This is Mendi calling

By KEVIN PAMBA
HEADS of government departments and chief executives of stateowned enterprises (SOEs) had an election briefing in Mendi last Wednesday.
There was also a high profile meeting in the Southern Highlands capital the day before where the Governor-General Bob Dadae signed the 111 writs and nomination was opened for the 2017 general election.
The one-day meeting of head honchos of departments and SOEs, simulcast by NBC radio and TV, was a pertinent information sharing session for the heads that will be running the country for three months when the election process is on.
What was more salient about the gathering though, was that it was the first time for the small town in a rural province to host such a high profile government conference.
It was also an opportunity to test the capacity of Mendi to host major national events, given that Southern Highlands is to host the next PNG Games.
The local MP and Minister for Works and Implementation Francis Awesa made an impromptu visit to the meeting held in the seven-storey Agiru Centre and expressed his delight on behalf of the people that their town could be given a chance to host such a major event.
He also complained on the fact that the some towns in the country seemed to always host these events while others were completely left out.
He said places such as “Port Moresby, Alotau, Kokopo and Madang” always seemed to host important public service meetings.
Awesa said event hosting is a notable revenue earner for municipalities and surrounding communities all over the world nowadays.
It also builds the profile and reputation of the host towns and cities as destinations for business and visitors who bring in money to the local economy.
He told the bureaucrats that their visit out of Port Moresby to the provinces can give them an opportunity for insights and renewed perspectives about the rural areas where majority of the nation’s population is.
Secretary for the Department of Personnel Management John Kali, from Central, described how, on the morning before the meeting, he went out onto the streets of Mendi for his usual morning walk and was amazed to experience
the friendliness of the local people.
Awesa had reason to be elated that his home town was given a chance to host such a major government conference for the first time.
His Imbonggu electorate includes part of Mendi town and the surrounding Undiri and Kambiri tribal villages in the Lower Mendi Local Level Government.
He is a local man from the Olu tribe who lives on the southern outskirts of the town. As a former senior public servant and premier of the province, he has witnessed the town change over the years.
In fact, his family owns Kiburu Lodge, located on the southern outskirts of town and a popular accommodation venue for visitors to the Southern Highlands and neighbouring Hela and Kandep district in Enga, which is now connected by the newly opened Mendi-Kandep highway.
Kiburu Lodge which opened in the early 1990s is among a growing number of locally owned lodges and guesthouses such as Mendi Travellers Lodge, Kondea Springs and Maranda Lodge to name a few that have been built in the
Mendi town area over the last decade.
This is a far cry from past decades. Back then, Mendi Hotel built by the family business of the pioneering patrol officer and first SHP regional MP the late Ron Neville, was the only hotel in Mendi. The Clive Steele Club and
Mendi Valley (golf) Club, though not accommodation providers, were the other meeting and recreation venues serving mostly the pre-independence and immediate post-independence expatriate community. Yes, Mendi did have a golf course and club in the good old days.
Apart from the Nevilles, the expatriate community at that time included New Zealand-born businessman Doug Sharpe who owned Mendi Motors (which evolved into Wagi Valley Transport).
There were also members of the Royal Australian Engineers’ (RAE) engineering unit called the 12 Chief Engineers (12CE) Works Unit. It managed the Works Division of Souther Highlands between 1970 and 1999.
There were also missionaries of the various Christian churches. 12CE army engineers and their families were in Mendi under a bilateral arrangement between the governments of PNG and Australia.
This arrangement was to speed up infrastructure development (roads, bridges, airstrips and government buildings) in the frontier province. The engineers operated the Clive Steele Club with its swimming pool, tennis courts and an international school for their children.
Children growing up in tranquil and orderly Mendi in the 1970s and early 1980s would recall those good old times watching golf matches or caddying for the golfers at the golf course of the Mendi Valley Club.
The golf course existed on the block of land (now taken over by a bus-stop and private enterprise) between the northern end of the airport and Momei Oval.
The golf club and Mendi Valley Club are no more. The shifting circumstances also resulted in a sizeable portion of Mendi town’s population and business people relocating to places like Port Moresby over the last 20 years.
Last Wednesday’s government meeting gives a boost to the confidence that Mendi will one day return to the orderliness of the pre-1995 era.
It is in fact the gateway to the multi- billion kina oil and gas extraction project sites.
Ordinary people and the faithful local entrepreneurs of Mendi and adjoining districts would surely hope last Wednesday’s government conference was not a one-off election ruse.
They anticipate it is reflecting a shift in the thinking of Port Moresby-based policy makers and decision-makers to “go rural” as aptly described by Chief Secretary Ambassador Isaac Lupari at the meeting.