Madang deserves better services, candidate says

Madang deserves better services, a local, who quit his job to contest the elections, said.
Simon Merton, an Australian-born PNG citizen who lived almost his entire life in Madang, left his managerial position at an agricultural supply company in the province to contest the Madang open seat.
“I was the branch manager at an agricultural supply company in Madang but I recently left my job to help my province,” Merton said.
He said the deteriorating state of Madang roads had saddened and angered him.
“It really upsets me to see that the roads and bridges that I used to travel on, no longer exist,” Merton said.
“It is bad enough that we have no new infrastructure, but to sit back and watch the existing infrastructure crumble away is disgraceful.
“One has to see the state of Madang town to imagine what the rest of the district is like.”
According to Merton, the Modilon hospital has been plagued with ongoing issues from lack of drug-resistant tuberculosis drugs to not having a working X-ray machine for more than five months and shortage of staff.
There was a general shortage of medical drugs.
Merton said those issues were not ones that could be fixed before an election but issues that needed ongoing commitment and dedication. He joined the campaign as a founding member of People’s Movement for Change party, led by Northern Governor Gary Juffa.
Merton moved to Madang in 1985 and has lived in the province since.  At the age of 15, he was adopted into the Amaab clan in Bahobo village and has been initiated as a fully-fledged tribesman.
“My father, Gerry Merton, was also a PNG citizen, therefore, I am a second generation Papua New Guinean,” he said.