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Sports |
Devaluation of kina the only
option of choice
I REFER to the letter “Beware of the
financial whiz kid” (Aug 8) by “Election Watch”.
When Sir Julius Chan was prime minister, I worked in his office
and I categorically rebuke and condemn the writer on the issues
raised.
First, on the devaluation of the kina in 1994, Sir Julius was the
foreign affairs and trade minister at the time and had very little
to do with government spending until he took over after the
dismissal of Paias Wingti by the court in September that year.
Faced with the currency crisis of overspending and the impact of
the Asian currency crisis in early October, Sir Julius had no
choice but to stop the excessive outflow of the kina by devaluing
it.
The writer is treading on defamatory grounds in trying to link Sir
Julius to the Cayman Island loan – the writer obviously has no
clue about what he is getting on about.
The writer should acknowledge that when Sir Julius left office in
1997, the central bank’s international reserves had recovered to
almost US$600 million worth of kina.
At the time, one kina was equivalent to A$1 or 75 US cents.
The writer completely ignored two commissions of inquiry which
cleared Sir Julius in the Sandline saga.
Also, there was no attempt to massacre anyone.
The Sandline project never took off and not one shot was fired.
Who or what is the writer talking about?
Emos E Daniels
Editor’s note: Sir Julius Chan was prime minister from
September 1994 to July 1997. The Asian financial crisis started in
July 1997.
 
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