One of the brightest spots worldwide

Sam Vulum



Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, who has been described at times as fiercely nationalistic, continues to live by this political flair into the final phase of his illustrious career—going by his word that he would leave politics gracefully in 2012.
As a Sepik man, Somare has always had an interest and pride in his background and culture. Although his initiations were interrupted several times by his career, he returned to his village in Agoram, East Sepik province, regularly and completed them, culminating in his appointment as sana or peacemaker, a title inherited from his father and grandfather and conferred on him by his uncle Saub in 1973.
Somare chooses to wear quasi-Melanesian rather than western dress in parliament and to many similar occasions.
As the incoming Prime Minister at independence in 1975, Somare demanded proper dignity for Papua New Guinean leaders when he considered that Australia’s gift of an official house for Papua New Guinea’s prime minister was insufficiently grand for the great statesman he considered himself to be: Australia abashedly acceded to Somare’s demands and provided a much more palatial official residence.
Somare was greatly insulted in March 2005 when he was required by security officers at Brisbane Airport, Australia, to remove his shoes during a routine departure security check. He took strong exception to what he considered a mighty personal and national humiliation verging on blasphemy, leading to a diplomatic contretemps and cooling of relations between Australia and Papua New Guinea. 
A protest march in Port Moresby saw hundreds marched on the Australian High Commission demanding an apology and compensation.
However,  the Australian government ignored the matter. Somare now avoids Australia and obtains medical treatment, when necessary, in Malaysia.
Two years later, Australia, who blatantly refused to apologise over the shoes episode, found itself gravely upset over the Moti Affair.
Tensions between Papua New Guinea and Australia worsened during the course of the Julian Moti Affair, in which Somare was implicated.
Moti, a close associate of Manasseh Sogavare, the former Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, was arrested in Port Moresby on September 29, 2006 under an Australian extradition request to face child sex charges over an alleged incident in Vanuatu in 1997.
After breaking bail conditions and taking sanctuary in the Solomon Islands High Commission, he was flown to the Solomon Islands on a clandestine PNG Defence Force flight on the night of October 10, causing outrage on the part of the Australian government.
Australia then cancelled ministerial-level talks in December and banned senior Papua New Guinea ministers from entering Australia.
Somare denied any involvement in authorising the flight, which raised serious concerns about his own personal credibility, as well as his control of the country’s armed forces.
Somare was again taken to task in May this year when Opposition Leader Sir Mekere Morauta, who undoubtedly was favoured by the Australian leadership and international donors including the World Bank during his tenure as prime minister from 1999 to 2002, asked Somare in parliament for a State of the Nation address about the likely impacts of large scale extractive projects and warned the government’s revenue base would become dangerously dependent on this sector.
In a speech to parliament which was also widely publicised in the local media, Somare used the opportunity to take a swipe at Australia and the World Bank who were heavily involved in providing support for the country during Morauta’s rule.
Somare, who takes pride in the nine years of economic growth without the support of Australia and the World Bank, said: “In his days, the former Prime Minister did a lot of talking about issues that greatly pleased his real masters at the time, the World Bank and the Australian government. But despite their encouragement and support, the economic situation nevertheless reached crisis proportions.
“The World Bank provided two Structural Adjustments Programmes (SAP), supposedly under favourable terms, to the Morauta Government. Sadly, when these programmes were completed between 2000 and 2002, this country was worse off than it had been prior to the receipt of these loans.
“This was both a reflection on the nature of the programmes promoted by the World Bank. There had been similar spectacular failures in their application since the 1980s in most sub-Saharan countries on the African continent. It is also a reflection of the lack of competence of the Morauta Government and its over-reliance on foreign advisers and institutions such as the World Bank.”

Re-engagement
He said when his government took office in 2002, the country was in dire straits.
“Our usual friends were abandoning us at the time. The World Bank was angered that one of my policies was to promote the start of 10 major sustainable forestry projects, after they had been working with the Morauta Government to shut down much of this sector.
“It was okay for logging to take place in the United States, Australia and most other countries, but if it took place in PNG, it seemed that every evil under the sun would visit us.
“Just like many other nations we have vast forest resources and it is only right that this sector is tapped, along with other sectors, to provide jobs and improved lifestyles for our people.
“As a result, the World Bank abandoned PNG, even though we are a fully paid-up member of that organisation and have never defaulted on the many large loans they provided.
“Is anyone surprised that now that work is underway on our first LNG project the World Bank is keen to re-engage with this government? Not so long ago, they were prepared to insult my Finance Minister and Central Bank Governor at a reception in Washington, where their headquarters is located. Today, that is a different story.
“Mr Speaker, most of you are aware I am really on best of terms with my good friend in Canberra, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
“In the new environment that my government has created, the Australians will give us a hand in improving the living standards of our people by giving a clearer focus to their aid programmes and minimising the large amounts siphoned off to Australian consultants.
“But when things were really tough in 2002 the Australian Government under John Howard refused point blank to give us any temporary help. ‘Show us some runs on the board first,’ was the response given to one of my ministers.
“And let me inform you, if you do not know this already, only seven weeks after the Honourable Opposition Leader became Prime Minister of PNG in July 1999, the Australian Government under John Howard agreed to provide PNG with A$30 million in budget support.
“Further loans came less than a month later from the Asian Development Bank. This was  supplemented by funds from the Australian Government and the United Nations Development Programme.
“In retrospect Mr Speaker, I am glad the World Bank and the Australians gave us a hard time when we came into office in 2002. It forced us to stand on our own two feet in our efforts to plan a better future for our people.”
Somare spoke about the forestry projects and the US$1.2 billion Ramu Nickel project which is nearing completion with an estimated lifespan of some 30 years.
In terms of mineral exploration, Somare said: “PNG has to be one of the brightest spots worldwide.

Future bright
“The world’s biggest gold miner, Barrick Gold, has publicly stated that PNG is one of its foremost targets worldwide for gold exploration.”
Somare also spoke at length about the massive magnitude, volume and extensive benefits of the LNG project, particularly to the landowners and the country.
“Broadly the national government agreed to give landowners an additional 2% equity in the project to take their equity to 7%. In addition to benefits derived from 2% royalty and 2% development levy, the total amounts involved will equate to more than K20 billion over the 30 year life of the project.
“As a 19.6% equity owner, the PNG Government will be privy to all the information pertinent to the project.
“We are fortunate we did not need to seek the advice of the World Bank nor our Australian friends for this important exercise. Nevertheless, our team of PNG negotiators was able to extract major concessions from the project developers by re-imposing an additional profit tax.”
Somare said the Opposition Leader was eager to criticise the government because it got the most significant project in the nation’s history underway and the future has never looked brighter.
“Most sensible people will be astonished by this. Ironically, since I have announced that I am steeping down from office at the end of this term, all the project benefits will flow to another Prime Minister, who will be among the winners in the 2012 elections.
“What about the Opposition Leader’s warning that PNG could become ‘dangerously dependent’ on the resources sector? Have you ever heard the Australian Government talk about being too dependent on its resources sector, or any other country for that matter?” Somare asked.