Namah: Only my voters will beenefit

By ELIAS NANAU in Vanimo
PNG Party leader Belden Namah has retained his Vanimo-Green River open seat in West Sepik for another term, making this a first 10-year consecutive term to be held by an MP from the electorate.
The only such feat was recorded by the late Bewa Tow during the House of Assembly.
The ride for Namah, though, was not so easy as a result of controversies in national politics and a stiff opposition from 17 candidates who formed an alliance to trade votes between themselves. The allies were fearless against Namah and did everything they could to unseat him.
However, in the end, Namah triumphed over them.
Though Namah’s return was welcome news for many in the electorate and Papua New Gui­nea, he did not make the finishing line easily with an absolute majority of 20,000 in the primaries as he had predicted. This was achieved after eliminations on the second preference scoring 7,390 votes at 3.30am on Sunday.
The runner-up was Willie Obow Inaru who mustered 4,815 among the 26 other candidates who joined the race this year.
After Namah signed his writ at the Vanimo grandstand oval on Sunday at 10.40am before returning officer Peter Solo, Namah told those who had gathered to witness the occasion that he managed to pull through because of votes from his Bewani Wutung Onei local level government.
“Without you (Bewani Wutung Onei people), I will not be elevated for the second time,” he said.
Namah was trailing badly when counting began with ballot boxes from the inland Green River LLG, then to Amanab, Walsa and Vanimo urban. But he surged to lead until the declaration when counting moved to the final 36 ballot boxes from his Bewani Wutung Onei LLG. He only collected about 1,200 votes from Green River, Amanab, Imonda and Vanimo urban LLGs.
“Long 2007, mi tok mi memba bilong husait i votim mi na husait ino votim mi (in 2007, I said I will represent those who did vote and those who did not vote for me).
“Tude, mi tok mi memba bliong Bewani Wutung Onei tasol (today, let me say that I will only represent the people of Bewani, Wutung and Onei),” Namah said.
He said the people from the inland areas of Imonda, Amanab and Green River “will suffer for five years”.
Namah said he built more than 200km of road, assisted Green River High School but voters from these areas did not vote for him.
“Nau, mi no inap luksave long yu long narapela faivpela yia (I will not help you in the next five years),” he said.
“I will concentrate my service on Bewani, Wutung and Onei.
“In the next election, I will win by first count.”
Namah is described as “a sharp shooter” who fears no one in what he says and is labelled as “daddy” by everyone who visits him for financial assistance in Vanimo.
This week, there would be feasting and celebration with plenty to drink at his West Tower home in Vanimo.
“Mi laikim yupela olgeta kam antap na statim pati inap long wanpela wik (I want you all to come up to my house and party for a week),” he told the people.
Partying started at 3.30am on Sunday with the song Kolwin iron long Bewani (by the Sagothorns Band) as the theme song.
While Namah’s frank statements to exclude the other local level governments in his development plans, apart from his Bewani Wutung Onei may be emotionally-charged, and he may not make a retraction later, he needed to take a step back and do a stock take of why people did not vote for him.
Namah should also ask why 27 candidates ran against him.
He may also need to quantify to the people the major developments he did for his district in the last five years. The developments would be his scorecard.
Those who did not vote for him may have voted out of conscience and they implied that they needed real basic service delivery.
The people of Bewani Wutung Onei and Vanimo urban were privileged to have better roads at least, and possibly easy access to proper health services, telecommunication among others. But, for the people from the inland areas, these are still dreams that needed to be realised 37 years on.
Public servants reported that the government stations were overgrown with tall grass, there were no telecommunication services, roads were impassable, there were no cars as in the past, air services were unreliable and government buildings have
deteriorated to a dilapidated state.
A concerned citizen and local transport service provider John Beckopwai said it was about time all the dilapidated buildings were set on fire and new ones built to indicate a new era of change.
Namah had retained his Vanimo-Green River open seat for the second time and his ultimate goal is now to become the prime minister.
“I will form the next government in three weeks time in West New Britain,” he said.
Namah said he would set another history for being West Sepik’s first prime minister.
He has set his national priorities to promote law and order and this will promote investor confidence to boost the economy.
He said he would provide K1 million each to police and defence and K500,000 to Correctional Services during the supplementary budget.
Namah said free education, health care and 10% support to churches would fall through when law and order was in place.
He needed to focus on his entire electorate too if he was to set another history, returning for the third term with a first preference absolute majority count.