A Micah admirer speaks out

TRIBUTE

By ALPHONSE BARIASI
BEN Micah’s impact on national affairs is possibly more momentous than Papua New Guineans might know.
That is from someone who had personally witnessed the man he regards as a political ‘tactician’ at his best. Terry Charles has had a long relationship with Micah and a lot of admiration for his political savvy which at times could be a little militant too.
“I’d like to describe him as a politician who operated with a military mind,” says Terry.
Micah in turn had drawn inspiration from leaders such as Fidel Castro from faraway Cuba and closer to home, Morobe’s Utula Samana.
In word and deed, he would have been totally at home in any left-leaning regime if Terrys’ personal testimony of the man is to be to believed.
The former Lae-based gangster thanks Micah for his transformation in thinking and attitude to life. However, he says not enough was said and done in tribute to the man who has had a hand in history-making events. So disappointed with the turnout and tributes to the former Kavieng MP and state minister that he eventually walked out of the funeral service held at the Sir John Guise Indoor Stadium last Wednesday.
While a student leader, both at the University of Technology in Lae and as president of the National Union of Students then, Micah had harboured socialist convictions that he brought into his career in and out of politics later on. Convictions which might have been watered down somewhat through his association with other, older politicians perhaps.
Not many might know and appreciate that Micah had wielded a strong enough pull and push in political circles both as an MP and an outsider to change governments. He became something of a king-maker, Terry says of his mentor.
A couple of weeks after his demise on March 16 from suspected heart attack, Terry and his old Lae comrade Peter Normai spoke of much they appreciated what Micah had done for them as individuals and for the country.
Terry and Peter had led lives of crime, especially armed robbery in their youth and were it not for men like Micah and former Morobe administrator and chief secretary Sir Manasupe Zurenuoc, they would not have become what they are today.
Micah and Zurenuoc were instrumental in turning the lives of former criminals around. Terry and Peter are now living decent lives and running small businesses due to the work these prominent Papua New Guineans had done in the ‘underworld,’ away from the eyes of the public. In their youth, Central men, Terry from Saroa Village in Rigo and Peter from Goilala had joined notorious criminal gangs that ruled in Lae and Port Moresby.
Now that Micah and Sir Manasupe before him have gone, their precious acts of kindness and words of advice are remembered and appreciated more.
Micah, and others like Powes Parkop had led non-governmental organisations like Melanesian Solidarity in those days, which shot them to prominence in the political limelight.
Incidentally, Parkop was the only MP who had shown up at Micah’s funeral.
Micah was destined to be someone who wielded considerable influence, both as elected politician and as someone outside of Parliament but still was able to pull strings here and here to make or break a government.
Such revelations come out naturally after the demise of a prominent figure, not only to eulogise them but also tell ‘the other’ side to a life that has impacted the rich and famous as well as the man on the street.
It was to this end that two of Micah from associates and admirers volunteered to tell about their association with the former Member for Kavieng.
Micah is perhaps best known for his role in the driver’s seat of the reforms to the provincial government system and later as Minister for State Enterprises who engineered yet other reforms to the structure of the State’s holding company. He would have a hand in the eventual outcome of the Bougainville conflict too.
Terry Charles was born in 1964 at Saroa Village in Rigo District of Central. When he was two, his family moved over the Lae where his dad worked with the Public Works Department while his mother was a nursing sister at the Angau Memorial Hospital.
Growing up, he attended Huonville Primary School and Lae High School. But the education journey was cut short because early on he had got into wrong company. As a result, he was kicked after Grade 8. From that young age, Charlie walked straight into a life of crime and incarceration. He had been to seven of the country’s prisons after initially being jailed in Lae’s Buimo prison.
His link to Micah the student leader at Unitech was Micah’s elder brother Danny who was a Seventh-day Adventist evangelist who had regular visits to the Buimo prison ministering to the inmates.
In one of those visits he invited his younger brother to preach to the inmates so Charlie was drawn to him there. Years later, Charlie and another friend of his Peter Normai got close to Micah.
“He took us out of the streets and placed us within political circles and even when he was himself out of politics at times, we have remained his associates until his passing,” Terry says.
In politics, Micah stood out among his colleague MPs for his ability many don’t have. He was determined and knew precisely what he wanted, Terry says.
With him gone now some might remember him still for his confession over social media about how those in positions of privilege and power had squandered public wealth. The confession had been featured in this paper a couple of weeks back.
Whichever way one weigh it against what the man accomplished, there is little denying that Micah did shake up a few people and institutions. At least that’s what his close associate Terry Charles would like the world to know.