Banning Garnaut harmful than good

ALLOW me to share my view on the issue of Prof Ross Garnaut being banned from entering PNG (The National, Nov 5).
Garnaut was the chairman of the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program Ltd (PNG­SDP) from 2002 to this year.
The decision by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to ban Garnaut from entering PNG over a comment is simply childish and has a greater effect on the long-term development plan that PNGSDP has under
the chairmanship of Garnaut in Western province.
I do not see any justification as to why the prime minister has put Garnaut on notice, unless the reasons are otherwise.
Pursuing one’s self-ego, pride and political career at the expense of the people of Western who use the waterways for their basic survival should not be the motive behind this proposal.
What we should be proposing and working towards is making the means and ends meet together, especial­ly when pursuing development in the province.
Under Garnaut, the vision of PNGSDP is to make Western a socio-economic model province of Papua New Guinea.
I would like to stress that some of the major infrastructure projects that have been implemented and those yet to be implemented are integrated, va­lue for money, sustainable and economically viable as that the returns are huge.
These projects are investments to both the national government and the Western provincial government.
The projects include the upgrade of Daru Airport, the telecommunication roll-out project, the Daru Deep Sea International Port which
is under construction, the Star Mountains Institution of Techno­logy which is under construction, the sponsorship of top students from the three secondary schools in the province to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the roll-out of the rubber project.
Upon completion of all the pro­jects, Western will be transformed into one of the major socio-econo­-
mic players in the country by 2020.
Therefore, the people of Western need Garnaut’s presence and lea­dership.
Nevertheless, if our leaders think otherwise, then what long-term sustaina­ble development plan has the government of PNG for the people of Western?
I call on the governor, the three MPs from the province and the prime minister to tell the people of Western the reasons why they see it fit to change PNG­SDP and the integrated tangible and sustainable development plan.
PNGSDP is very sensitive to the people of Western for the reason being that the environmental damage caused by BHP Biliton to those li­ving along the corridor of the Fly River, the PNGSDP was born to give hope, human advancement and progress.

Strategist
Port Moresby