Former prime minister and New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan is defending his seat one last time in Papua New Guinea’s 2022 general elections next month because he believes the system of government has failed the country.

Had the system not “failed miserably”, the iconic New Irelander said he could have called time “a long time ago” — but a lot of things, systems, mechanisms and people had misfired and failed along the way, prompting his last shot at a last term.

At 83, Sir Julius said this would be the last roll of the dice in his long and illustrious political career in which he was twice prime minister of PNG.

• READ MORE: Other reports on the PNG elections

Showing no signs of fragilities, he was opening a new LLG office in the gold-rich Lihir Islands and campaigning on his resource policy in the neighbouring Anir (Feni) Islands, south of Lihir last week.

An advocate of power sharing, Sir Julius wants to see New Ireland emerge as an autonomous province of PNG before he retires.

Autonomy is the rallying call for his reluctance to step down. He reckons mainland PNG will remain immune to autonomous political squabbling but in the islands, it will be as easy as “cutting the rope and floating away”.

It is the Sunday after the PNG Kumuls’ epic rugby league Test win over Fiji.

Humorous insight
We are sitting in the antiquated living room of Sir Julius’ Port Moresby apartment.

He is a little wry, perhaps taxed by the boat travels in his sparsely isolated home islands, from the past week.

Not one to shy away from life’s challenges, he even offers a humorous insight into what his political adversaries have dished out in the last couple of months.

“You know, my opponents have declared me dead four times on Facebook, and every time, I’ve risen from the dead,” he chuckles.

In a one-on-one exclusive, the knight spoke his mind: “I am not coming back just to play the game, nogat, I am here to score more, otherwise I am just wasting my time. If I don’t get anywhere, I make up my decision in between.”

Sir Julius said the people must have greater power sharing nationally, on a provincial and local level.

“Sadly yes, the system of government has failed the people, we must have greater sharing of power, national, provincial and local, greater sharing if not practically practised I think this country will disintegrate,” he said.

‘It happened in Russia’
“I mean we got enough to look at some of the more advanced countries in the world, how it got disintegrated. It happened in Russia, it used to be a big, big, big country, they are now fighting one another.

“Because of the regional population I think if we don’t change the system and give the other areas of PNG a chance to lead, that too will cause friction as it is at the moment. You increase the electorate… every time you increase one electorate in the New Guinea Islands region.

“I think you have to increase 10 in other parts of the country so hap blo mi yia, forever and ever. It will go smaller in percentage terms and being human that doesn’t go down too well; everybody wants to participate therefore we have to come up with a system somewhat to adapt [to] that.

“And when people have that power, they make decisions and when something goes wrong, they cannot throw blame at the government.

“As it is at the moment, every good is enjoyed at the local government but everything bad is the cause of the national government. And if you allow that to go on for a few years, it will deteriorate this country completely.

“I [have] got to share this with everybody — the mainland will never break, it’s not easy and it’s just like Israel and all the other countries that [are] next to it. The other countries, you know whenever there is a land problem, they will forever for thousands of years from the days, they will never be able to solve the disputes of the land border.

“But in the islands, you just cut the rope and we float — we are different. So there it is, that’s my summary and I am not coming back just to play the game, nogat, I am here to score more, otherwise I am just wasting my time. If I don’t get anywhere, I make up my decision in between.”

Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.

Fiji is the latest regional country to announce it is sending security forces to Solomon Islands where major unrest rocked the capital.

Days of rioting in Honiara by mobs who torched buildings and looted shops prompted the government to call for outside help.

In what’s shaping up as a Pacific regional response, Fiji yesterday deployed 50 soldiers to help keep the peace in Honiara, with 120 more troops on standby.

• READ MORE: Other Honiara crisis reports

They follow last week’s deployment of more than 100 Australian defence force and police personnel, as well as 37 Papua New Guinea police and correctional service forces.

Canberra has been playing a co-ordinating role with the other Pacific nations. New Zealand is also part of the conversation, although its role appears minimal at this stage.

Signs from both Australia and PNG indicate that, provisionally, their forces are expected to be in Solomon Islands no longer than a month.

The Fiji military unit is deploying as part of a reinforcement platoon embedded with the Australian contingent in Honiara.

120 troops on standby
According to the Fiji government, another 120 Fijian troops are on standby if required.

Over three days last week, many buildings were torched in Honiara’s east, particularly its Chinatown area — leaving at least three people dead.

The unrest had spiralled from a protest against Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare last Wednesday.

By the weekend, law and order was largely restored in Honiara due to the reinforcement of local police capabilities due to the peacekeepers from Australia and Papua New Guinea.

On Monday, the Solomons Parliament met briefly — amid tight security — to pass two motions. One was for the routine extension of the State of Public Emergency in place since the start of the covid-19 pandemic.

The other was to authorise expenditure for the massive loss and damage caused by the riots — estimated at US$28 million.

Despite the resignation of four government MPs last week, and calls for him to stand down to restore control in the country, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare still commands a clear majority in the House.

‘Melting pot of the country’
The MP for Central Guadalcanal, Peter Shanel Agovaka, who is also Communications and Aviation Minister, said each time a group of people from outer provinces who were unhappy with the government, they tended to come to Honiara and destroy local business houses.

“I think people from other provinces should respect that as hosts of this capital we allow people of all provinces, and all denominations and all races, to come here.

“This is the melting pot of the country, and to see it in ruins like this is really very sad.”

According to Shanel, a lot of households had been affected.

“Eighty to 90 percent of Chinatown is burnt down. This is really sad, because these are innocent people,” he said.

“The way to remove a prime minister is through the parliamentary process. It’s not through the burning of businesses or private properties and looting them.”

Capital’s schools close
All schools in the Solomon Islands capital have been ordered to close early as a result of the widespread destruction caused by last week’s unrest in Honiara.

Education Secretary Dr Franco Rodie said the decision was reached after consultation with the heads of various schools and taking into consideration parents concerns for the safety of their children.

Dr Rodie said thankfully most major exit examinations had already been conducted and in class assessments will have to be taken into consideration for everyone else.

State of emergency
Forty-one out of 49 members of Parliament on Monday yesterday voted in favour of the four-month-extension, as proclaimed by the Governer-General, Sir David Vunagi.

Opposition leader Matthew Wale asked for clarification on the covid status of emergency personnel from Australia and Papua New Guinea brought in because of last week’s riots.

Health Minister Culwick Togamana said all foreign security personnel were double vaxxed and tested negative for covid-19 upon departure and again on arrival in the country.

Togamana also expressed disappointment in the poor uptake of vaccines with less than 20 percent of the population fully vaccinated.

Clean-up underway
The clean-up in Honiara is underway and church and community groups are turning up to clear the wreckage from last week’s rioting.

However, the riots have created a shortage of food and RNZ Pacific correspondent Elisabeth Osifelo said there had been long queues for the shops that were open, as well as for petrol and at ATMs while banks remain closed.

“The prices have sllightly gone up with rice and so it just depends on where the shop is,” she explained.

“I found out towards the eastern parts of Honiara because I think the shops are very limited that the prices have gone up and varying on different items as well.”

Solomon Islands police have confirmed the identity of the three bodies recovered from a building burnt in Chinatown during the violence — an adult and two children.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.