TRIBUTE TO SIR MICHAEL SOMARE

by SIMON PENTANU

Like a candle you grew from a flicker to a national light that made everyone realise arguing for independence was not evil or risky but inevitable”. Simon Pentanu

It was at the pinnacle of high school education at Hutjena, Buka, and the following final year high school at Malabunga, ENB 1968 that I started hearing about an angry young man in Papua and New Guinea. To be exact in the emerging politics of what was then pre-independence TPNG.

Doing final year high school I wondered how long it would take before the colonial government pulled this angry young man aside and into line.

To cut a long story short, when we were given the stock career book then at the end of high school to make our career choices, two things influenced my decision to apply as an interpreter in the pre-independence House of Assembly.

First was the intriguingly interesting history of Indonesia we were taught at the school. The Dutch had to hand the reigns of sovereignty to the Indonesians and leave, as much as they would have liked to prolong their stay. Secondly, we learnt then that there always comes a time when colonial governments had to leave their territories or acquisitions one day with examples of independence struggles in other parts of the world.

Michael Somare’s name was on the airwaves when radios covered the Territory very well and very widely. I thought then what an opportunity to see this man in the House and hear everything that was being reported and attributed to him, from the horse’s mouth.

I joined the pre-independence House of Assembly on 6 March 1969. I saw Michael Somare for the first time on the floor of the House on that same day I arrived on a TAA F27 flight from Kieta to Port Moresby. It was an acquaintance with my first job that would put me in eye contact with the angry young man from Sepik representing his people on the floor of the House as he spoke his mind.

The ensuing years would put me in professional contact with Somare as Chief Minister, Prime Minister as well as Leader of Opposition as I progressed in my parliamentary service career in the service of the country’s national parliamentarians.

My first impressions, seeing and interpreting for members on the floor, of the man who became Chief and our first Prime Minister and the father of the nation was this. Most of his questions to the official members who represented the colonial administration and in most of the debate in the House Michael Somare dwelled mostly on national matters and interests than on the interest of the Province he represented. This was in contrast to the parochial, and quite rightly, of questions and discussions by most of the members in the House concerning their electorates.

Sir Michael assumed the national mantra and dwelled in all-encompassing metaphors about a country he envisioned very early in his political bits and pieces and, of course, a country he would lead to independence and become its first Prime Minister.

The Chief spoke, argued and questioned vehemently about the inevitability of independence. In full sight of members looking down from the interpreter’s booths in the House of Assembly I thought then that the man who represented my own Province, Paul Lapun was in the right company with a man who spoke his mind, who articulated more than anyone what he saw and wanted for Papua New Guinea. Somare the member for Sepik, leader of Pangu Party and later Chief Minister and, of course, first Prime Minister expressed and exuded confidence on his feet and chose his interjections well when he was not on his feet.

Michael Thomas Somare grew into politics not just as an angry young man but led with his vision of a country he would later lead at its helm as a determined, confident and self-assured former teacher and broadcast journalist turned a visionary politician of his own generation and past his generation.

All of us that saw him on his feet in those early years revered and respected him. He was fearless in a House stacked with official members who represented senior posts in the Australian colonial administration. But as we would do in our cultures he respected and gave way to others so that he would also listen to responses.

Somare had a solid backing and foundation of like-minded men with him and around him. He was masterful in brokering Pangu’s successful coalition with PPP under Julius Chan at the time. Despite the political rift it was always heartening to see the two remained close friends in and out of politics.

It was Sir Michael Somare as Prime Minister that approved a new Parliament House at Waigani. Importantly and most significantly it was his decision and commitment that gave PNG a new House that symbolised our fledgeling democracy at the highest level of politics and governance. And too that the House embodied many cultural symbols and values representing the diversity of the country. Sir Michael was determined that every toea spent in building the House had to come wholly from the country’s national budget.

Writing this now from memory, this was a long journey but one I would say has paid dividends when I chose at high school’s end in 1968 a career in Parliament ruffled in no small part by a combination of curiosity and desire to see an angry young man and his political and his angry ‘antics’ which made their mark in the House. The colonial administration couldn’t help but take a lot of notice of Somare soon after he entered politics in 1967.

My refrain to my tribute is this. Little did I know that in November 1984, Sir Michael as Prime Minister, through his Departmental head late Andrew Yauieb, at recess during a meeting sent word that if I was ready the Cabinet would formalise its decision for my appointment as Clerk. I nodded I was. I was appointed Clerk of the Parliament on 8 November 1984 and served while Sir Michael served twice more as Prime Minister until I left in November 1993.

Thank you for the opportunity to know you and serve you. I thank you for knowing your service to the country and the legacy you have left will take much more than umpteen chapters of one or two books and more than a handful of people to write and tell.

The modern political history of PNG is so much also about the political journey and history of one Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. Like a candle you grew from a flicker to a national light that made everyone realise arguing for independence was not evil or risky but inevitable.

My heartfelt condolences to Lady Veronica and the family and relatives in their period of bereavement.

Rest, Rest in Peace.

PHOTO: As Secretary-General of Inter-Parliamentary Union PNG Branch, I asked the Chief and Sir Noel Levi to represent PNG Parliament and the country at the IPU in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1986. I made the choice to give the Chief time off after he lost the prime ministership in the House. It was a well-deserved break from the high office in another role on the parliamentary world stage where he delivered a speech on PNG’s parliamentary status in the region and the world. It gave me an opportunity to chat and mingle with the Chief outside the workplace, and Sir Noel Levi and Sir Barry Holloway who were close to the Chief.

@simonpentanu