Robert@PNG

Politics in PNG Highlands is a deadly and extremely serious business and when it comes to elections, PNG men are lousy losers.

Here's a story that made headlines in yesterday's Post Courier that proves the point:

Highway blocked

MORE than 50 vehicles, including a semi-trailer,
fell victim at a massive roadblock at the Togoba junction of the Highlands
Highway soon after the declaration of the Western Highlands provincial seat on
Monday night.
Five young women travelling to Mendi during the early hours yesterday were also
allegedly raped at the junction, according to a PNG Defence Force officer.
And angry tribesmen of ousted governor and former prime minister Paias Wingti
have called on all Highlands MPs to leave the NA camp and team up with Sir
Mekere Morauta and Sir Julius Chan or expect more chaos.
However, Mr Wingti has accepted defeat and called for peace in the province.
People should not take the law into their own hands and “no-one is to take
advantage of my loss” by doing anything against the law, Mr Wingti said.
He said what the people had done was out of their own interest and “has nothing
to do with my loss’’.
The tribesmen warned they would blow up all the bridges along the highway
leading to Southern Highlands and Enga if the Highlands MPs continued to remain
with NA.
They said they accepted the defeat of Mr Wingti but accused NA of planning a
nationwide scam in the election process to retain power.
About eight council wards at the Togoba junction have all agreed to set up
roadblocks in the next five years and services into SHP and Enga would remain
closed.
The leaders, who did not want to identify themselves, said: “We accept his (Wingti’s)
defeat but we are not satisfied with the manner in which the election was
conducted and how the regional counting was carried out into the very last hour
before the return of writs,” one of the leaders said.
They said the burning down of the truck and smashing of windscreens of cars and
trucks was only the beginning of more things to come in the next five years if
the elected leaders did not want to listen.
They singled out Anderson Agiru (SHP), Peter Ipatas (Enga) and NA’s Highlands
leader Don Polye to leave the NA camp in Kokopo, join the Port Moresby camp and
form the Government for the good of their people.
The leaders said they were willing to sacrifice their lives and they would wait
until the PNGDF members left and they would take on the highway.
They said as long as the Highlands MPs failed to break away from NA, the highway
was not going to be free for the next five years.
A heavy police and defence force presence in the area has quelled the situation
but the truck burnt at the junction of SHP and Enga turnoff could not be removed
to make way for traffic.
Locals also fired shots at police and Defence Force officers, resulting in the
soldiers calling on their helicopter to assist. More police and soldiers from
the SHP were also called in to chase away the gunmen.
The situation was still tense yesterday afternoon.