BUKA, 11 DECEMBER 2018 (POST COURIER) – Former chairman of Leitana council of elders, Joel Banam said the next Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) elections in 2020 must be held with no extension of current members of the Bougainville House of Representatives.
Banam made the point after hearing rumours on the streets in Buka that members of the house are contemplating probable extension of the third house after declaration of the outcome of the imminent Bougainville referendum that is due on June 15, 2019.
He said he sees no logical reason at all for the need for such extension and said instead of talking about such trivial issues as extension, members of the current house should be talking more about unifying the people of Bougainville.
“I am not aware of any Bougainville executive council policy decision on unification of Bougainvilleans or for that matter on unification of Buka Island with the mainland of Bougainville. By now songs about unifications and drama on the need for unification and billboards depicting unifications of the two islands should saturate the fabrics of our Bougainville society,” said Banam.
“Surely the need for unification in the light of the imminent referendum for Bougainville’s future political status should be obvious to any member of the current house of representative.”
Banam said he believes regionalism should be rendered obsolete and that this regionalism should only exist for topographical, geographical, political and administrative convenience and believes factors such as regionalism, languages or different dialects must be seen as barriers to unifications of Bougainvilleans and must be eradicated from the minds of our younger people.
He said if members are unable to develop or initiate policies that will help to unite the people, they should resign and allow more competent Bougainvilleans to replace them. “Voters must be mindful of loud-mouth talkers but instead they must vote for critical thinkers, as they will shape and unite Bougainville,” Banam said.
Meanwhile, the Atolls Constituency in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville is now weapons-free and referendum-ready, according to the criteria set by the Bougainville House of Representatives and agreed to by the United Nations.
The constituency Member for Atolls and Vice President of the ABG Raymond Masono signed the declaration at Han Island in the Carteret district ahead of the deadline for the remaining 20 constituencies in the region to be declared referendum-ready by December 31, 2018.
Masono made the declaration amid much celebration in the presence of three colleague members and 20 government officials, chiefs from Carteret, Mortlock and representatives from Nuguria and Tasman Islands.
He said it was no doubt the biggest gathering of the ABG leaders and government officials in any community in the Atolls constituency ever.
Masono said this was a significantly historical day for the Atolls constituency, as they are the third constituency to be declared referendum ready in North Bougainville and the first to comply with the criteria in the referendum checklist.
Masono said ABG aided with funding, but lambasted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for not releasing funds earmarked for reconciliation in time for the occasion.
He added that he sometimes wondered whose interest they were supposed to be supporting while in Bougainville. Was it ABG’s interest or their own.
The declaration was preceded by a reconciliation of 10 crisis-related cases between islanders who found themselves on opposing sides of the Bougainville conflict.
Although there were no loss of lives, nevertheless the conflict also pitted islanders against those supporting the National Government and those supporting the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).
