A Chimbu puzzle

lambakey Okuk , 35, Parliamentary Leader of the People's United Front and Leader of the Opposition.

Of all the central figures on the current PNG scene, including even the controversial Sir John Guise who went from politican to governor-general and back to politician, lambakey Okuk is perhaps the greatest puzzle.

Brooding and moody at times, he will suddenly produce a talented brand of dry humour. His thinking is not always obvious. In periods of crisis in his own career, his allegiances and the allegiances made to him have swung with the winds.

One thing is certain. He is more often misunderstood than any of his fellow politicians, and this frequently has been to

his disadvantage.

At a state dinner for Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser recently he made an attempt at light humour regarding possible aid to build a new parliament house. Mr Fraser got the joke (perhaps political minds follow the same course) but the PNG National Broadcasting Commission missed the point altogether and reported what he said as a serious request.

On another occasion, Mr Okuk organised a harmless political demonstration, pretending to build an office which had been denied him, but his action was misconstrued as a threat of viol ence and led to a police security operation.

Mr Okuk is from Kundiawa in PNG’s Chimbu Province in the Highlands where orators get their training haranguing crowds of thousands for hours on end. He trained as a mechanic and welder before entering politics, came into parliament almost as an unknown and rose, in short order, to be transport minister in the Somare cabinet. But he alleged foreign manipulation of PNG economic affairs, fell out with government, and threw in his lot with the opposition.

After a bitter power struggle last year he displaced Sir Tei Abal as opposition leader and set about his announced task of ‘exposing and deposing’ the government.

For much of his political career Mr Okuk has tended to be one of the PNG politicians most feared by outside investors.

Expropriation measures or sanctions against investment have frequently been read into his statements and actions. But, by a turn of the political wheel, he has now become a champion of regulated investment. He wooed commercial interests during a recent tour of Australia and Southeast Asia.

His stated policy today on foreign capital and involvement is no different from the government's. Both welcome investment as long as they can regulate it, as long as it has developmental targets and as long as it provides equity and employment for Papua New Guineans.

But, by a strange twist of attitudes - Mr Somare on the one hand and Mr Okuk on the other - each claims the other is frightening away the development capital which they believe the country requires.