The stormy events at the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone forum last Friday have received plenty of media attention, but one question remains unanswered: what has happened to the K25 million of public money allocated in the 2007 national budget for PMIZ preparatory works?

This question was put directly and publicly to government Ministers Gabriel Kapris and Arnold Amet, by Sumkar MP Ken Fairweather on Friday.

By Rosalyn Evara*

A heated racial slur exchange between Attorney-General Sir Arnold Amet and Sumkar MP Ken Fairweather [see video below] marred a public forum in Madang attended by senior national ministers to discuss the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone project with the local people.


From a Special Correspondent

When  three  senior  government ministers arrived at Alexishafen on Friday for a public forum on the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ),  they didn’t expect the kind of  anger they got from the Rempi and Kananam communities.  

Francis Gem, from the Kanamam area  took the stage in front of 300 people  and  in one swooping motion  said:

By Nancy Sullivan*

The Kananam Meeting on the proposed Pacific Marine Industrial Zone was called for this Friday because a spate of important government officials claimed to have never received their invitations to the first Rempi Forum.

NGOs in Papua New Guinea have published two full-page advertisements in this weeks tok pisin language Wantok newspaper criticizing the government over its alienation of more than 5 million hectares of customary land.

Landowners from Madang have secured a significant and important victory in their opposition to the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone which is being built on their land by the government with money borrowed from China.

The government says the PMIZ will be Papua New Guinea's first Special Economic Zone, under new laws being written for PNG by the World Bank. The government says the PMIZ will provide a hub for tuna processing in the region and around 30,000 factory jobs.

By Patrick Seleng 

The opposition has sought the Supreme court's interpretation on the number of sitting days after the speaker gagged the Parliament. About 1 year ago I wrote that the opposition's attempt to take this matter to Supreme court was a waste of time and money as Somare has outsmarted and outwitted Mekere and his opposition team. Up to now, there is no mention of this in the mainstream media, infact, this matter is given the hugest hiding. 

Lands and Physical Planning Minister, Lucas Dekena, has confirmed the government has handed out 99-year leases covering more than than 5 million hectares of customary land and revealed that the government intends to double the number of leases so they cover 20% of Papua New Guinea's land mass.

The Minister has rejected the widespread criticism of the Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABL) and said the state had no choice as it wanted to free up land for development because more than 95% of the land was owned by the customary landowners.


By Reginald Renagi

I invite the public to take time to read a series of interesting articles by a Port Moresby Street blogger, Martyn Narmorang in the popular Keith Jackson blog: PNG ATTITUDE. 

Here Martyn is very perceptive and  raises many real-life daily issues that confronts Papua New Guineans on the streets. I would like to just address a few aspects of what our young neotribalist talks about.