Agiru’s legacy will live on

Family, friends and the people of Hela and Southern Highlands and the rest of PNG were this weekend and into the next few weeks will be mourning the death of the founding Governor of Hela, Hon Anderson Angobe Pawa Agiru, MP.
Agiru, who has been battling with kidney related illnesses for over a year was pronounced dead on arrival last Thursday morning at the Pacific International Hospital in Port Moresby.
The death of the three term firebrand and no nonsense parliamentarian is a shock to many. As the cloud of immediate loss and grief passes, we will be able to assess the long term loss of a true champion of the people and all things Papua New Guinean.
Agiru was a rugby league star, a climate change ambassador, a fighter for equal benefits for all, and a statesman.
But he will best be remembered for his stoic stand against piping PNG Gas to Queensland.
In 2002, when the National Government proposed piping the PNG Gas to Australia, Agiru alone stood up and said he and his people would never allow that to happen.
He wanted for gas to be developed on-shore.
Writing in his Hela Dawn magazine recently Agiru said: “I wanted for Hela’s last mother pig, gas, to be killed onshore. That was realised in May 2008 with the signing of the PNG LNG gas agreement.
“In July 2015, I stood beside Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to see the LNG tanker, the Spirit of Hela, sail away with the historic first shipment of LNG and a week later was with the PM, Tari Pori MP James Marape and Koroba Lake Kopiago MP Philip Undialu when the Spirit of Hela sailed into the majestic Tokyo bay to deliver its historic cargo.
“It was truly a joyous moment.”
At the Kokopo Umbrella Benefits Sharing Agreement negotiations, Agiru was relentless in his push for greater equity for landowners and provincial governments, for high impact infrastructure projects not only for Hela but the Central, Gulf, Southern Highlands and Western as well.
Most recently he released a statement calling upon Government to honour the Gas Act to ensure that certain portions of LNG benefits accruing to other provincial governments of PNG as stipulated in the law be honoured.
He was a far sighted leader who saw clearly the benefits and fit-falls of today’s decisions years down the line.
When the nation was mesmerised by the benefits accruing from the PNG LNG project, he said: “LNG is done, delivered, dusted. Now the only challenge that is left in LNG is to develop a  petrochemical industry.
“Agriculture and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are the most important challenges I want to tackle after LNG. Agriculture and LNG do not make headlines, but neither do oxygen nor water and they sustain our lives.”
When Parliament was about to pass the Sovereign Wealth Fund law, he wrote to the PM from his hospital in China calling for Government to amend the proposed law so that control of the fund was not placed in the hands of the SWF management and for a significant portion of the  fund to be invested in infrastructure projects in country.
Alas, as one bereaved mourner, Works Minister Francis Awesa said on Saturday: “He has prepared the mumu but he will not partake of it.”
That is as it should be. It is now for the living to carry on the work of those who have died before they have realised the fruits of their labour.
Perhaps the wisest words came from Vincent Agiru, the governor’s brother, who has called for peace and dignity during the wake period.
He has called for political bickering, for personal and business differences to be left aside so that we people can accord his brother the respect he earned and deserves.
As people mourn his passing for a short time they must also celebrate his life and his contributions and continue to live his dream.
We too call upon all Hela to maintain peace, dignity and calm because that would be the last wish of our leader.
In funeral notice we run today are the quotes from John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let our hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Taking the words of Jesus, Governor Agiru seems to be speaking to each and everyone from beyond death. We must take heed.
We pass our condolences and sympathies to the family of the late governor.