08/12/2021
It’s been said that Paul Pora was the Highlands first multi-millionaire.
Pora walked to Chimbu from Tega in Western Highlands to attain his primary education and completed it at Finschhafen, Morobe. He did his high school at Bugandi in Lae, continuing onto Sogeri outside NCD. He was the second lot of intake for the new University of PNG and was described as a quiet, thoughtful and ferociously clever political science student at the University of PNG in 1975.
PAUL PORA: a great leader who loved the land
Credit: KEITH JACKSON
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We shared Prof Rex Mortimer’s politics honours class with Utula Samana, Ben Sabumei, Rabbie Namaliu, Sinai Brown and a guy who went on to be prime minister of the Solomons. It was quite a team. I was the only one never elected to Parliament.
Paul rarely said much. But what he did say was always insightful, expressed eloquently, and presented with humility. He had a charm and charisma that were understated, and the more potent because of that.
After leaving UPNG, Paul worked for the Reserve Bank of Australia, rising to be registrar of the savings and loans division, before becoming council clerk of Mt Hagen where he developed the council’s business arm, the still successful Wamp Nga group of companies.
He then went into business himself, establishing a prudently diverse enterprise - the Dobel Farming and Trading company. He was made the first chairman of Air Niugini and, in 1987, entered politics where he was elected three times as Member for Hagen Open, serving as Minister for Finance and Minister for Civil Aviation.
His political comrades speak of his honesty, loyalty and calm demeanor in the midst of PNG’s worst financial crisis in late 1980s when he was Finance Minister.
“He was the ideal man to pull PNG out of financial strife when PNG’s biggest mining project, Bougainville Copper, prematurely closed,” said Sir Rabbie Namaliu.
“The task was on [Paul] to immediately design a rescue package for PNG that would minimise the impact of loss of revenue from BCL and stabilise the nation’s economy which he succeeded in achieving.”
Ben Sabumei recalled the business aspirations of the man who became the Western Highland’s first multi-millionaire. “He was a brilliant strategist and a visionary who forecast years back that PNG politics would change based on the discovery of oil and gas which would influence the political direction of the country.”
There are many stories of Paul Pora’s strength and courage.
When, as minister for finance from 1988 to 1992, he was told to ensure members were secured into guard against impending motions of no-confidence, Pora always sent away to his own company, Dobel Farming and Trading, for financial support.
Such was the drain on his family business that, while he was yet minister, he had the unpleasant task of appointing a receiver for the company when the PNG Banking Corporation placed it under receivership.
He refused pressure to sack then managing director of the PNGBC, Sir Mekere Morauta, which he perfectly well could have done as minister.
I read a report that, when he lost his Hagen seat to William Duma in June 2002, Yamuga tribesman were angry. They had good reason. Three boxes from Pora’s stronghold areas remained uncounted when the returning officer declared Duma elected.
Hearing of the people’s anger, Pora sent word to the Yamuga men to gather at his Tega village. “The elections have just ended,” he said. “We have a new member for Hagen Open. Something happened that I do not agree with, but there is a due process. It is not for you to take any action. It is for me to take this course of action.
“I want all of you to return to your jobs and your homes. Everything must run as normal. The airport is a national airport and it must remain open. The highway is a national road and it must remain open. Mt Hagen town is ours. It must not be touched ...”
And, with that, he stepped out of politics.
Paul spent his last ten years in retirement at his Kuriva farm outside Port Moresby.
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A STORY of sheer determination to get educated, develop a business and steer his people - a nation in stormy seas as a politician.
A person filled with a spirit to strive for amicable peaceful solutions.
