Michael Somare - Later Political Life - Between Prime Ministerships

Between Prime Ministerships

During the seventeen years between his second and third terms as Prime Minister, Somare was appointed to political posts by other Prime Ministers. Somare served as Foreign Minister from 1988 to 1992 in the government of Rabbie Namaliu, who would later become Foreign Minister in his own subsequent government. Somare later served as Foreign Minister for a few months in 1999 and took this position again in July 2006. Somare is currently the Prime Minister. His probity has frequently been called into question. Professor James Chin of Monash University writes:

On the issue of corruption and tax evasion, clear evidence exists from the 1980s.The infamous Thomas Commission in 1989 laid out in excruciating detail how and its agents systematically paid off PNG politicians who threatened their logging operations. Even current Prime Minister Michael Somare was implicated in the report. He was referred to the Ombudsman Commission for allegedly lying under oath about a logging concession held by the Sepik River Development Corporation (SRDC) in East Sepik Province. The Commission report also gave details of transfer pricing to escape taxes worth millions of Kina.

In June 2007, the Weekend Australian reported that Somare had personal connections to logging of rainforest in his home province, East Sepik, with the forestry industry by leading the Sepik River Development Corporation(SRDC). PNG's Public Enterprise Information Minister and Prime Minister's son Arthur, a leading shareholder, negotiated the logging deal with Hey Bridge Pty Ltd.

Somare's lawyers denied a personal association with the industry and demanded an apology by the Weekend Australian for the article publiished, although no apology was published by the newspaper.

In an interview during that time with PNG radio, Sir Michael acknowledged he was chairman of the SRDC and claimed the corporation was a "pet project" of his son Arthur. Somare also said he had a forestry concession in the Angoram district where eight areas were being logged to generate revenue for communities to allow them to invest in agriculture and health clinics. The Somare family logging area includes the Lower Sepik Concession, which the Mojirau Wildlife Management Area is part of.

"There are processes which we follow and some of us enacted those laws and some of us made those laws," Sir Michael said.

The newspaper asked to explain the inconsistency with the letter and his radio comments, Sir Michael's daughter and the Prime Ministers office press secretary, Betha Somare, said in an email to The Australian: "Go to hell!"

Till now the recommendation by retired Australian judge Thomas Barnett has not been acted upon.

A report by the International Tropical Timber Council, commissioned by Sir Michael's Government, shows that laws to prevent illegal logging in PNG were not policed. The Australian Government targeted the PNG forestry industry under a A$200million initiative in an attempt to fight illegal logging.

Axel Wilhelm, environment manager of Malaysian company Rimbunan Hijau, the biggest logging operator in PNG, claimed the Yale University Forestry School rated PNG forestry as sustainable in a letter published by The Australian. Rimbunan Hijau has made advertisements on PNG television stating the same. However, Melissa Goodall, Yale Centre Environmental Law associate director at Yale university, in a letter to the PNG Eco-Forestry Forum rejected the claims with 'dismay' by the PNG logging industry that the university had approved of how it operated.

"It is a true source of concern that any work associated with Yale might be misused in this way," Ms Goodall said.

She also said the University had a "fair degree of confidence" in a World Bank report estimating 70 per cent of PNG logging was illegal, which is disputed by PNG authorities.