That day in ‛82

TRIBUTE

As East Sepik laid to rest the body of late Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare at Kreer Heights, Wewak town on Tuesday, March 16, the Takia people of Komoria village on Karkar island, Madang joined hundreds of thousands more at haus krais across the country in commemorating a day which will go down is history with a range of activities including singing of the national anthem, reciting of national pledge, marching and flag lowering, and paying tributes to their champion and national hero. Komoria well remembered Sir Michael when he visited them in 1982 upon a request by his Dregerhafen school mate the late John Wabis Malot who had just started the Kalik Primary School in 1979. After Dregerhafen, each lived to achieve their school day promises.

By LISA MALOT GARE
Freelance journalist
THE colonial administrators based on the New Guinea side in the late 1950s often referred to him as ‘the angry young man’.
It baffled as well as intrigued many of his school mates and friends among them, my late father John Malot Wabis (1934-2012) who was doing teacher training at the co- education pilot school at Dregerhafen, Finschhanfen District of Morobe.
As told to me by my father “during our training days at Dregerhafen, we started to notice something special about this ‘angry young man’ from East Sepik, because of the way he carried himself. He would always start up something, was never scared of anybody including the white man that ran the school and most of all he would speak his mind, especially when he felt that we were being treated unfairly.
“His whole demeanour spoke of someone who was ready to start a war at the slightest provocation. We all had our own disagreements with the way things were being done, however, Somare always found ways to speak out about the injustices sweeping the territories at that time.”
There was a particular incident that my father recalled. The morning session was on and the late Grand Chief came in late and while crossing to the classroom, he kicked the flower beds and so the headmaster, an Australian told him to go kick the iron flag pole if he was itching to kick something in the morning. After he kicked the flag pole he turned around and announced, “one day I will become prime minister and I will kick you out of here.”
There was this restlessness and some kind of anger that he carried with him as if he wanted to do something big and was waiting for the right moment.
They eventually graduated from Dregerhafen and went their separate ways, then met up again at the Administrative College now PNG Institute of Leadership and Governance where they were trained to be administrators and patrol officers.
He said Sir Michael by then was well on his way into politics and the subsequent formation of the infamous Bully Beef Club. He recalled the Somare ‘gang’ would sometimes pick him among others to sneak out bully beef cans from the mess storeroom because he (my dad) was slim and could fit under the windows, so they could have their meetings well into the nights.
We never questioned what was going on because they were the ‘Big Boys’. At that time there was a shortage of teachers in the territories so my father was recalled to take up teaching again in Morobe and Sir Michael went on to contest the elections for the second House of Assembly and won and made it all the way to self-government and becoming the first Chief Minister at Independence just as he predicted all those years ago.
They (Malot and Somare) made a promise that both would go into politics, however my dad had a dream to establish a school in his own village so he told the children about their stories. And so my old man returned home to

As we bid farewell to a great man, rather than mourning, we shall celebrate his life, a life he selflessly shared with all of us. His admirable personality is one each and every one of us must seek to emulate. If not us, our children and future generations should aspire to live by his ideals.

Komoria village, Karkar Island and built a school in 1979. He wrote to Sir Michael and invited him to go to Karkar and see for himself the school that his friend and school mate built for his people.
So in 1982 as Opposition Leader Sir Michael honoured that promise and went to Komoria village for the official commissioning of Kalik Primary School. I was only nine years old and had the first glimpse of the man himself, the man we heard so much about growing up.
People came from far and wide to see the man who brought Independence to the country for the first time. Our very own local string band the Dapun Mates also performed a specially-composed tribute song for Somare on that day.
For interest sake, Sir Michael also taught at Dangsai and Namau primary schools (both on Takia side of Karkar Island) during his teaching stints in Madang.
Years later I became a journalist and was based in his home province in East Sepik in 2010, just before the official launch of the NBC TV. I had the rare privilege to meet the chief. He came into the NBC Wewak studios for his regular provincial address and after the interviews, we introduced ourselves and shook hands then he asked me if I was related to his friend Malot. I told him I was his daughter and he asked me how he was doing. I responded that my old man had retired from teaching and was in the village.
And the chief smiled then shook his head and said in Tok Pisin “Man, yangpla taim blong mitupla, papa blong yu save mekim sampla kain pasin bikhet na ol wait man ya ol save het pen long mipla ya”. Out of respect I did not ask him what other mischiefs they had committed, apart from the ones we heard about.
In 2011 when my father heard on the news about the political impasse, he shed tears for his friend and said, we all contributed in our own small way but Somare had the right attributes to deliver this country. Sadly my old man passed away a year later.
On behalf of the people of Komoria village, people of Karkar Island, we salute you Grand Chief. Thank you for the opportunity to witness your honourable presence once. It is easy for many of us to take for granted the affluence we enjoy today but if it weren’t for the effects of you leaders in laying the foundation, today may have been different.
As we bid farewell to a great man, rather than mourning, we shall celebrate his life, a life he selflessly shared with all of us (PNG).
His admirable personality is one each and every one of us must seek to emulate. If not us, our children and future generations should aspire to live by his ideals.
Our deepest condolences to Lady Veronica Somare, the children Sana, Betha, Arthur, Michael Junior and Dulciana, their families, grandchildren, the people of Karau and extended relatives of the Murik Lakes, Marienberg LLG, Angoram, East Sepik and people of Papua New Guinea for the great loss of our Grand Chief.
Thank you and farewell Grand Chief, rest in eternal peace.