By GEORGINA MICHAEL
Former MP and State Minister, Dame Carol Kidu, says special attention should be given to indigenous people whose land have been used by the Government to build towns and cities.
Dame Carol expressed her concern during the Southern Regional Seminar hosted by the Students Representative Council (SRC) at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) recently.
“For Southern Region, there have been some unfortunate decisions in the past that is affecting the region, however, the people of Southern Region are extremely resilient,” she said.
The former Moresby South MP reflected on her late husband and PNG’s first Chief Justice Sir Buri Kidu’s concern about the Motu Koita situation at that time: “Carol, this is a disaster, this is the end of Motu Koita and Papua in many ways.”
Dame Carols said: “The boundary of NCD should be like the Vatican City inside Rome, the boundary should be the Waigani area only, and I do believe that was extremely wise and a forthcoming statement.”
“Indigenous landowners of the places where cities and towns are built must be given special attention as they have lost their land and hunting grounds for development to take place for collective a benefit.
“I feel for the people of Papua and Motu Koita because with the capital city defined as it is, Central Province and Papua lost their capital city as well as their land, and this also applies to other people in the country where our towns and cities are located.”
Senior statesman and a former MP for Kairuku-Hiri, Sir Moi Avei, added: “Most people in the city are faced with urban poverty due to less development in their local areas and so we’re faced with poverty and population booming in the city. This is why we need to focus more on empowering our own people to do little things in their areas.”
Dame Carol concluded: “We should be the ones bringing development to our people, most of whom are migrating into our towns and cities and are suffering in urban poverty because of lack of basic government services in their local areas.”