Source: The National

ILLEGAL land grabbing activities involving foreigners should be properly scrutinised by the government, former MP and minister Andrew Mald says.

“Papua New Guineans are being forced into entering into deals with local landowners in Port Moresby and elsewhere to build their homes because they are unable to buy state land,” he said this week.

“As citizens, they have the right to own land and property in urban centres but they cannot at present because of the high price of real estate and land.”

Mald said while the landowners were making their own arrangements to build their homes, state institutions like the Lands Department were colluding with foreign investors to offload state land under dubious arrangements.

“Everyone knows that prime land in Port Moresby and elsewhere is going to foreigners. No one is doing anything about it, not even the government.
“Why is it deemed wrong when citizens buy land and build their homes by entering into agreements with traditional landowners?”

“The traditional landowners also want to benefit from the opportunities that are created by the developments taking place in the urban centres. Their land is the most important asset they have. Is the Government doing anything to help them utilise their land properly?” Mald asked.

He said foreigners were grabbing millions of hectares of traditional land under the Special Agriculture Business leases and the Commission of Inquiry appointed by former Acting Prime Minister Sam Abal has yet to release its findings.

“Are we to assume that the findings from this inquiry are going to gather dust somewhere in Waigani like the many other inquiries in the past?” he asked.

Mald said the greed for more wealth and power has created the current situation with land and real estate in PNG and the Government and public servants tasked to protect the interests, rights and freedoms of the ordinary citizens must change this mentality and practice.

The former Moresby Northeast MP and community development minister said it was time the Government seriously considers the plight of its own people and drawn up policies or laws to enable them to own properties in urban centres.

“The situation today is that the wealthy are buying the land and properties in the urban centres, while the ordinary citizens, including the Government’s own employees are being forced to settlements,” he said.

“The settlements are being built on either state or customary land and we are saying this is wrong?”