well-guided

PNG questions too well-guided

Dear Editor, Based on your conversation (PIM. May 1987), I still doubt if Papua New Guinea has that kind of new confidence. It was a shame Mr Ted Diro replied to your well-guided questions like an answering machine. For ex ample. PIM: Does PNG regard the Libyans as a security risk?

Mr Diro: If you go by the “experience” .. . etc. PIM: What exactly are you fearing?

Terrorism or what? Mr Diro: You name it.

It is a pity Mr Diro was a former minister of PNG defence forces but he does not know that the Australian Government gives military training and sells modem weapons to the In donesians every year. And the Indonesian military uses all those facilities to kill Mr Diro’s fellow Melanesian brothers in the western part of his home land, Papua New Guinea. But

then Mr Diro called them criminals. And also Mr Diro should know that Australia sells uranium for France’s nuclear tests in the Pacific, and the French Government killed some of Mr Diro’s Melanesian brothers like Mr Eloi Machoro from Kanaky. These facts are true and that is called “experi ence”.

However, from the following part of the conversation I can understand why Mr Diro made all this confusion. For example.

PIM; I am told you had 10 minutes scheduled and it turned into 50? Mr Diro: That’s roughtly correct. It was very fruitful and very worthwhile.

Of course Mr Diro needs more time than that for meeting Mr Hawke. A good “grand father” always tells the most interesting horror stories like

Continued on page 42

Ted Diro with Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

Libyans and criminals from Irian Jayans to his “grand child”. These stories might have scared or frightened Mr Diro therefore he almost missed his aeroplane.

As long as PNG still depends on Australian foreign aid, PNG can never have its own confi dence, although PNG is the richest and biggest island in the Melanesian states.

Henk Rumbewas

An Irian Jayan living in Australia.

NZ Immigration laws too lenient

New Zealand immigration laws may have been applied rather wishy-washily over the years but nobody can deny that plen ty of leniency has been granted to the Pacific Island overstayers.

They are, after all, contravening our nation’s laws in doing so.

Our government has to con sider such intricacies as hous ing, employment and social amenities for its own population first before being able to declare an open-sesame policy for out siders.

Moreover I can’t say Kiwis are welcoed with open arms in most islands when contemplat ing a longer term stay there and for permanent settlement it is practically impossible, I am told.

Even as a tourist I was rigorously checked while visit ing relatives in Apia. Coming back from a mere ferry trip to Pagopago I had to show all documentation including return air tickets, which one does not usually carry around for safety’s sake, apart from any other reason. Non-production of these documents caused rather rude treatement.

Accordingly I informed rela tives friends from Europe and America that Polynesian hospitality nowadays lacked its former lavish image and they would do well to give it a wide berth.

Mrs J. Mcvicker-Smith,

Wellington, New Zealand.