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Category: Grand Chief

  • ‘Bittersweet day for my family’, says Dulciana at Somare funeral

    By Gorethy Kenneth in Port Moresby

    The youngest daughter of the Somare family Dulciana Somare-Brash told mourners the state funeral for Papua New Guinea’s Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare was a bittersweet occasion for her family.

    “Today is a bittersweet day for my family, we come here to farewell our patriarch, our protector, and our human shield in a place where he stood to raise our flag [for independence] all those years ago for our new nation,” she said at Friday’s state funeral.

    “It was here that he made his mark on this land, a land with plenty, beaming with resources that require our care now.

    “Late yesterday [Thursday] afternoon I watched my father the great Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare leave Parliament for the last time.

    “From 1982 when the Australian gifted that House, he would proudly walk proudly through its doors.

    “Yesterday he was carried into the chamber and as he lay in state I fought back tears, that he had dreamt, then felt, then he had left for us to complete.

    Sir Michael Somare 040321
    Sir Michael Somare … he became Papua New Guinea’s founding prime minister in 1975. Image: RNZ

    “I wept bittersweet tears for all that he had left behind and all that he had abruptly left for us to do. Yesterday was a hard day sitting in Parliament, a building so familiar to me and my mother and my siblings.

    ‘Wonderful tributes’
    “I heard wonderful tributes from my father’s peers, papa [Sir Julius] Chan spoke of a lifelong friendship, and papa [Paias] Wingti lamented over a mentor and friend he treasured.

    “Prime Minister James Marape referred to my father as a bulldozer yesterday which makes perfect sense actually as we’ve always joked that our mother [Lady Veronica] was the handbrake without ever referring to our father as a bulldozer.”

    The state funeral was held at the Sir Hubert Murray stadium in Port Moresby yesterday.

    Today, the body of the Grand Chief will be flown to East Sepik ahead of his burial at his property in Wewak.

    Thousands of people have converged on both Port Moresby and Wewak for the respective services to pay respects to Sir Michael, reports RNZ Pacific.

    EMTV Somare screenshot
    A screenshot from yesterday’s EMTV News live streaming on social media. Most news media carried live feeds of the four-hour funeral.

    Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier reporter.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘Bittersweet day for my family’, says Dulciana at Somare funeral

    PNG founding father Sir Michael Somare’s funeral pallbearers in Port Moresby yesterday. Image: EMTV livestream screenshot APR

    By Gorethy Kenneth in Port Moresby

    The youngest daughter of the Somare family Dulciana Somare-Brash told mourners the state funeral for Papua New Guinea’s Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare was a bittersweet occasion for her family.

    “Today is a bittersweet day for my family, we come here to farewell our patriarch, our protector, and our human shield in a place where he stood to raise our flag [for independence] all those years ago for our new nation,” she said at Friday’s state funeral.

    “It was here that he made his mark on this land, a land with plenty, beaming with resources that require our care now.

    “Late yesterday [Thursday] afternoon I watched my father the great Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare leave Parliament for the last time.

    “From 1982 when the Australian gifted that House, he would proudly walk proudly through its doors.

    “Yesterday he was carried into the chamber and as he lay in state I fought back tears, that he had dreamt, then felt, then he had left for us to complete.

    Sir Michael Somare 040321Sir Michael Somare … he became Papua New Guinea’s founding prime minister in 1975. Image: RNZ

    “I wept bittersweet tears for all that he had left behind and all that he had abruptly left for us to do. Yesterday was a hard day sitting in Parliament, a building so familiar to me and my mother and my siblings.

    ‘Wonderful tributes’
    “I heard wonderful tributes from my father’s peers, papa [Sir Julius] Chan spoke of a lifelong friendship, and papa [Paias] Wingti lamented over a mentor and friend he treasured.

    “Prime Minister James Marape referred to my father as a bulldozer yesterday which makes perfect sense actually as we’ve always joked that our mother [Lady Veronica] was the handbrake without ever referring to our father as a bulldozer.”

    The state funeral was held at the Sir Hubert Murray stadium in Port Moresby yesterday.

    Today, the body of the Grand Chief will be flown to East Sepik ahead of his burial at his property in Wewak.

    Thousands of people have converged on both Port Moresby and Wewak for the respective services to pay respects to Sir Michael, reports RNZ Pacific.

    EMTV Somare screenshotA screenshot from yesterday’s EMTV News live streaming on social media. Most news media carried live feeds of the four-hour funeral.

    Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier reporter.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Somare family says thank you to PNG for the love at Sir Michael’s funeral

    The Loop PNG livestreaming of the Sir Michael Somare funeral in Port Moresby today.

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    The Somare family has thanked the people of Papua New Guinea for the “incredible outpouring of love and support” during their time of grief, the PNG Post-Courier reports.

    Today marked the final official event on the programme for the National Capital District.

    Sir Michael’s funeral mass at the Sir Hubert Murray Stadium was being beamed live on television and via live streaming.

    “Given this week’s unprecedented rise in covid-19 infections in the national capital, we appeal to each of you to watch the event from home if you can,” said daughter Betha Somare.

    “Please avoid gathering in public spaces and if you feel unwell and stay home to keep others safe. Always wear a mask when you are among others and avoid unnecessary travel.

    “We were saddened to hear about patients and staff at the Port Moresby General Hospital testing positive for covod-19. POMGH have always taken excellent care of our parents and our thoughts are with them and all our front line health workers.

    “Your messages and warm memories shared about Sir Michael on social media have kept us comforted. His legacy, his kindness and his compassion lives on in all of us.

    “Sir Michael would have wanted us all to keep each other safe, especially during these unprecedented times. Stay home if you can and follow the directions of health authorities.”

    Passing of a ‘great light’
    Rebecca Kuku reports that East Sepik Governor Allan Bird said the country had just witnessed the “passing of a great light in the world”.

    “And while this brings us great sorrow, it should also bring us renewed enthusiasm to meet the challenges we face.

    “Children are supposed to do better than their parents. Somare and his team of founding fathers did a tremendous job, let’s not leave it there.

    “Somare led a group of great men and women. They did their job and now we are here. They tried to be better, they were better, they were the best,” he said.

    Bird said that Papua New Guinea should have flown Grand Chief around the country on a farewell tour in 2017, 2018, 2019 or even in 2020.

    “We did not. Just like so many other things we should have done but did not do,” he said.

    “Just like the cancer wing at the Port Moresby General Hospital. Can we just do it or are we going to not get it done too?”

    Sir Michael Somare cortege
    The Sir Michael Somare state funeral cortège at Waigani in Port Moresby today. Image: PNG Post-Courier screenshot APR
    Somare family
    Somare family members at the state funeral for Sir Michael today. Image: PNG Post-Courier screenshot APR

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Frank Senge Kolma: Somare could lose his temper – trust me, I know

    TRIBUTE: By Frank Senge Kolma in Port Moresby

    Many will now try to recollect some experience, some exchange or brush with the Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare who fell to pancreatic cancer on February 26 after a long checkered career in politics as our founding Prime Minister.

    That he was an engaging conservationist is true. He was captivating, sincere and focused.

    His humour was infectious and he used it often. He was kind and fair. He could be firm and tough when the situation demanded it.

    And he could lose his temper. Trust me, I know.

    I felt his temper flare once in March 1987 and although I maintain my innocence in that little exchange, the memory is now something I shall hold special as the great man, whom I too call Papa, lies in State.

    He had returned from Taiwan via Singapore to Port Moresby and had called a media conference upon landing. He had read a story on the plane flying in that ran in the Post-Courier under my byline.

    It said a building was going to be built in Waigani and that it was going to be called the Somare Foundation House. Funding was to come from Taiwan which was what the Grand Chief had secured on his most recent trip abroad.

    No particular investigation
    I did no particular investigation for this piece. Somebody sent me a page of a newspaper cutting that had a picture of the Grand Chief shaking hands with an important personality in Taiwan. Nothing else was discernable to me as the newspaper was written in Chinese characterS.

    I had it translated by the Singapore consul and the Chinese Embassy separately and the translated story matched.

    The Chief was incensed which surprised me at the press conference in Parliament because I thought he would announce further details of the deal. Instead, he was guarded and angry.

    Frank Senge Kolma with Somare
    Frank Senge Kolma interviewing Sir Michael Somare. Image: PNG Post-Courier

    I worked out later that the publication would place our country at odds with the Chinese Embassy which had always maintained a One China policy since it first recognised PNG’s Independence and entered into bilateral relations with the new nation in 1976.

    Papua New Guinea respected that stance and had always maintained a Taiwanese Trade Mission but never elevated that to any higher recognition.

    To have our own Grand Chief now appear to have received some assistance to build a building named after himself would create all manner of diplomatic tensions. And so the Chief lost it and my cheek, on the day, was in the way of a swinging open slap. It stung.

    I remember saying: “Why are you attacking me? I did nothing wrong,” but he did not hear me in the commotion as other journalists scurried out of the way fearing they too might receive similar treatment.

    First direct contact
    “And there it was, my first direct contact with the hand that had signed so many things into existence, including my country’s nationhood.

    A week later, in Parliament and witnessed by Ted Diro, Lady Veronica Somare and a few others we made our peace in Parliament.

    He was good like that: a sudden storm and immediate calm weather. I look back now and consider that encounter a rare sort and I cherish the memory.

    Frank Senge Kolma is one of Papua New Guinea’s leading journalists, commentators and newspaper editors. This commentary was first published in the PNG Post-Courier.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Michael Somare – the passing of a great man, Sana, the peacemaker

    By Scott Waide in Lae, Papua New Guinea

    Sir Michael was a man of many titles. He was father, grandfather and chief.

    As a tribal leader, he was Sana, the peacemaker. His influence and his reputation extended beyond Papua New Guinea’s border to the Pacific and other parts of the region.

    Sir Michael Somare has left an incredible legacy: 49 years in politics, a total of 17 years as prime minister spread out over three terms.

    The state of Papua New Guinea bestowed upon him the title of grand chief in later years. Ordinary Papua New Guineans called him Chief, Father of the Nation, Papa, Tumbuna.

    From the early years of his leadership, his family had to share their father with the rest of Papua New Guinea. Just after midnight, the eldest of the Somare clan, Bertha sent out a statement announced their father’s passing.

    “Sir Michael was a loyal husband to our mother and great father first to her children, then grandchildren and great granddaughter. But we are endeared that many Papua New Guineans equally embraced Sir Michael as father and grandfather.”

    The Grand Chief was diagnosed with late stage pancreatic cancer and was admitted to hospital on the February 19.

    Father among first policemen
    Michael Somare was born in Rabaul, East New Britain on 9 April 1936. His father, Ludwig, was one of the first policemen in the colonial territory.

    He attended high school in Dregahafen in Morobe Province and later went on to work as a teacher and radio broadcaster.

    During the 1960s, the young Michael Somare, became increasingly dissatisfied with Australian colonial rule and the racial discrimination. He, and other like-minded people began pushing for independence.

    He attributed his entry into politics to the former Maprik MP, firebrand politician, Sir Peter Lus.

    In 1972, and during an era that saw a strong push for decolonisation worldwide, Michael Somare, was elected Chief Minister. Three years later, in 1975, he led the country to independence when he became Papua New Guinea’s first Prime Minister.

    Sir Michael was a pivotal, uniting force in a very fragmented country. He brought together the four culturally district regions and people who spoke close to a thousand different languages.

    A master tactician
    “A multitude of tribes – some of whom were forced to transition, rapidly, from the stone age into the age of artificial intelligence in less than half a century.

    In politics, Sir Michael was a master tactician. Highly skilled in managing volatile political landscapes on multiple fronts. He survived multiple instances of political turmoil and retired in 2017.

    As a regional leader, Sir Michael was the longest serving. In many instances, seeing the sons of those he served with take on leadership reins.

    While Papua New Guineans have accepted that this day would come, many are still coming to terms with the news.

    There is still a lot more to tell about Sir Michael.

    Asia Pacific Report republishes articles from Lae-based Papua New Guinean television journalist Scott Waide’s blog, My Land, My Country, with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.