable Development Project. The PNGSDP was created by BHP in 2002 to manage OK Tedi's profits on behalf of the people of Western Province, following massive environmental damage caused by the mine. OK Tedi's mining lease expires at the end of 2013. "When the lease expires, the national government will put in place management arrangements that end any secret arrangements, and ensure that the people of Papua New Guinea, including the local landowners, have a say in the mine's future and its management," Mr O'Neill said. "We

PNG's Growth to Remain Strong but Protection Needed against Future Shocks Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 26 March 2013 – While Papua New Guinea’s medium term growth outlook of 5.5% in 2013, and 6% in 2014 remains strong, provisions must be made to allow the economy to withstand future economic shocks according to the new issue of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Pacific Economic Monitor, released today. The report– a tri-annual economic review of ADB’s Pacific developing member countries —says as the construction phase of the PNG Liquefied Natural Gas Project winds down, economic growth in PNG will be supported by increased government spending and output from mining operations. “It is critical that government plans to increase investment in national infrastructure and social services are balanced with maintaining fiscal buffers that will allow PNG to withstand future economic shocks,” said Aaron Batten, Country Economist of ADB’s Papua New Guinea Resident Mission. The ADB report