O’Neill apologises to Somares

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
FORMER Prime Minister and Ialibu-Pangia MP Peter O’Neill has publicly apologised to the Somare family and people of East Sepik for any “grief and pain” that he may have caused to Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare during Sir Michael’s political career.
“I know we’ve had our own differences and if I had caused some grief and pain to the Somare family or himself, we apologise for it,” O’Neill said.
“We say sorry.
“Sir Michael had a unique capacity.
“He had the capacity to forgive, capacity of humbleness, which put him above everyone else for 49 years.”
“He continued to practise that, largely because of the love for his country.
“That is why he was able to rise above challenges.
“Many of us who are in politics today, have served in his cabinet, we have served in his government in various capacities.
“What a unique style of leadership, the Melanesian way of leadership, that he provided, guiding many young leaders who came after him to achieve some of the things that we have been able to achieve.
“That is again a credit to Sir Michael.”
O’Neill thanked Lady Veronica for her steadfast support to Sir Michael as his political career took him away from home.
“We must say ‘thank you’ to Lady Veronica who stood by him all those years,” he said.
“Political life is a challenging life.
“But for a woman to stand by her husband during those trying times, is a credit to her and the strength of the family’s elites.
“For that, we give credit to her.
“Thank you for giving this unique man to our nation.
“He was the right man at the right place at the right time for the history and the history of our country.
“It is therefore only fitting, as we call them our founding father.
“I hope our Government and our leaders agree with me that his birthday should be recognised as a national day for our country.”

Manus students beat garamut in mourning

By GLORIA BAUAI
EARLY on Tuesday the beat of the famous Manus garamut reverberated across Lae’s Raun Wara, welcoming the dawn of a new day.
But neither the beat nor the rhythm was an ordinary piece, says Mary Gorethy Pokalai.
Pokalai is from Ahus Island in Manus but has been living in Morobe for more than 35 years.
She explained that the garamut beat by Manus students from the PNG University of Technology that morning was a mourning piece.
The beat is called Ngahalomarei, roughly translated as the “beat of death”.
“This beat is only done by my island home, Ahus,” she said.
Pokalai said only certain areas of Manus had garamut as their traditional instrument.
She said each area had its own beat.
Pokalai said Ngahalomarei was heard in Ahus when they were mourning their dead.
“We don’t use this beat for any other singsing occasion,” she said.
“It’s only observed back home but, today, we played it here to show that we are mourning the death of the father of the nation Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare.”

PNGDF preparing to send off founding father

THE Papua New Guinea Defence Force will send off the nation’s founding father and first prime minister the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare in a full presentation of colour ceremony, Commander Maj-Gen Gilbert Toropo says.
“We have requested the Australian Defence Force to support us by providing a military aircraft (C130) to transport Sir Michael’s casket, immediate families and the burial party to Wewak, East Sepik, on Sunday.”
“We have over 200 troops involved from the three elements (land, air and maritime).
“Two ships have been engaged with HMPNG Lakekamu already sailed to Wewak with transport and vehicle requirements for the motorcade for the funeral procession in Wewak.
“HMPNG Ted Diro will support the Morobe and Manus governments to bring food to Wewak from Lorengau and Lae.
“Two helicopters will be deployed to Wewak to support in any aerial support.”
“An Air Niugini charter had left Port Moresby for Wewak on Monday with 90 troops to reinforce and support the Wewak troops in support of the funeral processions.”

Shops providing essentials will be open on Friday: Tarutia

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
ONLY shops that sell essential goods and services will be open on Friday, according to PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PNGCCI) president Ian Tarutia.
Tarutia told The National yesterday that the business community respected the Government’s decision to declare March 12 as public holiday to mark the end of mourning for Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. “An occasion like this is a once-in-a-lifetime event and deserves the country’s undivided attention,” he said.
“The chamber supports the closure of all business on Friday as a mark of respect for Sir Michael.
“However, shops that provide essential goods and services like basic medicines, baby essentials and basic food items would be open for emergency reasons.
“We remind these outlets to take appropriate security measures to avoid opportunists from looting as happened on March 1 in some parts of Port Moresby and around the country; we do not want this happening again.”
He said PNGCCI and PNG Business Council were seeking an audience with the Pandemic Response Controller David Manning on the Government’s response to the increasing Covid-19 cases in the country, especially in NCD.
The letter said: “We write to request urgent dialogue to discuss the recent spike in local transmission of the Covid-19 in PNG. The data made available to us indicates that there has been a dramatic rise in the number of cases, particularly in NCD, and anecdotal feedback from our member companies tends to validate the statistics. The business community that constitutes our membership has enjoyed a positive dialogue with your office and has put in place a number of agreed Covid-19-safe protocols. These measures have worked really well and are still being followed, however, our employees remain vulnerable and regrettably, we are now seeing more instances of positive cases in our workplaces.”