Chan: The architect
p. 12 · Read in the full issue
architect
Sir Julius Chan, the architect of the no confi dence motion which top pled Michael Somare, has been in the PNG parlia ment for 27 years.
He is the man who put PNG on a sound economic footing and had it declared credit-worthy by the World Bank.
He oversaw the setting up of the country’s own
currency, the kina and toea. And as a newly independent nation’s first finance minister he won wide respect from people of all political persuasions.
Chan and his People’s Progress Party parted company with Somare’s Pangu Pati in 1978 and left the government. In 1980 he became prime minister after winning a vote of no confidence against So mare, only to lose again when Somare won the 1982 general election.
Since then he has held himself and his party sepa rate from much of the wheeling and dealing which characterises much of PNG politics.
Sir Julius, 46, who was knighted in January, 1980, had to overcome a lot of suspicion in his New Ire land electorate and the country as a whole be cause of his mixed Chinese racial background. But his political reputation is of a hard-working, shrewd businessman who is willing to wait for what he wants.