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PM urged to honour promise
THE Prime Minister has been called on to honour the commitment
he made during the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians’
Conference held at Parliament in 2005 to create 20 reserved
seats for women only to contest in the national elections. This
was among other concerns raised by the Papua Women Empowering in
Leadership for the Government to address in the next five years
in their congratulatory message to Sir Michael Somare for
retaining the Prime Minister’s post. “The lack of women’s
participation in Parliament must be addressed as one of a
priority agendas,” Susan Setae, president of the PWEL, said. The
other concern raised was to give equal share of portfolios to
Southern region MPs as development in the region was lagging
behind the rest of the country.
Alternate transport urged
THE Sepik community in Western Highlands has called on the
Government to provide another means of transport following the
closure of Airlink recently. They raised the matter yesterday
when the body of a policeman, who died recently in Mt Hagen, had
to remain in Port Moresby overnight before being flown to Vanimo
today. They said a similar situation occurred when another East
Sepik died in Mt Hagen recently. His relatives found it too
expensive and decided to go by road to Madang even though it was
risky and then board a ship to Wewak. Paul Uragian, also a
policeman, said travellers along the Highlands Highway risked
accidents and hold-ups. He said travelling by Air Niugini was
expensive because of the routing.
MLP commends NA,
coalition
MELANESIAN Liberal Party president Ronnie Kalulu has commended
the National Alliance and its coalition partners for the
formation of the 8th National Government and the election of
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare. Mr Kalulu said in a statement
this week that NA and its partners had honoured their commitment
in Kokopo. He added that it was a great opportunity for himself
and committee members to travel to Port Moresby to witness the
swearing-in of their two MPs – Dr Allan Marat (Rabaul) and
Malachi Tabar (Gazelle) last week. Mr Kalulu said with the two
MPs in government more tangible projects would be brought to
their electorate.
Chief’s re-election
lauded
FORMER MP for Tari Pori Sir Matiabe Yuwi said last week that he
was happy to see Sir Michael Somare re-elected as Prime
Minister. Sir Matiabe, who served as Tari Pori’s first MP since
1968 with Sir Michael during the days of self-government,
described Sir Michael as a good friend who had held on to his
ideals since independence. He added that Sir Michael was one of
the world’s few leaders that had led a country for a long time.
He further urged Sir Michael to appoint the newly elect MP for
Tari Pori James Marape to head the Ministry for Petroleum and
Energy since Southern Highlands had the resource.
Papindo opens doors in
Goroka
PAPINDO Trading opened a new supermarket in Goroka last week,
attracting many people with reduced prices for the occasion.The
management had to get police to help its security guards with
the crowd control. It is the second outlet in Goroka for the
company. The supermarket’s operations manager Jackie Lew said
they offered a variety of goods, from groceries to hardware.
School gets K70,000 worth of books
HAGEN Park Secondary School in Western Highlands received
K70,000 worth of books from the son of former Hagen Open member
Keith Levy yesterday.
Jim Levy, who is the deputy principal of Farrer Memorial Boys
Agricultural High School in New South Wales, Australia, handed
over the 3,680 reading books to principal Simon Opa.
He said he hoped that one day, one of the students from Hagen
Park would study at his school in Australia.
Mr Levy said he lived in Mt Hagen in the late 1960s-1970s and
had fond memories of his childhood.
Proper enrolment urged
THE Hela Gimbu Association has urged the Electoral Commission to
carry out a proper enrolment exercise for Southern Highlands
province.
Chairman Damien Arabagali said that in the recent general
election, many people could not vote because their names were
not on the electoral roll.
He said Tari Pori had the biggest population but the electoral
roll had only 39,813 registered voters.
In Nipa Kutubu, there were 74,780 registered voters when in
1997, there were only 19,780, he said and asked whether the
Electoral Commission could confirm the big increase.
Over in Mendi, the number of registered voters had jumped to
68,391, he said in a statement.
He claimed that a certain group from a particular ethnic group
in Southern Highlands had inflated the numbers.
Mr Arabagali, who congratulated the elected Hela leaders, said
the Hela region had many voters but most of them were not
registered.
Manus govt, private
sector slam Telikom
By ELIZABETH VUVU
THE Manus provincial government and private sector are fed up
with poor telecommunication services for the past three weeks.
Telephone lines have been experiencing interruptions and the
Telikom office in Manus says it cannot do anything as the
problems are at the Boroko Exchange in Port Moresby.
Provincial administrator Wep Kanawi said that whenever he
inquired, he would get the same “standard answer” – that the
problem is in Port Moresby.
“As a corporation, Telikom should start to seriously think about
the needs of its customers,” he said.
“They should adopt a more outward look on how they can better
provide their services instead of having an inward attitude of
always protecting themselves.”
Manus Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Peter Poiou
said emails, faxes, banking transactions and businesses were
badly affected by the interruptions.
Government
urged to help teachers
A VILLAGE leader in the upper Bena area of Eastern Highlands
province has urged the Government to review teachers’ salaries
and employment conditions.
Toyali Akunai of Segeya village said that as a former teacher,
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare should understand the plight
of the teachers and make it one of his first priorities.
He said this was because teachers were facing economic
hardships.
“My brother has a degree and has been teaching for 20 years but
he is paid like a plantation labourer,” Mr Akunai said.
“I have to help him and his family as the K300 he earns
fortnightly cannot sustain them decently for two weeks.”
Mr Akunai said the Government had said a lot about the improved
economy in the last five years.
“Naturally, such favourable conditions should have a ripple
effect in the nation,” he added.
“It is ironic that our teachers are just managing to survive.”
 
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