Signs of bright future in Hela

Weekender

By JAMES GUMUNO
TARI town,once the focus of media attention is no longer hitting headlines in the newspapers or television recently.
The capital of Hela province, host to the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) project operated by America giant ExxonMobil, is now changing for the better.
The people who used to take their tribal fighting into the heart of the town resulting in many killings and bloodshed, have stopped doing that.
Until recently, the province’s police force, under the command of different commanders, has tried their best to contain the escalating law and order problems but much of their effort has been in vain.
Killings in town were carried out like a normal day-to-day activity where there was no respect for human lives.
All government service were grinding to a standstill, business houses closed, public servants fled in fear of their lives, locals migrated into big cities like Port Moresby, Lae, Mt Hagen, and other towns where there is order and other basic services available like health and education.
The basic services provided by their leaders in the three districts were destroyed in tribal fights; church-run services were also closed.
The guns surrender programme initiated by the National Government some four years ago resulted in few factory made guns and many homemade guns handed into to the police and soldiers for destructions.
Tribal fights were happening everywhere with the use of high powered guns after the surrender and painted a bad picture of the province to the rest of the country and outside world.
The large number of oversea tourists who usually traveled into Tari in the past to see the famous Huliwigmen gradually decline and stopped.
All these bad things happening in Hela in the past are slowly coming to an end.
This is made possible through the collective efforts of everyone including National Government, the three local MPs and Governor Philip Undialu, provincial administration under Willam Bando, the three disciplinary forces, churches, councilors, village court magistrates, land and peace mediators, women and youth leaders along with other working behind the scenes.
The man who is now in-charge of the law and order in the province is Chief Superintendent Martin Lakari.
Lakari, from Enga, was a provincial police commander in Western highlands for more than five years before transferring to Hela early this year as the new provincial police commander.
Lakari, who has many years’ experience in policing work and made his way from the bottom as constable to chief superintendent is a no-nonsense officer.
The proactive approach which he had used while serving as PPC in Enga and Western highlands, he used in Hela but applieda bit local culture as well.
He was an operations man and never sits back in his office and gets crime reports from his officers. He physically attends the scene of the crimes to get reports and talks to the people.
He is also taking lead with his men along with the support of the PND DefenceForce and Correctional Service officers on the ground carrying out awareness.
For many people in the three districts, it was their first time to see a high ranking officer like him to visit them and get to know their problems, talk to them and in return, they gave him moral support to maintain order.
This resulted in all tribal fights in Helaceasing, criminal activities along the road especially at Ambua Gap declining, some government service slowly restored, business activities start to flourish again, many double storey buildings coming up in the town, no more killings in Tari town, local youths taking ownership of Tari town and carrying out beautification programme and cleaning every day.
The Mt Hagen andMendi bus stop in Tari town which used to be a filthy section of the town which was taken over by street vendors and also along the footpaths to governments’ offices are now clean and tidy.
Street vendors conduct their business activities in designated areasin town unlike in the past.
A new district court magistrate arrived in Tari, and the Hawa jail re-opened on Sept 16th, this year, the new Alescopayroll system was installed in the provincial administration building to process pay servants pays in the province, Coffee Industry Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with ExxonMobil, provincial government, and an Israel agriculture company to introduce coffee into Hela.These are among many new developments taking place.
As the saying “The first will be last and last shall be first” is about to happen if the people change for better and allow the current speed of developments now taking place to continue.
Law and order problems which were major obstacles for developments in the past are now resolved opening the door to prosperity.
Hela is now moving forward and the future looks promising.