Yesterday’s radical

Michael Somare, 42, Prime Minister and Parliamentary Leader

of the Pangu Party.

The son of a policeman and the only prime minister Papua New Guinea has had, Mr Somare comes from the Sepik River area in the northwest of the PNG mainland.

He spent much of his boyhood in Rabaul where his father was stationed. He trained as a school teacher. By the time he went into politics with the emergence of the Pangu Pati he had been a broadcaster and an information officer with the Australian-controlled administration of PNG. He was branded radical when he began his political life, mainly because of the Pangu Party policy which called for immediate home rule.

It’s perhaps not surprising against the background of emerg ent politics that the man who had to wear the label of radical in those days is now criticised mainly for being an entrenched conservative. The basis of much of the criticism against him is that he allies his country too closely with western ideas, concepts and institutions - despite a strong policy of Pacific Island

regionalism.

The ‘fashionable’ fringes have fanned this criticism, mouth ing ready-made slogans of Third-World nationalism based on preconceived images. Strangely enough, too. this sort of criti cism has been further strengthened by a few whites who, once they have become converts to Melanesian nationalism, tend to become even more Melanesian than the Melanesians.

All that Mr Somare has really been doing is casting aside doc trinaire attitudes so that the long-term interests of his country can best be served as a member of the total world community.

Better than many of his countrymen he appreciates the subtle difference between and inter-dependence.

When Mr Somare visited Australia recently a surprised Papua New Guinea heard Radio Australia report that he intended to retire in 1981, the planned date of the next general elections.

In Port Moresby on his return he denied there was any truth in the report and did not give any commitment on his longterm personal plans.