Prime Minister and Tari-Pori MP James Marape today (May 18 2022) urged his people to conduct themselves peacefully as nominations for the 2022 General Election begins tomorrow (May 19 2022) .
“I encourage all my people of Tari-Pori to conduct yourselves peacefully, “ he said.
“My advice is that everyone has a right to contest for Tari-Pori, just like all seats in Hela and PNG.
“Let us respect other people’s rights as they respect our rights too.
“Leadship is bestowed by God through you people.
“All of you in Tari-Pori and Hela have the right to vote for candidates of your choice.
“However, please don’t be induced by money, tribal coercion, or food and drinks including alcohol.
“Vote for a leadership combination that will transform our district, our province and our country.”
PM Marape said he saw good signs for PNG over the last three years “since we took it away from the hands of corruption, greed , nepotism, alcoholism and abuse of offices for self gain”.
“We have stabilised the economy in hard, trying times and we are shifting developments to all corners of PNG, including our district, “ he said.
“Signs of our economy and country rebounding are there with World bank focusing our economy to grow past 4 per cent this year.
“Things are improving as we go to the elections, with key multi- lateral institutions like World Bank, International Monetary Fund , Asian Development Bank and all solid bilateral partner nations like Australia, Indonesia, Japan , China , New Zealand and USA endorsing our economic reconstruction and development agendas by supporting our budget policies over the last three years.
“It was the three hardest years of our country, and in fact, all countries world wide due to COVID-19 and now the war in Eastern Europe.
“But we are serving the nation because we have ‘gutpela tingting’ birth from the land of the Hulis.
“ I want this ‘gutpela tingting na pasin’ to emerge big in this 2022 election period.”
PM Marape said the people of Hela and Tari-Pori were often disparaged as “nogat tingting”.
“Hela and my Tari-Pori, often branded as ‘nogat tingting’ can show the world that we are hard workers and have wisdom to do better for PNG,” he said.
“ I request you all, on the eve of elections, to start by respecting each other including our opposing candidates and their supporters.
“To my own people of Tari-Pori , I may have failed you individually in some areas, but I sincerely appreciate your love and care for me and Rachel as we tried serving you all the last 15 years.
“I tried to work the big picture for us to collectively benefit as a community.
“And so if it is your wish that we continue to be in office, then I assure you we will continue on the development path for all of our children.
“Before I took office in 2007, Tari had no sealed road, no power, no new airport , no new high schools, no bulldozers ever went through Pori , no Pori High School, no road to Karida etc, and Hela province was just a dream.
“ But what we have done thus far is not enough and sufficient and I will be the first to admit that.
“My electorate work remains incomplete in most areas, including addressing the 5 per cent of our youths who are lawless.
“This is work in progress and God willing, we will attend to them, including opening our massive and modern Hulukumaiya office complex after the elections.
“See you all tomorrow back home for my nomination with Governor Undialu, and we will address Hela in campaign and why you must vote Pangu on Friday.”
PM Marape said his rally would include the following points as to why a vote for Pangu is a vote for the road to full liberation of our country’s bondage to economic hardship.
“Pangu is not a small Party for one person or for one region, it is a national political institution that gave our country its sovereignty in 1975, “ he said.
“It was there before most other parties who think they know the way, but it is really Pangu and its ideologies that birthed PNG.
“Hence, I choose Pangu in 2019 to be the Party my young generation of leaders would be in to give full economic independence to our people, consistent with our national fathers’ views in 1975.
“Pangu, under Sir Michael Somare, gave political Independence in 1975.
“Now, under my watch and leadership, Pangu will give full economic independence or liberalisation to all our citizens to have money from Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Tourism and Culture, Mining and Petroleum.
“What’s wrong with our people being rich? They can too. Being rich should not be exclusive to the corrupted, the educated or only a few, but must be for all our citizens irrespective of your background because all our citizens own land as inheritance in PNG.
“My Tari-Pori people, these are just a few of the reason why over 100 PNG Members of Parliament have continued to give mandate to me to be the leader of leaders to pursue this dream to take back PNG’s inheritance and economically liberate our country. “I appeal to you, my people of Tari-Pori, that our country is watching us.
“Nominate in peace, campaign in peace, declare in peace and let’s continue on living in peace after August 2022. “I pray to God for peace and wisdom over our country and you all in my constituency of Tari and Pori to see the right road. “ I also advise of strong presence of police and military, and courts to deal with trouble makers. “May Tari-Pori and PNG people use your constitutional Section 50 rights wisely.”