The women in Wingti’s life

Papua New Guinea

By Wally Hiambohn

WHO is the woman in Paias Wingti’s life? Or is there a woman at all?

These questions asked recently in the PNG parliament have been on the minds of Papua New Guineans about their prime minister. Since he entered politics m 1977, and hit the limelight, first as deputy to prime minister Michael Somare in 1982, and later as prime minister in 1986, Wingti has kept his private life as it is private.

Unlike his predecessors Somare, Sir Julius Chan and Rabbie Namaliu

Wingti has kept the nation guessing

about whether he is single or married.

There have been a few hints though, to indicate he has had relationships with women. In 1985 he was photographed with a seven-year-old son whose mother remains a mystery to the PNG public. In May this year, the Mount Hagen district court heard and granted Wingti a divorce from his customary marriage to a University of PNG student Dianne Kende with whom he has a son. The two’s marriage in 1991 was hushed up until the divorce was made public.

Except for the time she appeared with

Wingti at his government’s victory bash

in Port Moresby, and her official launch of the National Women’s Policy the same year, Kende had been kept out of public appearance with her husband. Wingti gave his people another surprise when a Eicture of him and a former Miss PNG eauty contestant Patricia Stockden graced the front page of the National newspaper. The caption under the pic ture of the two dancing at a dinner dance held for visiting Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, referred to the two as “Mr and Mrs Wingti”.

Neither has denied the reference.

Stockden is from a village in Lae known as Butibam a refined name for the term “beauty bum” used by World War II Allied soldiers to refer to local women.

Stockden was the fiance of a well-known

lawyer John Cunningham who de

nounced his citizenship in 1992 and took back his Australian citizenship.

Now Wingti is faced with a law suit by another Butibam woman who claims he is the father of her 12-year-old daughter.

Vomocil claims in the law suit claiming maintenance that Wingti is the natural father of a girl born on April 7, 1982, and named Tauasi Mare. Vomocil alleges that Wingti, in neglecting and not providing any means of support for the child, has contravened sections 51-55 of the Child Welfare Act, Chapter 276.

She is seeking that the following court orders that Wingti pay regular mainten ance for the child; that the maintenance allowance be backdated to the child’s

date of birth, and; that cus tody of the child be com mitted to the mother.

Despite at tempts to get an official comment from him, the Highlander has kept tight lipped. Not

even questions raised under parliamen tary privilege will make him answer, except to slam his inquisitors as stepping into “gutter politics”. In the June session Wingti was asked by Lae MP Bart Philemon, an opposition member who is also from Butibam village, and a relative of Patricia Stockden, if he could inform the nation as to which of the women he was associated with was his wife.

Philemon had concluded with this

question after grilling the prime minister

about his absence at the launch of the International Year of the Family Day in Port Moresby. He also asked, rather sarcastically, whether Wingti as head of the government upheld and respected the value of the family unit, and if he was committed to family life which was a preamble of the national constitution.

To rescue Wingti, Speaker Bill Skate ruled the question out saying it touched on the private life of the prime minister and should therefore not be entertained

by the house. The speaker’s ruling

brought the house into commotion as members on both sides raised points of orders and interjections as to whether or not the question should be answered.

On the following day, in a series of

questions, opposition leader Chris

Haiveta alleged that Wingti had beaten his former wife Kende, and that he (Wingti) had been seeing the wife of a controversial expatriate man, Luke Lucas, whom Wingti had at one stage

appointed as justice secretary.

The specific questions he asked Wingti

to confirm or deny were “That Lucas informed him (Wingti) that his then wife (Dianne) Kende intended to stand for parliament in the 1992 national election, and that he became enraged at the news, stating that Kende’s plans did not fit in with his overall plans; “That shortly after he formed the present government following that national elec tion, Kende with her son Mek Pun visited Lucas at his restaurant and that she had two black eyes and marks around the neck; “His then wife’s claim to Lucas that the

prime minister had attempted to strangle

her that morning; “Kende’s claim to Lucas that the prime minister was visiting Lucas’ wife on a regular basis.” The rest of the 14

3uestions dealt with Wingti’s alleged

ealings with Lucas. Wingti refused to answer the questions because he said they did not relate to government policy, that it was one man’s word against his, and that the proper thing to do was to refer the matter to the Ombudsman Com mission.

“To do so (give answers) would be to contribute towards the lowering of the standard of parliament even further than the opposition has done today,” Wingti said. “It is a sad day indeed for

parliamentary democracy and for public

confidence in elected leaders when the

opposition uses unproven allegations by

one person to try and smear my good name and damage my reputation.

“It is so ridiculous to start talking about my family life. I cannot answer

these questions simply because they do

not involve the government.”

Parliament’s proceedings then raised an important question of whether or not both the public as well as the private lives of leaders is subject to scrutiny, and in the

interest of the general public. Wingti

may not think so, but he easily forgets that when each leader takes an oath of office he or she undertakes to uphold the integrity of public office and to conduct their affairs to a respectable standard. □

National - Png

New woman: Paias Wingti with Patricia Stockden

Ex-wife: Dianne Kende