Elder statesman Sir Julius Chan dies at 85
31 January 2025
KEITH JACKSON
NOOSA – Not long after dawn one morning in early January 1972, just as I was finishing breakfast (it was porridge), there was a gentle tap-tap-tap on the front door of our home.
The station manager’s house was a few rungs up a ladder adjacent to Radio Bougainville’s studio block and, while early morning visitors were common, mostly they were announcers who’d left the studio key at home.
Not this time. I opened the door to find two scruffy, oil-stained men who looked in need of a good night’s sleep.
One of them I recognised as Julius Chan, who had been elected to the seat of Namatanai in New Ireland in the 1968 general election.
Sounding apologetic and staring at the floor, Chan introduced himself and his companion, John Maneke, whose name I knew as the MP for West New Britain. He too had been elected in 1968.
In a voice barely above a whisper Chan told me they were campaigning for the People’s Progress Party and had travelled overnight to Kieta from Buka on a small motorboat whose inboard engine periodically sprayed oil over them and the owner.
“We don’t know anyone in Kieta,” Chan said, and asked if they might use our bathroom.
After showering, changing their clothes and sharing my porridge, a now fine-looking pair of politicians went in search of fellow MP John Momis, who they assured me was flying down from Buka and would meet them at the police station.
At the March election all three were duly re-elected and all went on to have considerable political careers.
Sir Julius Chan GCL GCMG KBE PC died yesterday in Huris village at the age of 85, as Governor of New Ireland Province still a politician.
He served twice as prime minister (1980-82 and 1994-97), his second term marked by controversy and conflict as he used unorthodox means in a failed attempt to bring the Bougainville civil war to an end.
In 1997, his government's multi-million dollar payment to the mercenaries of Sandline International triggered a 10-day mutiny by the PNG Defence Force and immense public protests which forced Chan to resign.
He was to remain out of parliament for 10 years until winning the New Ireland provincial seat in 2007, holding it and the governorship until yesterday.
The Sandline affair aside, politics was kind to Chan. He lived a long life and became a very wealthy man – often accused of corruption which was never proven.
Referred to as ‘the last man standing’, Chan’s death deprives PNG of its last parliamentary link to the early years of representative government.
He is survived by his wife, Lady Stella Chan, and four children, Vanessa, Mark, Toea and Byron, who himself was member for Namatanai from 2002 to 2017.
I had the pleasure and privilege of being ADC Namatanai for two terms C.1968/72, during which period I had much contact with Julius Chan who was of course the local MP. We were about the same age and as I fitted in well with the very multi racial community there - he and I generally got on quite well, in fact he occasionally stayed with me (and my Filipina wife). I came to regard Julius as a very intelligent and masterly politician who I could rely on to raise various issues of local importance with whatever level of higher authority was warranted., and I also feel that Julius Chan was a very decent and a simply nice man. Undoubtedly an estimable person of considerable significance in PNG's history.
Posted by: Harry Redmond | 03 February 2025 at 11:54 AM