Haggai: Stop politics

By GABRIEL LAHOC
THE recent meeting in Lae between government ministers and a group of petitioners from Morobe has been condemned by the original petitioners and the provincial peace and good order committee.
And they have urged the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill not to entertain every petition presented to him in the wake of the deaths reported at the height of the ethnic violence.
They described as “pure politics” the intervention of National Planning Minister Sam Basil, Internal Security Minister John Boito and Tewai-Siassi MP Vincent Michaels, who travelled into the National Agriculture Research Institute last Monday to meet with a cross section of people and receive another petition.
Representatives of the four dead from Morobe joined forces with Morobe youth representatives who authored the first petition to the provincial and national governments and the committee executives to show their solidarity and express their concerns.
Apart from the original petition, there have three other petitions presented to Governor Luther Wenge and Basil.
Committee chairman Joshua Haggai said his committee was the only recognised body that would work with the government to resolve the crisis in Lae.
He said they would respond to the first petition after the burial of all the bodies.
 “The unity of Morobe leaders should be intact before we can address these major issues,” Haggai said.
He said the committee had medium and long-term approaches to deal with the crisis and such shortcuts would fuel more hatred and violence.
“We don’t know why and we don’t want national MPs to step in and receive more petitions; they must stop and respect this committee by working with us and providing solutions,” he said.
He said those petitioners who met with the ministers were not recognized as true representatives of the nine districts of Morobe and they leaders should know who they were dealing with.
The Morobe Youth group, which presented the first petition with support from the provincial youth council, said it recognized the provincial committee and called on the national government to respond to the first petition first.