Madang MPs urged to put differences aside, work together

Madang Governor Peter Yama was sworn in at the Madang provincial assembly on Tuesday.
The six open MPs are in Port Moresby attending the induction at Parliament House this week but 13 LLG presidents witnessed the swearing-in ceremony.
Yama was sworn in by Madang provincial magistrate Josephine Kilage, assembly clerk Rachael Bultin and provincial administrator Daniel Aloi.
He said that he wanted to get that out of the way so he could get to work as governor immediately.
The six open MPs – Jonny Ananaias Alonk (Middle Ramu), Robert Naguri (Bogia), Chris Nangoi (Sumkar), Bryan Kramer (Madang), Peter Sapia (Raicoast) and Jimmy Uguro (Usino-Bundi) – are all first-time parliamentarians and are attending the induction programme in Port Moresby.
Yama urged them to leave national politics in Port Moresby and concentrate on serving people in their respective electorates when they returned to Madang.
He said past experiences showed that MPs have not been working together as a team in the past 10-15 years.
Yama challenged LLG presidents to work closely with their ward councillors to ensure government services reached the people at all levels.
“In the last 10-15 years I didn’t see cooperation between LLG presidents and MPs and ward councillors, and people called them conmen,” he said.
“A new day has dawned for Madang and I want us to work together to move this province forward.”