Simple people make up PNG: MP

 PAPUA New Guinea is made of simple people, Eastern Highlands Governor Julie Soso said when she opened the 59th Goroka Show on Saturday.

Soso said the country did not belong to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill or Opposition leader Don Polye but to the simple people.

The show started on Friday and ended yesterday, attracting more than 150 singsing groups from around Papua New Guinea, at least 50 tourists and hundreds of locals. 

“You (people) make up Papua New Guinea,” Soso said.

“PNG is you and me and all of us.

“We are one nation, one people and one country.

“PNG stands on your shoulders.

“Stop the habit of becoming enemies and let us proudly fly the flag of PNG.”

Soso said the Goroka Show was one of the oldest shows in the country and would turn 60 next year.

She said the show was first held at the Goroka Market by the ancestors of the Eastern Highlands people and colonial administrators from Australia.

The governor thanked the singsing groups and the tourists.

Show organising committee chairwoman Karen Hargreaves said they were hoping to increase the number of traditional singsing groups to 300 next year.

Hargreaves thanked the sponsors for making the event possible and acknowledged the National Gaming Control Board for its K250,000 sponsorship.