310311MINING ISSUE
By Aloysius Laukai
ABG President Chief John Momis said that,Bougainville leaders were the first people in Papua New Guinea to be confronted with the difficult issue of allowing foreign exploitation and development of their resources.
He was speaking at the Mining Brainstorming workshop in Buka yesterday.
He said that Bougainvilleans were in a dependent position, which means important decisions were made for us in a belief that those decisions were to secure the best interest of the landowners, resource owners and the people at large.
Mr.Momis said that unlike today,we did not have too much access to expert information and knowledge to the difficult issue of mining.
He said that PNG and Australian government were looking for ways of convincing Australian Tax Payers and Papua New Guineans that it was time to have Independence.
And Pangunamine was obviously the resource that was perceived to bring great wealth or generate revenue for the government and thus relieve Australian colonial government of its responsibilities to provide goods and services to the people of Papua New Guinea.
He said that the people of Bougainville were never fully consulted and Bougainville’s leaders advice was ignored.
MR. MOMIS told those gathered that today is different and based on those past mistakes, Bougainville need to be well informed on which steps to take to develop the economy of Bougainville.

Comments

[lummani,j]

Mining Brainstorming Workshop

This was a good thing to happen as something I wanted to see happen. I hope a wider cross section of the community and industry attended and shared views and ideas and also gave a collective sense of ownership about what to do. I am sure the deliberations will be compiled for ease of reference or for use as an aid to decision making in the industry and in other related respects. I believe it is much more beneficial for us to continue to take a more wider consultative approach to development issues as part of collectively determining our destiny. I thanked the President and all those who participated in the workshop.

lummani,j
Kerevat, ENBP

[Lanbong]

Bougainville has certainly learned its lessons. Why is it that we are rushing to open the Panguna mine?

Why can't we do simple things first such as:

1. Ensure that we export direct from Bougainville to other countries (ENB is benefiting from our sweat). Nothing was done by the first house. If nothing is done in this house, then our leaders are NOTHING. We already have plantations of coconut and cocoa. Downstream processing is another industry.

2. Ensure that we have upgrade one of our airports to International Status so that we can export tuna direct to Japan. Our marine resources are an untapped gold mine. While PNG is busy with undersea mining, lets try on the sea mining.

Sampla tingting blong kaikaim long wiken.