240211 PANGUNA LANDOWNERS UNITE
By Aloysius Laukai

The Panguna Landowners have shown again that they are united and want to move the Bougainville Copper Agreement Review as soon as possible.

Reports from a meeting held in Arawa on Tuesday between the Acting ABG President, PATRICK NISIRA and the Regional member, FIDELIS SEMOSO says that the Landowners want the process to move forward.

Both leaders told the landowners that only Panguna can raise the revenue needed to get Bougainville prepared for the referendum.

The landowners’ meeting was held to find ways to resuscitate Bougainville’s economy which was destroyed during the Bougainville conflict.

Comments

[Maria Buka Meri]

@JN Kopana. Thank you for the link.

[lummani,j]

JL Comments

I have no personal vendetta against Sir Rabbie Namaliu as one of PNG's elder statesmen but the comments against his appointment to the BCL Board are clearly telling, in that, the injustices committed against the people of Bougainville during the 8 years of the conflict have more or less become part of their lingering memories. Many people (including Bougainvilleans and other Papua New Guineans) have died in very inhuman ways. The people of Bougainville felt that their basic human rights have been infringed upon by the very government which was supposed to protect them as enshrined in the National Constitution. In a way, the national government violated the sacredness of its own constitution by chosing to follow the hard road in trying to solve the conflict. Feelings of national pride-I suppose as any nation on the face of this earth would have done in a similar situation-ran high at the time that it became hard to heed the calls of people like John Momis who were all the time calling for dialogue as the way forward in solving the conflict. The national government came to its senses only after so much has been lost in terms of lives and properties. Personally, the man may be a good hearted gentleman but at the time he was leader of a national government of the day fighting a war, which in some way, was unnecessary (i.e. it should not have happened in the first place if things were done aright by the government).

Perhaps Sir Rabbie will need to do like what Sir Julius Chan had done: reconcile with the Bougainville people in a traditional Melanesian way. But then it would not only be Sir Rabbie but also Paias Wingti whose government also sought to win the fight militarily, resulting in more loss of lives and properties.

It would seem that Bougainvilleans would not want to see any of the former war time prime ministers appointed to any organisational entity having anything to do with Bougainville. Bougainvilleans are generally favourable towards former Prime Minister Bill Skate and also Sir Michael Somare because of their more dialogue-oriented approaches.

I suppose the people of Bougainville do not just want to forgive and forget and live like fools in paradise. They have been trampled upon to the core and that is why the sensitivities of the times will always be carried forward in time by generations which want to construct and live a future which sustains its meaningfulness amidst the flux of time. In a certain sense, Bougainvilleans have been more loyal to the National Constitution than most realise because it is the destruction of the very values enshrined in the constitution that people protested against in the context of their livelihoods. I hope some lessons will be learned so that what has transpired will not be in vain.

lummani, joachim
Kerevat, ENBP

[JN Kopana]

Below is a "sample" of what was recorded & reported of the issue here.
Quote(ref. http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/papua-new-guinea/digging-mines-melanesia )

"Police commissioner Paul Tohian issued shoot-to-kill orders against "saboteurs." BRA fighters succeeded in closing the Panguna mine in May 1989; it had immediate economic implications for Papua New Guinea. Prime Minister Rabbie Namaliu ordered PNGDF troops into the conflict, announcing to the Papua New Guinea parliament:

The priorities of the Government are clear. First, we will rid Bougainville of this terrorist scourge. Second, we will restore peace to the island. Third, and vital, for the whole nation, we will reopen the Bougainville copper mine. (Senge 1990:12)" .. end of quote.

Peter - Where does this put your gentle angel??!!

Lets give these failures in their roles as PMs w.r.t Bougainville the "respect" they deserve!

The facts are there for all - anything else is "convenient ignorance".

[Peter Latu]

To JN KOPANA AND WILD TURKEY, I Fail to see any facts in both your statements other than to say Namaliu failed to manage the situation, What I can read is a personal attack on the person rather than what exact decision he failed to deliver,
I met Rabie Namaliu in Townsville Hospital,2003 sitting next to his son who was involved in a bad accident,
He did not stay at any hotel, but a friends place and we brought him food etc.I got to ask him a lot of questions,

Such a gentle person and always prays before eating and kept praying for his son.

He was the foreign affairs minister then.And said to me, I am the only minister here that does not own a house in australia nor Port Moresby. I like my simple life.

Yet I could have judged him without knowing him.
After knowing him the whole time he was there I do know one person I can count on.

Cheers,
Peter Latu

[Groundforce]

If this person called Rabbie Namaliu is reading this...ToBaras, you are NOT welcome in Bougainville....## This is an order. Details Classified ##

[JN Kopana]

As PNGeans, Bougainvileans are shareholders in BCL by virtue of the 19.5% share that GoPNG owns. Using this as an opportunity our MPs must veto the appointment of Mr Namaliu. This guy failed miserably to manage the situation in the first place, and we must not allow him to mess us up the second time.

We are counting on our MPS in GoPNG to take the lead in denouncing, and asking BCL to retract this appointment, and yes the LOs and the rest of us need to be voicing our opposition in the strongest way we could.

There is a lot we can do with what we have already.
Lets use them!!!.

[Wild Turkey]

Its been more than a week but why hasn't anyone from PLA made noise about Rabbie Namaliu being included on the BCL Board? True the BCL Board might be none of our business...but the mere fact of returning fire this way, goes along way to telling BCL and whoever else that we ain't here to play footy...

Unless I'm mistaken, not even one person from ABG, Meekamui or even our MPs have said anything about this. The least any one of the leaders from this group can do is tell him (and Taylor)...he is not welcome on the island. Or is his dinstinguished statementship so above reproach that a shoot to kill order on Bougainvilleans can be tossed aside as 'maski lus tingting liklik samting blo bifo' ???

There are Bougainvillean alternatives...but Mr. Taylor obviously thinks we're too much untamed wild turkeys...