Bill Skate was finally buried today. ("there's no other godfather. I'm the godfather.") Ex-prime minister, he had a state funeral – and a public holiday was declared in the NCD (national capital). Ex-king of the underworld, there was also a bit of worry about how people in the settlements of Pt Moresby – his powerbase – would react. But things seem ok.
More revolting is the phoney eulogising going on – this guy was a raskol! Packer was clean in comparison. Skate was scoundrel, a weaselly type of man. He grew up in Moresby settlements, raised by his mother (his father was Australian and not present). Dabbled in crime (robberies, selling stolen goods). He became an accountant, and kept his ties to Moresby’s criminal gangs. In the late 1980s he lost his position as head of a public savings and loans company, amid claims of corruption and “mis”management. But this became his opportunity to enter politics; he ran and gained a seat in 1992. That feat was achieved via his allegiances with several key raskol gangs.
He was governor of Pt Moresby in 1997 – the time of the Sandline affair. When it became public that the then-current prime minister (Sir Julius Chan) and his deputy (Chris Havieta) had signed a contract to pay international mercenaries to come in to PNG, train and potentially kill other PNGians – Skate was the first politician to publicly voice disapproval. (A few years earlier Skate had stood for the role of prime minister, but was beaten by Chan.) It was Skate who stood up in parliament and moved that Chan step down as prime minister (he and Havieta stood aside, pending an inquiry into the affair).
At the next election, Chan lost his seat. The party Skate led gained a few seats – enough for him to begin bargaining with others, trying to form a coalition. Skate was persistent and keen: he knew what he wanted. And he got it. He tried negotiating with Somare’s camp (Somare was the nation’s first prime minister), but Somare’s party refused to cede to Skate’s demand that Somare not stand as prime minister. So Skate wheeled and dealed with anyone, even – stunningly – Havieta, Chan’s right hand man, one of Skate’s foes. When voting time came (the members of parliament vote for the prime minister in PNG), Skate was in, getting almost double the amount of votes of the nearest contender (Somare). Once he had the seat he wanted, Skate’s next move was audacious: reappointing Havieta as deputy pm.
But Skate was audacious. And sometimes it worked: there he was, prime minister! He’d come from the bottom to the top; and he never forgot where he came from. He had two wives, and apparently 12 children. He was in power as the situation in Bougainville calmed down, and at the moment you can read of people arguing for a relationship between the two events – though it is more likely that the latter was put in motion after a lot of hard work by people who were around before Skate was PM.
Later, the media turned on him, and were instrumental in getting him kicked out of office. Video tapes were released of Skate getting trashed, drinking whisky. Then there was the time he infamously, proudly, audaciously claimed (drunk on said whisky) that: "If I tell my gang members to kill, they kill ... there's no other godfather. I'm the godfather.” There he was, prime minister! (He lasted 18months before lack of support forced him to resign. Usual rumours of corruption, bribery, gangs...)
[we have had an hour long black out; power just came back on. I love hearing the roar of people cheering in the valley when this happens: paura! hamamas tru!]
More revolting is the phoney eulogising going on – this guy was a raskol! Packer was clean in comparison. Skate was scoundrel, a weaselly type of man. He grew up in Moresby settlements, raised by his mother (his father was Australian and not present). Dabbled in crime (robberies, selling stolen goods). He became an accountant, and kept his ties to Moresby’s criminal gangs. In the late 1980s he lost his position as head of a public savings and loans company, amid claims of corruption and “mis”management. But this became his opportunity to enter politics; he ran and gained a seat in 1992. That feat was achieved via his allegiances with several key raskol gangs.
He was governor of Pt Moresby in 1997 – the time of the Sandline affair. When it became public that the then-current prime minister (Sir Julius Chan) and his deputy (Chris Havieta) had signed a contract to pay international mercenaries to come in to PNG, train and potentially kill other PNGians – Skate was the first politician to publicly voice disapproval. (A few years earlier Skate had stood for the role of prime minister, but was beaten by Chan.) It was Skate who stood up in parliament and moved that Chan step down as prime minister (he and Havieta stood aside, pending an inquiry into the affair).
At the next election, Chan lost his seat. The party Skate led gained a few seats – enough for him to begin bargaining with others, trying to form a coalition. Skate was persistent and keen: he knew what he wanted. And he got it. He tried negotiating with Somare’s camp (Somare was the nation’s first prime minister), but Somare’s party refused to cede to Skate’s demand that Somare not stand as prime minister. So Skate wheeled and dealed with anyone, even – stunningly – Havieta, Chan’s right hand man, one of Skate’s foes. When voting time came (the members of parliament vote for the prime minister in PNG), Skate was in, getting almost double the amount of votes of the nearest contender (Somare). Once he had the seat he wanted, Skate’s next move was audacious: reappointing Havieta as deputy pm.
But Skate was audacious. And sometimes it worked: there he was, prime minister! He’d come from the bottom to the top; and he never forgot where he came from. He had two wives, and apparently 12 children. He was in power as the situation in Bougainville calmed down, and at the moment you can read of people arguing for a relationship between the two events – though it is more likely that the latter was put in motion after a lot of hard work by people who were around before Skate was PM.
Later, the media turned on him, and were instrumental in getting him kicked out of office. Video tapes were released of Skate getting trashed, drinking whisky. Then there was the time he infamously, proudly, audaciously claimed (drunk on said whisky) that: "If I tell my gang members to kill, they kill ... there's no other godfather. I'm the godfather.” There he was, prime minister! (He lasted 18months before lack of support forced him to resign. Usual rumours of corruption, bribery, gangs...)
[we have had an hour long black out; power just came back on. I love hearing the roar of people cheering in the valley when this happens: paura! hamamas tru!]
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