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Police Investigators always fail to produce the evidence when investigating leaders

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By MICAH LAN In today’s Post Courier it was reported that charges of misappropriation have been dropped against Western Province administrator Modowa Gumoi for allegedly applying K500, 000 for his own use, among other things. What is going on here?  Are the police incompetent?   Or is the old “pay them off to lose the evidence” scam at work again? There are many things we must get out of our heads about our country Papua New Guinea.  First this idea that we are a Christian country, We are not a Christian country, we only say we are.  If anything we were more of a Christian country before the first Christian missionaries came because at least there was a strong environment of sharing within the clan, and firm rules of justice and compensation that applied more broadly. The words spiv, humbug, corrupt was much less applicable back then than now.  At least we weren’t hypocrites back then. Today we are.  We pretend to be something we’re not. Another thing to get out of our head is that we

Police Investigators always fail to produce the evidence when investigating leaders

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By MICAH LAN In today’s Post Courier it was reported that charges of misappropriation have been dropped against Western Province administrator Modowa Gumoi for allegedly applying K500, 000 for his own use, among other things. What is going on here?  Are the police incompetent?   Or is the old “pay them off to lose the evidence” scam at work again? There are many things we must get out of our heads about our country Papua New Guinea.  First this idea that we are a Christian country, We are not a Christian country, we only say we are.  If anything we were more of a Christian country before the first Christian missionaries came because at least there was a strong environment of sharing within the clan, and firm rules of justice and compensation that applied more broadly. The words spiv, humbug, corrupt was much less applicable back then than now.  At least we weren’t hypocrites back then. Today we are.  We pretend to be something we’re not. Another thing to get out of our head is tha

PNG prison system plagued by mass-breakouts

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By SONJA BARRY-RAMOI Joe was accused and charged with raping a young girl. Joe (not his real name) was old enough to be the girl’s father. Joe had promised the Father of the ‘young girl’ K1, 500 as bride price and had talked big about starting a cattle project in a joint venture with the young girl’s father. Instead of making payment upfront or producing any cattle, Joe very foolishly took the young girl to his village - where she moved about freely as his ‘wife’ for two weeks before the police acting on the unpaid ‘father in-law’s’ complaint turned up to arrest him for rape. Joe was still imprisoned, as a remandee (‘weit kot’ – awaiting court) at Boram CIS in Wewak, around three years later on the main charge of rape. Fortunately for Joe, his long wait for justice was about to come to an end after a good State prosecutor took on his case. The Police prosecutor dropped the charge of rape and also the charge of ‘carnal knowledge with a minor’ because of the lack of evidence and proceede

Saulep and Stagg stonewalled Unitech Investigation

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Unitech Insider Does anyone know the latest on the strange story of Unitech VC Shram? As a former Unitech, this case is of special interest to me.  What I have found out from some people at office of higher education is as follows:  the report by Judge Sevua commissioned by the PM was completed long ago and it finds VC Shram innocent of all charges brought on by certain members of the old Council (mostly Ralph Saulep and Philip Stagg) who presided over unitech’s many years of decline and seemed tobe trying to cover up their sins by trying to get rid of Shram. The investigative report apparently lays out the fault with the current mess at Unitech as being blamed on Saulep and Stagg. It seems this is the reason the report is being covered up. Once again the bad guys seem to win in PNG? I have been less able to find out what is the status of VC Shram except that he;s sitting someplace in Australia with the clock  ticking, still being the appointed VC in all respects and getting paid

Saulep and Stagg stonewalled Unitech Investigation

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Unitech Insider Does anyone know the latest on the strange story of Unitech VC Shram? As a former Unitech, this case is of special interest to me.  What I have found out from some people at office of higher education is as follows:  the report by Judge Sevua commissioned by the PM was completed long ago and it finds VC Shram innocent of all charges brought on by certain members of the old Council (mostly Ralph Saulep and Philip Stagg) who presided over unitech’s many years of decline and seemed tobe trying to cover up their sins by trying to get rid of Shram. The investigative report apparently lays out the fault with the current mess at Unitech as being blamed on Saulep and Stagg. It seems this is the reason the report is being covered up. Once again the bad guys seem to win in PNG? I have been less able to find out what is the status of VC Shram except that he;s sitting someplace in Australia with the clock  ticking, still being the appointed VC in all respects

Papua New Guinea is a country now torn apart between greed and ignorance

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By LUCAS KIAP Infrastructure Development is one often hears Political Leaders in PNG preach a lot but what do they actually mean? Most often we hear leaders talk about infrastructure development in the country. One gets to hear every year the government hands down big budget plans for infrastructure development in the country. Despite the preaching by political leaders and billions of Kina spent every year on infrastructure alone, the country still not only lacks infrastructure but deteriorating infrastructure. What is then the meaning of infrastructure development in the context of the leadership in Papua New Guinea? I am not an expert in the field of infrastructure development but in this article, I am going to share with the readers some of the serious misconceptions I have learned from my continuous observations and analysis. It is very important for the reader to read to the end of this article to understand very critical issues affecting infrastructure development in the country.

Papua New Guinea is a country now torn apart between greed and ignorance

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By LUCAS KIAP Infrastructure Development is one often hears Political Leaders in PNG preach a lot but what do they actually mean? Most often we hear leaders talk about infrastructure development in the country. One gets to hear every year the government hands down big budget plans for infrastructure development in the country. Despite the preaching by political leaders and billions of Kina spent every year on infrastructure alone, the country still not only lacks infrastructure but deteriorating infrastructure. What is then the meaning of infrastructure development in the context of the leadership in Papua New Guinea? I am not an expert in the field of infrastructure development but in this article, I am going to share with the readers some of the serious misconceptions I have learned from my continuous observations and analysis. It is very important for the reader to read to the end of this article to understand very critical issues affecting infrastructure development in the c