Educate people at Manam care centres

I HAVE been following the Manam resettlement activities since the Department of Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs organised the first of its kind peace and reconciliation ceremony at Asuramba care centre in 2020 and started producing quarterly newsletters, but, unfortunately, it stopped around last October.
According to the newsletters, the current management took office in June 2020 and moved the office from Port Moresby to Madang.
The Manam Resettlement Authority has a board that consists of a chairman, the deputy is Madang administrator and other members are Bogia administrator, Madang Catholic bishop, a non-government organisation representative, a landowner representative from Andarum and a representative from Manam Island.
However, all the arguments and complaints are directed at the skeleton staff (about seven or eight) headed by the chief executive officer instead of advising the Bogia administration and the Manam Island representative to take their arguments up with Bogia development authority and or the Manam Resettlement Authority board.
Some Manam islanders think that they own the authority and I disagree with.
The organisation is a development partner for five local level governments involved in the resettlement exercise: Sumgilbar in Sumkar, Almami, Yawar and Iabu in Bogia and Josephstaal local level government in Middle Ramu.
It is evident that so much time and money is spent on three care centres and the surrounding host communities.
I understand that last year, the authority assisted the people with school fees, purchased school materials and supplies and funded projects for 15 Iabu local level government wards.
This is not right.
The Manam Resettlement Authority has arranged to have the displaced people at Mangem care centre registered to receive NID cards but the leaders there think that exercise was waste of time and not important.
There is a social impact analyses team currently collecting data at Potsdam care centre.
The team were scolded at last week.
I want the Bogia development authority, Manam Island representatives and the authority’s Sasusamu Bay manager to start visiting the care centres regularly to educate the people on the functions and requirements necessary to make informed decisions for everyone affected, including the host communities and Andarum landowners.
The Government needs to know the correct number of households to resettle the people.

Paul Adani Marika,
Former Kiap and Former Yawar
LLG President,
Bogia