In the cockpit of Unity Mall

COVER STORY

By PETER PUSAL
HE always wanted to be a pilot. As early as three or four years, Clarke Piokole knew his dream was to fly planes.
“I’ve always wanted to be a pilot since community school,” the 44-year-old says as he sits in a quiet IT business suite at the Unity Mall a shopping and small to medium (SME) hub in Port Moresby.
That interest in things aeronautic crystalised into a goal in primary school, and it was a conversation with his late father Pastor Kakio Piokole that set him on a journey to fulfilling a childhood dream.
“I asked him what he wanted me to be and he said to be a pilot because he knew I was always interested in that,” Captain Piokole recalls.
“So ever since then I was committed to school and to being a pilot.”
The Wabag native was privileged to spend a number of his formative years in Melbourne, Victoria, attending school under a church scholarship programme.
From there he returned to Papua New Guinea to complete his senior high school because he felt that he needed to immerse himself in what it was to be a Papua New Guinean.
“I needed to experience going to school in PNG so I could feel like a Papua New Guinean; it was important for me.”
Still intent on becoming a pilot, Piokole applied to Air Niugini’s pilot training programme at the end of Grade 12 in 1994 – he completed years’ 11 and 12 at Gordon Secondary School in Port Moresby.

Former Air Niugini pilot Capt Clark Piokole gets behind the controls of what could become the biggest crowd-funded retail business

However, since attending pilot school was not one of the options on his school leaver form he put down for civil engineering at Lae’s University of Technology (Unitech) and did a semester there before getting the call from Air Niugini that he had been accepted to train as a pilot at Parafield, an airport and training centre on the outskirts of Adelaide in South Australia.
After an intense 11-month course where he learned everything about airplanes, flying them and the commercial aspects of the industry, Piokole returned to Port Moresby to begin a career that would span 16 years.
He finally left the industry in 2014 after a breakdown in negotiations with his employer over the terms and conditions of his contract.
Air Niugini at the time had embarked on a rationalising of its business and that unfortunately meant cutbacks and reduced emoluments for its workforce.
Today, the father of six including a set of triplets, no longer flies but is grateful for the grounding and experience the industry has taught him.
Asked if he misses flying, the Highlander responds in the affirmative but maintains that other aspects of the industry could have been better.
“Yes, of course I miss flying but I won’t go back. I have been asked to go back but I’m happy doing what I’m doing at the moment.”
After 16 years as a pilot with the nation’s carrier, Air Niugini, Capt Piokole is among a group of forward thinking young Papua New Guineans looking to change the country one step at a time.
Initially investing in real estate in the mid-2000s, Piokole was able to develop a folio of properties and investments that allowed him to set up for life after flying.
“It took me about nine years to become a captain because I was also focusing on other things apart from flying.
I was interested in real estate because around 2004-2005 the property market was good, prices were low and I thought I needed to get in and invest while I had the chance.”
One of Piokole’s approaches to life centres around making use of opportunities when they present themselves and being able to recognise them and make decisions on them.
“In life there are two types of opportunities: One type are the opportunities that need to be taken straight away and the other type are the ones that can be taken later. Once I saw that there was this opportunity to invest in real estate I took it because by 2006 the property market was on its way up.”
But real estate isn’t the only area Papua New Guineans should be looking to invest in according to Piokole.
A firm believer in small government and the need for Papua New Guineans to use their initiative and be allowed to venture into businesses and areas dominated by foreign interests, Piokole has likened the current earning and spending trends of people in the country to a lake that is fed by a river but which never rises and expands to become a larger body of water as there are too many outlets.
“We earn money and spend it but where does most of that money go? Does it stay in the country or are we just giving it away and not growing and developing? Most of the money we spend is given to companies and businesses owned by foreigners, so that’s where the money is going. It’s going out and that’s why we aren’t growing. We have to find a way to keep the money in PNG with Papua New Guineans.
“PNG is like a lake. You have all the money flowing into it from businesses, resources and industry but the level remains the same because there are outlets that see that money flow out. We are giving our money away when we don’t need to.
We need to keep the money here and see that lake grow into an ocean.”
Capt Piokole is currently the manager of the Unity Mall, a SME hub in Port Moresby that houses small businesses owned by Papua New Guineans with the aim of providing them a place to operate a range of retail and food services.
The concept was started by the Christian Professionals Network (CPN) which runs another hub at the Waterfront in downtown Port Moresby and has plans for one at Gerehu and eventually expanding to other parts of the country.
Piokole said CPN were basically a group of like-minded Papua New Guineans doing their part to take back PNG as was the slogan of Prime Minister James Marape’s government.
“We need to take this country back through the retail industry. Papua New Guineans can keep their money in the country by spending it with businesses owned by Papua New Guineans. We don’t need to keep giving our money away to foreigners.”
Piokole likes to use Singapore as an example that PNG can learn from.
“Singapore is a great example of what can be done and achieved. They don’t have any natural resources but yet were able to build their country up to become one of the top economies in the region because of their attitude and some really hard work. They had that energy and that drive to do something.”
He falls back on attitude and initiative as a driving factor for young Papua New Guineans to build the country.
“I realise that it’s not the government that will make changes in the country.
It’s Papua New Guineans themselves. And they need to do it in groups, in packs, you cannot do it on your own. There has to be unity.
The Christian Professionals Network is one of those groups. We can’t rely on the government to change things, they’re too busy playing politics.
“Instead of asking what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country.”