Citizenship granted to fugitive on advise: Pala

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By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
Former foreign affairs minister Ano Pala, pictured, says that he had granted citizenship to the Indonesian fugitive Djoko Tjandra after getting advice from the PNG Citizenship Advisory Committee.
“The advice from the committee was in favour of granting citizenship. A member of the committee who was the chief adviser to the committee was the late Mataio Rabura,” Pala said.
“Rabura was the head of the Immigration at the time and therefore he was also my chief official adviser. Sadly, he is not with us today (passed on in January 2017). But official records will show the advice, he gave his approval which is consistent with the position I took.”
Pala and Rabura were implicated in the Ombudsman Commission’s report for allegedly ignoring PNG authorities to grant citizenship to Tjandra in 2012.
The report recommended for Pala and Rabura to be referred to the Ombudsman Commission and the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate.
However, Rabura had told The National in April 2016 that Tjandra had been living in Singapore for four years and the Singapore government, with Interpol, never made a fuss about his criminal record in Indonesia.
“There are plenty of unanswered questions on the (Tjandra) case from Indonesia, Association of the South-East Asian Nation (ASEAN) and Interpol that have to be thoroughly investigated,” he had said.
During a Citizenship Advisory Committee meeting on April 23, 2012 in the PNG Immigration Office, Rabura had opted for deferment after being advised by the then National Intelligence Organisation director-general Robert Nenta.
Rabura had opted to get clarification from authorities in Jakarta on allegations against Tjandra before expressing his advice.
Nenta had written a letter to Rabura dated Dec 7, 2011 advising him not to consider Tjandra’s application because he was on Interpol’s wanted list.
He also said that Tjandra should be caught and extradited to serve his term of two years imprisonment imposed by the Indonesian Supreme Court on June 11, 2009. However, he had escaped to Papua New Guinea in a chartered plane on June 9, 2009, two days before being convicted for swindling about K200 million from the Bali Bank in 1999.
Rabura said that in his letter dated April 25, 2016 to the then CAC chairman Mathew Poiya after changing his mind following advice received from the PNG ambassador to Indonesian Commodore (retired) Peter Ilau. He had written the letter to Poiya for Poiya to convince then foreign affairs and immigration minister Pala to consider granting Tjandra citizenship.
Rabura said: “Soon after the meeting, I telephoned Ambassador Ilau in Jakarta and was surprised to learn that he had forwarded the letter with his views to the Acting Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Lucy Bogari) on April 9, 2012.
“He undertook to forward that letter to me.
“Having the privilege of seeing the letter and commendations by Ambassador Ilau, I’m convinced that Mr Joko Tjandra is eligible for citizenship.”
Ilau says the allegations are political rather than criminal.
Pala then approved Tjandra’s citizenship on April 29, 2012, brushing aside Justice and Attorney-General Secretary Lawrence Kalinoe’s advice that Tjandra had not lived in the country for eight years as required by section 67 (1) of the National Constitution and did not speak pidgin or any local language fluently. Also, Nenta’s advice was brushed aside.
However, then CAC chairman and Goilala MP Poiya had recommended for citizenship based on Tjandra’s enthusiasm in bringing tangible and enormous development to the Central and Papua New Guinea.
“As I have stated during the Citizenship Advisory Committee (on April 4, 2012) meeting, why should PNG risk billions of dollars of investment because of an alleged crime, supposedly not recognised by the Singapore government thereby permitting him to reside there for four years.
“I believe we would be foolish not to welcome such large investments by Mr Tjandra.
“In summary, whilst I recommended deferment of a decision by CAC (during the meeting), I wish to place on record my support for CAC to recommend the granting of citizenship by naturalisation to Mr Joko Tjandra” Poiya said.