Malabag pays tribute to leaders

By DULCIE OREKE
UNIVERSITY of Papua New Guinea students donned their respective traditional regalia last Saturday to mark the country’s 37th Independence Day.
The crowd was captivated as students in grass skirts danced and swayed to various beats of the kundu drums and chants.
Health and HIV Minister Michael Malabag paid tribute to leaders who helped Papua New Guinea gain independence.
“We must pay tribute to our leaders at the time for their able leadership and foresight to steer us clear from the anarchy and mayhem that other countries experienced,” he said.
He told students to pay tribute to student leaders of UPNG at the time for the active role they played in advocating the peaceful transition from the “yoke of colonialism to nationhood”.
Malabag said at a time when the intellectual cadre of Papua New Guineans was in short supply, the student body of UPNG provided the intellectual impetus to argue the case for independence.      
He said in the year and months that led up to Independence, hardly a day went by without a public forum at the campus where students openly expressed their views about independence and other issues of national significance.
Malabag said during the 1974 holiday, student groups from different provinces took it upon themselves to go back to their respective provinces to conduct educational programmes on the meaning of independence.