By GRACE TIDEN in Post Courier

THE autonomy committees of East New Britain and New Ireland Provinces have demanded the national Government to declare its position on autonomy by June 30 this year.

A joint statement was released last Friday during the signing of the two committees’ communiqué following a one-day joint consultative meeting in Kokopo.

The statement signed by ENB autonomy committee chairman Sir Ronald Tovue and his New Ireland counterpart Sir Noel Levi, emphasised that the people of the two provinces, through the committees, were seeking substantial decentralisation as provided for in the PNG Constitution which promotes self-reliance and self-determination and that their quest for autonomy was within the framework of the PNG Constitution to address the lack of development and delivery of government services in the rural areas where majority of their people live.

Both provinces have been pushing for autonomy for over eight years and the two committees had recently decided to stand together to convince the national Government to look into their quests for autonomy.

The one-day meeting was their first inaugural meeting where committee members came together to discuss various issues in regards to autonomy and their current status on their quests. East New Britain started pursuing the idea of autonomy in 2002 while New Ireland started in 2008.

The two chairmen said their quest for autonomy was different from that of Bougainville and that Bougainville’s autonomy was given as a solution to the resource conflict leading to the bloodbath and secessionist threats.

"In our case, we are seeking autonomy as a solution to the problem of lack of development and delivery of government services in the rural areas. We are not seeking to break away from the rest of PNG as Bougainville sought to do. Instead we will remain an integral part of PNG," the two said.

They have made separate submissions to the national Government to grant them political, administrative and financial autonomy.

According to the statement, the committees have been waiting for more than a year for the national Government to respond after lodging their submissions in February 2013 and during the recent meeting, they decided they cannot wait any longer.

"We have given the national Government sufficient time already. It is now time that we be given an answer to our submission and on the National Government’s position on autonomy," they said.

A total of nine resolutions were passed during their discussions.

They resolved that they acknowledge and respect the Malangan Declaration of New Ireland and the Palavat Document of ENB, documents upon which they have drawn the basis of their pursuit for the devolution of autonomous powers to their provinces.

They also resolved that they have considered and have realised that although they were acting provincially, they were mindful that their pursuit was dependent upon a national policy on autonomy and that the constitutional phrase "substantial decentralisation" means autonomy and their pursuit for autonomous powers was neither new nor foreign and was derived from the Constitution.

They also reaffirmed their commitment to remain as an integral and autonomous part of PNG and operate within the framework of the PNG Constitution.

Another resolution was to call upon their elected leaders in the two provinces to commence collective and proactive dialogue on autonomy at any time before the end of May 2014, among others.

The signing of the documents last Friday was witnessed by two representatives from both committees.

The committee members also went on air on the local radio station to conduct awareness of what had transpired during the one-day meeting.

Their joint communiqué is expected to be presented to the National Government.

It is believed that another of such meetings will be held in Kavieng.