| Sports |
The evergreen Dadi
Toka
JACK METTA trumpets
Port Moresby’s own Peter Pan, soon to be a septuagenarian
HE’S definitely the man about town
and had been for a long time. He’s handsome, flamboyant, athletic
and youthful – all the ingredients of a person who has just about
everything.
And that’s not saying the heights he had scaled in between – in
business, sports, music and just about everything else.
He’s pushing 70; in fact, come Monday next week, he will have hit
70 not out.
He’s organised a birthday bash for tomorrow – two days in advance
– that augurs to rival the best that notable Papua New Guineans
and celebrities alike in this country had ever thrown.
Dadi M Toka, OBE, father, grandfather, great grandfather,
businessman, sportsman, musician, etc, etc is certainly going to
act his age and take his friends, relatives and invited guests
down the memory lane in a big way.
The name of one Dadi Toka is synonymous with Golden Oldies – a
term that refers to “relics” of the past and in Mr Toka’s case,
revolves around sports, song and getting together with his peers.
He is a pioneer of sorts in work and sports having been among the
first Hanuabadans and indeed, Papua New Guineans, to be employed
as public servants during the colonial regime.
In fact, as a clerk, he was very close to the heart of the
administration at Konedobu where decisions concerning the entire
Territory of Papua New Guinea were being made at the time.
“The administrators were making decisions just next door to my
office and I could hear everything that was going on,” Mr Toka
reminisced.
He also watched the Australian colonists at play on the rugby
league field and the golfing fairway and eventually was among the
first nationals to become actively involved in these sports.
To write his life’s story is to go through 70 years page by page
and that can be rather tedious and time consuming. So Mr Toka
simply put down his life’s story as being “God’s blessings”.
He disputes the perception that he has everything “because life’s
a struggle” but his had been a rather determined one, to say the
least.
“I guess, you could say it revolved around ‘dohore’ time – wait a
sec. You wanted to do things but you had to wait for it because
the opportunity just wasn’t right or the opportunity took its time
knocking on your door.”
Indeed, Mr Toka’s big break has come on the verge of his 70th
year. With the support from a long time friend Bernard Chan, the
two gentlemen have embarked on a bold multi-million kina venture
to construct a set of first-class apartments beside the Port
Moresby harbour near the Port Moresby Yacht Club.
“I am most grateful that I am able to see a dream realised and
taste the fruits of a determined struggle,” Mr Toka told
Rootmettas prior to the groundbreaking ceremony officiated by
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare yesterday.
Mr Toka attributes his longevity to his athleticism – being active
on the playing fields in Kone Tigers colours in the early 1960s
and his involvement in the Golden Oldies rugby league and the
Masters athletics and golf tournaments both in PNG and abroad.
“I’m an athlete by heart. I grew up watching rugby league and was
a caddie on the golfing fairway so you could say I was conditioned
to become great in sports,” Mr Toka joked during an interview this
week.
He is credited with being among the first Papua New Guineans to be
recruited into the all-white ranks of league and was later
responsible for starting up an all-native rugby league competition
at Hanuabada.
As a septuagenarian, Mr Toka has the appearance of Peter Pan, the
fantasy boy in British novelist and playwright J.M. Barrie’s book,
who refuses to grow up and spends all his time with a gang of lost
boys in Neverland.
But far from being the mischievous Peter Pan, Mr Toka is peaking
in business and sports (he’s a life member of the Port Moresby
Sports Club). And as a landowner, he is also responsible for the
relocation of the very posh Royal Papuan Yacht Club.
He is savoring every moment of his life’s achievement including an
OBE for services to sports and community and in his present frame
of mind, I believe a knighthood is in store.
Congratulations on a happy 70th birthday, Mr Toka and many, many
happy returns.
And we are reminded of the Wise Counsellor’s words: “Reputation is
what others think you are, character is what God knows you are…”
 
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