Speech by Sir Julius Chan opening Tikana LLG chambers in New Ireland

 

Lossuk, November 10, 2021

It is my great pleasure to join you Mr. President and Deputy Governor, Sammy Missen; and all honourable Council Members of the Tikana Local Government.

 

Members of the Provincial Executive Council, Assembly Members, Administrator and senior officers, Distinguished guests and friends; and people of Kara-Nalik and Tigak from East and West.

 

All of you from Tikana, and everyone here today.

 

Together we mark a momentous occasion in the history of Tikana Local Government and New Ireland.  Today we assert the Authority and Status of the Government of the people of Tikana.

 

Mr. President and Councilors,

 

·                   I am honoured to attend the first Council meeting in this very new TIKANA Council Chamber.

 

·                   I am now the first Governor to attend a Council meeting in your new Chamber.

 

·                   I am inspired and enthralled by your new Chamber.  It captures the high status of authority and governance.

 

·                   You are not only Councilors of your wards but are Law Makers.  You have the power of making Laws and oversee the proper implementation of those Laws for the good of your people.

 

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·                   The Opening today marks special recognition and re-affirm that Power and Authority of your Government.

 

·                   This is the eighth Council Chamber to be opened under my Government’s plan to establish a new look Council Chamber for each of the 10 Councils.

 

·                   It has always been my aim to elevate your status as leaders to the proper level of dignity and respect.

 

·                   I want the people to realize that the Office of the President and Ward Councilor and their roles and duties are legal under the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Governments.

 

·                   I congratulate you President Missen and Councilors on your new Chamber and your new land area which is fully funded by our Government.

 

·                   I believe our forefathers like Daniel Bokap, Obed Boas, and Apelis Masakmat would have been proud to see this day and our future leaders and the new generation will inherit a grand Chamber to make good Laws for good governance.

 

I remember working together with many others at different times of our history. They were dedicated to create a happy and prosperous society based on justice, peace, respect and equality for our people. We honour one such leader naming this road crossing from Lossuk to Lavolai as the BOKAP Crossing.

 

And we remember other leaders gone before:

 

·                   Wally Lussick

·                   Jim Grose

·                   Wilson Kasau

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·                   Tevita Leri

·                   Emmanuel Silachot

·                   Lapaseng Meli

·                   Chris Rangatin

·                   Stephen Mokis

 

We also have many great leaders from Tikana like Demas Kavavu, Sir Noel Levi, Wilson Sagati, Edward Laboran and Ken Bart who were in Government and administration.

 

New Ireland has been on course to seek liberation and freedom for our people. The Provincial Assembly made a big leap forward when it adopted and declared Autonomy for New Ireland on the 7^th of September 2016.

 

·                   This is a move that is really about allowing New Ireland to realize its full potential under the Constitution and the Laws of this country.

 

·                   Freedom requires education. Freedom requires decent health care. Freedom requires good infrastructure.  Freedom requires giving the people the tools they need to be successful.

 

We have shown in New Ireland we know how to do this.

 

·                   We have expanded educational opportunities. We have increased the number of secondary schools from one to eight in ten years. We have built four new high schools in the remotest parts of New Ireland. Boliu, Konomatalik, Tanir and Nasko. All will become Secondary next year 2022.

 

·                   We have reopened Aid Posts that have been closed for ten or twenty years.

 

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·                   We have provided solar lighting to Aid Posts, Health Centers, Schools, Churches and communities.

 

·                   We have implemented a provincial WaSH program to provide clean water and good sanitary facilities for our people. Just a week ago we launched a WaSH project for Djaul Island.

 

·                   We have implemented the Old Aged and Disabled program to provide support for our elderly and disabled worth K46 million.

 

·                   Madina is a brand new reconstructed Girls Secondary worth K12.5 million and our Secondary School roads are sealed after 50 years. We have funded improvement and sealing of the Boluminski Highway because the National Government failed to keep its agreement under the Lihir MOA.  We are improving roads on the west coast and on the islands, which are also the responsibility of the State under the Lihir MOA.

 

·                   We have introduced Roof Over Heads, Sweat Equity, Ward Level Projects, Delivery Beds, Wheelchairs, Crutches and Walking Sticks. We have done all these ourselves without the support promised from the National Government. And we have done all these without hoodwink or grisim our people with party colours.

 

Essentially, New Ireland is ready for Autonomy. We have proven that we are able and ready for the hard work that has to be done.

 

·                   We appointed a Provincial Autonomy Committee in March of 2008, headed by the late Stephen Mokis, MBE. That Committee worked for five years to prepare the ground for the autonomy of the province.

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·                   The Autonomy Committee held consultative meetings and workshops with our own people with a number of National Government agencies.

 

·                   The Autonomy Committee conducted awareness tours throughout New Ireland and presented our draft Autonomy Policy to the National Government.

 

We drafted the Amendment to Part 15 of the National Constitution to accommodate the Organic Law on the Autonomous Government of New Ireland.

 

The New Ireland model of Autonomy is wholesale takeover of powers to be fully autonomous like in Federalism. Under a Federal system, the State Governments are fully autonomous yet remain together under the Federal Government.

 

·                   We want to keep original powers of the people of New Ireland in the Autonomous Government of New Ireland.

 

·                   That is why we seek the Constitutional Amendment to provide for an Autonomous system of Government to be made constitutionally possible.

 

Our Amendment for Autonomous Government of New Ireland provides for:

 

·                   Political Autonomy

·                   Administrative Autonomy

·                   Financial Autonomy

 

Political Autonomy will enable the Autonomous Government of New Ireland to make laws and decisions on governance, funding and control of development in the province, independent of Waigani.

 

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Administrative Autonomy will give New Ireland control of its own workforce under the New Ireland Public Services (Management) Act and other administrative functions of service delivery.

 

Financial Autonomy will enable us to generate our own wealth and raise our own revenues to support our Autonomous Government.

 

We have chosen wisely to walk the talk of Self-Reliance and Autonomy since 2007 and our achievements stand testimony of our work and ability to become fully Autonomous.

 

When I became Governor, the previous Government had planted a corrupt tree. That Government took the people’s money and used it for itself, for its friends, NOT the people. To this day, that Government has never accounted for over K64 million it got in royalties from Lihir.

 

But in our fourteen years in office since 2007, our pledges in the Malagan Declaration, Malagan Declaration Forward, now incorporated into the New Ireland Declaration have come to fruition and I am proud of your support. No Government before has done what my Government has built for the people of New Ireland.

 

1.               New Ireland Legislative Assembly

2.               Kavieng Sports Stadium

3.               Kavieng Town roads upgrading and sealing surrounding small village roads adjacent to the city

4.               Kavavu Avenue from the airport to the War Memorial

5.               Official Government Residence in Kavieng

6.               New Kavieng International Airport soon to open

7.               New Kavieng International seaport on the drawing board

8.               Konos Solar Power

 

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9.               Namatanai Solar Power and Seeto Council Chamber now destroyed by confrontational leaders

10.         Namatanai Government Haus

11.         Namatanai Town roads sealing

12.         Namatanai Streetlights

13.         New Tinkoris Hospital

14.         Upgrading and sealing of Lanzarotte Highway

15.         Sealing of Bo-Burukalai-Tubuana roads

16.         West Coast road upgrading

17.         Fangalawa – Lamusmus crossing upgrading

18.         Bokap crossing from Lossuk to Lavolai

19.         Lavolai-Bagatare & Kaut-Lokono-Kavin-Tome upgrading

20.         Unity Road on New Hanover from Ungat to Mamirum

21.         Shortly to construct Kulube Secondary.

 

We funded all these projects and much more from our own revenues from the Royalties, IDG and SSG under the Lihir MOA approved by the JPP & BPC, PEC and finally approved into Law by the Provincial Assembly.

 

We exercised power to budget and spend money wisely on projects that drive development and approved by members on both sides of the Legislative Assembly.

 

·                   We do not handout trucks and boats

·                   We do not paint PPP colours on government assets and buildings with political party colours. These illegal abuse of public/people’s money should be referred to the appropriate authorities and Ombudsman Commission

·                   We do not handout Gris lolly budgets

·                   No K300 and K500 cash money for SMEs

·                   We do not temp people with shopping vouchers

 

 

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·                   Handouts and Gris lolly SMEs are not tools to build New Ireland to be great. They are consumer items that only last for Election.

 

My Government is building New Ireland for the future. We are building the base structure to prepare the new generation for tomorrow.

We want young people to build a life that will sustain through self-reliance. It is the only way to prepare our youth for the challenging future ahead.

 

·                   We must be bold enough to tell our people that only through Self-Reliance and Hard Work sustain long lasting dividends.

               

I take this time to inform you about two major roadblocks that were put up against my Government by the Two Open Members of Kavieng and Namatanai and Ministers of State.

 

1.               Ian Stuckey who is the Minister for Treasury had consistently sabotaged and delayed to approve the New Ireland 2021 Provincial Budget for the first five months. In doing this he strangled the Government and people of New Ireland from pushing ahead with delivery of projects and services in the money plan.

 

Stuckey is the first and only Minister for Treasury in the history of PNG that has locked-in a Province and its people. New Ireland was the first Province to submit our Budget to Treasury on the 24^th of December 2020.  Stuckey will be accountable for his action.

 

2.               Ian Stuckey and Walter Schnaubelt collaborated and used their position to siphon off 80% of 2021 Lihir royalties for New Ireland to their District Treasuries to be spent unplanned or ghost projects by the DDAs.

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This move is unlawful as it totally undermines the 2007 Revised Lihir MOA and the legal standing of the New Ireland Government to govern under the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Governments. 

 

Mr President and Honorable Councilors, this will mean wholesale withdrawal of the major policy initiatives under the Malagan Declaration, the Malagan Declaration Forward, and the New Ireland Declaration. It has already put our Province into reversed gear.

 

You also heard that the people of Namatanai lost their Council Chamber and Solar Power plant in August this year at the hands of Walter Schnaubelt and his supporters. Never in the history of Papua New Guinea has such thing happened.  It is a great shame to those who call themselves leaders, and a great tragedy loss and setback for the Namatanai people who have been living in darkness for five years and now Kavieng has caught the same virus for all of this year.

 

I have not seen anything like this in the 50 years of my life in politics and I fear this may not be the end. My Government has taken action to resolve these matters before the Court.

 

All that aside, today I am very proud to join with the Deputy Governor and President Sammy Missen and the Councilors to open this Chamber.

 

·                   This is a great and significant day

·                   We witness the birthplace and new dawn of Tikana Council.

·                   The beginning of a modern establishment in Local Government

·                   By the village people, of the village people and for the village people

 

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This building is not for show, it is a legacy project - the people’s house that deserves highest regard, the highest respect.

 

My Government set aside initial K5 million in 2019 to build a Council Chamber for each of the 10 Councils in New Ireland.  And I am pleased to declare today this Chamber, as the TIKANA Council Chamber.

 

·                      The TIKANA Council Chamber cost K700,000

 

·                      Contractor is CRCG that built the Legislative Assembly and the Kavieng Sports Stadium

 

·                      CRCG completed and delivered the first Council Chamber at Murat, the second at Lavongai, the third at Konos, the fourth at Namatanai, the fifth Matalai, the sixth at Tanir and the seventh at Silur in Konoagil LLG. This is number eight.

 

·                      CRCG has started on the Council Chamber for Kavieng Urban LLG to be followed by the Nimamar Council Chamber on Lihir Island, which will be the tenth and final Chamber project.

 

·                      Today we consecrate this Chamber and dedicate it as the TIKANA Council Chamber.

 

To you President Missen and Councilors of Tikana, may you serve the people with dignity as leaders and servants of the people – Be leaders and followers at the same time.

 

Fear Not to put your people first.  This is not the time to play around with people’s money.  We must think new and act new. You must not be choked with Government funds – it is your own money in the first place. Be self reliant, independent, chart your own future and live by the fruit of your own sweat.

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God willing, may Tikana live on to save the people of Kara-Nalik and Tigak and New Ireland.  May your goals under God be achieved.

 

I now declare the TIKANA Local Government Council Chamber officially open.