Sir Rabbie remembers close friend, colleague

SIR Rabbie Namaliu, a close friend of the late Sir Mekere Morauta, remembers him as a close friend, brother, rugby team mate and work colleague.
He told The National that as members of the “gang of four”, they first met in 1966 at the University of PNG as students.
They played for Administration College and University of PNG rugby union club, a first grade team in the Port Moresby competition.
“He played lock and we played flanker with Sir Anthony Siaguru,” he said.
“We had a great team, we were unbeatable from 1966 to 1970.”
Sir Rabbie said they pursued the same courses including Economics.
“We were in the same class. He did much better than me,” he said.
“We were very good classmates, very good team mates in rugby union and were also involved in student politics,” he said.
“We formed the first Pangu Pati branch on campus in 1968 with a couple of others after meeting Sir Michael Somare just after he became the new leader of the Pangu Pati, taking over from Sir Paul Lapun.”
He said they became colleagues in the public service, he as chairman of the Public Service Commission and Sir Mekere as Finance secretary.
“We were ministers together in Sir William Skate’s government for a brief period,” he said.
Sir Rabbie said they had been family friends for a long time.
“My late wife Margaret was a senior officer in the Planning office so they used to work together with the department of finance at that time with Lady Roslyn,” he said.