A last chance for Lae MP today

 LAE MP Loujaya Kouza’s reason for boycotting today’s Morobe Tutumang (provincial assembly) session to discuss the proposed Lae City Authority is utter nonsense.

This is the Lae people’s el­ected representative in Parliament who has gone absent without official leave since the beginning of the year and now refuses to attend a crucial meeting that will discuss the future status of the city.

How arrogant can Kouza be? 

In her usual “beat-around-the bush” response, she told The National: “I won’t be going (to Lae) because it has become an Opposition agenda to fight the O’Neill Government. 

“What is going to happen in the Tutumang is an Opposition versus Government debate. 

“I’m not a member of the Opposition so I’m not going there.”

Kouza took a swipe at Morobe Governor Kelly Naru, saying, “The Morobe Governor should be sitting in the Opposition bench and not on the Government bench.”

Not surprisingly, the Lae MP is sour grapes over moves within the Tutumang to appoint Markham MP and Housing Minister Paul Isikiel as chairman of the Lae City Authority.

Kouza had relinquished the Religion, Youth and Com­munity Development Ministry last year to await her appointment as chairperson of the Lae City Commission.

Although she was earmarked for the job by  the O’Neill Government, stiff opposition from the governor and his provincial executive council resulted in the Prime Minister’s intervention last week to renegotiate the proposal.

Seemingly, Naru has succeeded in highlighting Kouza’s prolonged absence from the electorate and her ambiguous role in the failed K7 million Lae biometric identification project to send a clear message to the Lae people that their MP is not a fit and proper person to chair the proposed authority.

It is understood that under the provisions of the Lae City Authority Bill, the Lae MP is not an automatic choice for the chair. The legislation is expected to be tabled in the May sitting of Parliament.

Having lost electoral support and her grip on the proposed city authority, Kouza is now daring her Kawac-speaking people of Butibam and Kamkumung villages in Lae to “stand up now and support me”.

Her eleventh-hour plea is simply a joke.

Where was the Lae MP when the people of Butibam and Kamkumung, as well as the wider Ahi community and Lae district, needed her?

Kouza has reportedly been living in style and air-conditioned comfort in hotels in Port Moresby and Lae for the past two years.

As far as the Lae people are concerned, their MP couldn’t give a damn about their needs and wants.

Kouza was conspicuous by her absence when several major tragedies rocked the industrial hub in January. She was not around to feel the pain and suffering of the victims’ families, especially her own Butibam people who mourned the brutal slaying of Moanna Barnanga Pisimi.

The young mother was like a niece to Kouza but “auntie” Loujaya never turned up at the hauskrai and the funeral service.

In her absence, Governor Naru and Lae Lord Mayor Koim Trilu Leahy comforted the grieving families and attended too her official engagements in the city.

So how does Kouza expect the people of Butibam and Kamkumung to support her in her time of need?

Maybe, the only way she can save face is get on that early flight to Lae and attend the Tutumang meeting.

Kouza can use this meeting to her great advantage. She will need to deliver the speech of her short political life because her future as Lae MP depends on it.

In her opening remarks, she must apologise to the Lae people for her absence and the lack of leadership she has displayed so far.

Kouza must then assure the electorate that she will do her utmost best to emulate her predecessor, Bart Philemon. 

She must clearly spell out her plans and programmes for the remainder of her term and how she will achieve her objectives.

Today’s Tutumang meeting is a golden opportunity for Kouza to put her foot down and start being the leader that the Lae people have been missing since Philemon’s departure in 2012.

If Kouza remains pig-headed and boycotts the meeting, she will be history come 2017.