Benny Allen the Minister for Environment and Conservation talks about doing a road show on the changes to the Environment Act. The government is putting the cart before the horse once again, this awareness is long over-due. In fact it should have been done before changes to the act were made let alone passing of these changes in parliament.
This shows clearly that our government is not really concerned about peoples' views. Our government is moving from democracy to dictatorship. It is suppressing people from airing their views and wants total control of peoples’ natural resources.
The government once again is playing its trick by staging that road show. Why do they have to come to Madang, what about the other provinces. If they are really serious, they should go out to all remote areas in the provinces NOT only aim Madang Urban Centre. The people that own the land are out there in remote areas, go out there!
The people should not be fooled by the government. Benny Allen and the New Asian Party, your time is over! The people are no longer stupid.
Madang is now the hub of all kinds of development that you find in the whole country. You name them, we have logging, mining, commercial fishing, agro-forestry projects such as oil palm…..they are all here. The tourism industry which once contributed to the income for the province is now threatened by these large scale developments. The environment has to pay the price in-order for these developments to take place.
Although much of the attention in the province is now on the Ramu Nickel Mine’s plan to dump waste into the sea, the issue of the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) is quietly gaining momentum. Fencing at the Vidar location site in Madang is complete and this is under phase 1 of this project. There is going to be 10 more new fish canneries in Madang under the PMIZ Project. There is already one cannery in Madang so the new ones will be just additional.
Like other large scale development projects in the country, this project is strongly pushed by the government regardless of the many outstanding issues on the ground which needs to be dealt with. Some of these issues are:
1.Lack of Information.
The people lack basic information about the PMIZ. Initially it was called the Marine Park. People often ask, what is a marine park? The name “park” is confusing to most people. They think that a park is a protected area where people can go see wildlife like nature reserves and national parks. So when they hear a marine park they think it is going to be a park full of marine life. In fact, this is not the case; a marine park will be an area where 10 canneries are going to do processing and the effluent will end up in the sea. This is so confusing to the villages along the Madang Lagoon that are going to be affected.
2.Free Prior Informed Consent
The people from the area are complaining that they were not consulted let alone given their approval for this project to go ahead. This project is just being bulldozed through by the government in particular the Commerce and Trade & Industry Departments. .
3.Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
The PMIZ is a national project and will be operating under an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The people don’t what is an EEZ? There is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding amongst people as the government has not given basic relevant information to the people. It is scary to the people when they hear and understand that an EEZ is an area is like a country of its own. The laws of PNG will not apply in this area. This area will have its own laws which will govern whatever activities that will take place in that area. The locals will be barred from using the area for their daily activities, let alone they will not be allowed to enter the area unless they work there.
4.30-40,000 Jobs
The government talks about 30-40,000 jobs that will be created when this project goes
ahead, however the question to ask is how much are these people especially locals that
will work in this project going be paid? Currently there are a lot of complains by locals
that work for the existing fish cannery regarding their pays and most of these workers are women that work 12 hours/day. Is this going to improve? Most of these women work odd hours standing most of the time the factory. Is this what we call development when we become slaves and “work for the man” for very little?
Influx of people – 30-40,000 Jobs
Where are the 30-40,000 that will be employed by this project going to be housed? Are
we ready for the many ethnic tensions that will arise when people from within the
country as well as outside flock in?
Are we ready for the increase in social problems as a result of increase in the number of
people? Are we ready for the many diseases that will arise as there are reports already of
rise in HIV Aids in the province mainly from logging, mining and fishing camps?
Ten foreign companies coming in under PMIZ will bring their own people to work for them. One of the terms and conditions of employment for those expat workers would be automatic attainment of permanent residency. Is this fair to the many expats that have already contributed to the development of this country however still awaiting approval of their application for permanent residency from the government? It is taking years and years for them to hear back from the government. Is this another strategy for big countries like China to resettle their already huge population in our country?
These foreign companies will not only bring in equipment and money but their own ways of doing things. The people of Madang had enough of dealing with Chinese workers working for the Ramu Nickel Mine. They don’t know how to speak in English and Tokpisin. They do not respect peoples’ culture and tradition. Is this what we want?
There are already a lot of problems faced by people in regards to only 1 cannery in Madang, do we expect these problems to increase 10 times when the 10 new canneries are established under PMIZ?
Are we really sure that the benefits of PMIZ far exceed its costs or is it the other way around?
THE recent apprehension by PNG Customs of an oil tanker carrying fuel it had loaded from Bougainville copper mine storage tanks is only one of many illegal operations which both the national and the autonomous Bougainville governments have been called on to look into.
A Panguna Landowner Association (PLA) executive said the tanker was only one of many illegal deals being conducted in Bougainville involving Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL) property and machinery.
Lawrence Daveona said far too many of these businesses had ignored or bypassed established rules and procedures for conduct of business.
Consequently, he said, mine lease area people, who have suffered from the crisis, were missing out on benefits.
Apart from the oil tanker business, another lucrative business was the sale of scrap metal from the now abandoned mine and other parts of Bougainville.
Daveona said the association had an on-going understanding with BCL that all scrap metal, left behind as a result of the crisis, belonged to the landowners and they were allowed to enter into any business arrangement with interested foreign or national partners so long as they have the endorsement of the Autonomous Bougainville Government and relevant national agencies.
The approved process was to get a written approval from the PLA and the ABG to conduct such business before permission is sought from BCL.
Once this is sorted out, the final approval must come from national agencies such as Customs, Internal Revenue Commission and Labour where foreign workers were concerned.
Daveona said this process was necessary to ensure any business opportunity concluded would benefit the mine lease area people.
Tired of watching illegal operations going on, PLA had incorporated its own landowners company called Komeri Holdings Ltd. It had also established Panguna Metals Ltd through a joint partnership with UK-based Capital Equipment Supply Co.
Komeri Holdings shareholding included the two factions of Mekamui holding 5% each, 30% which is held by ex-combatants (BRA 20 % and Bougainville Resistance Fighters 10%) and Panguna Landowners Association (60%).
Daveona is confident that the company was ready to proceed to full operational status.
It has BCL approval to carry out its scrap metal operations in the secondary crusher, concentrator and mine pit areas covering the pit, pit workshop and the primary crusher.
If you don’t know yet, the New Asian (NA) Party is really is set to go heavy handed in the up-coming elections in 2012. These people are deep in the pockets of the Asians that is why we Papua New Guineans have to start critically analyzing things. We need to really see who is driving decision-makingin this country.
It is now clear that our leaders are NOT in parliament to protect the interests of our people but those multinational corporations. This is the whole reason why there is frustration amongst people at the grassroots people as well as young people in tertiary institutions. The new generation are teaming up because they are fed up. They had enough of corruption. They had enough of silly and greedy decisions by our leaders. They are fed up with poor service delivery the government. ALL THEY WANT TO SEE IS CHANGE!
Young people have the position energy and we need tap into that and ensure that it is used effectively for the betterment of this nation. It is time now for the young people to make the change. We need to get rid of the recycled leaders and get new blood with new ideas into decision making bodies. We need to get them into power.
Times have changed, technology has changed, ideas have changed therefore we need to pump out old leaders and pump in new and young leaders for a better tomorrow.
This is my space to talk about the issues and challenges faced by people in this country. Many of our people are marginalized and suffer because of the system of government we have which cares very little about its people.
