Create new electorate for Mt Bosavi, Kutubu

IN light of the call by the Minister for Inter-government Relations Pila Niningi for the Electoral Boundaries Commission (EBC) to identify and create new electorates in the country, I hope the Kutubu and Bosavi local level governments (LLGs) in Southern Highlands are included in this exercise.
The call by the minister is an answer to the plea of our people who have been oppressed and marginalised since Independence by the negligence of successive governments to revisit electoral boundaries.
I understand that other electorates in the country need to be divided as well.
The current electoral boundaries have been drawn during the colonial era and very much through arbitrary means.
Hence, our people have succumbed to development nightmares, including lack of services, infrastructure and equal political representation.
Despite these challenges, the people of Kutubu and Bosavi LLGs were honoured to receive the Southern Highlands EBC team on July 20 at the Pimaga government station in Kutubu where our leaders handed a joint-submission for a proposed Kutubu-Bosavi electorate.
A split in Nipa-Kutubu electorate has been emphasised and echoed since 1972 and until 2011, the Hela Transitional Authority proposed to have a Kutubu-Bosavi Electorate in its new province.
This call was mooted because of economic reasons associated with the Kutubu and Moran oil projects and PNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. In spite of remaining in Southern Highlands, it has been noted that infrastructure and electricity are lacking in the entire Mt Bosavi LLG area and in Kutubu.
It’s a pity given that just next door in Kutubu LLG, the lucrative Kutubu oil project has been in operation since 1992, feeding the industrial and consumerist world.
Then Moran oil and PNG LNG projects came on stream in 1995 and 2014.
This development and energy inequality are a big setback for our people.
Moreover, Nipa-Kutubu is also one of the most populated electorates in the country with 147, 005 voters recorded in the 2011 census.
According to date from the National Statistics Office, the population growth rate of PNG is at 3.1 per cent per annum, so, next year, this exponential population growth rate would require the creation of a new electorate as per the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Government Elections.
Based on the mentioned development issues, I believe the local MP would allude to the fact that numerous plea have been made on the sectors of our society and even in Parliament about the difficulties and constraints faced with regard to service delivery in Nipa-Kutubu.
Hence, there is a need for the EBC and the local MP to give a separate Kutubu-Bosavi electorate the first priority.
The Government should not be forever mesmerised with political rhetoric and the promises of resource gains, but realise that people are dying from curable diseases, snake bites and birth-related complications in remote and isolated communities such as Kantobo in Lower Kutubu, Inu near Lake Kutubu, and Fuya in Mt Bosavi.
Moreover, the people of Kutubu and Bosavi have been contributing to the national purse in terms of investment capital, enterprise skills and labour force, both in the public and private sectors.
Adding to their contributions, the Kutubu oil project has helped prop-up government finances since 1992 and it still remains as an important resource base to the PNG economy. Our forefathers have also given a warm reception to the anthropologists, missionaries, geologists and colonial administrators since 1929 up until the 1950s, helping to bring the gospel and other development into the Highlands and PNG.
I hope the EBC and relevant parliamentary committee will consider the plea of the people of Kutubu and Bosavi LLGs and give them a separate electorate.

Mike Haroj,
Kutubu-Bosavi Forum