PNG government accused of lies & deceit over land grab
02 September 2017
EDDIE TANAGO | Act Now!
PORT MORESBY - The Papua New Guinean government has lied to the nation over the SABL land grab and people across the country will be angry and disappointed.
The land grab, affecting over 50,000 square kilometres of customary land, was one of the biggest national issues over the lifetime of the last parliament.
In the lead-up to the national election both the prime minister and lands minister made clear statements that gave the impression all the SABL leases were deemed illegal and had been cancelled.
Those statements have now been contradicted by new lands minister Justin Tkatchenko, who has told the media he is setting up a special committee to look at the leases and decide which ones are illegal and which should be cancelled.
It now looks as if this government lied to us all on the issue of the SABL land grab in order to get re-elected.
How can the then lands minister say in April that he is “announcing to the country and the people that the government has taken a blanket cancellation of all special agriculture business leases and as we speak, they are all illegal” and then four months later his successor say the leases have not been cancelled and the government has not yet decided which are illegal?
In March we even had the prime minister tell the nation on camera that he had “made the decisions that I can make, what is legally required of me and the NEC; that is that we have cancelled all the licences. All the SABL licences are illegal in this country”.
If it is true the leases have not been cancelled, then the people of PNGhave been deceived.
Act Now is demanding that the government:
- Confirm all logging operations in SABL areas have been stopped and ensure the logging companies withdraw;
- Ensure all oil palm operations in SABL areas are stopped until a final decision is made on the leases;
- Ensure all police and army personnel are removed from SABL areas;
- Publish a list of all SABLs and their current status; and
- Tell the nation which leases they believe are ‘legitimate’.
It is now four years since the Commission of Inquiry reported, since then all we have had are lies and false promises.
Numerous committees and decisions have been announced but on the ground nothing has changed and the illegal occupation of customary land and illegal logging continues with the full connivance of the government.
The old Turubu SABL on 144C land in the East Sepik Province is still merrily rolling along. No worries! It is run by Wewak Agricultural Development Ltd - Hui Teck Lau and Nyi Then - both Malaysians, with Mr Ko running things from Wewak.
They are now busily building an oil palm mill at Mondomondo, using Malaysian and Filipino labour. The timber still pours out through a port at Kanduanum on the Sepik River and the huge ships anchor at the mouth of the Sepik to load the timber from the barges that bring it downriver.
The Department of Lands is busy getting the local people onto Voluntary Customary Land Registration (VCLR) so the title can remain with landowners. Then they can say they have got rid of the SABLs. I hear it is the young men who are taking out the VCLRs.
Posted by: Barbara Short | 02 September 2017 at 07:55 AM