Transcript
THOMAS ELUH: The writing was on the wall. All these disasters and incidents that have happened over time. It certainly goes to show that the province is in dire need of changes and things that ought to be done at this point in time, to restore the province back.
JOHNNY BLADES: You were acting provincial administrator (for around half a year until April) though, and of course with the earthquake situation things were difficult. What happened there? I thought maybe there was a bit of politics at play.
TE: Well the situation is that while I was acing administrator there, they decided to appoint another guy, a local guy (Joseph Cajetan) to take over from me. So what I did is just simply withdrew because of these kind of tensions. If I were to remain then tensions would certainly grow and could get out of hand. So I decided to withdraw and come back to Port Morebsy. So while this guy was acting administrator, these incidents happened: the burning down of the plane and all of those.
JB: Will you be able to maintain calm? It's a big challenge, but you've got your police background, I suppose.
TE: Yeah, well I think the positive thing about my going back is that I have overwhelming support on the ground because of my involvement as acting administrator. There are a few factions here and there, particularly aligned to certain politicians... and of course the current acting administrator (Cajetan) would want to maybe protest or do these sort of things. But we will not allow it because of the state of emergency. At the same time of course I'm available to listen to grievances, but at the end of the day there's a fully fledged state of emergency so we won't allow things that could get out of hand and create problems for us.
JB: A lot of people are talking about the build up of weapons in the Southern Highlands. Is it such a problem that maybe the PNGDF and extra police will be unable to counter it?
TE: We'll see how things go. But instead of operating on our own - like the police and military and so on and so forth - it's... I have done it before, it's bringing the community on side. That is one of the first things that I would want to do.
It's not a police issue alone. This needs a collective effort from everybody. I've done that before, during my time as an administrator, for the first time. I was given military and the police to - in a way - use force. But that's not how I operate. How I operate is getting everyone onside: churches, youths, leaders at all levels. That's how I operate, and I won't change from that.
JB: So there will be some talks, there will have to be rounds of talks?
TE: Oh yeah definitely, I mean we have to talk to the people because they have to take ownership of all these problems.
JB: Will the leaders need to come up? You've got some of the MPs from that province right up there in the government. So will they be going up to have talks with their people?
TE: Well that's the challenge for them now. They have to put their hand up and show why they are leaders. Leaders are supposed to be taking charge when there are problems like this. It's no good calling yourself a leader and then when situations like this pop up you decide to hide yourself.
JB: If the problem that sparked last week's trouble is perceptions about the election result, or how it happened, it's going to be hard to placate people about that, isn't it?
TE: Definitely. The province is ever divided. People have taken sides, and it's extremely difficult to try and convince them. But what I have been banking on is consistent awareness and dialogue with the people. And we managed to bring them under control when i was there. but I hope this time we can be able to convince... particularly the ringleaders that this is not the right approach. The right approach is that there are courts there and things there to sort out whatever differences they have, and it's not about taking law into their own hands. So we'll do our best to try and bring them on side.
