To the Koare Kondas;
I fully support John L Rombo’s concept of “Koare Rural Development Association” (KRDA) which must be guided by an institutional framework.
My views:
• To the willing and genuine hearts who support this concept; lets act now and communicate (via email as distance matter) to contribute and come up with steps to make the talk walk.
• We must appoint credible members of the community and ex-officious to take up the posts (KRDA board members) as custodians of the association. The association is for the Koare people.
• We than register the association with the PNGIPA.
• As a team the ex-officious must liaise with one and other to share/discuss ideas to lobby/appeal governments, aid agencies, organizations and etc.. to secure funds, projects and materials. This function must be performed in an orderly fashion. I.e., outward correspondences seeking assistance is to be viewed and approved by the participating ex-officious so that all are at the same phase of knowing the content/outcome, register in/outward correspondences and etc.. A standard procedure must be established as a guide for the ex-officious to follow.
• It is true that Koare has been neglected off basic human services, just as many other rural places of our country by the successive governments over the years. The truth is in the 1980s & early 1990s Koare was still accessible by 2WD. E.g., Anton Peaku had one ute and I remember taking a ride from my village to Kagua High School in 1989. Number of health workers were up, the health centre generator was working, health & school staff houses were in good order, now all that is deteriorated. I believe those were the times when National Govt gave full powers to the than premiers of the provinces. Premiers were than stationed in their respective provinces, not in POM city as it is the case today. The than works departments were active in maintaining the roads. I believe at that time public servants at the provincial levels were exceptionally true to their duties. From the late 1990s up till now political powers are centralized in Waigani, and this is the period where we are experiencing the chaos of deprived government services.
• Roads & bridges are # 1 priority. It is the key to achieve other development needs. Without them nothing can be achieved. Therefore, talks on development needs must be focused first on how to best improve/develop roads and bridges, while working on the overall development concept, though.
• The existing road; Rindita - Koare maps under two different electorates and will always be an issue of ‘’who is going to fix the road’’. The road at current state is truly impassable even by land cruisers. Unless some sort of major commercial activities take place in Koare. Because the truth is, in developing or underdeveloped countries governments don’t waste millions of money on areas where there is no economic activity taking place. The other fact is distance does matter; Ialibu to Kagua – Kagua (Rindita) to Koare, that’s over hundred kms. So, there must be some alternative ways. Let us look at our backyard first, there is a hand built road from Ipi bridge (Alomari village) to Tindua since 1997. This road is built by 400 plus villagers of Koare leading by Limba, Ita, Yamorupi, Kaware, Karapere, Kupia, Ata, Alomari, Kundipa and villages far and wide as Lewa. The road is now at Yalo bridge pass Limba village awaiting clearance from Rakitame leaders to go pass their land. If all clear is given, the Limba people have no hesitation but to bulldoze through with their spades, bush knives and hands. This road project is a registered association and has a legal representative (Martin Tamutai Lawyers of Hagen). It is chaired by an American Missionary Wayne Fair now based in Pangia and Jack Malu (pastor & village leader) of Kaware village. Further, it is recognized by our MP, the honourable Prime Minister Peter O’Neill. He funds annually since 2007. The money is used to compensate the villagers who work on the road and purchase hand tools. This road is 5-6kms away from connecting the main Ialibu/Pangia road.
• The talk on the role of the mandated members of our electorate: I can’t remember much in the times of Pundia Kange, but, during Roy Yaki’s times (1987-2002) nothing tangible occurred. However, roads were maintained with the aid of the than provincial powers from Mendi. In the mid-1990s when power shifted to Waigani, all hell break loose; never seen/heard of Roy Yaki between 1994 – 2002. One classical example of negligence by Roy Yaki during that period was, the road between Walume and Ialibu was totally impassable, only tipper trucks and L/cruisers accessed the road. The pain staking experience was faced by all the people of Ialibu/Pangia and Kagua/Erave. I remember very well when I travel home in 1997, I waited in Walume for hours to get to Ialibu. Finally, a K. Lombo dyna truck showed up so I was lucky. The return trip to Hagen was even worse, waited in Ialibu the whole day as there were no PMVs or even other cars. Eventually, a cattle type truck from Karanas was able to assist all waiting passengers from Ialibu to Walume around 2pm. In 2002 most people of Ialibu/Pangia voted in Peter O’Neill for a change.
• Now, during the term of Mr. O’Neill we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, at least in the overall perspective. We can see the tangible changes as, road sealing from Walume – Ialibu, road upgrading from Ialibu to Pangia which will be sealed including Ialibu to Kagua in the near future. Funds (K60,000,000) to seal these roads were handed to the works minister Francis Awesa (member for Imbogu). He supports community projects and maybe others I may not be aware of.
• The truth is, as the saying go: yapa pege yana me repono repara pea andamba piri bua leanda pala pea su na lopea. Pakama anda para piri yapa nano ipu tenda da manda na epelea (tok peles). We must be aware of this fact and use the God given talents to lobby our MP and other institutions if we really want to make change for Koare. The time to do this is now when we have these many intelligent KKKs. Let us all come together as one to act for one common interest. The other reality we must be aware of is; the MP at any one term maybe too busy (with state/electoral/personal affairs) and lost conscious of the primary role of attending to own electoral affairs. For people like Peter O’Neill, I assume he does not believe in cash handouts without substantiating checks and balances. So, this is the sort of process we must establish to persuade the MP and other institutions for assistance. If we set up the proper institutional model/framework for Koare sub LLG and appeal to the MP he will not let us down. On this note Mr. O’Neill is said to be sent to parliament in 2012 elections unopposed by the Ialibu/Pangia leaders so we are in a better position to act on the development concept now than later.
• John L. Rombo must be the team leader of this task.
I conclude that am putting my hand up to participate in this task for the sake of my brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles, cousins, mums, dads, bubus and the overall Koare people.
Ms Percy Naleme Rame
Cairns City
Queensland, Australia
