tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50878939469230413302024-02-28T15:44:49.871-08:00Leonard Fong RokaLeonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.comBlogger287125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-26026725642611611442015-11-07T06:13:00.003-08:002015-11-07T06:13:58.395-08:00A partner, a loss daughter and my life in Buin (PART 1)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Leonard Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It was mid-2013, my third year at Divine Word University
(DWU), and I had 3 Bougainvillean girlfriends; two of them were in Kieta
eagerly awaiting my holiday home comings, whilst one was based in Madang where
I was. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh97yUT96-54HCd5h33_OZhj7o6FDLr9f3UtJMutth_siafU2gaJu9K0pAEajds8i2UvR-gM7pcnj1aJQA8EwE9O_5hlY4LLxbfh2rmN0duAOfIzJPJshi91DF01IfUXH3WEYk8QciyADM/s1600/A+partner.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh97yUT96-54HCd5h33_OZhj7o6FDLr9f3UtJMutth_siafU2gaJu9K0pAEajds8i2UvR-gM7pcnj1aJQA8EwE9O_5hlY4LLxbfh2rmN0duAOfIzJPJshi91DF01IfUXH3WEYk8QciyADM/s320/A+partner.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Then I met Delphine Piruke, a shy second and final year
student at Madang Teachers College (MTC), from Nakorei Village in Buin and
added her into my list of concubines; I revolved around them, exploiting their
finances.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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This was my promiscuous culture I had mushroomed since 2004
after walking out of the University of PNG. I was known far and wide with women
and alcohol in Panguna and the Kupe area in the hinterland of Arawa Town.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I spent more weekends out with Delphine employing the other
3 women’s finances at times beside her funds. The news of her going outs with
me spilled over to Bougainville and her relatives began ordering her to cut it
off. To me this was the ticket out of her. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Then one October 2013 day Delphine sent me a text message
reading ‘my monthly periods have ceased for two weeks now’ from the North Coast
of Madang where she was doing her teaching practical. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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This was no surprise for me. This was one of the many ‘I am
pregnant’ texts I had received from my former women since 2004. In 2013 the two
women from Bougainville sent me ‘I am pregnant’ and ‘my monthly period is over’
regularly and both would later joke about it. About a week or so before
Delphine’s text the Madang based girl also sent me that and later laughed over
it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I was not bothered much but at the back of my mind a bell
was always ringing ‘You are a father’. The mystery call always infiltrated me;
made me uncomfortable, so I slowly began asking Delphine ‘how is your period?’
and ‘how is the baby?’ text regularly. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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From the start I saw confidence in Delphine that I was the
father of the child she was carrying. But my promiscuous heart was lost and
confused and slowly hunted for escape routes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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From Madang I cultivated a relationship with a primary
school student and was ready to get the ball rolling. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Emotionally burdened I left Madang in October 2013 for my
holidays. I reached home in Arawa with the news of my pregnant Buin girlfriend Delphine
already in the ears of the many. One of my two home based girlfriends also left
me after hearing that I was a father. But for the primary school student my
news was unknown so I kept communicating with her by phone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Delphine arrived at my home in Arawa in December and I was
in full acceptance that the child was my child but her relatives ordered her
out from me back to Buin with a price of K20 000.00 that she should pay them
for all their care and support in her education in order to marry me so I was knocked
off guard.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Such a malicious threat to me with my heart so deeply happy
about my child pummelled me to the ground unconscious. I was sad and regularly in tears thinking
about my unborn baby and that K20 000.00 and the stream of negative words
thrown at my daughter by Delphine’s relatives in resistance of me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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To me Delphine was not my wife without the K20 000.00 fixed
as they had stated and a bride price of K10 000.00 revealed to me by Delphine. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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When Delphine left Arawa I lost my phone and all the contact
details of potential new girls who knew not I was a father so I was darkened for the holiday and
returned back to school in Madang in February 2014. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘I am a father and why can’t the Buin people respect me and
my child and leave us alone’ was a knock that even made me cry watching
Delphine leaving that day. I was infuriated but what can I do! I had not the
money to shut their mouths. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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My fellow students knew I was a father and respected me. My
Madang and the last home based girlfriends also deserted me thus I lived my
life occupied with my writings spending days in the DWU library. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Seeing these changes I decided to halt my promiscuity and
cut down my boozing culture. I was a father and thus I need to change for my
child and young nieces and uncles from my brother and three sisters who need a
better home to nurture into positive citizens of Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In June 2014 my daughter was born and my mother who was at
her birth told me ‘Hi mummy, she is your photocopy’. I was happy out there and
began begging Delphine to send me her pictures so I can display them in my
Facebook walls and so on. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Delphine did not have the means to send me the pictures thus
remained silent but for me, mentally unsettled by the K20 000.00 and the high
probability of losing her, kept bombarding her. I demanded the little girl’s
pictures in order to accept her calls or answer her texts.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In this period that our current nightmares mushroomed; my
ignorance of her calls or texts, when the K20 000.00 ticket to marry her
haunted me got her to give her own reasons for my ignorance. Her emphasize was
that I was seeing other girls and began to distant myself from her and our
baby.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And from recent gleaning, a wave of gossipers from DWU and
MTC, kept bombing Delphine that I was seeing this and that girl in Madang while
she was busy teaching her first year in Buin. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Thus my reactions to Delphine’s relatives demands on her and
me; followed by the inducements from a handful of gossipers, alongside
Delphine’s personality paved the way into the kind of life we are going
through; and that is of tears and sorrow for Delphine will never trust a man
like me so she has to bark at me always. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Delphine began telling me she will never trust me for I was
a sex maniac; a liar and a cheat whenever we brawled. Our unborn child was facing all our upheavals
as they sprout between Bougainville and Madang. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
(<i>to be continued</i>)<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-49411376329297282732015-04-30T00:56:00.002-07:002015-04-30T00:56:59.034-07:00Bougainville Referendum to Right the Wrongs <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leonard Fong Roka <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In the South Pacific context the imminent Bougainville
Referendum for a lasting political settlement for the nearly 40 years struggle
and loss of lives for the Bougainville people is a significant milestone for
the democratic political processes and strategies in the region. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1FzKJDMtayY6femcxxPBoUJnfnYBjMwoQGo2H8SguC6ZlhhKMVB2Rlp6TDIDhlgOaisraVx_dqxjrbu2HOuqzyYjoVeR1_d7Vk-xN5_h-0y3wM5UVMNd3GroXdU0p3-AxROpsO1AT8Y/s1600/DSCN0310.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1FzKJDMtayY6femcxxPBoUJnfnYBjMwoQGo2H8SguC6ZlhhKMVB2Rlp6TDIDhlgOaisraVx_dqxjrbu2HOuqzyYjoVeR1_d7Vk-xN5_h-0y3wM5UVMNd3GroXdU0p3-AxROpsO1AT8Y/s1600/DSCN0310.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Bougainvilleans are geographically and culturally Solomon
Islanders having dwelled for nearly 30 thousand years on the largest and the
resource rich island of the Solomon archipelago</div>
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Unfortunately, <i>The
Anglo-German Declaration of 1886</i> and the <i>Anglo-German Convention of 1899</i> dragged Bougainvilleans into the
colonial German New Guinea administration. This was and is the source of the
social, political and economic problems Bougainvilleans had faced over the
years; and eventually culminating into a Bougainville Crisis since 1988.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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With the armed struggle sprouting off from the dissatisfaction
over Panguna mine exploits since 1988 and pouring over long years of political
struggles Bougainville submerged into a civil conflict claiming the lives of
some 10 to 15 thousand local people. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Peace was not that easy to achieve but after continuous
attempts the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) was reached in 2001 between the
Bougainville groups and Papua New Guinea. Bougainville’s peace gave the
Bougainville people one significant offer and that is the referendum scheduled
to be held between 2015 and 2020. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But the BPA and the PNG’s Organic Law of Peace Building in
Bougainville prescribed two conditions are met for the referendum and they are:
weapons disposal and international standards of good governance. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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When PNG is infested with illegal weapons and crime and
worst corruption index, under international standards, Bougainvilleans should
not fear their say in the referendum. But their important decision is to put
Bougainville on the right political track that should bring betterment for all.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Bougainvilleans are not reckless weapon users but their
presence is disharmony to many; there is corruption on Bougainville, but it can
be managed in a tiny island as Bougainville when people mandate right leaders
to power and endow them with more anti-corruption powers and functions are
given to them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Understanding the Bougainville problem from the roots is the
key for the best outcome for the Bougainville referendum. The coming referendum
is to <i>RIGHT</i> the <i>WRONGS </i>done to the Bougainville society by colonization and the
state of PNG. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The <i>wrongs </i>we
should now know are well said by former leaders: Fr. John Momis said to BCL in
1987 that “The BCL mine has forever changed the perceptions, the hopes and
fears of the people of Bougainville. You are invaders. You have invaded the
soil and the places of our ancestors, but above all, your mine has invaded our
minds” and Martin Miriori said in 1996 referring to the Panguna mine and PNG
that “Bougainville and its people were a free independence gift by Australia to
Papua New Guinea”. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Then the late Joseph
Kabui separated Bougainville from PNG when he spelled it all out in 1991 by
saying that “It is a
feeling deep down in our hearts that Bougainville is totally different than
PNG, geographically, culturally. It's been a separate place from time immemorial.
Ever since God created the Universe, Bougainville has been separate, has been different”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Thus the coming Bougainville referendum is to save
Bougainville and Bougainvilleans from the disaster an African writer/academic
Francis M. Deng wrote in his 1997 essay, <i>Ethnicity:
An African Predicament</i>, as “Deprive a people of their ethnicity,
their culture, and you deprive them of their sense of direction and purpose”. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
This is a Bougainville
problem and must be stopped through the referendum granted to the people of
Bougainville by their unique BPA that allows no unilateral changes by way of
been an arrangement with ‘<i>double
entrenchment</i>’ and that is, PNG cannot influence the results of referendum
without Bougainvillean input and vice versa. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
For Bougainvilleans,
there is now a need to really glean our purpose and reasons, to our political
standings. Our little groupings are tiny Bougainvillean groupings trying to
clash with a wider world order and its multilateral BPA expectations followed
by the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG). <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Bougainvilleans need to
leave their tiny shells and walk the wider world for the coming referendum was
not created by a bilateral peace process (between PNG and Bougainville) but
rather by a multilateral peace process (between Bougainville, PNG, and many
other states and organizations). <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Thus honouring a
multilateral peace agreement is fundamental to our positive reputation to the
international community. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-7782092763187186642015-04-30T00:46:00.003-07:002015-04-30T00:46:32.744-07:00Bougainville leadership problems from the roots <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Leonard Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
When gathering for Bougainville in the PNG political pig
then the Solomon Island people of Bougainville should be always the tail that
is always moving. They are always
unstable within the PNG state since the 1960s and this can be correlated again
in the post crisis scene to the stability or instability in the Autonomous
Bougainville Government (ABG) of the day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXaEMvcJ7VLN9_CV6FQybnQsLxfIeqWy3T6DRCjEFdMuadmmfA15RXbzFJxirI3bIGifTxZYvYGNV7dmTgEXsmsCZ6JAb-_8BoKd3CtdkFG-7CFdf_L9kIhAo3-rsTfUe5JlWnMigDAQ4/s1600/IMG_20150413_080458.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXaEMvcJ7VLN9_CV6FQybnQsLxfIeqWy3T6DRCjEFdMuadmmfA15RXbzFJxirI3bIGifTxZYvYGNV7dmTgEXsmsCZ6JAb-_8BoKd3CtdkFG-7CFdf_L9kIhAo3-rsTfUe5JlWnMigDAQ4/s1600/IMG_20150413_080458.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
History should not be ignored by myopic thinkers of
Bougainville since it has some joules to pacify the Bougainville problem once
and for all that the current PNG and Bougainville leadership neglect as they
pursue the path of a reconciliatory politics invented by religion and
westernization to cover their 15<sup>th</sup> to 19<sup>th</sup> century brutality
on the colonized world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
On this note Bougainville politics had been a reconciliatory
one since the mid-1990s with the late Joseph Kabui, inaugural president of the
ABG, and the PNG government-assassinated premier of the Bougainville
Transitional Government (BTG), late Theodore Miriung.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Both deceased leaders succeeded not because PNG (PNG was
running after Sandline Mercenaries to take Panguna mine back, then) was
interested in peace with Bougainville but rather because Bougainvilleans in the
political divide created by the leadership of late Francis Ona, the 1988
rebellion leader, since 1990 due to his lack of political power to bring about
change across Bougainville as PNG fled the Solomons. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Reasonably PNG had abandoned Bougainville in 1990 but Bougainville’s
immature leadership had it having a fraction of influence over obvious areas
and persons since the 1990 <i>Kavieng
Agreement</i> signed by leaders from North Bougainville to get weeping PNG
government back onto Bougainville through providing services on Buka Island
(not Bougainville). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Bougainville was new in the field of western political
culture of the ever changing 21<sup>st</sup> century where colonization came in
with the three ‘Gs’ that are gold (money), glory (building empire) and god
(religion) to take over the world and Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Thus the nurturing process of leadership on Bougainville had
no stable foundation but rather a hijacked and confused one where society was
in disarray and taken over by a sudden and massive intrusion of the human minds
in Bougainville by Eurocentrism. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
The characteristics of most cargo cult movements across
Bougainville should proof the awkward nature of complications; to the people,
religion, politics, economy and society were mingled up to dismantle their
reception and interpretation of the changes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
In today’s autonomy status Bougainville have powers in its
own decision making processes but the sources of direction—to whom leadership
ought to align more to—has cause much political, economic and social stagnation
for the Solomon island people of Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
The ABG was created as a peace deal and thus has numerous
stakeholders to be answerable to. Top on the list is the culprit PNG
government, the UN, and so on. It is here that the internal Bougainville
society turns to conflict over its own political passage. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Since the 1960s reasons for Bougainvillean protests were
multi-headed. Bougainville had concerns over Rio Tinto destruction of
environment, BCL royalty inequity, BCL and PNG social, economic and political
exploitation of Bougainville resources and its people, independence to
highlight a few. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
The 1988 militancy move by late Francis Ona and his
followers were an amalgamation of the said concerns thus Bougainville
leadership was a multifaceted one; though broadly painted as a political one,
it was a collection of issues compressed to look as one political struggle of
freedom for the northern Solomons. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
This problematic leadership minds had now entered the
Bougainville government, the ABG. No matter how blessed with wisdom a leader
is, the scar of historical basis of political thinking for Bougainville is
prevalent. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Bougainville leaders have to choose who they are to uphold
in their decision making. The many issues of concern for Bougainville
leadership can aligned to root sources of the crisis, the ex-combatants, the
dictates of the peace agreement, PNG interest, foreign investors, BCL, interest
groups and so on. Which one of these will a leader have when making his
decisions? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
So far the ABG leadership have suffered to decide whom to
listen to and follow suit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
The Bougainville government of the day had narrowed its
approach sources often more to economic recovery and clashed with issues that
nurtured the conflict on Bougainville. This is well evident with the
Momis-Nisira government and their Asian engagements where so far had clashed
with ordinary Bougainville people. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Momis-Nisira government had narrowly gone into partnership
with Asian businesses and individuals to get the Bougainville economy up
however all their deals are now ending in Asians taking over the cottage
industry in Buka Town that conflicts with Section 24 of the Bougainville
Constitution that talks about ABG would only support Bougainvillean initiatives
in any development activities like business. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Such leadership problem on Bougainville is rooted in the
notion of political nurturing under colonization. Bougainville and
Bougainvilleans were not designed through religion, education and so on to grow
and advance in the systems westernization had to enforce. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Change on Bougainville is possible if the leadership is
aligned to the people and decide what path to follow for the good of the people
and not the non-Bougainvillean influences and stakeholders. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-53183720898392636192015-04-30T00:33:00.003-07:002015-04-30T00:33:49.900-07:00Inside the joy of travelling the Buka-Buin highway <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leonard Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It could be the joy of going home and visiting families but
rather at a little cost of highway cruelty I’d never felt before for there are
a few vehicles that serve passengers of this road. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYsrWe8KhAysVxAcyV1HKrNaIyk1T3YJB8Va64pIu9Hob3zILBua9IZYHCgoHQPlB-M2cw5f4egqyHjpWeJ-xkqm9rDgNkP57W_yB8yhyphenhyphenyQJTFgLz9LcFUKsvlXHlDumcrVYzN-F56xXM/s1600/IMG_3772.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYsrWe8KhAysVxAcyV1HKrNaIyk1T3YJB8Va64pIu9Hob3zILBua9IZYHCgoHQPlB-M2cw5f4egqyHjpWeJ-xkqm9rDgNkP57W_yB8yhyphenhyphenyQJTFgLz9LcFUKsvlXHlDumcrVYzN-F56xXM/s1600/IMG_3772.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most passenger vehicles leaving Kokopau in the northern tip
of Bougainville for Buin in the southern most district of Bougainville generally
depart between 12 PM and 2 PM (Bougainville Standard Time) and track south along
the East Coast of Bougainville.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All Buin bound passengers in Buka prepare well for their
journey home. Shopping for the family at home; getting enough money into the
pocket for the little visits in the many road-side markets shelling fresh
fruits and garden produce and shops and also stops in Arawa or Wakunai. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All vehicles leave Kokopau before passenger vehicles for
central Bougainville; and closely at the same time with those travelling to
Siwai District. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The journey takes us some areas of north Bougainville mainly
Tinputz District through Central Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After about 3 hours travellers reach Arawa, the former
provincial capital of Bougainville, and spent a little amount of time here;
mainly at the main Arawa Market. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More passengers join here the few from Buka in Arawa.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The passenger trend over the years is normal and known. Not
all passengers that get on board Buin transports reach Buin. Some are Buin
people living their lives in the many places along the Buka-Buin road, many in
Arawa, but love to be on a Buin person’s vehicle. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the road there are also Buin people or other persons with
connections to Buin that wait for transports to Buin. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thus from Arawa it is neither the vehicles get overloaded or
gets empty as it moves on for Buin. When more passengers get on it is a
nightmare for naturally on Bougainville the Buin people are said to be reckless
and care little on how much passengers or cargo that the vehicle could sustain
for safety reasons.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the journey goes on. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Becoming from Oria, the passenger vehicles, begin their
drop-offs and all Buin transport service providers seem to be the best service
providers for all transport all passengers right to their door steps. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the most painful part of the Buka-Buin transport.
The main feeder roads like the Oria Road, the Tabago Road, the Muguai Road,
Laguai-Nakorei Road, Tokaino Road, Piano Road, Aku Road, and so on are long and
under the current poor conditions vehicles and their passengers and cargo track
them up and down to better serve their customers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Buka-Buin passenger pays K120 and earlier I thought this
was a stealing of our hard-earned money by the service providers. But later I
learned that this cost was worth the service they provide us. There is value to
the K120 fare we pay. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All Buin vehicles generally depart Buin for Buka on Mondays
and overnights in Buka and returns to Buin on Tuesdays. They make their journey
to fit the days in a manner that on every Friday all vehicles must return from
Buka to rest over the weekend at home. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the return journey to Buka all passengers experience the
same pattern of travelling the villages and their road and depart for Buka by
around 12 midday and reach Buka by 4 PM. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-16862480273424234172015-03-31T14:27:00.001-07:002015-03-31T14:27:09.264-07:00A week in Kanauro: Buin District weapon culture and anti-social behaviour<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leonard Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a post Bougainville Crisis scene across south
Bougainville that the male population seem to be welded to a bush knife or a
grass knife where ever he seem to be. <o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgKK2eCD9YwfyahhaaAsnJTzI75hSaNPq8x5yDKsrWXAVsMBc9P509arkUP-DXvX2ip6KTAYel_sScPRfDFRPI09J0S3ERCdHAO-X8Y9YmEeLUX7PTp9RjiGSaBtkQrC390W0MJOHgBNU/s1600/LeeKana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgKK2eCD9YwfyahhaaAsnJTzI75hSaNPq8x5yDKsrWXAVsMBc9P509arkUP-DXvX2ip6KTAYel_sScPRfDFRPI09J0S3ERCdHAO-X8Y9YmEeLUX7PTp9RjiGSaBtkQrC390W0MJOHgBNU/s1600/LeeKana.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>An assembly at Kanauro Primary School</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From the ordinary village settings, the educational classrooms,
the traditional feasting nights, other social gatherings and so on the Nagovisi
man, the Siwai man or the Buin man is always armed with an offensive weapon—a
dangerously sharpened worn out or brand new knife. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With such a culture south Bougainville has the record high
of death and injury caused by the application of a knife. Alongside their
knives of all categories—imported or home re-designed—guns step in where knives
fail. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such a culture is worst in south Bougainville and a week at
Kanauro Primary School, in the Baubake Constituency of Buin District, spells
out the residues of what should be an irritating anti-social behaviour in this
part of Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The question Bougainville needs to ask is: who are we arming
ourselves with such offensive weapons against? The New Guineans and Papuans
that troubled us from the slums around our pre-Bougainville Crisis urban
centres are no longer prevalent; the Papua New Guinea Defence Force is not
around shelling us; the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) or the
Bougainville Resistant Force (BRF) should be myths by now with civility
conquering our world, but why a knife in my hand or gun in my car and home? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I travel home regularly to Buin from Buka or vice versa and
aboard there would be a rifle or two. Often I wonder why we had a Bougainville
Peace Agreement in 2001 but still from leaders down to villagers we still have
these weapons around. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Every morning at Kanauro Primary School I watch our future
leaders, the students coming to school with knives, and feel insane; I often
ask myself ‘what is my new home Buin up to by enculturating its future with a
knife culture?’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The 10-year Bougainville Crisis taught me that a person with
any form of weapon is a secured one and with authoritative strength gained from
the confidence of having a weapon. It is such characters that caused havoc
during the Bougainville Crisis and thousands of our people had to be sacrificed.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At Kanauro Village and Kanauro Primary School the
highlighted concerns are deeply rooted and observable. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
About a hundred meters away from the staff houses 8 in every
10 persons that march up or down the main Buin-Siwai highway at Kanauro has a
knife; and the ratio is also the same for the students that come to school. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Exploring the classrooms, at least, all has knife wounds and
high degree of vandalism. Students and community hardly respect teachers and
school property over time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is random stealing of lunch and property by the senior
students from the lower graders and villagers stealing from staff members and this
hurts the whole harmonious coexistence for better learning or peer education or
public relations. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All round the year, according to the teaching staff here,
they have preached change oriented positive information to the kids at
assemblies and classrooms. They have allocated for religious figures to talk to
the school every morning on Fridays.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But as the leaders talks students grumble behind at the
elders as some of the corrupted personalities and worth not listening to. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such irresponsible behaviour to the few old folks was
unknown for this school since its creation in 1981 till 1990 but this is a post
Bougainville Crisis development. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But Bougainville should know that the crisis had no physical
existence but it is us the people that need to ask ourselves what our
responsibility and contribution is and should be to building a new and free
Bougainville.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At Kanauro, there is a lesson worth learning, and that is
Bougainvilleans are yet to learn that our island is changing and must change.
Society is stubborn to see and accept change happening in our midst. From the
public offices in Buka right down to villages like Kanauro Bougainvilleans are
locked in a past that is not productive in this age of openness and adaptation.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Buka Bougainville has public servants that still see and
treat ABG as a provincial government and thus evoke no sweeping changes and
progress for Bougainville; and in Kanauro, we have people that are reluctant to
bring about change and development upon themselves through their available
resources like cocoa i.e. simple things like building permanent houses for
families, solar electrification for their homes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At Buka ABG spends on consultants, advisors and so on to
induce change onto a public service body that sees the ABG as not an <i>independent</i> government when it is; and
down at Kanauro, people spend their hard earned cash from cocoa on alcohol and
howl their days boozing whilst spending their nights in bamboo walled and sago
leaf thatched homes and kids roam around in worn out or odd-looking stitched
clothing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thus who will bring change when the elderly with experience
of time are the ones leading the boozing gangs or the public servant is a
reluctant one to change?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The answer lies on Bougainvilleans learning why our island
and people have struggled against political and economic colonization and PNG
since the 1960s; this is a personal and leadership challenge for all ordinary Bougainvilleans
and the government. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I feel such a search back in time can have the Bougainville
society and the Kanauro villager and the ABG officer in Buka see light on where
to go on from the autonomous stage of government to a progressive and free
Bougainville that thousands have suffered and died for. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-38568178605401645032014-12-06T17:35:00.001-08:002014-12-06T17:35:30.653-08:00ABG’s ‘Bougainville China Corporation’ a disaster for Bougainville<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leonard Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The current Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) house
took power in 2010 and had scrambled available resources and energy on the
ground for an economic recovery based entirely on Asia friendly economic
strategies and Chinese investment in Bougainville. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA6cpWzsVowdJZL_VRf0X2ffLQnreQxl19zPMWTmtB0UNR82KDkSQz3EtobUSaxX8mrrvMWii-UMpos70rNEc6dEV-Y4ADGfWhjTNAj7unFTF3i_ABPZqbWfSiQ4tdSl4TlEjgvahjv1A/s1600/CarFong.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA6cpWzsVowdJZL_VRf0X2ffLQnreQxl19zPMWTmtB0UNR82KDkSQz3EtobUSaxX8mrrvMWii-UMpos70rNEc6dEV-Y4ADGfWhjTNAj7unFTF3i_ABPZqbWfSiQ4tdSl4TlEjgvahjv1A/s1600/CarFong.JPG" height="332" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thus in the rush, the Bougainville Executive Council (BEC)
approved a Bougainville China Cooperation Committee (BCCC) in early 2011 with
the key role to ‘promoting and coordinating joint venture Chinese investment in
Bougainville, and establishing strategic partnership with China to fully
support President Momis’ Vision: Change for Better Future’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to PNG’s Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) in
Port Moresby since getting power the ABG had created a number of companies
between 2010 and 2013 with all key positions held by Chinese figures and key
Bougainville parliamentarians and their local business cronies. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amongst the companies the more detailed are the ABG owned
Bougainville Public Investment Corporation Limited with task to provide legal
position for ABG to go into any joint venture business, a number of ABG-China
jointly owned including Bougainville General Development Corporation Limited
with a tasked to create one capacity development company for every industry,
Bougainville Import and Export General Corporation Limited with a task to
promote direct export and import between Bougainville and China and Bougainville
Energy and Water Development General Corporation Limited that was tasked to
develop hydro power and water conservation infrastructure projects and so on.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But political reluctance and lack of technical resources had
silenced all registered companies living two, <i>Bougainville General Development Corporation Limited </i>(BGDE) and <i>Bougainville Import and Export General
Corporation Limited</i> (BIEGC), operating as the protective legal shield for
reckless Asian influx into Buka Town to operate retail outlets and not
performed what they were created for. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to the PNG Labour Office in Port Moresby their
records state that BGDE has five employees and the BIEGC has four employees in
Bougainville. This is a contrast to the population of Chinese said to be under the
leadership of Jason Fong (real name Zhenxiang Fang who is an executive/managing
director of <i>Timesview Investment</i>
(PNG) Ltd) who was established as the Trade Commissioner between Bougainville
and China by the Momis-Nisira government. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this whole Bougainville China Corporation or the
Momis-Nisira model is being questioned by President Momis’ owned
parliamentarians and Bougainville’s concerned citizens since, according to
public opinion, the Momis-Nisira model is no different from the Kabui Model or
the Bougainville Resources Development Corporation (BRDC) engineered then by the
former Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) leader Sam Kauona and was resisted
by ABG for giving away 70 percent of Bougainville mineral wealth to Australian
businessman Lindsay Semple. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘We the ABG leaders created all these companies and invited
all these Chinese,’ an ABG member who did not want to be named told me, ‘but
now we cannot control them because we do not have the capacity thus they are
now on their own doing whatever they want to do on Bougainville at their own
will.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘They are running their own businesses and playing around
with our laws since the ABG had mandated them to do so through the Bougainville
China Corporation. We had not learnt anything from what these Chinese corrupted
PNG law enforcers to exploit PNG had.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘Beside, some of our own parliamentarians are beneficiaries
to all these Chinese operations, a clear example was the recent China-Meekamui
arrangement that were getting scrap metal in Panguna, many thought it was a
sole Meekamui operation but few of our ABG leaders were in the core of the
operation there.’ <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bougainvillean communities are becoming frustrated with the
ABG leadership and Chinese culture of trickery in doing business. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to a BCCC paper, one of ABG’s aims of getting
China has a strategic partner, was that China had abundant capital and high
expertise (aim #3) but this is contradictory in the Chinese operations on
Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What now can be witnessed in the Buka Town is that all the
Bougainville China Corporation activities seem to be retail outlets; a handful
of restaurants, vehicle spare part sales, wholesales, hardware, and more still
to be coming. Currently under the leadership of the said trade commissioner
Jason Fong a massive vehicle spare part wholesale is under construction
(<i>pictured above</i>) which, according to Bougainvillean employees working for the
Bougainville China Corporation, is aimed to choke all other car dealers in
Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From Buka, the Bougainville China Corporation did also
established in Toniva in Kieta originally with the claim of establishing a
manufacturing operation known as the Toniva Industrial Zone. The start-up
product was the manufacturing of roofing iron but they started off by
manufacturing bed frames, tables, chairs and so on for a few weeks. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But to the surprise of the people shipping containers of
food items arrived in Kieta for a wholesale operation that led to men raiding
the establishment late November 2014. This raid followed an October 2014 claim
to the ABG member of North Nasioi and ABG Minister for Primary Industry, Hon.
Nicholas Daku, of K600 403.30 by a local contractor, Bougainville Metal
Fabricating & Welders who were contracted by the Bougainville China
Corporation to build the Toniva Industrial Zone. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the duration of the construction phase the ABG-Chinese
companies BGDE and BIEGC had not paid them for the labour, equipment usage, and
so on nearly getting the company bankrupt. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The PNG Labour Office in Port Moresby stated its officers in
Buka are also facing dilemma with the implementation of their legal
responsibilities on the ABG-Chinese operations on Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Department of Labour, the Internal Revenue Commission,
Customs, and so on attempt to exercise their duties where fault is identified
in areas of work permits and other related agendas the Chinese direct them to
ABG presidential and vice presidential offices. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
In other conflicts the ABG parliamentarians had confronted
the government agencies defensively in protection of the Chinese activities
that are not at all activities initially said to be the functions of BGDE and
BIEGC. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-48322156496985889652014-11-28T18:41:00.000-08:002014-11-28T18:41:06.852-08:00Bougainvillean businesses feeling the sting of Asian take-over<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leonard Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘Bougainville is such a small place that need us the
indigenous people to be in charge of developing it in terms of business and
other economic activities,’ Luke Maneu from Siwai in south Bougainville told
me, recently. ‘The ABG and our MPs in the National Government should be the
ones pushing the laws and systems to create a conducive environment for
localization of all cottage industries.’ <o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VwngKylldAD5Wo5k-YN5foC97YzTb93deLoIiP3l7BJ1zeGH96VrdWNHWXNTcFe2vJxCWm9x-s6MXCV54eyB-XXTXCM3QRo3IhCTJN8FvPhPLuSykPSKmzX_HW0Zc7Bq0vS8Uolj3xg/s1600/JN+and+BCM.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VwngKylldAD5Wo5k-YN5foC97YzTb93deLoIiP3l7BJ1zeGH96VrdWNHWXNTcFe2vJxCWm9x-s6MXCV54eyB-XXTXCM3QRo3IhCTJN8FvPhPLuSykPSKmzX_HW0Zc7Bq0vS8Uolj3xg/s1600/JN+and+BCM.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>JN Trading and Asian BCM</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mr. Maneu had successfully operated a retail outlet in Buka
Town since 2009 till 2011 when the Asian influx and affected his operations
leading him to venturing into other businesses like operating a PMV service and
a guesthouse.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘With the Asian entry into Buka Town,’ Mr. Maneu said, ‘my
business had been harmed as are with the other businesses owned by fellow
Bougainvilleans. Customers had left us for the cheaper Asian goods.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘I think we are said to be expensive in our shops because we
do not have the entrepreneurial power base that is a business culture thus we
are learners that need time and government input to make things right for all
our services to the Bougainvillean public. So in these terms, the Asian influx
is murdering us the Bougainville people so a few of us are trying to spread the
risk of dying. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘I am moving into other areas to save myself from succumbing
to the Asian takeover. With more areas to earn something I am safe for the time
being. To Bougainvillean businesses time is not with us. Soon we
will see more Bougainvillean businesses leaving the scene because they cannot
stand the might of all these Asian operations.’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Few other Bougainvillean business houses I visited namely
Wedelyne, JN Trading, TM Trading, Haput Clothing, Maia Clothing and Evokong
shared the same fear. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Asian operations are taking all the business activities
they have been doing over the years before the Asians were invited to
Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘Earlier we heard that the ABG was inviting Asians to work
in multi-million kina impact projects like the said oil palm in Torokina,
’Chris Haput of Haput Clothing said. ‘But we were amazed to see them setting up
tiny retail booths all around.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘From one or two booths they went all over Buka Town
grabbing and renting off large buildings from Buka people and not the ones from
the mainland of Bougainville. Mainland property owners around Buka Town seem to
have been anti-Asian and run their properties themselves but we are all facing
the same threat.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘So a lot of mainland businesses seem to slowly move to
Arawa and other places in mainland Bougainville where the people are against
Asians. The Toniva setup in Kieta was attacked this week by locals and that is
good since the ABG is not willing to protect us.’ <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Haput Clothing operates next to one of the many Asian BCM
Trading retail outlets legally owned by a Siwai lady, Mary Lyn, who is a second
wife of a Chinese who exists as a Lyn. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to JN Trading, a husband and wife operation
running a retail outlet and a guesthouse, that operates next to the main BCM
Trading that Mary Lyn has some power over admitted that the Siwai lady is not
in good mood with the whole BCM Trading and its many retail outlets.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘Mary Lyn is our neighbour and best friend,’ Nathan Haliken,
the husband in the JN Trading, said. ‘She admits she’s been exploited by her
Chinese husband who also has a wife and children back in China.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘She knows her marriage is a marriage of convenience and not
love. The Asian wants to make money in Bougainville under her protection and so
she, despite being the director in the IPA certification, she has not much
power over all the BCM trading retail outlets spreading around the tiny Buka
Town.’ <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The JN Trading also lose customers at their Buka Market
boat-stop location when the BCM Trading began to rent the room next to them.
The BCM Trading next to them and under Mary Lyn registered as a restaurant but
also sells 10 kg rice bales and other goods; and also, had been selling beer
late at night to drunkards. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Evokong and Maia Clothing, both from Kieta and have their business
presence in both Buka and Arawa, admitted that their operations in Buka Town
had shrink in terms of daily takings with cheaper goods offered by these Asian
multinational business operations. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wedelyne, a local business from Buka, on the other hand
followed Luke Maneu’s strategy to survive. They had ventured into PMV services
and Taxi and a retail outlet. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most Bougainvillean businesses, both owned by Buka islanders
and mainlanders of Bougainville, feel operating in Buka is not worth their
sacrifices and are starting to flee the Asian takeover of Buka Town and move to
the mainland Bougainville.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the mainland of Bougainville Asians had being invited and
once seen has going off-track they had been kicked out. The Toniva setup in
Kieta has faced it first wave of attacks by locals and soon will be going up in
flames report are suggesting. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the weekend (night of 28-29 November) Asians in Buka
Town were hinted that certain businesses of theirs were under target by
disgruntling locals thus a midnight lone police vehicle and officer’s surveillance
at a BCM Trading indirectly informed the few drunkards that the Buka Police had
been penetrated by the Asian tycoons. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anti-Asian feeling is growing amongst the Bougainvillean
business houses and ordinary people in Buka Town and time will tell us the next
move. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-9425504850328017862014-10-21T16:21:00.002-07:002014-10-21T16:21:59.072-07:00Initiated by the ABG, an Asian syndicate is taking over Bougainville<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leonard Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 2013 the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) created
a company referred to as Bougainville Import/Export Limited, with a Port
Moresby based Chinese, Jason Fong. The company’s Investment Promotion Authority
(IPA) records lists top Bougainville parliamentarians like current President
Dr. John Momis, and subordinates like Albert Kinani as directors and </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
shareholders. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL3S1QVuoqVCnFqHaSP2sTn40fOJ-bnQgaJBeRbUjnWfgKns_Al90bkLnKFJa9dzAI11VVIeqkPGWRNyT7rRVNdKnqrU0VTso4BdjqBTRLd3799h_XmNOpYJorhnaWuhxHAetpa1oeIeI/s1600/IMG_4229.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL3S1QVuoqVCnFqHaSP2sTn40fOJ-bnQgaJBeRbUjnWfgKns_Al90bkLnKFJa9dzAI11VVIeqkPGWRNyT7rRVNdKnqrU0VTso4BdjqBTRLd3799h_XmNOpYJorhnaWuhxHAetpa1oeIeI/s1600/IMG_4229.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the company had setbacks; however, the ABG-Jason Fong
creation then, Bougainville is now undergoing an uncontrolled rush on its cottage
industry that the Bougainville Constitution’s Section 22, 23 and 24 indicates
must be owned or preserved for the people of Bougainville.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On this ABG-Jason Fong pavement now Bougainville’s Buka Town
has Asian businesses like Norak Trading, BCM Trading, Happy Sound Trading, and
a few other tentacle operations. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And all these do not pay tax to the Buka Internal Revenue
Commission (IRC). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is because this syndicate has a problematic business
operation strategy. For example, under BCM Trading, there are a number of
retail outlets around Buka Town. All these shops operate under the single BCM
Trading’s IPA certification. However, when it comes to noting their cash
incomes (returns, etc), BCM Trading’s bank statements do not prove its other
BCM Trading branches are depositing into its bank account. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the IPA certificate for BCM Trading, the Siwai lady
married to the Asian manager who also had left his wife and children in China
is noted as the director/shareholder but she has no statutory obligations or requirements
but rather that is with her Chinese husband. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Which means the marriage is also a business marriage to
exploit Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Furthermore, this syndicate has one tax agent based in Port
Moresby. According to investigations, the man who aliases between this
syndicate and the government authorities is one common figure shared by all
other Asian businesses in other parts of PNG.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This tax agent prepares tax returns and financial reports
for the entire network and in Bougainville’s Internal Revenue Commission (IRC)
approaches these numerous Asian shops in Buka, they all refer them to the
common tax agent in Port Moresby; and in such an arrangement, Bougainville
loses much taxable income. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Bougainville arm of this syndicate is also breaking PNG
labour laws under the auspices of the ABG politicians. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most employees of these shops have work permits for Rabaul
and Hagen and other PNG areas and not Bougainville. But the cunning strategy of
avoiding attention is the fly-in-fly-out practice noted by the Bougainville
employees of these Asian shops. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘Every fortnight,’ Josephine Dumi, a Gogohe shop assistant
to Happy Sound Trading, said, ‘we see new Chinese coming and going.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such a business operations have Bougainville getting nothing
in areas like personal income tax for the payroll records are fluid and hard to
keep track of by the IRC. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘You cannot see them during the day but you could be amazed
at night when they get together at their new community hall near the New Dawn
on Bougainville offices. There are many and many of them now here in Buka and
they tell us they want to go further to Arawa and Buin, too.’ <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But in Buka, unlike the Bougainville mainland it is hard to
remove them now by force since they are protected by politicians. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Local Buka people are also greatly benefiting from rent paid
by this syndicate for the short term but for the long term self reliance for
Bougainville is doomed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bougainvillean employees in the Happy Sound Trading said
their employee is paying K30 000 a month to a local Gogohe businessman and
politician so far. Also, the vice president of ABG, Patrick Nisira, has his
security firm that protects all these syndicate business operations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All this is happening under ABG’s wishes for a better
Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-59921068574885045272014-10-16T16:12:00.002-07:002014-10-16T16:12:44.021-07:00I’m now a degree man: my university journey realised a dream<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">LEONARD FONG ROKA</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IT was the coastal trawler MV<i>
Solomon Queen</i> which took me away that February afternoon in 2011.</span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWfVooslI0nytKUNoeiMNSIACC77f2HCC0jxBfCMG493zsdQNcR6wjukgwUqc4jCg1KqktUZ6sLuNN_WQctFE_KmR72MIFzDXS3Manxar9Z_jhjATbTWhLMSprpKcpGGz_bUziav2UcGw/s1600/Leo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWfVooslI0nytKUNoeiMNSIACC77f2HCC0jxBfCMG493zsdQNcR6wjukgwUqc4jCg1KqktUZ6sLuNN_WQctFE_KmR72MIFzDXS3Manxar9Z_jhjATbTWhLMSprpKcpGGz_bUziav2UcGw/s1600/Leo1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
was carried away from my Solomon island of Bougainville across the Solomon Sea
to the New Guinean town of Rabaul in East New Britain.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then,
after a few hours catching up with relatives from Ragunai village, I left on
the ill-fated MV <i>Rabaul Queen </i>for Kimbe and on to Lae.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
2013, the <i>Rabaul Queen </i>was to sink in bad weather with heavy loss of
life.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From
Lae we hit the highway through the Markham Valley, over rugged terrain into
Madang Province and thence to Madang town’s Divine Word University.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It
was a three day journey from Bougainville to Madang that finally had me stuck
to the university for four years.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
today I can claim to have undergone a rite of passage for a Bachelor of Arts
Degree in PNG Studies and International Relations. The testamur will be handed
to me next March.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When
I left my Bougainville, I had a vision. But that vision was not a
university-stirred dream, for that was born in 1997 in the classrooms of Arawa
High School when a few bullets were jetting around me.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
carried my vision in two exercise books and a binder of some 200 pages of A4
paper. Beyond that my vision was silent in an unheard struggle for realisation.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With
my dream burning in my heart at the University of Papua New Guinea in 2004, I
faced a number of academics and showed them my bound leaves of paper. But would
not win the struggle through them.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
destiny was to wage a lone war through the system; and, in time, this led me to
Divine Word University and its resources.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
university gave me the key on my 2011 registration day and it was up to me to
open the door and choose from the treasures within.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga8u1ioLe2uWS5lHu5NCuM5mD2I2fdQCLL_Qzbrd9CyqRF-qttyg9xwnMUUOZnvZA5WtaYrLXiX2cJxXSNf4m9whDig90CqhxKa7ytTTYqleaz99KvuytLObOuoKvVaNsEldoTi1DMsl0/s1600/EmTV.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga8u1ioLe2uWS5lHu5NCuM5mD2I2fdQCLL_Qzbrd9CyqRF-qttyg9xwnMUUOZnvZA5WtaYrLXiX2cJxXSNf4m9whDig90CqhxKa7ytTTYqleaz99KvuytLObOuoKvVaNsEldoTi1DMsl0/s1600/EmTV.png" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
came as a self-sponsored student and felt ashamed in the company of scholarship
students and talked little.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
I struggled on with my dream. A dream even my course mates knew nothing about.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then
in mid-2011, my Communication Skills lecturer, Mrs Aiva Ore, introduced us to
social media and showed us blogs and websites.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thus
I was at work checking blogs and reading them when, by chance, I caught sight
of <i>Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG Attitude</i>.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
looked at the professional writings therein and did hesitate at first; but the
vision took off and infiltrated <i>PNG Attitude</i>.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So
I began doing assignment essays for submission to the lecturer and another
version to <i>PNG Attitude</i>. And on every moment I saw my writing in <i>PNG
Attitude</i> I was dancing somewhere high in the skies.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once
shy, writing earned me a reputation and some form of status over those first
two years amongst my university mates. Now I felt free and I could talk freely.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
debated without fear that I was a self-sponsored student; but even this was
eradicated in 2012 when I returned as an assisted student flying on a
government ticket just like those I once feared to look in the eye.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As
I progressed with <i>PNG Attitude,</i> my dream came to fruition piece by piece
in the Crocodile Prize competition. When a few of my writings appeared in the <i>Crocodile
Prize Anthology 2011</i> I felt that I was now an author.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Through
2012, my writing was consolidating with nurturing from Keith Jackson, Philip
Fitzpatrick, my Divine Word University lecturers and the free DWU internet
service.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It
was now beginning to contribute to my academic advancement, and the proof was
in that academic transcript that secured me government assistance.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2013
was the greatest year of my life both positively and negatively.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Positively,
because of freelance writing I began meeting with people of high stature in
films, writing and academia.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Negatively,
I began receiving a handful of threats because of the same writing.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Threatening
phrases like ‘you in Madang means you under my control’, ‘you need to be death,
‘your writing is your coffin’ and ‘you will do nothing positive under the sun
and die useless’.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
felt powerless under these threats and was contemplating withdrawing from
university but my Bougainvillean course mates Daphney Toke and Ancitha Semoso
helped me back.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
overriding these threats a dream was realised. There was my name on the front
cover of a book. Pukpuk Publishing released my first book, a collection of
poetry,<i> The Pomong U’tau of Dreams</i>. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then
my dancing heart received the 2013 Crocodile Prize award for short stories.
Following rapidly was my second book, a collection of short stories, <i>Moments
in Bougainville</i>.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
happy heart half-regretted that I was attaining such significant achievements
after so many years. But all I had was this life and I had no right to question
it and its ways.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thus
I grasped another life’s desire and decided to settle down. I met my partner,
Delpine Piruke, who is from Nakorei village in Buin, South Bougainville, when
she was a student at Madang Teachers College, In June this year my daughter
Dollorose came into my dreaming life.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
my dream is still dragging me to write more. I have loved calling myself a
keyboard politician for Bougainville using all the resources Divine Word
University has given me.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
January 2014, I completed by Bougainville crisis memoir covering my experiences
with the conflict from 1988 to 1997. That book, <i>Brokenville</i>, is the only
book written about the crisis by a Bougainvillean.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
was so proud when, in the 2014 Crocodile Prize, it was awarded Ok Tedi Book of
the Year.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Such
a life of writing in Divine Word University had taken me from bring a backward
little known Panguna man out to the wide world.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
Today I am often a focus of discussion in the Bougainville political realm. I
have met and chatted with great Papua New Guinean figures like Brigadier
General Jerry Singirok and Sir Paulias Matane, who were once just illusions. I
travel to give talks away from where I am based. And I feel more is in the
pipeline.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtBF4Qe5b4YtcthtF7dBdhdTn3V2BIcOlClsuj92syA9ceRveLrtG9dNScbKqnFjZPwD3n3EZR034tSJ4ajyBQzY7AeC6V8THQbvFdI2zyzHqVKgGihuWydansCui5AzJEbTJtbBvpgxA/s1600/Matane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtBF4Qe5b4YtcthtF7dBdhdTn3V2BIcOlClsuj92syA9ceRveLrtG9dNScbKqnFjZPwD3n3EZR034tSJ4ajyBQzY7AeC6V8THQbvFdI2zyzHqVKgGihuWydansCui5AzJEbTJtbBvpgxA/s1600/Matane.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Universities
overseas used my writings. Organisations are being moved by what I write to do
research on Bougainville. And I am still dreaming.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With
three books published and a fourth book coming later this year there is a fifth
done and snoring in my laptop.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
goal is to reach further in writing where no fellow Bougainvillean has yet
reached.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For
I am still dreaming. I am dreaming to attain more that life has for me.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
life as a Bougainville dreamer at Divine Word University from 2011 to 2014 is
over. That key was given to me in 2011, but it was me that decided whether to
open the door or sleep with it.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At
Divine Word University, in four solid years, I feel I have written my name into
the history books.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-21350713728317883982014-10-07T20:33:00.003-07:002014-10-07T20:33:53.037-07:00Suspicious but booming ‘Torokina Real Estate’ in Madang<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A few minutes’ drive north of Madang Town there is a block
of land with sprouting number of houses surrounded by coconut palms and squalid
type homes of the indigene. And the strangeness of this place is that the
locals are often wondering about this Bougainvillean name and that the
regularly visiting Asian seems to be telling them that this is a Bougainvillean
property. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupkwlrnaxL0VqdBf-XeT8KBG8QEgAZ8d6NeZxVDRrjT3-EzTX5a2TO-NwPGQAbovvhaFEtl-roG0yUe1gzZ8bX4O6sVXqufGWtBTlBF-Bv1hByJyOQXjgZ-P61_LuFhJxzGzT0CDjceQ/s1600/Kema.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupkwlrnaxL0VqdBf-XeT8KBG8QEgAZ8d6NeZxVDRrjT3-EzTX5a2TO-NwPGQAbovvhaFEtl-roG0yUe1gzZ8bX4O6sVXqufGWtBTlBF-Bv1hByJyOQXjgZ-P61_LuFhJxzGzT0CDjceQ/s1600/Kema.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Torokina Real Estate</strong></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was lucky finally to get a clear view and inside stories
that a premises gardener had for me while travelling with fellow Bougainvillean
Divine Word University students. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A count gave me ten completed high standard family homes for
rent to clients. The block of land is well secured by security fencing and
within the perimeter the gardeners are doing the finest of jobs beautifying the
housing project. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And one noted fact is that the housing project is just a tip
of the iceberg; there is evidence of expanding beyond the current stages. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To the workers there the business would be raking thousands
of kina for Bougainville economy. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And according to the gardener and the main gate keeper, the
origin of the project goes back to my homeland Bougainville and my government,
the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG). </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As the 2010 Bougainville election was stirring, the pair
said, Henry Chow the owner of the Lae Biscuit Company in Lae contributed some
money to President Dr. John Momis election project. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thus this relationship paved the way for many development activities
that the ABG is pursuing. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 2012 the PNG national government made a funding
commitment to allocate K500 million over a 5 year period to rehabilitate
infrastructure throughout Bougainville and one of those was the Torokina oil
palm project. And from this some money was diverted to Mr. Chow and that is now
in this Torokina Real Estate, here in Madang. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdJb3fA7FTv6RUv5u2AManezPbhrsvhtCsLdzivAJB3fsrsFYdjklYZFCQqOKrJpyjWNHaXB9HLluifGM5mOmjAeNxSd3aj7nFjvdhTFlr-oGULgMF6UXvPYccJa7vG-EOE6g9U0gzEfg/s1600/Kema2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdJb3fA7FTv6RUv5u2AManezPbhrsvhtCsLdzivAJB3fsrsFYdjklYZFCQqOKrJpyjWNHaXB9HLluifGM5mOmjAeNxSd3aj7nFjvdhTFlr-oGULgMF6UXvPYccJa7vG-EOE6g9U0gzEfg/s1600/Kema2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Torokina Real Estate Notice on North Coast Highway</strong></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">According to these workers here, back in Bougainville, the
feasibility study over the site in Torokina was previously done by a Siwai
group and the report was presented to the ABG. But still the ABG ordered a bit
for a next round of feasibility studies and this time the award went to Hakau
Holdings, the subsidiary company of Lae Biscuit. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hakau Holdings undertook the feasibility studies and also
took ownership to invest a part of what it is working on in the Ramu Valley of
Madang Province to Torokina, Bougainville. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And like many other Asian companies that toil and suck PNG
wealth, Lae Biscuit, through Hakau Holdings has entered Bougainville to grow oil
palm, and now have a shipping business known as the Chebu Shipping Company. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To the workers of Torokina Real Estate, they said,
Bougainville is becoming rich by investing in oil palm in Torokina, real estate
here in Madang that is creating them jobs, and the massive shipping industry
they are hearing about with Mr. Henry Chow. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">They said the Torokina Real Estate they working for is worth
K7 to K9 million and it is managed by Henry Chow’s family members. </span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-50104181593461842772014-09-22T19:21:00.001-07:002014-09-22T19:26:18.158-07:00Bougainville independence champion Alexis Sarei dies <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
By Aloysius Laukai<br />
<br />
<br />
One of Bougainville’s former leaders, DR.ALEXIS HOLYWEEK SAREI died at his
home in Gagan on Buka island this morning.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8mFhHkrZLEasEHSjrLhgILQ5-UuFkAjthQm4ERnRzwMeckEx2MqTzIyCoLVUr7B0F49gUidlO68eWVWYZjfTlmE0RQ4bJYhUnRZ6q54vAfSXUbJDUyI8B_voX7VC68_zQ-5xcq_bThm8/s1600/Sarei.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8mFhHkrZLEasEHSjrLhgILQ5-UuFkAjthQm4ERnRzwMeckEx2MqTzIyCoLVUr7B0F49gUidlO68eWVWYZjfTlmE0RQ4bJYhUnRZ6q54vAfSXUbJDUyI8B_voX7VC68_zQ-5xcq_bThm8/s1600/Sarei.png" height="343" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alexis Sarei</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
He was aged 80.<br />
<br />
DR. SAREI was born on March 25<sup>th</sup>,1934 and got his middle name
Holy week because he was ordained as a Priest on Holy week.<br />
<br />
DR. SAREI was the District Commissioner for the North Solomons Province from
1973 to 1975 and as the President of the Secessionist Republic of the North
Solomons from 1975 to 1976.<br />
<br />
When the North Solomons Province was given the first Provincial Government
by the National Government he became the Premier of North Solomons twice.<br />
<br />
The first from 1976 to 1980 and again from 1984 to 1987.<br />
<br />
From Premiership he also served as the Papua New Guinean High Commissioner
to the United Kingdom.<br />
<br />
During the Bougainville conflict, DR. SAREI left home and stayed in the USA
where he was married and returned to contest the second house for the
Autonomous Bougainville Government in June 2010.<br />
<br />
The second house of the ABG saw three former Bougainville leaders winning
seats one by President MOMIS FOR THE Presidential seat, the Nissan seat by
former Premier and Regional member LEO HANNET and the late DR. SAREI who won
the PEITS seat.<br />
<br />
Due to ill health, DR. ALEXIS SAREI was replaced at the end of last year.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile the ABG President, Chief DR. JOHN MOMIS in his condolence
message said that it is with great sadness that I would like to pay tribute to
an exceptional man who led an exceptional life and was a true son of
Bougainville, the late Dr. Alexis Sarei.<br />
<br />
<br />
The late Dr. Sarei was in all forms a man who led a remarkable life in the
service of the people of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea. His caliber as a
leader cannot be questioned as he proved to be an able administrator and leader
notably during his tenure as Premier of the former North Solomon’s Provincial
Government, as PNG’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and of late as the
Member for Peit Constituency in the Autonomous Bougainville Government.<br />
<br />
<br />
The passing of the Late Dr. Alexis Sarei signifies an immense loss to the
people of Bougainville as he is held in high regard as an elder statesmen and a
formidable leader during the early years of this country’s formation. I fondly
remember him from our time together at the Seminary in Madang where he was
ordained a Priest along with the Late Archbishop Sir Peter Kurongku and Bishop
Gregory Singkai after which he attained his doctorate in the Vatican City in
Rome, Italy.<br />
<br />
<br />
The Late Dr. Alexis Sarei also served as the Chief of Staff of the then
Chief Minister of PNG Sir Michael Somare. He was also Bougainville’s first
Premier and the first Bougainville District Commissioner. In light of the achievements
of this great man the people of Bougainville and in particular the people of
Solos can be proud of the Late Dr. Alexis Sarei as one of our truest sons.<br />
<br />
<br />
On behalf of my family the Autonomous Bougainville Government and the people
of Bougainville, I would like to thank the family of the Late Dr. Alexis Sarei
and the people of Solos for the services rendered to the people of Bougainville
and this nation as a whole. I pray that the Almighty and Merciful God may grant
him eternal rest and console his family during their time of bereavement. He
will be remembered as one of Bougainville’s truest sons. May he Rest In Eternal
Peace.<br />
<br />
Source: New Dawn on Bougainville Link: <a href="http://bougainville.typepad.com/newdawn/2014/09/no-title-15.html">http://bougainville.typepad.com/newdawn/2014/09/no-title-15.html</a> </div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-13711068291283755432014-08-24T17:05:00.002-07:002014-08-24T17:05:46.097-07:00PNG is destroying the Bougainville independence move <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Papua New Guinea was built at the cost of the alienation of
the Solomon island people of Bougainville. Bougainville people were belittled
by the influx of non-Bougainville and non-Solomon people and cultures.
Bougainville suffered environmental destruction that will take hundreds of
years for ecology to put some order cause by the extraction of ore to finance
PNG. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipuTFcOR3dn5Ji3f1sCeRCTlvx8y5ZeRnrdcImhbbpXd6MSYyD92QxBiuc_h8L0AoEGn1nMRGPYW_K2wYI8Rf04GNOV9pKKpsXZlWhScVEPblSD4LdlxBBLeYgAeQzPGtCw2bZHXx-WFg/s1600/IMG_4370.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipuTFcOR3dn5Ji3f1sCeRCTlvx8y5ZeRnrdcImhbbpXd6MSYyD92QxBiuc_h8L0AoEGn1nMRGPYW_K2wYI8Rf04GNOV9pKKpsXZlWhScVEPblSD4LdlxBBLeYgAeQzPGtCw2bZHXx-WFg/s1600/IMG_4370.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For this injustice a people went to an armed struggle
against the state of PNG, its peoples, and the miner Bougainville Copper
Limited (BCL) (I include ‘its peoples’ because the Panguna mine property
vandalism and attack on employees came later then the attacks on New Guinean
squatter settlements around all Bougainvillean urban areas). </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This armed crisis backed by an unprepared political
leadership ended in a decade long struggle of a civil conflict and a negotiated
multilateral peace process that was more-PNG friendly and not Bougainville oriented.
</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In PNG, as most literature pinpoints, the Bougainville
economy collapsed with the crisis while all provinces were advancing. But with
the Bougainville peace process, it is obvious that PNG came stronger to choke
Bougainville on its still chaotic recovery process. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a 2001 article, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Agreed
Principles on Referendum</i> (online) it is read:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">4 a) The constitutional amendments
will guarantee that the referendum will be held:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">No earlier than 10 years and, in any case, no
later than 15 years after the election of the first autonomous Bougainville
Government,</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When conditions listed below have been met,</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unless the autonomous Bougainville Government
decides, after consultation with the National Government and in accordance with
the Bougainville Constitution, that the referendum should be held;</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>b) The
conditions to be taken into account include:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Weapons disposal, and</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Good governance;</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After the signing of these terms of referendum, a 2001
article by Norm Dixon, Bougainville: Referendum Terms Questioned (online)
appeared. In it, the PNG and the Australian governments hailed the referendum
terms as a ‘break through’ and ‘a milestone’ but the Bougainvilleans had
questioned it. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Former Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) leader Sam
Kauona accused the late Joseph Kabui and Joel Banam who led the Bougainville
delegation to sign terms of the referendum in Kokopo in 26 January 2001 as
‘given too much away to a dishonest government’ and added that ‘The survival of
the PNG/Bougainville peace process depends very much on honesty, fairness and
transparency…If we have not learned from our past mistakes then this struggle
could go on for another 40 years.’ </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Honesty, fairness and transparency are foreign attributes in
the current nature of PNG’s dealing with the Bougainville people and
government. In the whole PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill January 2014 tour of
Bougainville he hardly talked about Bougainville rights to referendum or self
determination. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a February 5, 2014 David Lornie Post Courier article, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maurua: PM to clarify views on referendum</i>,
a Siwai pastor said ‘I’m feeling that I don’t understand Papua New Guinea’s
position on independence. They are not serious about what we think because 2014
is the last year before we enter the window of referendum.’ This is one of the
many doubts on Bougainville and those with guns seem to be happy that they did
not throw away their guns so that PNG will play on with Bougainville. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Again the PNG thinking was captured by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Light Intervention: Lessons from
Bougainville</i>, by Regan (2010: 127) that: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The logic is that in the 10 to 15 years
from the establishment of the ABG in 2005, the PNG government has the
opportunity to work closely with the ABG to promote all forms of development in
Bougainville in a way that could be expected to encourage Bougainvilleans to
consider the possible merits of remaining a part of PNG when it comes time to
vote in the referendum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>PNG is at work. It
succeeded to influence the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) to created
friction to the Bougainville progress and now it is all about winning
Bougainvillean hearts to see Bougainville has problems through the PNG lens and
not the Bougainville lens. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And the Peter O’Neill 2014 tour shows all the proof of PNG
activities to undermine the Bougainville government, the ABG. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">During the three-day tour the PNG delegation announced
multi-million dollar development projects like the re-opening of the Aropa International
Airport by the PNG government for Bougainville thus exciting the people and a
handful of leaders. In all these projects’ launchings afterwards, a PNG
minister flies into Bougainville from Port Moresby to officiate and not an ABG
minister. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bougainville’s ABG had endured continuous loud attacks for
not bringing development from Bougainville’s own representatives in the PNG
parliament mainly Hon. Jimmy Miringtoro from Central Bougainville and Hon.
Steven Pirika from South Bougainville and little from Hon. Lauta Atoi from the
North excluding the regional MP, Hon. Joe Lera who had been productively
working with the ABG. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And all these condemnation of the government that came out
as the result of the peace process with the responsibility to carry Bougainville
forward is the national MPs has the financial power then the struggling and
PNG-depended ABG.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The three MPs had been so destructive on ABG and not
supportive. An ABG parliamentarian sent me a text message few days ago claiming:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We believe PNG has agents in the
Autonomous Region of Bougainville to disrupt our preparations for referendum.
Our national MPs, except the regional MP, are all agents of PNG. They feel
comfortable with what they are receiving [from the PNG government] while
majority of Bougainvilleans continue to struggle. They use the DSIP funds to
promote “PNG’s might” and attempt to convince and mislead Bougainvilleans thus
undermining the ABG. Tasol ol bai tait (But they won’t succeed).</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But PNG intentions are all clear they are pursuing their
baseless, disrespectful and irrelevant desire of Bougainville’s integration
into PNG so it can remain enslaved under its old claws of the pre-1990 days. </span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-11782927063882336632014-08-16T18:53:00.003-07:002014-08-16T18:53:56.639-07:00Bougainville leadership under challenge from PNG<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is a war of words around the recently passed Bougainville
Mining Law 2014. Yet this means Bougainville has now its own mining law to deal
with mining in Bougainville. But mining is a controversial issue on
Bougainville since the 1960s. For Bougainville it had sparked a crisis that has
cost Bougainville much loss of lives. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOWC5xoJltAQCfZ8tBxSKI6iOVnw7SYLLFUFG1xatWYcyEaGwCF38sIoOoHFtWWgs7zzGj71lgtWQYWhQkH0KDD3j2GI_hxExgfavCmSq3nuYZwOCfn9-fwu-SEcewf2r14WvLHwL_hYM/s1600/Backhoe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOWC5xoJltAQCfZ8tBxSKI6iOVnw7SYLLFUFG1xatWYcyEaGwCF38sIoOoHFtWWgs7zzGj71lgtWQYWhQkH0KDD3j2GI_hxExgfavCmSq3nuYZwOCfn9-fwu-SEcewf2r14WvLHwL_hYM/s1600/Backhoe.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And observing the whole conflict of protest over the
Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) creation of this law on mining and the
critics, both sides has a good reason for argument but again all sides has ambiguous
problems within where PNG is the catalyst. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course Dr. Jerry Semos 1997 James Cook University
doctoral thesis, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Natural Resources,
Nasioi Society and the Colonial and Post-Colonial State in Papua New Guinea:
The Mining and the Undermining of Resource Sovereignty and Resource Development
in the Bougainville Copper Project 1963 to 1990</i>, stated that ‘In 1964, an
Australian mining company, Conzinc Riotinto of Australia (CRA) came to
Bougainville, uninvited.’ This forceful entry was legalized by the cruel
Bougainville Copper Agreement (BCA) of 1967. And this tragedy on the Solomon
Island people of Bougainville culminated in the death of 15 to 20 thousand
innocent Bougainvilleans since 1988. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Because of this ten year destruction and bloodshed the world
saw the need that politics should streamline to accommodate Bougainville and so
the state of PNG allowed for the PNG-friendly Bougainville Peace Agreement
(BPA) of 2001. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And the current criticism of the new Bougainville Mining Law
should be all thrown at the BPA. Analysis of the BPA would show that
Bougainvillean leadership gave in too much to PNG liking and this is the
obvious leadership characteristics of the key leader the late Joseph Kabui that
had one notable weakness of not hurting others and his desire to maintain
positive relations with all. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the whole peace process of Bougainville, every step under
taken blessed or empowered PNG and did not value the suffering of the Solomon
people of Bougainville that Dr. Jerry Semos’ work (above) rooted it to 1963. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the 1990s article, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bougainville:
A sad and silent tragedy in the South Pacific</i>, a notable Bougainville
leader Martin Miriori wrote:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On 16 September 1975, Papua New Guinea
obtained independence from Australia. Bougainville's pleas for the people to be
allowed to exercise their right to determine their own political future were
ignored. Panguna became one of the largest opencast mines in the world, and the
only source of finance for Papua New Guinea's independence. In essence,
Australia gave Bougainville and her people as an independence gift to Papua New
Guinea.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bougainvilleans were a piece of object
given to PNG by Australia to exploit it and finance their independence! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This throwing of Bougainvilleans everywhere
firstly evolved in 1886. A Raspal S. Khosa, in his University of Adelaide 1992
thesis, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Secessionist Crisis,
1964-1992: Melanesians, Missionaries and Mining</i>, highlighted the
Anglo-German Declaration of 1886 has halving the Solomon Islands into two
spheres of influence between Britain (south islands) and German to the north.
But the Anglo-German Convention of 1899 actually got Germany put Bougainville
under its total authority with the German New Guinea that in 1975 began PNG. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">PNG knows all these chaotic experiences
of the Bougainville people that tuned them to struggle for self determination had
disturbed their psyche and progress. Since the 1960s the victimize islanders
then had the CRA threatening their existence with the Panguna mine to fund the
development of PNG; foreign planters took massive land areas to run their
plantations and gave nothing back to the people. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All these chaos ended in the armed
crisis since 1988 and clearly PNG had no power to handle that and Australia, in
the name of regional stability had to back PNG to starve the Solomon Islander
rebels without any rights on their island out. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">With the support of small Pacific
countries, especially Solomon Islands and Vanuatu promoting Bougainville cause
overseas, peace process began slowly developing simply because PNG, as the 2010
Anthony Regan’s book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Light Intervention:
Lessons from Bougainville</i>, saw that the conflict that was supposed to be
its internal crisis but was turning internationalized and PNG would lose
ownership of Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Peace prevailed on Bougainville not
because of PNG (generally the PNG army was a sitting duck on Bougainville and
it was Bougainvilleans who were fighting and killing each other) but because
Bougainvilleans saw the need to end the conflict by their known phrase, ‘peace
by peaceful means’ and worked towards a lasting political settlement for their
future. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But PNG took an upper in the peace
negotiation once again to disrupt Bougainvilleans right to self determination
which they had fought and died for. PNG was not willing to support them and let
them freely march into independence but enforced challenges upon the
trouble-torn people. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Personal experiences of leaders who had
participated in face-to-face negotiations with the PNG and others since the
late 1990s towards developing a lasting peace process had shown PNG was always
barking wildly at Bougainvilleans demanding them to do-this-and-do-that. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Such anti-Bougainville-independence
culture of PNG led to the challenging three pillars of the Bougainville Peace
Agreement signed in 2001. These three pillars of the peace agreement are:
Autonomy, Referendum and Weapons Disposal. And all these pillars and their
associated terms and conditions seen from broad empirical analysis of the
history of the Bougainville people’s struggle for self determination, are
irrelevant and disrespectful. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Light Intervention: Lessons from Bougainville</i>, Regan (2010: 59)
wrote: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This strong sentiment was a factor in
the PNG government negotiations with parties sometimes arguing for limited
roles for not only the UN and the PMG, but also foreign advisers to the
Bougainville leaders. Such arguments were a source of tension, as the
Bougainville leadership in generally supported expansive roles for the
international intervention, and strongly opposed any suggestion of interference
by [PNG government] in relation to sources of advice utilized by Bougainville.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">PNG was not in to address the injustice
faced by Bougainvilleans under PNG but was out there to undermine them from
their rights despite obvious anti-PNG sentiments on the table. With this PNG
also put harsh criteria on the three pillars of the peace agreement. It is
known throughout Bougainville PNG was not willing to sign the Bougainville
Peace Agreement (BPA) till it was given a veto power over the outcomes of the
referendum in Paragraphs 325 to 328 of the BPA. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">PNG criteria that were bullied on the
non-reckless political leaders of Bougainville were that Bougainville must be
weapon free, economy must be self-sustaining and autonomy government must be
functional and so on. But this, especially with economy, is irrelevant where
PNG was financed by Bougainville resources and now it is time for PNG to
compensate the Solomon island people of Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Again the PNG plan was captured by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Light Intervention: Lessons from
Bougainville</i>, by Regan (2010: 127) that: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The logic is that in the 10 to 15 years
from the establishment of the ABG in 2005, the PNG government has the
opportunity to work closely with the ABG to promote all forms of development in
Bougainville in a way that could be expected to encourage Bougainvilleans to
consider the possible merits of remaining a part of PNG when it comes time to
vote in the referendum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All PNG government activities on
Bougainville, like the classical Peter O’Neill tour of Bougainville in January
2014, are part of this PNG strategy to undermine the Bougainville people’s right
to freedom. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And under this cruel challenge ABG is
struggle to create laws like the mining bill to test its functional capacities
as a government to carry Bougainville forward as PNG wanted. ABG has to have
the money to finance itself as ordered by the PNG state; Bougainville has to be
weapon free so that people are not intimidated to vote against integration to
PNG as it is planning for with all its undermining of the authority of the
Bougainville government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-59564367767704010282014-07-24T02:33:00.002-07:002014-07-24T02:33:38.317-07:00Scrap metal was a liars and drunkards business of Kieta <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Driving through the industrial areas of the old BCL mine,
Panguna and Loloho port today, there is hardly any structure frames of those
massive workshops, crushers, plants, and other smaller equipment, and yards of
spare parts and old material storage areas. All that now remains is a few brick
walls, rusting irons, concrete drainage systems, and the vast gravel and rock
surface area of Panguna. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx4n3ukwWWobCuro3Nh9E5pxKQozFKq6EFwOWFIE5rqC23IXN8pxdHxzYpSCTs5CEuqSWreraB2iRgLNJaNMpR5llkwK51q_AWpbXhiLL_JoNq6fE6ulXPiROODIeW-JlW9qWMQiAqRWY/s1600/DSC00772.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx4n3ukwWWobCuro3Nh9E5pxKQozFKq6EFwOWFIE5rqC23IXN8pxdHxzYpSCTs5CEuqSWreraB2iRgLNJaNMpR5llkwK51q_AWpbXhiLL_JoNq6fE6ulXPiROODIeW-JlW9qWMQiAqRWY/s1600/DSC00772.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">All these tons of BCL property went overseas as scrap metal
to the benefit of us the Panguna people and a few former BRA elites around
Kieta. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Scrap metal business came to Bougainville around 1995 on the
small scale but erupted into a massive scale just after 2005 on. The earlier
small scale operations captured foreign opportunists and genuine agents and
buyers thus catapulting the business up. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There were Koreans, Indians, and Chinese groups and even a
few non-Asian brokers, and all the market destinations were Asian. A few known
market destinations were in Korea, Vietnam, India, China, and Malaysia.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And in Panguna, especially, company names and groups sprang
us and all specialized in buying and collecting scrap metal; a few had rights
over areas within the mine site, and even the former BRA had their own groups
alongside the Meekamui groups. But most in common, in terms PNG law had no IPA (Investment
Promotion Authority) or BCL authorization to exploit BCL property and export
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I worked for about two years, 2008 to 2009, with a local group
called Doborubu Scrap Metal Group (DSMG) that was based only in Panguna as an
on-site assistant administration officer assisting our operation boss and as a tallyman
keeping records of the scrap metal loads we made every day. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">DSMG was owned by the Pirurari villagers who owned most
lands in the Kusito area of the mine site. In this area, the DSMG just collected
any metal and in others like the concentrator, the pit, the town areas. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The DSMG operated in partnership with a Korean financier and
market dealer. From Korea he provided trucks, forklifts, and other heavy metal
cutting equipment. In return DSMG sent scrap metal containers in his name to
markets he chose. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then the scrap buyers paid him the money and he deducted
what DSMG owed him in equipment and plants with a little profit and sent what
was left back to Bougainville. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">DSMG with its two trucks, one a 25 ton truck and another was
a 15 ton, was required to produce 15 tons for the 25 ton truck and 12 tons for
the 15 ton truck. The operations had packers at Kieta port and harvesters in
Panguna. Most employees were young and from a single clan extended family with
only a handful of us from other clans. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Each shipment of scrap from the Kieta port in all cases must
meet the required quota of scrap in tonnage. If the Korean boss wanted 150 tons
of scrap metal then DSMG had to produce that or above. And working to these
directives from Korea DSMG raked up every scrap in its own traditional land
areas and began buying from others. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We group our boys to two groups. Some only did the cutting
of buildings frames and plants; others waited for sellers who had stocked up
their scrap and came to us to buy, and some had laid claim on plants or
buildings and asked us to cut them down and buy them. We did just that all that
for 6 days and rested only on Sundays. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In most cases we did not pay them on spot but I recorded the
mass of scrap to each respective person’s name and truck it away to Kieta. In
Kieta our packing boys packed the scrap in containers. We were required to pack
its container with 25.5 tons of scrap metal.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was only when this containers had left PNG then we money
came into Bougainville from Korea and we paid our employees and the scrap
owners. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And the most painful characteristic of all Panguna scrap
metal tycoons was that it was a liars and drunkards’ business. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With cash or without cash, all weekends were wild boozing
and partying. This phenomenon raised the number of retail outlets serving goods
and liquor up. Nearly all residents of Panguna were a scrap metalist. Small
retail businesses staggered as credit increased when workers used scrap as
security to get goods.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And for DSMG we promised two Panguna District primary
schools staff houses but till we ceased operations in 2011 because all stock of
scrap has zeroed. Dapera Primary School had not seen a DSMG funded house and
Darenai Primary School (Location 2) had not seen a DSMG house that we promised.
</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Promises we did to people since we, the top bosses in DSMG,
were earning at the range of K600-K1000 per shipment were not realized. And
today with scrap metal gone our level of financial happiness had shrink far too
low than those that only lived on their gardens and we often boozed and called
them penniless. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-39943065134626571222014-06-09T21:16:00.002-07:002014-06-09T21:16:43.352-07:00Philip Miriori, a problem in Bougainville politics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Leonard
Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It was
in May when travelling to Port Moresby for the Lowy Institute’s PNG Young
Voices Conference that a Bougainvillean academic told me that ‘President Momis
should retire from politics if he loves Bougainville.’ But his words, though
significant in its own terms, did get me back to my homeland, the Panguna
District and all its nasty and irrelevant politics. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjExg9cPt9HUBp3Tnq_g0F-mcwp01qKw-Y7qTHVXPaAzxscWTYnxawcebSPf_myIcZxnjRKY1TsJpf3DVnYeP1NpvlVjG3-J4ML4i7HEzDhbJb8boIKhuyrbe-lNBeAEFDVF_mtVghOzsw/s1600/philip-miriori-august-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjExg9cPt9HUBp3Tnq_g0F-mcwp01qKw-Y7qTHVXPaAzxscWTYnxawcebSPf_myIcZxnjRKY1TsJpf3DVnYeP1NpvlVjG3-J4ML4i7HEzDhbJb8boIKhuyrbe-lNBeAEFDVF_mtVghOzsw/s1600/philip-miriori-august-13.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Bougainvilleans
sometimes should appreciate us, the stubborn Panguna people, for our
contribution to physically rebel the old Bougainville problems of exploitation,
indoctrination and genocide landed on us by the colonial administration of the
Germans since 1886-1905 window, supported by the Australians and inherited by
the Papua New Guinea state since 1975. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We the
Panguna people also played significant roles in the peace process on
Bougainville since 1997 and also before that; but our problem is that we have
that internal mi-tu-man (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I am also a
difference</i>) conflicts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Looking
down the history of the Bougainville ‘armed’ crisis in 1988 we can see that
there is a replica of past events with external bonding this time that further
complicates Bougainville progress in the Kieta area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In the
1980s when the late Francis Ona of Guava village was up with his militant
activities, the late Joseph Kabui from the neighboring village of Enamira was
in the podium of the North Solomons Provincial Government representing the
authority of the day. This was, to the eye of a politically illiterate Panguna
man, a Panguna man vs. Panguna man crisis then. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And
coming the peace process efforts since 1997 it was a Panguna man, the late
Joseph Kabui, running the pro-peace game and it was a Panguna man, the late
Francis Ona, that run a anti-peace campaign. Thus this has direct impacts on
Panguna District itself and the wider Kieta area of Central Bougainville. I do
believe the psyche of the people was affected. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This is
not a Panguna problem anymore for it had spilled over from the brim of Panguna
politics and beyond to the ends of Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Soon
after traditional figures of Bougainville politics, Francis Ona and Joseph
Kabui were off the screen by way of their death Panguna saw a rise in too many
little-men running for the shoes of their relatives. And all these little-man
are vying to be the next Francis Ona at the wrong time in the political
transition of Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And one
of this little-man of Panguna is Philip Miriori. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Before I
talk about who Philip Miriori is, we need to know the realm Philip Miriori is
playing in or from. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The 2013
research paper, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gangs of
Bougainville: Seven Men, Guns and a Copper Mine</i>, by Stan Starygin says
that: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Philip Miriori, and Philip Takaung declaring
themselves Ona’s successors. Miriori and Takaung brought Pipiro back to command
the MDF troop severely depleted by the departure of Uma’s loyalists. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Miriori and Takaung rebranded Ona’s
Kingdom of Me’ekamui into the Me’ekamui Government of Unity (‘MGU’) and
significantly softened Ona’s stance on the ABG resulting in a landmark
memorandum of understanding (‘the Panguna Communiqué’) in 2007. The Panguna
Communiqué signaled, in part, a complete break from Ona’s positions and, in part,
their significant alteration. As such, through it, the MGU denounced Uma’s
checkpoint as having “abused and misused its objectives and rules of engagement
under the Me’ekamui government” and as having the purpose “to blockade the
Panguna people”,<sup>65</sup> condemned “the use of arms and violence”<sup>66</sup>
and acquiesced to what can, perhaps, be best termed as a ‘two political
viewpoints, one administrative structure’ arrangement with the ABG.67 In
return, even though ABG has no such authority by any constitutional provision
and ABG reciprocated by allowing the MGU to have its “own contingent plans on
arms containment”<sup>68</sup> and, of course, a promise of bringing resolution
of “social issues and development issues”,<sup>69</sup> “financial assistance,
economic benefits, development packages, good and service”,<sup>70</sup> and
“other services”;<sup>71</sup> all of these translate into ABG bringing money
into the MGU-dominated<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>area, which
doubtless was the main reason for this rapprochement for the MGU.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Philip
Miriori, Philip Takaung and Noah Musingku were the trio vying to be successors
of Francis Ona when he died. But conflict pushed Noah Musingku to Siwai where
he pursued his Papaala Twin Kingdoms and Chris Uma out of Panguna to Arawa to
run his anti-Panguna version of Meekamui. With two non-Panguna rivals out
Miriori, Takaung and a BRA man, Pipiro, all from Panguna created their Meekamui
Government of Unity (MGU) with Philip Miriori as president. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">And
so the 2007 signing of the Panguna Communiqué between the Autonomous
Bougainville Government (ABG) under the late Joseph Kabui and the MGU that
catapulted Philip Miriori to be a nosiest and hard-to-trust destructive little-man
of Panguna. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">And
we the Kietas are good noise-makers. I said this in my 2012 PNG Attitude story,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bougainville politics & the characteristics
of its people</i>, that: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
Central Bougainville where the Kietas are politically and economically
dominant, I see a lot of ‘big mouths’ that just cannot stop talking. Central
Bougainvilleans are creative in exporting their dreams without testing the
practical outcomes of those thoughts. But this population also readily absorbs
change and adapts change to create results. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">We
talk and talk and talk. This could be noted even with the Central Bougainville
MP in Waigani, Communications Minister Hon. Jimmy Miringtoro who talks hard in
the media negatively attacking ABG but when the ABG responds with real facts,
he hides for awhile to get fresh air. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">And
with Philip Miriori and the current exchanges with the ABG on the Panguna mine
re-opening issue Miriori is an Octobers with too many hands. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">In
a New Dawn on Bougainville (3 June) story, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Me’ekamui’s
Miriori challenged to be honest about mining</i>, our President Dr. John Momis
blasted Miriori:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I challenge Mr. Miriori to tell us
about his foreign advisers, and what they are doing to make money for foreign
interests. They included two Americans with the Tall J Foundation, Stewart
Sytner and Thomas Megas. There are documents freely available on the Internet
that show they claim that Mr. Miriori sold them mining rights in areas to the
north of the Panguna Special Mining Lease. I challenge him to tell us is what
Sytner and Megas claim is true.<br />
What about the other investors in Tall J? What advice did they give to Miriori?
What about the Tall J investor who brought in the Chinese scrap metal dealers?
What advice did he give? What about the advice that Mr. Ian Renzie Duncan
gives?<br />
“Mr. Miriori is not being honest about the future of mining. His hands are not
clean in relation to mining.<br />
“Mr. Miriori is not being honest about foreign advisers. Again his hands are
not clean.<br />
“I challenge him to be honest on these matters. I challenge him to enter these
debates only when he has clean hands.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dr. Momis attacks are real facts that Philip Miriori when
accusing ABG on mining runs his own deals to attract foreign mining and even
scrap metal groups into Panguna. With the scrap exhausted scrap metal industry
Panguna people at most had gain nothing when foreign groups walked away with
tonnes of Panguna scrap. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And the general culture of these Meekamui figures is known by
all foreign opportunists: ‘just decant a cup of K1 coins into their mouth and
they open the door wide’. And this is a chronic characteristics; their
existence is the ABG’s politics that does not satisfy the hearts and minds of
us, Bougainvilleans. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And even their political fantasies, so cocooned with threats,
is hanging on the thread and they will get a natural dead if ABG plays a kind
of politics that wins the hearts and minds of the people of Bougainville. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Default" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-49184640067030508582014-06-08T17:21:00.003-07:002014-06-08T17:21:55.952-07:00Problem in the Bougainville cocoa industry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Leonard
Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Cocoa
famer Patrick Erengona from Kaino village in the hinterland of Arawa earned
K680.00 for two bags of dry bean cocoa in the last week of May and considering
the cost of goods and services on Bougainville such an amount is not enough to
sustain the livelihood of families and all problems goes into the cocoa
industry ownership issue. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisglGQMhiyUv6PJxyaxfI3vlfLHyMd2tPq5HXrdD8nk6m2FGTeuOw3a2y7vUxQOzK3sWunXsxDKcyK8DAurZKYpaLLRzwTser5Z3G9Pd7iXEeFth1hAQDbgcWAT8D25iLwZNOMGGmMvA8/s1600/Kakao2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisglGQMhiyUv6PJxyaxfI3vlfLHyMd2tPq5HXrdD8nk6m2FGTeuOw3a2y7vUxQOzK3sWunXsxDKcyK8DAurZKYpaLLRzwTser5Z3G9Pd7iXEeFth1hAQDbgcWAT8D25iLwZNOMGGmMvA8/s1600/Kakao2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In a
story, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bougainville soon to be a cocoa
leader</i> (Post Courier, 18 November 2004 in page 17) by Eric Tapakau, it was
said that by the end of 2004 Bougainville should have 30 million cocoa trees
and there was a feasibility study for a proposed cocoa factory on the island
led by the Cocoa Board of Papua New Guinea and spearheaded by the European
Union. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">To this
day there is no evidence of any tangible socio-economic progress for the people
and the autonomous region as a whole as should be as indicated by this media
release. And the problem as should be is the ownership of the cocoa industry of
the island. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Bougainvillean
farmers are not the owners of their cocoa but the real owners are the
non-Bougainvillean buyers and dealers. And in the 2008 research work, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Market chain development in peace building:
Australia’s roads, wharves and agriculture projects in post-conflict
Bougainville</i>, Ian Scales and Raoul Graemer reported (page 24) that Bougainville
cocoa since being purchased directly by Rabaul-based buyers has been
misattributed as East New Britain cocoa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This is
of course a direct exploitation of the Bougainville economy and the poor
Bougainvillean farmers like Patrick Erengona of their resources’ earnings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Ian
Scales and Raoul Graemer (page 25) noted the Rabaul-based buyers in the
2005-2006 window as the Agmark, Outspan and Garamut. These companies operate as
direct buyers of dry bean cocoa and also operate their dealers of local buyers
that purchase cocoa and sell back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And
their chronic problem has been the raise of ‘black-market’ and ‘grey-market’
cocoa that affects monitoring by the Cocoa board of PNG (Bougainville) and
proper earning schemes for agents and the Bougainville economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is to do with registered and
unregistered fermentary sheds around Bougainville and their distant masters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
distant between these Rabaul-based buyers and their agents on Bougainville; the
distant between the Rabaul-based buyer’s office in Buka and its agent in Arawa
or Buin complicates things. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">‘Grey-market’ cocoa is when a local dealer buys
cocoa from unregistered fermentary, brands it with the number of a registered
fermentary and sells it on to a cocoa exporter whilst ‘Black-market’ cocoa is
unbranded and unreceipted and eventually mixed with legitimate produce for
export.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The Bougainville branch of the Cocoa Board thus
finds it hard to monitor, control and protect Bougainvilleans in terms of their
income and pricing. This weakness had over the years attracted dozens of
non-Bougainvillean companies entering Bougainville further complicating things
for the under staffed Cocoa Board of PNG. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And the impact is on the little growers and farmers
like Erengona. Mr. Erengona’s fermentary is unregistered but sells his cocoa to
a clansman who he says is an agent to Outspan. Thus he cares less about
registering for he says Cocoa Board of PNG does nothing good to help him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Cocoa Board of PNG does nothing good for Patrick
Erengona and thus here is now a window for political intervention by the
Bougainville government for its citizen’s betterment and its own internal
revenue sourcing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">According to Ian Scales and Raoul Graemer (page 26),
in the 2004-2005 Bougainville produced 15 670 tons of exportable cocoa matching
the pre-crisis average of 15 600 tons. This quantity with the world market
pricing of that period which was about K3 900 per ton (2006 price) could have
fetched the Bougainville economy some K59 million if Bougainville had its own
company in charge of it cocoa industry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">When non-Bougainvillean companies control the cocoa
industry of Bougainville, farmers like Erengona, are exploited and the
government keeps wailing to re-open the Panguna mine with foreign consultants
screaming into its ears, ‘Re-open Panguna and your GDP will rocket into the
space and we give you more loans to keep you under control.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Erengona harvests about 140-170 kilograms of wet
bean cocoa to ferment that to one standard exportable bag of 63.5 kilograms of
dry bean bag. And in such places like Kaino caring for cocoa plots; harvesting
and fermenting and accessing the market is labour intensive and costly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">So his recent earnings of K340 per bag is a
disadvantage for him and the Bougainville economy where the cocoa industry is
not own by Bougainvilleans or their government. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Since cocoa is one major income earner for
Bougainvilleans the Bougainville government must seriously take control of the
industry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">‘Bougainville is taking all the powers and functions
of government from PNG,’ Erengona says, ‘so it’s about time it forms his own
cocoa board and also form a true Bougainvillean company to export the cocoa we
produce. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">‘With that I think the price of cocoa on
Bougainville will triple and that the internal revenue of Bougainville will rise
and there is no need to destroy our environment with the re-opening of the
Panguna mine since Bougainville is a small island.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">To Erengona Bougainville is being exploited yet of
it enormous economic power from this single cash crop to advance above with its
political journey towards referendum to decide its political future by foreign
companies and its own myopic politicians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-25151875819892454272014-06-04T21:44:00.003-07:002014-06-04T21:44:52.127-07:00Bougainville Manifesto 14: A Political System for Bougainville <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Leonard Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A Bougainvillean is person with a culture; and that
culture is secured in a land known as Bougainville that is in a territory of
Solomon archipelago and this is a self-sustaining entity. In Bougainville
Manifesto 13, it is said that:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">If cocoa grows in Bougainville, then Bougainville must
produce chocolate powder; if coffee grows on Bougainville, then Bougainville
must produce coffee powder; if a coconut palm sways on Bougainville, then
Bougainville must produce oil cosmetics; if the sea girds Bougainville, then
Bougainville must produce salt for his table; and if the Bougainville child is
born on land, then that child owns the land and everything that grows on it
belongs to him but he must care for them and trade them to get what his land
will not give him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">And
in the tiny sea of islands that Bougainville is a part of in the Pacific self
sustaining economic and political models are vital; and such a system must not
be too capitalistic but should be centered on the welfare of the people. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirm1c5njGzhK2TH8UBiUE9AqsuKS4Lr2iSCLDNBm_JCTQWdtntAxvxmIo4Dnjs2cgW2EeuqP4YjohbfxaSP5TjxetQQnyCt71m4Tpu0tPOv7F8mOUlhSlLHbD3pZsKouBx2EJ6KqKdhEk/s1600/IMG_5247.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirm1c5njGzhK2TH8UBiUE9AqsuKS4Lr2iSCLDNBm_JCTQWdtntAxvxmIo4Dnjs2cgW2EeuqP4YjohbfxaSP5TjxetQQnyCt71m4Tpu0tPOv7F8mOUlhSlLHbD3pZsKouBx2EJ6KqKdhEk/s1600/IMG_5247.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">In
Section 40 of the Bougainville Constitution (Structure and Levels of
Government) it is stated:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Government
in Bougainville shall consist of—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">the
Autonomous Bougainville Government in accordance with Division 2 (Autonomous
Bougainville Government); and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(b)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">a
level or levels of formal government below the level of the Autonomous
Bougainville Government in accordance with Division 3 (other levels of formal
government); and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(c)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">the
traditional system of government in accordance with Division 4 (traditional
system of government).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Under the autonomy arrangement this three-level
system is already active and it has proven to be inclusive of all
Bougainvilleans in decision making process of their homeland. Currently
Bougainville has about four levels of government (Village Assembly (VA) being
added recently) as can be observed throughout the island.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In most cases the first level of government is the
Village Assembly (VA). This level is centered in the village where there are
different clans (also having own governing structures) that come together to
make decisions of their village affairs. Individual VAs then has a fair
representation in the next level, the Council of Elders (CoE). The CoE members
are elected members. From here Bougainville now had the District level where it
is made up of the CoEs and in most cases it is more public policy oriented
rather than political. And the last and top level is the Autonomous
Bougainville Government (ABG) parliament. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In the case of Bougainville, a four-level government
system, seem not economical and from the present arrangement a three-level
(ABG-CoE-VA) is viable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Whatsoever the levels of government are, the
fundamental question is: what are the roles and responsibilities of these
levels; and the most reasonable answer to this is that the levels or a
Bougainville political systems’ major collective task is the sustenance of a
mutual state-citizen relationship. The Bougainville state should be advancing
in regional and international politics, its economy should be functional in the
capitalistic global market systems and the citizens of Bougainville should be a
happy lot and not the one with chronic disparity and struggle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Many states—big or small—in the current world
dominated by capitalism and globalization turn to work on the sustenance of a
positive Gross National Product (GDP) at the cost of the people and with such a
reckless rush for scarce resources they harm equality and equity within their
citizens. Thus disparity of economic, political, social, cultural,
technological gain is prevailing breaking the world order. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And for a tiny island as Bougainville; with a few
resources and a growing population of some 19-30 (Bougainville Manifesto 3)
language groups that indicate the number of peoples, a happy state-citizens
relationship is paramount; and this is because the strength to build the state
of Bougainville should be sourced from this harmonious state-people
coexistence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There is room for Bougainville to design a political
system centered on the Bhutanese politics of Gross National Happiness (GNH) as
provided by website, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gross National
Happiness</i> (n.d.) whereby material and spiritual development can occur side
by side to complement and reinforce each other. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIG6a9kZE14pDUpef8597xV7YZ5sRXXt2nrgaQpU_q8KrN2s9P6wYD4Dzcjm_qB1PyZi-0mzGKKP6r8nS9bUKPv7nU8Gt5_9VShH_MhYas1WtIAuWN7SmCYqCOymWIUG2qzl5A5nXmyE/s1600/IMG_5316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIG6a9kZE14pDUpef8597xV7YZ5sRXXt2nrgaQpU_q8KrN2s9P6wYD4Dzcjm_qB1PyZi-0mzGKKP6r8nS9bUKPv7nU8Gt5_9VShH_MhYas1WtIAuWN7SmCYqCOymWIUG2qzl5A5nXmyE/s1600/IMG_5316.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And Bougainville and its people are known for
struggles against exploitation, indoctrination and subjection to genocide in
the midst of the Pacific. Thus the four (4) pillars of Gross National
Happiness: (1) promotion of sustainable development, (2) preservation and
promotion of cultural values, (3) conservation of natural environment and (4),
the establishment of good governance, can be the way forward for Bougainville
political future and state building. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">All these points to one direction and that are the
application of the welfare concept of development in Bougainville politics
where government should work to alleviate poverty, focus on human wellbeing,
and improve equality. Participatory or social democracy should be the system
for Bougainville making GNH, Welfare, human capital investment, sustainable
development and so on as the national Bougainville state pillars. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This is of course reflects the Nordic model as
pointed by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wikipedia</i> that combines
the free market economy with the welfare state. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Nordic models as Wikipedia puts it, that: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">These include support
for a "universalist" welfare state (relative to other developed
countries) which is aimed specifically at enhancing individual autonomy,
promoting social mobility and ensuring the universal provision of basic human
rights, as well as for stabilizing the economy; alongside a commitment to free
trade. The Nordic model is distinguished from other types of welfare states by
its emphasis on maximizing labor force participation, promoting gender
equality, egalitarian and extensive benefit levels, the large magnitude of
income redistribution, and liberal use of expansionary fiscal policy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Bougainville must encompass this political model to
survive. For Bougainville to survive under globalization its powerbase, these
are the people of Bougainville, must be secured and be safe first; that is, all
Bougainvilleans must be in a peaceful environment, they must be free, they must
be participating, they must be educated, they must be standing on their
traditional values, and so on then Bougainville will truly be a stable and
advancing democracy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The success of a Bougainville political system (s)
will depend on peaceful citizen-state relationship. And the citizen-state
relationship must be enhanced by getting every man to firstly know his place in
society, he must know his cultures and other Bougainvillean peoples, he must
know his land and environment and he must know his region’s or country’s place
in the global village. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-36680315696442291472014-06-04T21:32:00.000-07:002014-06-04T21:32:04.440-07:00Foreigner's Voice in Bougainville Politics is Off-Track <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the 2009 YouTube film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Reeds Festival</i>, the late Bougainvillean film actor and
advocator of Bougainville cultures, William Takaku stated, ‘The old leaves must
fall to allow the young leaves to grow leaving their wisdom of the trunk to the
young leaves to carry on the culture of the tree.’ But sadly on the political
level the old leaves are there creating chaos and instability for the young
leaves of Bougainville. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-liYctJFV7EKJ4dsKkRSc4NiAu1ioyEg0AXwxVVbo-y4gvOVsOsfdBhyphenhyphenezpKskWAiQs-P_Yg8o8puFhbzjF8-oQVKmP3VwncDp0pyeN0wKewM2YxOVQ4lTtP9DER9BYae12IS8GVn_4/s1600/IMG_4027.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-liYctJFV7EKJ4dsKkRSc4NiAu1ioyEg0AXwxVVbo-y4gvOVsOsfdBhyphenhyphenezpKskWAiQs-P_Yg8o8puFhbzjF8-oQVKmP3VwncDp0pyeN0wKewM2YxOVQ4lTtP9DER9BYae12IS8GVn_4/s1600/IMG_4027.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Bougainville crisis since 1988 and the reaching of the
peace process since 1997 is a development on the lives of Bougainvilleans that
created shifts in the power status of individuals across the island. There are pre-crisis
people that the crisis stripped them of their powers and there are those that
the crisis catapulted into high status of power they had never seen before. And
where normalcy is prevailing on Bougainville, the latter seem engulfed by fear
of losing power. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And a notable Bougainville woman leader, Ruby Miringka
stated frankly on the combatant populace in the 2009 Dom Rotherce film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bougainville: Reopening old Wounds</i>. Her myopic
statement said, ‘They don’t know their future [and] that’s why they are hanging
onto their guns.’ But the significance of her words would be found more
stunning at the political arena. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since the birth of the peace process threat was foreseeable
for those whom the conflict blessed them with power status. And this is evident
in the many Dr. John Momis vs. Sam Kauona that is hurting to the psyche of a
people that want to see harmony on their land and politics.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Observing the trends of confrontation between these two political
figures, it is obvious that it is war for political dedication to serve
Bougainville interest for the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and a
power status survival for Sam Kauona who had forge a long trail of international
arrangements to strike the existing authority on the ground. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And Bougainville been a trouble zone transiting slowly
towards normalcy is the place where opportunists rush at to make fortunes as
noted in the Leonardo Dicaprio movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blood
Diamond</i>. Diamonds and violence in Africa but in Bougainville, the Dr. Momis
vs. Kauona, is around who should be made or seen as legitimate by the authority
system in place and the people. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A few people recognized the extremity of this struggle, from
Kauona’s side, during the ABG-Landowner Association Forum in Buka that ran 5-6
December, 2013. Once here, facilitators told participants to keep out for a few
minutes and they sort out agendas but Sam Kauona who of course was not part of
this came from nowhere to storm the close door to verbally strike the
organizers. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This Kauona attitude towards the ABG has roots in the
pre-ABG days. And this is in his relationship with the Australian resident of
Canada Lindsay Semple and a Southern Highlander, Philip Rali and their company,
Invincible Resources. The trio was able to get the infant ABG under control then
under the late Joseph Kabui who had a notable weakness of unwillingness to hurt
others unlike Dr. John Momis currently. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But despite winning the late Joseph Kabui they failed to win
the parliament with their creation of the Bougainville Resources Development
Corporation (BRDC) that of course sold Bougainville to Lindsay Semple and
Philip Rali. Their deal gave 70 percent of Bougainville natural resources and
wealth created from these resources away to these two foreigners; this shock
also led to the dead of Joseph Kabui. But with Kabui gone, Semple and Rali are
still around driving Kauona as a child everywhere since they have spent figures
like the K20 million offered to ABG and so on and they need to get back that
somehow.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After the first failure, Semple and Rali came back under the
skin of the Canadian company, Morumbi Resources. Since 2011 as noted by the Dr
Momis press statement, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bougainville
Mining Law to End Backdoor Deals</i>, in The National, (November 25, 2013) had
been try to get control of resources in large parts of Bougainville but many
people have resisted them after making use of their financial rains and this
hurts. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And Semple and Rali cannot stop by having Kauona as they
spokesman against the ABG. It is sad that foreigners are running a respected
Bougainvillean Sam Kauona. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To the hurt Invincible caused on Bougainville ABG created
its Bougainville Mining (Transitional Arrangements) Bill 2013 that shocks
Morumbi Resources dozen MOUs with resources owners that is fighting for
recognition by the ABG. This led Semple, Rali and Kauona to create own mining
law, People’s Mining Bill, that is bad for Bougainville on one part where it
gives all powers to landowners on all resources development and all
Bougainvilleans are not partners through the ABG. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The trio wants ABG to throw away its mining law for they
hate the provisions that the ABG is always are partner with the landowners of
any resource projects and especially the trio target was Section 203A (Special
Mining Lease) that seem under PNG Mining Act 1992 upholds the cruel
Bougainville Copper Agreement Act of 1967. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But ABG says it is ‘transitional’ that needed for a peaceful
and harmonious transition for Bougainville without conflict to existing PNG
laws and scaring away possible investment attraction. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But Semple and Rali could not stop pushing Sam Kauona
everywhere turning him into a joke for the Bougainville politics literate
community. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a recent attack, Kauona, brought in the debate
neo-colonialism and its major evidence it the presence of lawyer, Anthony
Regan, his enemy number. But Regan began his enemy when he befriended Semple
and Rali. Kauona worked with Regan in all the peace process efforts since late
1990s but Semple-Rali money is the problem for Sam Kauona. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Foreign money from Semple and Rali keeps his power status
afloat around Bougainville; he does not care about the 55 years Morumbi
Resources ownership of Bougainville mineral resources that is under a framework
where only the landowners have right to exploitation or development and not the
rest of Bougainvilleans who had suffered for this land due to mining in one
part and their government and keep attacks ABG but his debate is like a child
joking.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-1232214828239552022014-06-04T21:27:00.002-07:002014-06-04T21:27:26.379-07:00With Bougainville we talk about exploitation, indoctrination and genocide<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After invited by the Lowy Institute for its PNG New Voices
Conference at the PNG’s National Research Institute (NRI) conference center in
Port Moresby on the 29 of May, I had not much time to find resources to help my
speech thus I frisk into my writing project, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bougainville Manifesto</i> (in PNG Attitude) to get my talk. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZCPKCvtmiV-6DcvmvATKbiFXhVQL9sTG3inYdBBDbGq_PMT0UAVfTQJNBCI-Y9F9ka2C0MbEPIiYBiXoi7h0Fr2l7xqr4LoWiLnG2xLN2v8WBKCsKwxHWTNb7jABg32KETsgCa8xrvlc/s1600/IMG_5291.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZCPKCvtmiV-6DcvmvATKbiFXhVQL9sTG3inYdBBDbGq_PMT0UAVfTQJNBCI-Y9F9ka2C0MbEPIiYBiXoi7h0Fr2l7xqr4LoWiLnG2xLN2v8WBKCsKwxHWTNb7jABg32KETsgCa8xrvlc/s1600/IMG_5291.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The writing project I worked on since 2013 explores and
comments on the Bougainville Island past, present and the future and I hope to
publish as a way of preserving the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>writing and bringing them to Bougainvilleans as a book.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the conference there were people with more professional
know-how into the issues ragging in PNG politics, culture and so on. And having
the late afternoon session named as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New
Political Engagement</i> in which my topic, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Prospects for Bougainville</i>, was in made all a challenge, where people were
exhausted by now and also PNG politics is ambiguous. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My panel consisted of Douveri Henau, Executive Director of
the Business Council Papua New Guinea and research staff at PNG Institute of
National Affairs, as chairman; Arianne Kassman, who is a Youth Against
Corruption Association Coordinator for Transparency International PNG, who
spoke on the theme, Youth Participation in the Decision Making Process; Martyn
Namorong, well known PNG commentator and blogger, who spoke on the topic, Using
Social Media and Technology: Opportunities and Risks; myself and, Serah Sipani,
a law degree holder from UPNG and Masters in Public and International Law from
University of Melbourne, who spoke on the theme, National Identity. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For a bushman like me, such a unit of professionals is a
scary lot thus I have to go straight to Bougainville reality with examples in
PNG to feel immune from their professional scrutiny; and be at a safe coign to
respond at question time but it did not happen. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Aided by a PowerPoint I began by saying that whenever we
want to talk about Bougainville we must talk about three problems that faces
the people of Bougainville. And these are exploitation, indoctrination and
genocide. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since the earliest colonial days, especially after the
Germans took over the reign from the British during the 1886-1899 window,
traders and planters flooded Bougainville and took over land for their cocoa
and copra plantations for own benefit and not the owners of the land. They
exploited Bougainville outright and in the 1960s the creation of the BCL’s
Panguna mine and the birth of PNG in 1975 advanced exploitation to the skies
for us Bougainvilleans. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To assist exploitation we have indoctrination supported by
the rule of law, religion, and education and so on that degrades the Melanesian
Way as evil or barbaric or insane. But these bad cultures of course sustained
Melanesia for ages before colonization so PNG or Bougainville must not let go
its fountain of dignity. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The two, exploitation and indoctrination, led to genocide;
Bougainvilleans are losing their cultures, race, identity, dignity, resources
and so on.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And I went on to get Ghana writer, Francis M. Deng’s words,
from his article <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ethnicity: An African
Predicament</i>, which states that Ethnicity is more than skin color or
physical characteristics, more than language, song, and dance. It is the embodiment
of values, institutions, and patterns of behavior, a composite whole
representing a people's historical experience, aspirations, and world view. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Deprive a people of their ethnicity, their
culture, and you deprive them of their sense of direction or purpose<b>.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Melanesia we
cannot advance without holding onto our epistemology and by empowering every
little ethnic groups of Melanesia. Here it is clear that PNG is not a ‘nation’
as we love to say it; but it is a country of some 800 ‘nations’ but we deny
ourselves or by killing ourselves. PNG will never get anywhere by celebrating
the ‘umbrella’ PNG with all the 800 ‘nations’ packed into a bucket where the
strongest keep aloof and the weak struggling for breath and causing political,
economic and social chaos. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So here is the logic
why we Bougainvilleans, being Solomon Islanders, had recognized our fate under
PNG and had struggled for self determination since the 1960s. Under PNG our
identity and dignity is fast eroding but our Bougainville Constitution is the
finest set of laws that upholds our identity and dignity. But watching the
political trends in line with educational, economic, political investment and
so on we have a challenge of effectively and efficiently implementing that fine
set of laws of Bougainville to free our island and people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As I see it
exploitation and indoctrination are so high in the post-crisis Bougainville.
PNG ignores the way it keeps negating Bougainville people of Solomon Islands in
the name of strengthening unity of PNG. For example, as it was with the pre-crisis
Panguna mine, post crisis Bougainville despite producing on average 10 000 tons
of cocoa between 2002 and 2006 (Cocoa Board of PNG) that could earn
Bougainville about K300-500 million annually gave nothing to farmers. Simple
answer is cocoa leaves Buka as Bougainville Cocoa but goes overseas as East New
Britain Cocoa.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But I know that
Bougainvilleans are learners and we are learning from all the wrongs others are
making on us and those wrongs we ourselves are committing upon ourselves. And
as our President Dr. John Momis loves to say: There is no way for Bougainville
to go down; right from the concrete that was laid down, we will build a nation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-25658747691830432972014-05-20T21:47:00.005-07:002014-05-20T21:47:59.561-07:00Pomong—the Hamlet I Grew Up In and its place as book title<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Walking out of the University of Papua New Guinea in 2004 I
was turned into a village spittle mortar in the center of Kieta consciousness.
Thus writing my free style—not so sophisticated art form unique to me—poetry
was my hideout from labels like ‘university for nothing’ and many more. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6vZAEFOz2G85HpF4P40IUtwY5H9OUAVZsJK79NEX-m_2KLCCNO6-x2BF1p6Nerr6gU-Js3JijQAofDka0YfkxluUNc_UzURJrjGBmmZ8XgkCSP6E9WNEuho11mwSTsgsSh2-ie4QJUPo/s1600/kas+buk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6vZAEFOz2G85HpF4P40IUtwY5H9OUAVZsJK79NEX-m_2KLCCNO6-x2BF1p6Nerr6gU-Js3JijQAofDka0YfkxluUNc_UzURJrjGBmmZ8XgkCSP6E9WNEuho11mwSTsgsSh2-ie4QJUPo/s1600/kas+buk.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pomong U'tau of Dreams</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Having composed more than a hundred pieces of poetry had me
thinking of a suitable title since 2007. The search was because in Kieta alone
I had more than one place to called home; I had Kupe in the hinterland of
Arawa, where I grew up in. I had the Tumpusiong Valley in Panguna where my
mother is from; I had land right in the Bolabe Constituency in the Bana
District of South Bougainville, and I had Kaspeke area in the hinterland of
Koiare on the Banoni Coast but in the Eivo-Torau Constituency of Central
Bougainville to call home. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But in all these places where my family has land rights and
homes Pomong in the Kupe Mountains was appealing peacefully. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unlike the rests, Pomong Hamlet in Kupe, in my matrilineal
society of Kieta was a foreign land. But my grandmother purchased it from the
relatives of my late grandfather who hailed from the Kupe-Topinang area. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But it is here that I grew up before the crisis; through the
crisis; and after the crisis till 2004. And that is why I entitled my first
book—a collection of poetry—in 2013, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Pomong U’tau of Dreams</i>. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pomong was a gardening land when my grandparents got married
in the late 1950s and in the 1960s grandma purchased it with pigs, shell money
and food. In 1983-4 my parents left the Tumpusiong Valley and settled here. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPzWxp4yJpUDwtwW0C0WW3eSBm_pOnm29x8x7jKoqKi_lF268rcsUmH1toudmxLT6Tcb3WzAackM8KoDpiqyxUnbgiiwaWOMie_EkK5Be0sqYNNLfHxHohfTumnBA29-5I_ZnJOo51650/s1600/Pomong+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPzWxp4yJpUDwtwW0C0WW3eSBm_pOnm29x8x7jKoqKi_lF268rcsUmH1toudmxLT6Tcb3WzAackM8KoDpiqyxUnbgiiwaWOMie_EkK5Be0sqYNNLfHxHohfTumnBA29-5I_ZnJOo51650/s1600/Pomong+3.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pomong in 2013</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I grew up here and thus decided to honor this little hamlet
and land that today is bush covered for we have returned back to Tumpusiong
Valley since 2004. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pomong is desolated (my third 2014 book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brokenville</i>, has details) from the main
villages of Kupe; it is tinned fished between a gigantic boulder, Birareko, to
the east end and the Siro tributary gorge to the west end. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Every site around Pomong had connections to my childhood
life as Pomong is. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Down on the Siro River, there is a pool called,
Kenunaamiruu. In 1986, at the age of 7, I so feared the deeper sections of the
pool. Father ordered me every day to swim across but I ignored him but one day
he caught me unprepared and threw me into the water hysterically screaming for
my life for I was to drown. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjrzdSwJ6t7zsqFOwomWBi4Wc95ZSEWG_DDvf2yJB29D1_51J8teW6KeI-URXzlpYuhNhfSZkQnR50Z-Z4RgruvXVpvzllztKTS3aLLmWY2-n3nNz3H7N9M83elIb-R7iDPQFvneL0oDI/s1600/Pomong+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjrzdSwJ6t7zsqFOwomWBi4Wc95ZSEWG_DDvf2yJB29D1_51J8teW6KeI-URXzlpYuhNhfSZkQnR50Z-Z4RgruvXVpvzllztKTS3aLLmWY2-n3nNz3H7N9M83elIb-R7iDPQFvneL0oDI/s1600/Pomong+1.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Birareko</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But I came out of the water wailing and vomiting water and
darted into the bush. Then one day without my father I tested Kenunaamiruu and
it did not hurt. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then there was the Birareko. It was my hideout when parents
gave me a smack for disobedience and so on. Birareko was also my hunting rock;
its cave networks, and jungles that crowned her was my game area. It was also
my picnic resort as a child and with other kids climbing it was fun.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pomong also was where I spent most of my life. I was born in
1979 and from 1983-4 to 1997 Pomong was my home. But from 1997 to 2000, Arawa
was my home; and from 2001 onward Tumpusiong Valley was my home. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggtEmaCCo-zaZtHIL_2nORRcT6-81LCHRZe8xyJyM4eklpBXi9XYysC5BIn2WwHCZZAGRMZTFURV5IhpVWq-A3CRHh9vQ5mpXMxBQrbIr1NjL3Kc0eKT1McpAXV0xJ67rPQHrgPRXw0-c/s1600/Pomong+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggtEmaCCo-zaZtHIL_2nORRcT6-81LCHRZe8xyJyM4eklpBXi9XYysC5BIn2WwHCZZAGRMZTFURV5IhpVWq-A3CRHh9vQ5mpXMxBQrbIr1NjL3Kc0eKT1McpAXV0xJ67rPQHrgPRXw0-c/s1600/Pomong+2.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kenunaamiruu</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My father also was killed by the Bougainville Revolutionary
Army in 1993 whilst we were at Pomong. And Today Pomong is all bush covered and
without life but my spirit will forever remain in Pomong in the cold Kupe
Mountains. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So my 2013 poetry collection book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Pomong U’tau of Dreams</i>, is a monument paying homage to my
childhood home of Pomong in the Kupe Mountains, Central Bougainville; and from
Buin, in South Bougainville, where I am now and would permanently be residing
it will be an honor to regularly visit Pomong and show respect, to my baby past.
</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-3395073155943545802014-05-12T23:51:00.000-07:002014-05-12T23:51:05.382-07:00We are building a nation: Bougainville officers tell students <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Divine Word University students were fortunate to get updates
from Bougainville Administration officers undertaking short courses under the
university’s Faculty of Flexible Learning (FFL) on campus. In an informal
gathering on the Sunday, 13 April, Bougainville administration officers told
excited students that Bougainville was moving forward and not backwards. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIWBrL-t1-E50cQzzyy-s9nnV74jXtHIe7r_zEnbf0q1V57_gm_5Ww4DR-bFITubA3NjM7qDf41-9gFe2RKvhfoWlOfuWOBEFojE0A2N4BidbxbnmWxgfdlkJBR_c1pGPBTZV7SvcKQA/s1600/ABGDWU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIWBrL-t1-E50cQzzyy-s9nnV74jXtHIe7r_zEnbf0q1V57_gm_5Ww4DR-bFITubA3NjM7qDf41-9gFe2RKvhfoWlOfuWOBEFojE0A2N4BidbxbnmWxgfdlkJBR_c1pGPBTZV7SvcKQA/s1600/ABGDWU.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The officers namely David Kelele from the Education
Division’s Teacher In-service wing, Tommy Samson from the Human Resources and
Corporate Services, Graham Kakarauts from the Joint Supervisory Body (JSB) a
body jointly made up of the PNG and Bougainville that looks at the
implementation of the autonomy and so on and Mrs. Manah Kakarauts from the
Community Development section.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">David Kelele briefed students on the completed Bougainville
Education Act. He said under the act Bougainville will be now independent from
PNG on its pursued of educational development and progress. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bougainville has now 12 secondary schools and some of these
are still developing. With all the changes a few have turned into technical
secondary schools that specialized in practical and theoretical teaching like
Bishop Wade Secondary. Formerly there were a number of vocational schools but
now due to amalgamation with secondary schools Bougainville is only left with
three vocational schools one of which is Metonai in Kieta. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bougainville is also actively rolling out adult literacy
schools across Bougainville which is producing positive outcomes on the lost
generation. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Soon Bougainville will be setting its own teachers college
in Buin and nursing college in an undisclosed location to end the flow of
Bougainvilleans out of the island. Whilst investing on these developments
Bougainville has plans to develop its own university soon. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tommy Samson, Mrs. Manah Kakarauts and Mr. Graham Kakarauts
supported Mr. Kelele by adding that all the new laws by Bougainville, that are
Bougainville Public Service and Administration Law, Bougainville Public Finance
and Management Law and Bougainville Contract and Supply Law are having
Bougainville more independent from PNG and serves young Bougainvilleans to take
over their rights to make decisions for their island. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘The current government is building your foundation,’ the
group told students, ‘and it you who will build that independent Bougainville
we have suffered and died for.’</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">According to the team Bougainville is now getting all the
powers and functions in the areas like having own laws like police laws and
laws on Civil Registry that will soon be established on all regions of
Bougainville. Bougainville has now own laws on community development and this
laws are also functioning and under it the 405 Bougainville athletes will be in
PNG games in November 2014. This will also further boost Bougainville sporting
and development issues effectively. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bougainville is currently undergoing massive changes at the
policy levels as it moves towards referendum. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With its police also independent with the new Bougainville
Police Act, under the developing laws, all citizens will be subject to law. In
PNG politicians escape law but in Bougainville that will be not the case, they
will face the law.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The new laws also control power play in the political level.
The Bougainville president will not be too powerful over the Administrative
Service but rather have control over each other or operate with checks and
balances. Bougainville is learning the bad politics in PNG and thus making it
politics to be free from self-interest driven law changing culture of PNG. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In summing the meeting, Mr. Graham Kakarauts told students
to be ready to go back home and built their nation after graduating. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘Students,’ he said, ‘We are moving forward and not backwards;
we are building a nation that will need you young Bougainvilleans to carry
forward. Our leaders have contributed their part in the fight; I am doing my part
and soon I will step down, so it is you the youth with energy will move our
Bougainville nation forward.’ </span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-55398216934200132972014-04-29T21:36:00.003-07:002014-04-29T21:36:50.347-07:00Unsettling Bougainville weapons disposal tale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Leonard Fong Roka<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The late Bougainville
leader, Francis Ona, had stated this agenda by saying in the Darren Bender
& Mike Chamberlain 1999 film documentary, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Coconut Revolution</i>, that: ‘My fighting on Bougainville [is] based
on these factors: (1) that is, we are fighting for man and his culture, and (2)
land and environment; and (3) one is, independence.’ Thus the said issues
facing Bougainville that are exploitation, indoctrination and genocide were
boosted by BCL mining in Panguna and the PNG ignorance of Bougainville cry
since the 1960s.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0lisC-12I-1qnir0Jsbp6zZukDxxdKhgpFJqHIecihKqdHO6XOpJMqQm5QGFllpdt9nmxFPcmrpGsKKGNg9H29IBRfg79diP7ZXiHkcEvPD5IGZY7o8jQ-TUr9SW4BJPzRLevRw6cfWU/s1600/Tabea+Shallum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0lisC-12I-1qnir0Jsbp6zZukDxxdKhgpFJqHIecihKqdHO6XOpJMqQm5QGFllpdt9nmxFPcmrpGsKKGNg9H29IBRfg79diP7ZXiHkcEvPD5IGZY7o8jQ-TUr9SW4BJPzRLevRw6cfWU/s1600/Tabea+Shallum.jpg" height="400" width="380" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In fact Bougainville
struggled for self determination and its push on maximization of shares in its
resources that were exploited by PNG as off 1963 led Bougainvilleans in Panguna
to stand against the injustice thus in 1988 armed protest was the solution to
show BCL and PNG that for Bougainvilleans, nothing should come in between them
and their land resulting in the loss of 10-15 thousand Bougainville people and
loss of property.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The art of war was new
since the Second World War era population was not around to educate the young
and Bougainville through time fighting the Australia-trained PNG army,
Bougainville learned and got access to PNG military resources. Bougainville
also re-conditioned WW2 ammunition and guns and used them against the enemy,
the PNG military might. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And the former BRA
general commander, Samuel Kauona defended this well. In the 1999 film
documentary, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bougainville: Our Island our
fight</i>, Sam Kauona said, ‘All weapons that the BRA has presently are from
the Papua New Guinea Defence Force. Like my weapon…there are now hundreds and
hundreds of them at this point of time.’ This signifies that the BRA learned
the art of warfare and took on the PNG government; in due process, the number
of weapons on Bougainville increased with the fighter so loving the weapon he
took at high risk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It was a ten year civil
war and generations of youngsters grew up and joined in the fighting that even
the PNG army was demoralized thus getting the pro-PNG resistance fighters
killing them or just snatching their weapons and joining the BRA. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Rapidly born was the
gun-culture across Bougainville and Maryanne Moses, a refugee, clearly stated
this by saying in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bougainville: Our
island our fight</i>, that, ‘We have deprive the children from what was
rightfully theirs; children are growing up without [formal] education, they are
in a war situation…and that’s all they know.’ Evident throughout the war was
the growing love of guns for so many reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After many failed peace
initiatives as seen in the website, Bougainville Copper Limited article, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brief History of the Bougainville Crisis</i>,
the Bougainville Peace Agreement, after a series of talks starting from the
Honiara Accord of 1994, the Arawa Peace Conference of 1994 and the
establishment of the Bougainville Transitional Government (1995) under the
leadership of BRA advisor late Theodore Miriung who was later assassinated by
the PNG army, was reached and signed in 2001. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Bougainville Peace
Agreement, unlike other previous peace initiatives, had more concrete emphasis
on the gun-culture and the guns now available across Bougainville; it stands frankly
that Bougainville must be free from guns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is stated that the
Bougainville referendum to be held between 2015 and 2020 will be carried out
when certain conditions are met; one of which is that Bougainville must be
weapon free. These conditions are in Bougainville Peace Agreement’s Paragraph
312 (b) weapons disposal and good governance. The reason for these demands is
one purpose and that is Paragraph 317 (The referendum will be free and fair). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But so far these
directives had not being upheld by the ex-combatants and the new set of
Bougainvilleans that love to own a gun. Many blame the Autonomous Bougainville
Government for not putting efforts as one Bougainvillean lawyer said in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aloysius Laukai 2010 story, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No Bougainville referendum until weapons are
gone</i>, in New Dawn in Bougainville notes ‘</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He said
although the referendum is guaranteed under the PNG and Bougainville
constitutions there first must be weapons disposal before it can take place.’
But does this goes well with all ex-combatants? Most Bougainvilleans that never
set foot on Bougainville turn to be so vocal myopically. This is a question
that is yet to be answered, though. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To many
ex-combatants the ABG should now look at the Bougainville crisis through a
Bougainville lens since the issue is still fresh in the hearts and minds of
people. The so popularized 50-50 success of the UN backed weapons disposal has
a reason and as Bougainvillean it is about time politicians recognized that and
act.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are
still sources of conflict in the midst of Bougainvilleans as to how the ABG
should function and how the peace agreement should treat Bougainville. And to Anthony
Regan, in his 2010 book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Light
Intervention: Lessons from Bougainville</i>, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he stated, ‘Despite agreements, diverse
sources of tension and conflict usually tend to simmer, even once the main
conflict is resolved—the previous intensity just finds new outlets.’ This is a
normal situation for crisis environments and hope Bougainville is through these
stages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet on
Bougainville many ex-combatants purposely do not want to throw away their guns and
Anthony Regan is coming short here; and their point is that their life was
risked to win these guns from the PNG government forces or others want their
tales of war be recorded for the future; or that the main ambition of the
war—independence—is not yet achieved. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A notable
Meekamui group leader Chris Uma is one such figure against the weapon disposal
exercise. He told <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Al Jazeera TV</i>
(2009) film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bougainville: Reopening the
old wounds</i>, that ‘...I fought the PNGDF, I got the rifle. I grab it from
the enemy [and] that is why I cannot give my arms. People who are putting their
arms to containment [are] stupid.’ There is also a new wave of combatants
thinking along the line of not destroying weapons but keeping them safe for the
future generations to have a touch with Bougainville history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 298.35pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">These are
the issues now Bougainville is caught with. Though weapons disposal stage 2 in
Paragraph 329 (Endorsement of Weapons Disposal Plan), Bougainville had only are
50/50 percent success rate. But Bougainvilleans are not reckless gun welders
against themselves in the post-conflict Bougainville. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-31717013646034883052014-04-29T15:57:00.003-07:002014-04-29T15:57:30.166-07:00Combatants see weapons disposal as disrespect and need new way<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Signed in Arawa on the 30<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> August, 2001, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bougainville Peace Agreement</i> (BPA) officially
ended the 10 year Bougainville civil war. It has three major pillars for
Bougainville to uphold till referendum is held between 2015 and 2020. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gKKRwfel1KboYuKzZ5-JvWw0kYejmLylY1b1IdnE-y_OT4MLb0PP8LwdqGLvhfyqFE5XiN2fFITEN5rzGXi95xFC_LveZOkHwXjKOID8VQzICEJ-17H0AUfWE2Q-e5aXz2NRft-qtg4/s1600/Presentation1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gKKRwfel1KboYuKzZ5-JvWw0kYejmLylY1b1IdnE-y_OT4MLb0PP8LwdqGLvhfyqFE5XiN2fFITEN5rzGXi95xFC_LveZOkHwXjKOID8VQzICEJ-17H0AUfWE2Q-e5aXz2NRft-qtg4/s1600/Presentation1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The three pillars: (1) Autonomy (Part B of BPA), (2)
Referendum (Part C of BPA) and (3) is the Weapons Disposal (Part E of BPA). Part
E specifically targets all combatants of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army
(BRA) and the Bougainville Resistance Force (BRF). </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Around mid-2003 the United Nations verified that the
Bougainville weapons disposal program had reached Stage II (Weapons locked in
containers ready for destruction). But hitherto the weapons disposal so far has
occurred only 50-50 success/failure ratings.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is not because Bougainvilleans want war; or are hostile
to each other, but it is because many combatants are now viewing the third pillar
as an outright disrespect for the 20 thousand Bougainvilleans that perished in
the conflict and, the long history of struggle Bougainville and its people
endured since the colonial era to the creation and maturation of PNG. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To the few silent former combatants who now see the Third
Pillar negatively stand that only the gun gave Bougainville the kind of respect
it now has from the cruel Papua New Guinea state and the Bougainville Copper
Limited. Without the combatants taking up arms in 1988 Bougainville soon have
been a legend. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘Our land would have being for the PNG government and people
if we did not take weapons and chase them out,’ Chris Bitunau, a 1988-1997 BRA
fighter, told me from Panguna. ‘So I do not and I will not destroy my stock of
weapons since I value them as the means that halted the sedimentations from the
Panguna mine and the colonization by illegal PNG squatter settlers.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘We cannot throw away our Bougainville history; the future
generations have to see and feel these guns, they have to know the owners of
these guns in pictures and in stories.’</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The number of combatants standing by Chris Bitunau’s hopes
of preserving weapons and the stories associated to them is increasing
throughout Bougainville. To them the United Nations and the Autonomous
Bougainville Government (ABG) should do changes in the Third Pillar and find an
honorable disposal of all weapons on Bougainville. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘The UN and ABG should fund and built three museums each for
north, central and south Bougainville,’ Chris Bitunau told me, ‘and then get
writers like you [referring to me] to collect our stories in the war; asked
questions like ‘why did we joined the BRA or BRF?’, ‘where did and how did I
get this weapon?’ and so on and preserve them with our guns and photos in these
museums for people to come and see and know what happened.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘Under such a weapons disposal project then we as uneducated
ex-combatants can also financially benefit in the long run as could our
children. You know visitors can pay a little fee at the gate and visit the
combatants’ museum and we benefit.’ </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To Chris Bitunau such a weapons disposal approach for
Bougainville shows high respect for combatants, their families, the killed 20
thousand Bougainvilleans, and the long history of struggle for Bougainville
against colonial and PNG suppression. </span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-75926312837425211512014-04-19T19:01:00.002-07:002014-04-19T19:01:39.308-07:00Louis Taneavi avoided death in Bougainville war but killed in Lae<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The slain Louis Taneavi left Tumpusiong after he heard
schools in Buin were up and running in the PNG army controlled areas of Buin
Town. But like another place then, his former rebel mates, the Bougainville
Revolutionary Army (BRA) was a force the PNG army and its supporters, the
Bougainville Resistance Forces (BRF) was not capable to shield off from.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8JlGtI7RfPs3Pgcn8CyHidU-Ufz-mmDYVImfGciYR8Hg1EZ0ldHkwP2CWAu_GBX64HeMiwYg51XrpGm0p-GLog3IDXsleJyzPJ0bUz92Kv-q2deOgBm_buR1L8OFbZKiCMBosZ5dbatw/s1600/IMG_4091.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8JlGtI7RfPs3Pgcn8CyHidU-Ufz-mmDYVImfGciYR8Hg1EZ0ldHkwP2CWAu_GBX64HeMiwYg51XrpGm0p-GLog3IDXsleJyzPJ0bUz92Kv-q2deOgBm_buR1L8OFbZKiCMBosZ5dbatw/s1600/IMG_4091.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">While Louis Taneavi was a student at Buin High School and
dwelling with his cousin sister at Ipirai, a one of the few care centers
operated by the PNG army, the BRA infiltrated and attacked at will. To take a
break from the constant BRA raids, the PNG army leaders so often made
mini-peace deals with the notorious BRA commander, late Paul Bobby Kiaku.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">During these peace deals, the BRA freely came into the care
centers and the care center people like Louis Taneavi also moved around to
visit friends in other care centers in the PNG areas or in the BRA controlled
areas.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was in one of these peace deals that Louis Taneavi got
his second lucky escape from death. His first escape from death was in Torokina
whilst serving as a BRA soldier against a PNG army patrol in 1993 where he and
his mates walked into a PNG army ambush. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But in Buin while Louis Taneavi was a student in 1995, a PNG
soldier named as Phil Dengde made a peace deal with the BRA man, Paul Bobby
Kiaku in early 1995. His peace lasted for few days and also many other peace
deals had own durations neither for weeks or just hours. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In these fragile peace deals the BRA, the BRF and PNGDF chatted
and when the time was out, guns went off and the game of killing began. And
from Ipirai care center, in what is now the Buin town, was where Louis Taneavi
was watching all these development in Buin. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In one of these truce days, a Sunday, Louis Taneavi went to
visit a Panguna man, Clement Taruoi, who was a businessman and health extension
officer and dwelled in Tangtareke care center in what is now the Buin Town. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As he was passing a BRA gang with Paul Bobby was boozing at
Mamaro care center, a pro-PNG camp, without realizing that the mini-peace had
ended. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The PNGDF took the opportunity to attack the most feared BRA
man, Paul Bobby Kiaku. In an ambulance PNGDF reversed into the Mamaro care
center spot towards Bobby and the band of his men. The BRA thought the PNGDF
ambulance was approaching them to fetch a sick somewhere so they kept calm. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But from inside the reversing vehicle the PNGDF open fire at
the boozing BRA band and shot one BRA soldier death but their number target Paul
Bobby left down into the nearby Loruru River gorge and left unhurt. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Paul Bobby was ruthless in battle and the resistance knew he
was returning for payback and as anticipated in the afternoon the Laguai-based BRA
units returned into the Buin Town area that house a number of care centers in
close proximities. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Without realizing that the BRA was back in their midst but
still waiting for the exposure of their targets, the Panguna men Clement Taruoi
and Louis Taneavi decided to take a walk to the edges of Tangtareke where
Clement would watch Louis go for Ipirai. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But as they gained distance, they were told a BRA man has
being killed at Mamaro so Clement told him to go and see the situation and if
the situation was tense and there was no one around he had to return back to
his residence. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Louis went and saw no one but only met a young girl, Merolyn
Tukiau, who was his girl friend from Ipirai and she told him that nobody was
home so you come with me. Louis rejected the invitation and started to return
back Tangtareke. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And as Louis approached the junction into Tangtareke, the
BRA began to attack the main center, the Buin Independence Oval area that
hosted the PNGDF base. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Louis Taneavi was caught in between the long ambush of BRA
men that suddenly appeared around from hiding firing guns at the Mamaro camp
and then they suddenly withdrew after Paul Bobby fired a M203 grenade into the
PNGDF direction sending the PNGDF fleeing before his eyes. </span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On the run a dreadlocked BRA man started questioning him as
he stood hopelessly in their midst. ‘Do doi oraigu?’ (Where are you from?). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Louis answered him: ‘Kietarai’ (From Kieta). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The BRA then asked: ‘Eke oke tungtumoru?’ (where do you
live?). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Louis told him: ‘Ipirai’. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then in fury the BRA man, then placing a sharp knife on his
neck said: ‘Do tou resistance denden? Do dopa engtano o dekipoino’ (You must be
a Resistance? If you are a resistance I will kill you now). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Louis then told him: ‘Tou, ne touno resistance! Ne school
erumo igoke nunu ngoma mango nonoi.’ (I am not a resistant but I reside with my
sister there and attend school). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With relieve the BRA man said: ‘Okay. Do dengo toio omorogim.
Deke Kieta toi bio torokim (Okay. Come with us and we will bring you to Kieta;
we travel regularly through the jungles to Kieta). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But after running a few distances under the PNGDF mortar and
gun fire the BRA man changed his mind and told Louis: ‘A tou! Do buaga-are
touno tokasi. Ne ninu buaga-are promise etasi. Do mururara (Oh, no. You are not
promised for death. I am promised to death so you go back).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So the BRA left Louis Taneavi to return back to the care
center as they moved on. </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Those bullets of the Bougainville war did not take you down brother.
May your soul rest in peace. Louis Taneavi was killed on 7 April 2014 in Lae, PNG, by Sepiks who were fighting with Morobeans while a student attending Multi Skills Training College. Was flown home to Bougainville by relatives Camillus Kabui and Francis Nazia on 19 April 2014 to Panguna. </span></i></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087893946923041330.post-78650901299531587932014-04-19T18:29:00.002-07:002014-04-19T18:33:28.975-07:00Literature as betterment road for Bougainville: my dream <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leonard Fong Roka</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Having submerged into the spell of literature or writing
since my Arawa High School days from 1997 to 2000 I have seen change in me
personally; I have learned a lot about Bougainville, my people and the problems
we have. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Jh12m7OLOEf9pcXeJ0yIcn5fIRsAiopHFaMZD3cSjg2NeszkMkbvhsvCqhme8BDhUJjNZUhHAOf5r4QRwBPWipU_f3zeAkvJR4RxxuiPCGX0O6AVREQiBgyMS7yJE7JxU_0zYJR_Xwk/s1600/IMG_4613.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Jh12m7OLOEf9pcXeJ0yIcn5fIRsAiopHFaMZD3cSjg2NeszkMkbvhsvCqhme8BDhUJjNZUhHAOf5r4QRwBPWipU_f3zeAkvJR4RxxuiPCGX0O6AVREQiBgyMS7yJE7JxU_0zYJR_Xwk/s1600/IMG_4613.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Before actually paddling the writer’s canoe I narrowly
believed that the Bougainville crisis was a Panguna mine created setback for
Bougainville and Bougainvilleans. But having to write, that actually gets me
into a little bit of other literary checks and balances since 2011, enhanced my
scope further.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I now feel that I am standing on a peak by honestly
advocating that the colonial masters over Bougainville, British, Germans,
Japanese and Australians gave all their powers of eradicating Bougainville and
Bougainvilleans from the surface of the Pacific to PNG; and there are three tools now
with Papua New Guinea for this job. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Exploitation</i>, the
very first, came in 1767-68, the years of discovery by Europeans. It oversaw
the stealing of Bougainville’s mostly natural resources by non-Bougainvilleans;
reaching peak with the development of cocoa/copra plantation to mining since
the 1930s. The next tool is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">indoctrination</i>.
Indoctrination was started off with Eurocentric education that did not consider
Bougainvillean ways, knowledge and technology marriage to the introduced ideas.
Hitherto the PNG state and people still indoctrinate Bougainvilleans to forget
that they are Solomon Islanders but rather New Guineans; stand a Bougainvillean
next to a New Guinean, but he does not look like a New Guinean. And the two
tools, lead to one grave for Bougainville identity and dignity and that is the
third tool, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">genocide</i> and that is why
there is the right for Bougainville to be independent and save itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">PNG, from its constitution to its education curricula,
supports genocide to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gobble</i> the
Bougainville people. Bougainvilleans are geographically and ethnically Solomon
Islanders but, for example, the PNG education system does not uphold and
respect that fact. Under PNG Bougainvilleans do not learn Bougainville history,
geography, and politics and so on so that they have the awareness to be good
decision makers of their island. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And as a writer/author this is where I love to come in to
tell my people this is what we are going through since the westernization
landed on our island home. I told Arawa Secondary School my dreams in 2013 (pictured assembly waiting for me).</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLMZsirRQhA29YHrKKGv114Cj9q4PQK81y6HAp7pDNPAG_plxeb5qATbS24fswqgO2RFmOr5L72afikTHpwyfCVB-1vya1QboYn1eaKqwemsuChCVu8PGid5tJSv3bHErrVXGORSgBhho/s1600/ASS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLMZsirRQhA29YHrKKGv114Cj9q4PQK81y6HAp7pDNPAG_plxeb5qATbS24fswqgO2RFmOr5L72afikTHpwyfCVB-1vya1QboYn1eaKqwemsuChCVu8PGid5tJSv3bHErrVXGORSgBhho/s1600/ASS.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My 2013 books, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Pomong U’tau of Dreams</i> (poetry collection) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moments in Bougainville</i> (short stories collection) shoulder those
old problems. From the covers down to the content they are awareness of the
anti-Bougainvillean tools <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">exploitation</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">indoctrination</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">genocide</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And the writing spree I am going through is so powerful
since I went through that war and I cannot hide that fact in the third 2014 book
(crisis memoir), the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brokenville </i>(pictured
in my hand). I have no reason to hide but tell my suffering and endurance in
that 10 year war that foreigners created for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And as a writer I am finding blessing and the will to write
on when Bougainvilleans react with love to my works. When I first walked the
streets of Arawa in 2013 October returning home from Madang, an old teacher,
broke into tears shaking my hands and telling me: ‘You are doing Bougainville
good; keep telling our side of the story that PNG keeps polluting us.’ </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another father of 6 children was driving to work but spotted
me wandering a lonely egret and halted to shake my hands and express his
feelings. ‘Thanks. I just saw the cover of your book and anointing enveloped
me. Keep writing for you are the true son of Bougainville.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since my 2011 books entered the Arawa Secondary School, my
former school from 1997 and 2000, students are always rushing to sit with and
copy of the books. One of the students sent me a Facebook message saying: ‘Real
Bougainvillean writing.’ </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Getting such comments makes my heart whole. That was the
purpose of writing as a Bougainvillean and that is for Bougainville to love my
works since all my work is for Bougainvilleans. Impact will come with time and
my dedication to my career of writing. </span></div>
</div>
Leonard Fong Rokahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17712844783314241448noreply@blogger.com0