City Councillors Will Still Sa Y ‘ Lord

Pictured is Port Moresby’s new Lord Mayor, Cr Mahuru Mahuru Rarua. A motion to change his title to Chief Councillor or President on the grounds that it meant very little to the people was rejected. Supporter of the motion, Cr Charles Lepani, argued that the continuous use of the term “my lord” by councillors

when addressing the chair was out of taste and did not sound good.

Port Moresby’s first Lord Mayor, Oala Oala Rarua, who is now PNG Commissioner in Canberra, told PIM he was never happy with the title of Lord Mayor. “I didn’t like the title myself,” he said. “Un fortunately, we inherited it from the colonial days and I never enjoyed it, but what is the alternative? President or Chief Councillor are no more New Guinean than the existing title, although they would be more acceptable.”

Nearly 100 candidates stood for the 24 seats on the new council but the electors did not show the same degree of enthusiasm. Of the 35,000 eligible to vote, only 5,600 actually did. A number more did try to vote but found that they were not on the roll.

Two political parties, Pangu and Papua Besena, fielded candidates and the former claimed nine seats when the results were announced and the latter 11.

Later, Miss Josephine Abaijah,

the Besena leader, declared that all the Papuan councillors would form a majority alliance to protect the interests of Papuan citizens.

Among those elected were two women, Mrs Elizabeth Kiki, wife of Defence Minister Albert Maori Kiki, and Mrs Nahau Rooney.

Eleven members of the old council were returned, including the former Lord Mayor, Mr Jacob Lemeki. A new member is Dr Eric Wright, Miss Abaijah’s adviser, who will act as the Papuan separatist movement’s spokesman on the council.

The Pangu Pati made two attempts at the first meeting on April 23 to redeem an election promise—to secure the abolition of Port Moresby’s head tax, but could not get enough votes to allow a suspension of standing orders so that the motion to abolish the tax could be intro duced as a “matter of urgency”.

The Papua Besena group said they would agree to discuss the motion if an alternative tax was adopted.