Mekere morauta family feud

Skip to content THE family of late Sir Mekere Morauta celebrated a feast to remember one of the great leader of this country. Dr Morauta said the feast was to reflect and remember his father and the things he has done. Tags: Papua New Guinea. Pacific Winston Peters rejects Kiribati's excuse as Hipkins urges constructive diplomacy Tonga PM 'Aisake Eke unveils new Cabinet: two women and one noble among the ministers Vanuatu coalition talks finalised as political parties sign agreement.

Before entering politics, Morauta led the post-independence process of building financial infrastructure in Papua New Guinea as Secretary of Finance, Managing Director of the state-owned Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation, and Governor of the central bank. As a member of parliamenthe represented Port Moresby North West from untiland again from until his death in Morauta remained an active opposition leader during the successive governments of Sir Michael Somare and Peter O'Neillespecially focusing on the politics of natural resources.

After graduating from university he worked as an economist in both the public and private sectors. Inhe was the first Papua New Guinean to be appointed Secretary of the Department of Finance, a position which he held until Morauta was also a successful businessman after he retired from governing the central bank. Delta Seafoods and Morauta and Associates.

After entering politics he withdrew from actively managing the firm and his wife Lady Roslyn Morauta took over the management of his businesses. Sir Mekere was a member of the so-called " Gang of Four ", a group of influential young civil service chiefs who played a leading role in holding together public administration and public policy in the formative decade or so after Papua New Guinea's independence in Namaliu also later went on to become prime minister.

Morauta maintained from that period a strong professional and warm personal relationship with the Australian economist Ross Garnaut. Sir Mekere was then, in July elected by mekere morauta family feud as prime minister with a huge majority : 99 votes for Sir Mekere and 5 votes for his challenger. However, he was manoeuvered out of government by Sir Michael Somare after the elections.

Somare excluded Morauta in the coalition building after the elections and Morauta became leader of the opposition. However he was also deposed from that post by a coup within his party and spent — on the government bench. This is in PNG distinct from being in government. He was in government again in the period of the — Papua New Guinean constitutional crisis.

In Mayhe announced that, after fifteen years in Parliament, he would not stand for re-election and so left Parliament in June This resulted in calls for him to stand again. PDM was founded by Paias Wingti who lost his seat in the election and Morauta became the party leader. During his time as prime minister, between andMorauta was also leader of the PDM.

When Sir Michael Somare took over as prime minister after the general elections, it was expected that Morauta would be leader of the opposition. However, he was challenged from within his own party by John Muingnepe, the deputy leader of the party. Muingnepe dismissed Morauta as leader of the party in favor of Paias Wingti who had succeeded in returning to parliament in PDM split then into two groups.

Morauta had advocated already to change the name of PMD to indicate a fresh start. Morauta was installed as leader of the opposition after a successful appeal to the Registrar of Political Parties and the Ombudsman Commission against the actions of Muingnepe. He did not gain acceptance among his colleagues in the opposition and became part of the government bench.

This did not last long: the Pangu Pati joined the government bench and Morauta was again an independent. Morauta was a politician who had a strong regional base in Gulf and Western province because of the economic importance of his fishing interests as well as the benefits brought by the Ok Tedi mine. He had also a solid base in Port Moresby.

He was elected four times in the same constituency. However, power eluded him often because of difficulties in forging coalitions. The Morauta government was in office from 14 July until 5 August and deployed far reaching initiatives. The most urgent task when coming to power was macro economic stabilization. Morauta looked back with satisfaction in his last budget speech before the election in on lower interest rates, lower inflation and a more stable currency.

This had been achieved with the support of the International Financial Institutions and the Australian government. Second, the financial structure of PNG was reformed. The independence of the Central Bank was restored and reinforced.

Mekere morauta family feud

The government withdrew from the banking sector. This bank was privatised. This was supposed to be a shell company that refrained as much as possible from direct management of the businesses under its control. Its core function was to stimulate the privatisation of SOES and managing the dividends that came from those enterprises. Thirdly, there were major political reforms aimed at strengthening party formation.

MPs used to shift allegiances easily and created therefore political instability. It proscribed crossing the floor on virtually all issues. It also laid down a framework for the organisation and registration of political parties. Similarly the electoral system was changed from a First Past the Post system to a system of Limited Preferential Voting.

The idea was that candidates under such a system would approach other candidates searching for support in voters casting second or more preferences. This would stimulate cooperation between candidates and encourage stable party formation. Fourthly, government involvement in the natural resources mekere morauta family feud was reorganised.

Previous governments had involved themselves more and more with managing such resources through equity participation. Orogen Minerals Ltd was the major vehicle to bring government and private investment together in natural resources projects. Government withdrew therefore from direct management and was merely drawing dividends from Oil Search.

A different vehicle was created for the big Ok Tedi mine in Western Province. BHP was the controlling interest and manager of this mine. A tailings dam broke and BHP was faced with big claims of environmental damages. BHP wanted to avoid these and these were settled by transferring their shares to an entity representing the people of Western Province : the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Fund.

Income from these shares was used for development projects in Western province and Papua New Guinea as a whole. However, one third of that income was paid in a trust account in Singapore as a reserve for the people in Western Province when the mine would be exhausted. How do you describe that? Dame Meg --Well, I don't think the framework for Pacific regionalism was actually a blueprint for the strategy that has been developed now.

But I think what Sir Mekere from his experiences would be thinking that what he crafted as a framework for Pacific regionalism or aspects of that, will be important and useful by generations now. And generations going into the future. The Pacific that he founded, and that he was talking to in andand now where we are at and going into there are differences.

You have a very vocal civil society, you've got a youth population that's concerned about its future. And the issues that he raised around politics, and the political conversations that have to be made -- the political settlements that have to be reached by leaders, and the understanding of what people were concerned about the inclusivity of people and civil society and that in public policy processes, all these I'm sure, as governments work towards the development of the strategy, have had some influence.

Dame Meg --Well, I think that what we take from a man like Sir Mekere Morauta, a man of great intellect, but also a man of great integrity, who understood, I think, what it meant to be able to look at systems or structures and structures of governance that would serve his people in Papua New Guinea. And he did that through the reforms, through the financial sector reforms, the work that he did on the banking system, on superannuation, but also going further into the reforms in the Defense Force, what he thought and believed was important so that we could make every effort to have a country that we could run, and run efficiently.