Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop sought a court order to stop the burial of a journalist until a proper post-mortem has been conducted on her, reports The National.

Her burial was halted this morning after the last relative objecting to a post-mortem – her mother – agreed, reports Loop PNG.

Her body was taken back to the funeral parlour last night under instructions by investigating police homicide unit detectives and latest reports said the result of the post-mortem would be known tomorrow.

READ MORE: Funeral of Post-Courier journalist overshadowed by abuse allegations

Her paternal family had also sought a post-mortem, reports said.

Rosalyn Albaniel Evara, 41, was business editor of the PNG Post-Courier newspaper until she died on Sunday, October 15.

Her death has unleashed a wave of anger over violence against women in Papua New Guinea.

The front pages of Papua New Guinea’s two daily newspapers contrasted today with The National splashing Evara’s death on the front page while the late journalist’s own newspaper, the Post-Courier, featured a curtainraiser on the Kumuls for their Rugby League World Cup opener in Port Moresby next Saturday.

This sparked PNG Media Council president Alex Rheeney, a former chief editor of the Post-Courier, to condemn his old newspaper on social media.

Writing in The Pacific Newsroom, Rheeney said in a bitter commentary directed at the Post-Courier:

“Halo she was your employee and one of the best – if not the best – until the end. All employers have a duty of care to their employees and the Post-Courier continues to fail by not seeking justice for their business editor Rosalyn Albaniel Evara and giving editorial prominence to the issue from the date of her death.

“The newspaper failed to get to the bottom of the death of the esteemed journalist, and my former colleague, when she passed on … October 15, leaving that responsibility [to] close friends and family.

“In today’s edition you choose to belittle the memory of one of Papua New Guinea’s top journalist by running stories and pictures on her funeral service yesterday on Page 16, unlike The National which did well by giving the issue front page coverage.

“As a former chief editor of the newspaper, I am shocked and disgusted at the management’s failure to give editorial prominence to the issue and be proactive in relation to the death of Rosalyn and push for a full investigation into her shocking death, as a responsible employer.

“Where is the empathy to and for Papua New Guinean professionals who contribute to your annual profits?”

Current Post-Courier editor Todagia Kelola defended his newspaper’s decision to carry the report of the funeral well inside the newspaper, saying it was an issue of “the angle” for the news.

The newspaper had taken an editorial decision to focus on the funeral rather than the allegations around her death, he told Loop PNG.

In a separate statement, he claimed the funeral had been “hijacked” over the allegations.

The Minister for Youth, Religion and Community Development, Soroi Eoe, condemned Evara’s death and joined Parkop’s call on authorities to investigate the allegations.

“I condemn such death in the strongest terms based on the allegations of late Mrs Evara being a victim of gender based violence. Again the matter is serious and must be dealt with accordingly.”

Injury marks on body
At her funeral service at the Rev Sione Kami Memorial Church in Port Moresby yesterday, The National reports, her aunt, Mary Albaniel, showed to the crowd images of her body with injury marks on it.

“The images were shown on a screen inside the church,” the newspaper said.

“Mary Albaniel wore an orange t-shirt with the words: ‘No to violence against women’ on the back. She told the congregation that her niece had been a victim of violence.”

The National reported that the images showed that Evara had injuries to several parts of her body.

A death certificate from the Port Moresby General Hospital showed that Evara, 41, was rushed the hospital after she had collapsed that afternoon. She was reported to have been suffering from headaches the previous day.

Governor Parkop last night was working with police homicide unit at Boroko and the coroner to get a court order to stop her planned burial today at the 9-Mile Cemetery outside Port Moresby until a proper post-mortem was conducted to confirm the cause of her death.

‘Mere allegations’
Parkop, a strong advocate of ending violence against women, said he had called up the newspaper but was told that claims of violence instituted on her by someone close to her were “mere allegations”.

“I will follow up to find out the truth,” Parkop said.

“I am determined that there must be [a] prosecution if the allegation is true.”

Overseas media were yesterday also chasing up the story of her death.

A police homicide officer at the Boroko police station confirmed with The National last night that they were working on the case with Parkop.

Evara’s mother Ella Albaniel, a former principal of Lae School of Nursing, told The National that she was against the idea of a post-mortem although her daughter could have died from injuries, The National reported.

Evara completed Grade 12 at the Aiyura National High School in Eastern Highlands in 1993.

She spent two years at Divine World University where she graduated in 1995 with a Diploma in Communication Arts.

She worked with Word Publishing until about 2002 when she joined the Post-Courier.

Evara was based in Lae, Madang and Port Moresby.

By Kendall Hutt in Auckland

How Indonesian society manages in the face of natural disasters is the focus of a global research collaboration as part of the Indonesian government’s World Class Professor programme.

Spearheaded by the Universitas Gadjah Mada’s Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS), the WCP collaboration centres on ecological communication.

“We tried to find a topic which would facilitate us working together, and two other universities have specifications in tsunami mitigation and focus on maritime coastal disasters,” said CESASS director Dr Hermin Indah Wahyuni.

These are the Universitas Syiah Kuala’s (Unsyiah) Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Research Centre (TDMRC) and Universitas Diponegoro’s Centre for Coastal Rehabilitation and Disaster Mitigation Studies (COREM).

The Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre and its director, Professor David Robie, are also part of the maritime disaster issues research project.

Speaking to Asia Pacific Report, Dr Wahyuni said CESASS and its partners wanted to highlight the “social aspect of maritime disasters” and were interested in three aspects of ecological communication.

“We would first like to know how the society communicates about disasters; understanding about the environment and why media is important in constructing reality and making disasters important; and how infrastructure has developed.

Environment ‘unimportant issue’
“We have the feeling society does not categorise what is happening around a disaster,” she said.

Dr Wahyuni said the problem may lie in people’s perceptions and the mentality surrounding natural disasters.

“It’s unlucky, as as a society we don’t think the environment is an important issue.

“We never discuss about why, for example, the fish are dying. It’s happening, but it’s out of focus for us.”

In an attempt to understand Indonesia’s thinking and hopefully turn the tide on Indonesia’s poor environmental record, Dr Wahyuni and her team are in the midst of investigating the social, political and economic impacts of natural disasters.

The team revealed the findings of their early research at a PMC hosted seminar series while in New Zealand earlier this month.

The focus of CESASS’ Dr Budi Irawanto’s research is how the stories of natural disaster survivors are told by Indonesian media.

Focus on survivors
“The focus of my research is how the media deals with tragedy through the narratives of survivors,” he said.

Although venturing into a “new kind of territory”, Dr Irawanto said his research interest came about after discovering there were a lack of studies on the relationship between natural disasters and the media.

Focusing on weekly magazine Tempo and using the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the 2006 earthquake in Yogyakarta and 2010 Mount Merapi eruption as case studies, Dr Irawanto’s early research revealed survivor narratives are underrepresented in the media due to a focus on the economic impacts of natural disasters.

The suffering of survivors was brought closer, he said, but “compassion fatigue” existed. 

Dr Wahyuni reflected such a focus on economics may be due to the makeup of Indonesian society.

“The dynamic of our society is mostly in the political system…Business interests are more important than how we conserve our environment.

“With this research we would like to more deeply explore this problem from many perspectives – media, anthropology, economy.”

‘We need journalists’
However, Dr Wahyuni acknowledged the media had a large role to play in bringing environmental issues into focus.

“We need journalists that can translate, for example, climate change. It is very difficult to translate the concept to ordinary people as climate change is very hard to understand,” she said.

Further research by CESASS academics has provided insight into the communication of natural disasters in Indonesia.

Analysing over 45,000 tweets between 2014 and 2015, Dr Bevaola Kusumasari’s research focused on how people use social media platform Twitter during disasters.

Focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, Dr Kusumasari’s research revealed how different sectors of society – government, non-governmental organisations, media and celebrities – use Twitter.

Dr Kusumasari discovered NGOs use Twitter for relief coordination, while media and government participate in second-hand reporting and celebrities encourage the public to donate to relief efforts.

Although tweets came from outside the disaster zone, Dr Kusumasari found Twitter’s speed of reach could mean it is the ideal platform for relief coordination.

Future collaboration hope
Dr Wahyuni said she hoped the research collaboration marked the beginning of an ongoing academic relationship between CESASS and its partners, and that the research has real-world effects.

“We are starting with the academic, the university, the student awareness about what we can do to attempt to change this situation.

“We will support the effort to look after the environment better.”

PMC director Dr Robie, who has specialised in environmental journalism and launched the Bearing Witness climate project in 2016, heads to Indonesia next week as part of the WCP programme.

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

The five-month battle against terrorists in the southern Marawi City on Mindanao has ended, Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana announced today.

“After 154 days of the siege of Marawi by the Daesh-inspired Maute ISIS group, or after a week since the Commander-in-Chief declared the liberation of Marawi, we now announce the termination of all combat operations in Marawi,” Lorenzana told reporters.

He made the statement at the ASEAN regional security meeting in Clark, Pampanga, reports Rappler.

The announcement comes almost a week after President Rodrigo Duterte announced the “liberation” of Marawi from “terrorist influence” on October 17, during his visit to the war-torn city.

Lorenzana said government security forces – both the armed forces and the police – “nipped the budding infrastructure and defeated terrorism in the Philippines”.

Government forces had been fighting a fierce war with the terrorist Maute Group and a faction of the Abu Sayyaf Group, led by supposed ISIS emir Isnilon Hapilon.

Local government thanks military
Crisis spokesperson Zia Alonto Adiong said the local government was thankful to the military.

“I must not forget to address this message of gratitude to all our troops who have tirelessly fought in the last few months in our city. Our gratitude to our splendid men goes forth from all our hearts in this city and the entire province,” Adiong said in a press conference after Lorenzana’s declaration.

But Adiong said the hard work was just beginning.

“We may allow ourselves to a brief period of rejoicing right now, but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead…. We must recognise that the end of the war is only the first step toward building the peace,” Adiong said.

1780 hostages rescued
More than 1000 people have been killed in the war.

In a press conference in Marawi, AFP information chief Colonel Romeo Brawner said that 920 terrorists had been killed, but troops were still trying to recover around 30 to 40 corpses left in the last holdout building.

On the government side, 165 soldiers and cops had been killed in action, Brawner said.

A total of 1780 hostages had been rescued, and 850 firearms were recovered.

In Clark, Lorenzana said that in defeating what he called “thus far the most serious attempt to export violent extremism and radicalism” in the Philippines and the region, “we have contributed to preventing its spread in Asia and give our share of maintaining global peace, stability, and security”.

“While we submit that this tactical and strategic gains will not annihilate the ideology completely, we declare that this achievement is clear manifestation of how our regional cooperation can lead to a decisive advance against the proliferation of terrorism in this part of the world,” he added.

Lorenzana thanked other countries – in particular China, the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore – in the battle to liberate the city.

Catalyst for cooperation
“We hope that this operational achievement in Marawi in the Philippines will be the catalyst that shall bring to the core future cooperation and partnerships not only against terrorism but also those that shall defeat other regional and global security threats,” he added.

Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella, commended the troops, including those killed in action, “for their courage, gallantry, and sacrifice”.

“With the liberation of Marawi, our focus now shifts to the enormous and challenging task of rebuilding, reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Islamic city.

“The damage to Marawi’s infrastructure and private properties and the displacement of thousands of residents require the government’s unified and comprehensive effort; thus, we call on all our citizens to come together to move our country forward towards a peaceful, prosperous and secure future,” he said.

By Nethy Dharma Somba in Jayapura

First Brigadier Berry Pramana Putra, a member of the National Police’s Mobile Brigade stationed in Timika, Papua, has been killed in an exchange of fire with unidentified gunmen on Utikini bridge, Tembagapura, Mimika regency.

The Jakarta Post reports that Berry died yesterday during a pursuit of armed assailants who were allegedly behind a shooting incident in the mining area of US-based PT Freeport Indonesia at Mile 60 to 67, Papua police Chief Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar said today.

“The victim died on the scene while Mobile Brigade members were in an exchange of fire with an armed criminal group on Utikini bridge, a day after the group shot at two patrol vehicles owned by PT Freeport,” he said in Jayapura.

He alleged the group was behind security disturbances in Freeport’s mining area. He also suspected it was the same group who seized two Steyr assault rifles and ammunition from members of the Mobile Brigade two years ago, as the same weapons were believed to have been used in the shooting that killed Berry.

The allegations arose from the bullet casings found at the scene.

‘Group identified’
“We have identified the group, although we will not yet publish the name of the group,” Chief Inspector Boy added.

No additional security personnel would be added despite the incidents, he said, adding that police would handle the issue in accordance with law enforcement procedures to end the security disturbances in Papua.

The Papua police delivered the body of First Brigadier Berry to his hometown in Bengkulu in a release ceremony led by Boy. As Berry had died on duty, the police also granted him a posthumous promotion to one level above his rank.

Nethy Dharma Somba is a reporter for The Jakarta Post.

OPINION: By Murray Horton, of the Aotearoa Independence Movement

Jacinda Ardern, we have some suggestions for when you go as New Zealand’s incoming Prime Minister to APEC in Vietnam next month. Take note of where you are – in a country that fought Western imperialists for decades, first the French, then the Americans, to successfully achieve independence.

What more appropriate inspiration for your new government, one elected by people wanting change for the better, to declare that Aotearoa too will become truly non-aligned and independent?

Close the Waihopai spy base, get out of Five Eyes, and pull the plug on the ANZUS-in-all-but-name military and intelligence alliance with Trump’s increasingly dangerous and unhinged United States. Get out of the American wars that we are already in, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan and definitely stay out of any new wars that Trump may try to drag us into, such as in Korea.

The Americans are very proud of having won their independence from the British Empire; it’s time for us to do the same from the American Empire.

Don’t sign the TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) while you’re at APEC. With or without the US, it’s a dog.

And it is extremely feeble of Labour to say that your only quibble is your wish to stop foreign speculators from buying NZ houses. That is commendable in itself, but it is the very least of what’s wrong with the TPPA and so-called “free trade” deals like it.

The whole model of such foreign investment agreements is broken and needs to be reconsidered from scratch. They are in the interests of transnational corporations only, and certainly not in the interests of the New Zealand people.

Don’t be bullied
Don’t be bullied by so-called experts and journalists with an ideological agenda who accuse you of wanting to “close New Zealand off from the world”. Tell them to look no further than Australia which, for example, has much more stringent restrictions on house ownership by foreigners.

It’s great that you are giving the existential issue of climate change a high priority. Make sure that your government does something real about it, not just more greenwash. One thing that needs to be done immediately is to open this country’s doors to our Pacific neighbours who are under immediate threat of literally going under due to climate change.

They did nothing to cause this problem – whereas New Zealand certainly did and continues to do – but they pay the cost. Taking them in is not a solution to climate change, it is simply an acknowledgement of reparations for damage done. All up, there are only a few thousands of them. We owe them safe haven much more than we do American billionaires seeking a bolthole.

Both Labour and New Zealand First have expressed concern, to a greater or lesser degree, about foreign control of this country. Rest assured that it consists of a lot more than house sales and the relentless takeover of NZ’s prime rural land. They are important but the important stuff is who owns the real guts of the economy.

Name any sector of the NZ economy – take banks as just one example – and it is owned outright by, or dominated by, transnational corporations. That is where the emphasis must be for a government that is really committed to change. Making transnationals pay their fair share of tax is fine but is just tinkering around the edges. It is dealing with the insult, not the injury

Don’t just stop the further sale of public assets such as state houses – take back those assets that have been stolen from the people of New Zealand by your predecessors (both National and Labour). Renounce and reverse Rogernomics, not just because it proved to be electoral poison for Labour but because it was, and is, fundamentally wrong.

It constitutes a crime against the people, a crime of the few against the many. You can trace the dramatic spike in NZ’s deplorable slew of negative social statistics back to the deliberate imposition of that institutionalised inequality and declaration of class war on workers and those at the bottom of the heap.

Naughty old Uncle Winston has had the bad manners to mention the “C” word, one which no recent labour Leader has ever mentioned, let alone in a critical sense, for fear of inducing double incontinence in the business sector.

Good on him for doing so but he is indulging in wishful thinking. Trying to put a “human face on capitalism” is, to use another phrase from the election campaign, putting lipstick on a pig. Concentrate on sorting out the pig and forget about the lipstick.

Murray Horton
Spokesperson, Aotearoa Independence Movement (AIM)
Christchurch

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Disaster risk reduction efforts need to be understood as investments to sustain development plans rather than mere budget expenditures, says Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

The agency is holding the 2017 Disaster Risk Reduction Month event in four areas of West Papua from today until Wednesday, the head of BNPB Willem Rampangilei announced.

Rampangilei added that the Nawacita (Nine Priorities) programme and the 2015-2019 National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN) document emphasise disaster management, particularly disaster risk reduction into national to local development planning, reports Netral News.

“The objective of the plan is to protect the economic growth centers from the threat of disaster so as to ensure the sustainability of development,” Rampangilei said.

In the RPJMN document, the government set the priority of 136 regencies/municipalities as the center of high-risk economic growth.

Disaster risk reduction would increase resilience so that it did not significantly affect the development process, Rampangilei said.

One of the disaster risk reduction efforts was by lowering the risk index of disaster at the centres of economic growth.

In 2016, BNPB together with the government and other stakeholders, lowered the disaster risk index by 15.98 percent. In 2019, the disaster risk index is targeted to fall by 30 percent, according to the RPJMN.

Rampangilei said it was vital to strengthen government and community understanding of disaster risk reduction activities as an investment for resilience.

Expected investments include building of joint awareness, dialogue and networking among stakeholders involved in disaster risk reduction activities.

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

One of New Zealand’s best-selling and most-respected historians and social commentators, Professor Paul Moon, has been acknowledged for his contributions as a researcher, academic and teacher.

The AUT Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate excellence in the university’s community.

Professor Moon was awarded the top accolade – the AUT University Medal – this week for sustained and exceptional academic achievement, especially in Māori, Treaty of Waitangi-related issues and early New Zealand history.

The award at Auckland University of Technology comes as Professor Moon prepares to launch a new online course, focusing on the Holocaust.

The paper is the first of its kind in New Zealand and will be delivered entirely online, enabling people to study from all over the world. It is anticipated that the course will be available next year.

Surveying the Holocaust, from its historic origins in European anti-Semitism, through to its implementation during the period of the Third Reich, the course will centre on the preconditions of the Holocaust in Europe, its subsequent implementation and scale, and recent historiographical issues relating to its enduring significance.

Students will have the opportunity to investigate in detail a specific case study relating to the Holocaust, and to examine the relevance of the Shoah in the contemporary world.

Interactive learning
There will be lecturer support, tutorials for students to participate in, interactive learning, regular feedback on students’ work, and a comprehensive range of resources. The technical aspects of the paper will be supported by AUT’s Centre for Learning and Teaching.

“Now, more than ever, it’s important to remember the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and to understand the mentality that led to it,” Professor Moon says.

Professor Moon also received the Teaching Innovation award. His innovative approach to increasing student engagement has resulted in a number of fully online papers focusing on New Zealand history.

These four papers have formed the basis of AUT’s minor in history.

In his 24 years at AUT, Professor Moon has built an international reputation in the field of New Zealand history.

His innovative approach to learning has led to the development of online history papers and delivery of history based treaty seminars, resulting in a new undergraduate history minor at AUT in 2016.

Professor Moon has published 26 books, including Encounters: The Creation of New Zealand, which was shortlisted for the international Ernest Scott Prize in History.

Biographies, Treaty claims
Other titles include This Horrid Practice: The Myth and Reality of Traditional Maori Cannibalism, A History of New Zealand in the Twentieth Century, a trilogy of volumes on the Tūhoe tohunga (expert) Hohepa Kereopa, as well as biographies of Governors Hobson, FitzRoy, and the Ngapuhi chief Hone Heke,

His works have been published by some of the biggest international publishers including Penguin, Random House and HarperCollins.

He has worked on several Treaty of Waitangi claims and with numerous government agencies on Treaty-related issues. He is one of only a few historians whose work has been cited favourably in Parliament by MPs.

“The award is recognition of the growing role of history as a discipline at AUT, and of the contribution of all the people involved in teaching the subject,” Professor Moon says.

Indonesia’s foreign policy under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has become more visible regionally and globally, contrary to popular assumptions from the early days of his administration that saw him concerned only with domestic affairs, says a senior diplomat.

Today, October 20, marks Jokowi’s third year in office.

“There used to be this perception that President Joko Widodo, in the early days of his administration, was not too concerned with foreign policy, but now we are seeing the opposite,” said Dino Patti Djalal, Indonesia’s former ambassador to the United States and founder of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI).

Speaking at a press conference in Jakarta, Djalal highlighted the need to reflect on the past 50 years of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its future, for the sake of Indonesia’s presence on the international scene.

He said it was crucial if Indonesia “wants to be a leader recognised by the international community,” because Asean is the one domain where its leadership has been “naturally accepted”.

“Indonesia’s policy toward Asean is the backbone of our foreign policy, so we must continue to lead in the association,” Djalal added.

In the context of Asean, Indonesia’s leadership has been in the face of the ongoing crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, in which more than half a million people have already fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Free, active policy needed
Djalal also noted the importance of free, active and creative foreign policy for Indonesia to be a key player in global peace and cooperation efforts.

According to the seasoned diplomat, one of the challenges for the country’s policy in the future will be “non-traditional issues” such as humanitarian crises.

FPCI is hosting its third Conference on Indonesian Foreign Policy (CIFP) in Jakarta tomorrow. The Jakarta Globe is one of the event’s media partners.

The conference’s 18 sessions will cover a range of topics, with Asean and globalisation as the main theme.

Participants will also discuss the South China Sea dispute and the regional influence of the world’s powerful leaders — United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

One of the sessions will be devoted to the potential Indonesia’s provincial and district leaders have to tap into international opportunities.

According to Dino, a survey conducted recently by FPCI revealed that so far only a few regions know how to capitalise on the country’s position as one of the founders of Asean.

More Indonesian stories

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

An unprecedented level of mismanagement of Papua New Guinea’s affairs since 2012 has caused serious health issues, including widespread suffering and preventable deaths, reports Loop PNG.

The opposition’s Shadow Minister for Health and HIV/AIDS, Joseph Yopyyopy, has called for swift and appropriate government action to prevent further deterioration of PNG’s most basic and essential health services.

He warned of “catastrophic consequences” resulting from government inaction while noting that the PNC-led government drastically cut health spending for the past three years, including 2017.

Yopyyopy cited most recent instances, including:

• Laloki Psychiatric Hospital in Central Province being on the verge of closure with patients likely to be sent back home to their families due to shortage of medical drugs at the hospital. (Director of Medical Services at the hospital Dr Ludwig Nanawar revealed this as the institution marked World Mental Health Day on Oct 10);
• Health workers in Manus Province have been without such medicine for more than a month;
• Medicines running out PNG-wide with health facilities lacking essential equipment and in a state of disrepair;
• Health workers not being paid properly with doctors and health workers threatening stop work; and
• Recent media reports of a story from Abau district where a ward councillor claimed more than 20 people had died in the past two years due to medicine shortage.(People had to be taken to Port Moresby for treatment while some died along the way).

Other unreported cases are indicators of very serious system failure, the shadow minister said.

Yopyyopy noted that from the 2015 to 2017 budget, health funding was cut by 40 percent from K1.7 billion to K1.2 billion.

He also warned of further planned cuts of up to 30 percent over the next five years (to about K850 million).

Yopyyopy cited some “shocking” statistics about PNG’s state of health, including:

• In 2016, health cuts hurt many people, but fortunately the impact was softened by external health funding which may not be available;
• According to latest reports, PNG’s tuberculosis (TB) crisis is yet to be brought under control;
• ChildFund Australia estimates that up to 9000 PNG citizens died from TB in the past three years – one out of four are children);
• On PNG’s maternal and child mortality, a government decision in late 2016 to pay for women to give birth in a clinic or hospital was in fact an “admission of defeat”;
• Health experts have explicitly expressed that the health funding cuts have destroyed people in rural and remote areas where the need is urgent; and
• Up to 1500 women die in childbirth each year, and about 45 babies out of every 1000 die.

The UN estimates that about 12,000 children under five die each year, reports Loop PNG.

Also, a recent Asia Development Bank (ADB) report shows that PNG has some of the worst health indicators in the Asia-Pacific region:

• The prevalence of stunting among children under the age of five is 49.5 percent, ranking 29th out of 30 countries with information;
• The prevalence of malnutrition (wasting) among children under five is 14.3 percent, the highest rate for 30 countries;
• The maternal mortality ratio per 100,000 live births is 215, the equal third highest of 40 countries;
• The under-five mortality rate per 1000 live births is 57, the fourth highest of 43 countries;
• The number of new HIV aids infections in 2015 is 0.36 per 1000 of the uninfected population – the highest of 21 countries;
• The TB incidence per 100,000 people is 432, the second highest of 44 countries; and
• The incidence of malaria per 1000 people is 185, nearly double the next highest incidence.

Yopyyopy said facts speak volumes and it is incumbent on the government to stop painting a false picture when in fact, there are very serious underlying health issues affecting PNG.

“The government is not only duty bound, but morally obliged to put the health issues of PNG citizens above all else,” he added.

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Matangi Tonga has hit-out at what it says are attempts by the government to take over and “muzzle” the Tonga Broadcasting Commission.

In an editorial, Matangi Tonga said today recent restructuring led by TBC’s new board chairman, Dr Tu’i Uata, had “annihilated” the public broadcaster and turned the government watchdog into a “lapdog”.

Matangi Tonga’s editorial comes amid the latest controversy to befall the embattled public broadcaster, which has seen two of the TBC’s most senior journalists, Viola Ulakai and Laumanu Petelō, moved out of the newsroom and into a division labelled “NGO Services”.

The editorial:
With Tonga only weeks away from a snap general election, the Tongan government is taking full control of the Tonga Broadcasting Commission (TBC), in a move that has annihilated its right to function as an honest public broadcaster.

The TBC’s two most senior journalists, Viola Ulakai, the manager of news content, and Laumanu Petelō, the news editor, have been ordered out of the newsroom and into a corner called “NGO Services”.

The decision by the TBC’s new chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr Tevita Tu’i Uata, is a blatant attempt to turn watchdogs into lap dogs.

Petelō and Ulakai, the most senior journalists remaining at the TBC, after their CEO was removed earlier this year, at first resisted the move.

No Go
Petelō said that Ulakai had renewed her working contract with the TBC, and she had signed a working contract with the TBC as a news editor in June. She said that they refused to move because they were contracted as journalists to work in the news division, and they did not know what they were supposed to be doing at the new “NGO Services” Division.

But at the end of last week they decided to move out from the newsroom and over to the NGO Services Division.

They are hearing rhetoric that the TBC is losing money, and that their news service, which is not pro-government, is being blamed for its financial woes.

There have been talks for the TBC news to be in Tongan only, which Petelō believes will be a disappointment for foreign diplomats who financially prop up the service of TBC, and rely on their daily news coverage of Tongan affairs.

Petelō goes on leave today, October 16, and will not return to work until early next month.

Political control
The feud between government and the TBC has been going on since the present government came into power at the end of 2014. There have also been court cases between government and members of the board and the CEO of TBC.

The rhetoric by government officials, that because the TBC is a public enterprise its news coverage “should be pro-government”, is completely off the mark. No genuinely professional journalists will work under such a politically controlled system.

It is quite clear with the beheading of the news service that government is taking full control of the public broadcaster in the lead up to the November 16 general election.

The concept of public broadcasting, as with the BBC, Radio Australia and broadcasting establishments in some Commonwealth countries, is that governments allocate funds for public broadcasters with independent newsrooms espousing a principle of “impartial, free and fair”.

Public broadcasters do not rely on advertising to the same degree as commercial broadcasters. This allows public broadcasters to transmit programmes that are not commercially viable to the mass market, such as well-balanced public affairs shows, radio and television documentaries, and educational programmes, that otherwise could not be produced.

The current members of the TBC Board of Directors are: chairman, Dr Tevita Tu’i Uata; directors, ‘Aloma Johansson, Pita Moala, Siosaia Fonua and Leonaitasi Hoponoa.

The TBC was established in 1961, and it has developed and benefited over the years with continuing assistance from foreign aid donors. Over the years, it has managed to play its part as a watchdog over national affairs.

Now there appears to be an unfortunate attempt to muzzle the watchdog.

On the 10th anniversary of the Urewera raids, we should recount the lessons – and we should remember.

Breathless police and media commentary about a cocktail of napalm bombs, terrorist cells, guns, ammunition, Māori extremists, guerrilla warfare, assassination threats against politicians, greeted the public on the 15 October 2007.

You name it – the police claimed it and the media hyped it.

From the 17 arrests and the dozens searched and detained – illegally as it turned out – just four people were charged with illegal possession of firearms – two were jailed and two given home detention.

The progressive left was quick to hit back against the hysterical police narrative and bring some semblance of sanity and common sense to the public debate.

This was highly successful and within 24 hours some elements of the media and much of the public were expressing scepticism concerning the police claims.

We worked with Tuhoe activists to organise marches and public demonstrations highlighting the appalling police behaviour and calling for a reigning in of the surveillance state.

Police overreacted
Subsequent developments showed we were right – the police had overreacted and dramatically overreached. They should have taken concerns about military style camps in the Urewera seriously and sent in a Māori liaison officer to find out what was happening and why.

Instead, the police deliberately sidelined their community officers in favour of a dramatic $8 million surveillance operation which they hoped would bring public justification for the massive increase in police (and SIS) powers and resources in the wake of the US September 11 attacks.

New Zealand had become a surveillance state and these raids would show that while we didn’t have Islamic extremists, we had our own home-grown “terrorists”.

A lot of that initial response from the left was instinctive. We knew most of the people the police were claiming as terrorists and knew this was at least a gross over-reaction to whatever had been going on.

The most important lesson from the Urewera raids is to always be sceptical of state agencies who often have their own non-public interest justifications for what they do.

On the other side I don’t think it’s too cynical to say the main lesson the police will have learnt is NOT that they got it wrong and couldn’t tell the difference between a bullshit conversation in a car and a credible terrorist threat, but that it was a failure of PR to prepare carefully enough.

Tuhoe have their own lessons which they have been speaking about in the past few days.

It’s worth remembering too the long list of legislation passed by successive Labour and National governments to extend the surveillance state on the pretext of keeping us safe.

Instead, it has turned this country into a surveillance state where civil liberties and the right to privacy take second place to the powers of Big Brother to intrude into our lives.

This article was first published on The Daily Blog and has been republished with permission.

By Dames Alexander Sinaga in Jakarta

A civil society group has urged the Indonesian government to revoke a presidential decree on the indigenous resettlement schemes in forest areas, which was issued about a month ago.

The forest areas in the decree signed by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on September 6 are classified as conservation forests, protected forests and production forests.

Muhammad Arman, head of legal and advocacy division of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), said the resettlement programme under the decree could threaten and potentially criminalise indigenous communities that for years have been living in the areas.

“[Indigenous communities that live on] 1.6 million hectares of conservation forests are in threat of resettlement,” Arman told reporters.

The lands constitute 20 percent of 8.2 million hectares registered by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the Ministry of Spatial Planning as indigenous.

Association for Community and Ecology-Based Law Reform (Perkumpulan HuMa) researcher Erwin Dwi Kristianto said in a statement that the decree “creates uncertainty” and damages social forestry and communal rights.

While the decree, of which implementation started on September 11, obliges local governments to provide legal protection for the communities living in the forest areas, it also permits their resettlement.

Dames Alexander Sinaga is a Jakarta Globe journalist.

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Prestige, financial prizes and the chance for your story to be read worldwide. This is what lies ahead for authors of successful entries in the 2017 Samoa Observer Tusitala Short Story competition.

This is a competition specifically set up for writers in the Pacific.

The top three entries from the three areas, Australia and New Zealand, Samoa and All other Pacific Islands, win generous, cash prizes of US$1000 (NZ$1400) each. Then the overall winner judged from those three categories, receives an additional US$2000 (NZ$2800).

A further 12 or so stories from the competition will be included with the winners’ entries and published in a book of short stories in the third “Our Heritage, the Ocean” series.

You may start submitting your entries online up to the deadline – November 10 on the website, www.tusitalacompetition.com.

Organising committee member Marj Moore said this was the third year this competition had been running.

Forum for Pacific writers
It was started as an initiative in 2015 by the Samoa Observer editor-in-chief, Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa, a noted writer, published author and poet.

He wanted to provide a forum for Pacific writers to tell the stories of their own lives and to share issues and ideas which were important to them.

Following the success of this inaugural competition, the stories in that 2015 publication were later translated into Chinese by the Chinese Ambassador in Samoa, Wang Xuefeng and Madam Tong Xin. That translation of Pacific stories was then published in China.

The second annual Samoa Observer Tusitala Short Story Competition in 2016, also attracted some outstanding entries. These original stories were set around the Pacific – in American Samoa, Australia, Fiji, Hawai’i, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa, with one even further afield.

“Stories of superstition and courage, migration and old age, tales set in the past, present, and future. While the plots are diverse, many have the same underlying message – we need our family and each other” said an early reviewer of the collection.

This second publication of the best stories from 2016 was entitled, Only the Word Survives. It has recently been published and is available from the Samoa Stationery and Books outlets in Samoa; American Samoa, and Mangere, Auckland, New Zealand.

ANALYSIS: By David Hall of AUT’s The Policy Observatory

The problem with climate change – like any wicked problem – is that its story can be told in many different ways. The same goes for migration. The facts, as far as they go, can be conjured into a multitude of understandings.

Still, some stories are less credible than others. Michael Reddell’s recent analysis of migration and climate change in Newsroom is one.

That these vastly complex issues cross over at times is obvious: climate change leaves nothing untouched. But Reddell goes further by arguing that the Productivity Commission’s low emissions inquiry ought to treat immigration as a contributing factor to New Zealand’s rising greenhouse gas emissions; and that our national emissions targets should justify reduced inward migration.

His first argument is one of scale: “more people need more transport, more heating, more energy in their workplaces” – and hence more emissions.

Notably, though, he presumes current technologies and current prices. Not only does this misrepresent all likely futures, but also our actual past. The Ministry for the Environment’s most recent Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990–2015 notes that energy emissions decreased in 2008–2011 and remained stable since, which is the same period that net migration rose steeply.

The Ministry attributes these reductions to decreased manufacturing emissions and increased renewable energy generation. We have more people, sure, but more people relying on our low-emissions energy. And what matters from the perspective of Earth’s atmosphere is what people emit, not where they emit it.

Emissions from transport, by contrast, have risen. Indeed, road transport emissions increased by 78 percent since 1990, offsetting those other reductions in fuel use.

Over-reliance on vehicles
But the fault here lies with New Zealand’s over-reliance on private vehicles. Migrants (and citizens) contribute to road traffic by necessity, because alternative means of transport are less available, indeed far less so than many migrants are used to, coming from places where travel by trains, trams, cycles and footpaths is not unusual.

If low-carbon alternatives in places like Auckland were more serviceable, migrants would doubtlessly use them, as indeed would citizens. And if the excuse for under-investment is the lack of markets of sufficient scale, then population increase and cultural change will drive progress.

Reddell’s second argument links migration to agricultural emissions. As I understand him, he argues that New Zealand’s high living standards depend upon dairy exports, which makes it politically infeasible to impose costs for environmental damages. The greater the population, the greater this reliance upon the dairy sector, and so the greater the reluctance to make polluters pay.

But it is bizarre to suggest that new and old New Zealanders – including those not employed in agriculture – rely so heavily on dairy for their standard of living. Sure, dairy is our largest export sector, but only 3.5 percent of total GDP.

Actually, many New Zealanders, including many farmers, rely on healthy environments for their standard of living, both in the non-economic sense of quality of life, and in the economic sense that tourism and exports benefit from New Zealand’s clean, green reputation. (Tourism, incidentally, accounts for 5.6 percent of total GDP.)

This is likely why – contra Reddell – a strong majority of New Zealanders (77 percent) do support water charges for agriculture and horticulture, despite the fiscal burden.

It is also misleading to treat economics and environment as a zero-sum game, as if one must lose out in order for the other to gain. It simply isn’t the case that internalising the environmental costs of agriculture necessarily undermines profitability.

Innovation proves point
Innovation within the dairy sector proves the point. Recently, Lincoln University’s demonstration farm reduced nitrate leaching by 30 percent without undermining affecting profitability.

This contradicts Reddell’s claim that “all informed observers recognise that the marginal abatement costs in New Zealand, through conventional means, are high”. I’ve written for Pure Advantage about the potential of forests – both production and permanent forests – to offset agricultural emissions in a way that isn’t only cost-effective but potentially profitable.

This is corroborated by other “informed observers”, such as the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and Vivid Economics. The latter’s Net Zero in New Zealand report highlights other low-cost opportunities in energy efficiency, heating technologies, agricultural efficiency, and technological advances in methane vaccines and cheaper electric vehicles.

What’s striking about all this is not only Reddell’s argument is from the perspective of climate change, but also economics. He resists the orthodox view that migration has a modest positive impact on national GDP.

I’m no enemy of disciplinary iconoclasm, but it does beg for robust positive arguments. Reddell’s appeals to uncertainty (economists cannot prove definitively that migration increases GDP, therefore it might not be true) do not count. Climate scientists are all too familiar with this kind of denial.

So if economic evidence cannot always carry his arguments, one can only conclude that non-economic reasons are doing some of the work. To Reddell’s credit, he is explicit about his concerns for cultural cohesion, or that “Islam is a threat to the West, and a threat to the church wherever it is found”.

These are real reasons for wanting to reduce immigration, but should be debated on their ethical and sociological merits, not couched in an idiosyncratic take on climate policy.

When it comes to global warming, it’s the carbon intensive economy, stupid. The only genuine solution is to transform the world’s high-emissions economies into low-emissions economies, so that anyone entering them by way of birth or migration can lead a prosperous low-carbon life.

Our national emissions targets are a means to this global end. Focusing on peripheral issues like migration only distracts from the work that needs to be done. But that’s what happens when you tell the story of a global problem through a nationalist lens.

David Hall is senior researcher at The Policy Observatory, AUT, where he researches migration and climate policy. He is also editor of the BWB Text, Fair Borders?: Migration Policy in the Twenty-First Century. This article is republished with the author’s permission.

By Kalino Latu, editor of Kaniva News

The Tonga Broadcasting Commission was restructured to save it from being closed down, says the commission’s chair, Dr Tu’i Uata.

Dr Uata told Kaniva News the TBC faced being shut down in two months because it was running at a loss despite having a strong “technical” management to make sure it functioned financially.

Dr Uata blamed the situation on the way the TBC news was being created and broadcast.

In Tongan he said: “Ko e palopalema ko e content oku ‘ikai manakoa aia makatuunga ai a e mole.”

This can be translated into English as: “The problem is that the content is not popular, that’s why it ran at a loss.”

He said he had launched a reform at TBC which was based on the idea that everything in the organisation had to be “people centred” and focused on customers.

News chiefs moved
As Kaniva News reported earlier, two senior and long serving journalists at TBC were moved out of the newsroom and moved into the sales and marketing department.

Laumanu Petelo, the editor, and Viola Ulakai, the news manager, were moved to a new department within the sales section known as NGO.

Chief engineer Solomone Finau has since been appointed acting general manager and Vilisoni Tu’iniua was taking care of the newsroom.

Dr Uata said he wanted to put a stop to the “loss” so that the organisation could be profitable.

“According to the public enterprise law which we are under, if the organisation is not financially viable or it cannot be able to perform like you (Kaniva News), there is a ground for dismissal,” Dr Uata said.

“TBC cash flow will shut down in two months, and all will go home.”

Dr Uata said this was his priority at this stage.

“That’s the reality,” he said.

Stopping losses
He said he was concerned at TBC operating at loss.

Dr Uata was asked about Petelō and Ulakai’s expertise in marketing as they had been in the newsroom for most of their services.

He replied: “Koe expertise ke mau ha silini ikai koe mole he tukuhau kakai oku uesia.” “The expertise should bring in revenue and not cause losses to the people’s tax money.”

The reform comes after Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva told Kaniva News in an interview that the TBC had run at a loss for many years because the majority of sponsors and listeners had moved and were using private broadcasters.

In February, the government, which is TBC’s main sponsor, injected TP$200,000 to the broadcaster to support its operations.