79 Facts About Iambakey Okuk

Iambakey Palma Okuk was an independence leader in Papua New Guinea and served as Deputy Prime Minister, the nation's first Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, and repeatedly in the capacity of Minister of Transport, Minister of Primary Industries and Leader of the Opposition.

Iambakey Okuk is known as Papua New Guinea's "most colourful and controversial politician".

Iambakey Okuk was born in Simbu Province in the Central Highlands of the Territory of New Guinea in 1945.

Iambakey Okuk spent eighteen years in the area around Hagen, learned the local language and went to school.

Iambakey Okuk rejected opportunities for education in Australia as years spent abroad would take him away from the political developments and his political constituency.

Iambakey Okuk organized a labour protest against discriminatory pay practices in 1966.

Iambakey Okuk did not enter politics from the top, but first implemented administration policy through the public service and then moved to elected office.

Iambakey Okuk's style was in keeping with what has come to be known as the Melanesian Way.

Iambakey Okuk's reputation grew due to his aggressive posture, as well as his organizational ability.

Iambakey Okuk had talked of representation at the UN and of overseas trade.

Standish states that Iambakey Okuk used his employment as an opportunity to campaign.

Iambakey Okuk bridged traditional and modern forms of political organization, participating in cooperatives as well as the traditional gift exchange.

Iambakey Okuk considered his most significant contribution to the independence process getting elected to the House to assure the needed majority, and helping to persuade others, especially Highlands, parliamentarians to vote for self-government.

Iambakey Okuk became the first Minister of Agriculture, where he initiated legislation nationalizing the primary industries, starting with the coffee industry, thus working to reverse the colonial dynamic.

Iambakey Okuk's strategy was to reserve a segment of the industry for citizens through legislation; later this strategy was applied to vegetable marketing and public transportation.

Iambakey Okuk started programs to train citizens for the technical and skilled positions then held by expatriates; he felt the program which was the most symbolic of self-reliance and self-determination was his pilot training program.

Iambakey Okuk was elected to his first term of office as the Regional Member for Chimbu Province.

For two years after losing the 1970 by-election, Iambakey Okuk lived and worked in his home province of Chimbu for the first time in 18 years.

In interviews during the campaign, Iambakey Okuk likened the progress to self-government to the inescapable passage of time.

Iambakey Okuk was the candidate with appeal beyond his tribal area, taking four constituencies out of seven.

Unknown to Iambakey Okuk, he was perceived as having traditional claims to leadership.

Iambakey Okuk had died in the late 1940s, and Okuk had known him as a grandfather.

Iambakey Okuk exemplified traditional leadership characteristics and employed traditional methods for gaining followership, but he worked beyond the geographic boundary of the traditional sphere of influence, and for goals beyond clan prestige and ceremonial exchange.

Iambakey Okuk worked steadily in political activism since the first House of Assembly in 1964, standing in two by-elections in 1968 and 1970, setting up his coffee buying business and campaigning for two years afterwards in Chimbu until the 1972 elections.

Iambakey Okuk resigned this position less than a week after the first sitting of the new House of Assembly when he was named as Minister of Agriculture in the Somare-led coalition government.

Iambakey Okuk patterned himself after Agaundo in many respects, especially with regards to the political leverage of a united Highlands voting block.

Yet, even though Iambakey Okuk was a government minister, he took up many positions in conflict with the coalition government's stand.

On 23 November 1972, Iambakey Okuk criticized the Bougainville project as not benefiting the bulk of the local population, pointing out that Australia had negotiated the deal on the behalf of Papua New Guinea, and predicting that reform in favour of the landowners could avert violent confrontation later.

Iambakey Okuk supported another National Party member, John Kaupa, both in the debate over expatriate management of the Chimbu Coffee Cooperative and speaking out against the degradation of Highlanders in the Highlands Labour Scheme.

Land reform was taken up by the Parliamentary Leader of National Party, Thomas Kavali, who was Minister for Lands in 1974 when four land reform bills were passed, and Iambakey Okuk spoke in support of subsidized loans for citizens to buy back plantations from foreign interests prior to the introduction of this legislation.

The Bill to which Iambakey Okuk was most personally committed was the Coffee Dealing Bill of 1974.

Iambakey Okuk remained Minister for Transport, and Deputy Parliamentary Leader of National Party, until after Independence, in September 1975.

The imperative which guided Iambakey Okuk's work was that unless the dependency could be reversed, Papua New Guinea would be independent in name only.

Iambakey Okuk felt Papua New Guinea was over-burdened by a top-heavy public service and a redundant and expensive provincial government system supported by this grant, while education was neglected.

Iambakey Okuk was one of the few Highlanders in the educated elite.

Iambakey Okuk evaluated his role in the independence process, placing the achievement of nationhood as the first, but not the final step toward complete independence since the economy still remained dominated by foreign interests.

Iambakey Okuk's legislation localizing primary industries was introduced before independence and addressed the local economic conditions, as well as nationalistic aspirations.

Iambakey Okuk counted as one of his highest priorities and most valued contributions to bring the infrastructure for development to remote communities, enabling smallholders to get their products to market.

Iambakey Okuk nationalized the airlines, by initiating the purchase of the shares from Ansett.

Iambakey Okuk started a pilot training program to train Papua New Guineans to be pilots.

Iambakey Okuk's critics claimed that he was moving too fast and would scare off foreign investment.

Iambakey Okuk's resignation was finally made public on 20 January 1976.

The National Party was split, with many members remaining with the government, after Iambakey Okuk had made his decision to resign.

Iambakey Okuk formed a corresponding parliamentary group, called the Peoples Unified Front, "in an attempt to bring together UP members and Papuans into a coherent opposition coalition".

Iambakey Okuk did not yield to Okuk's challenges because Okuk was the only member of the National Party in the Opposition.

Iambakey Okuk chained the offices shut so that neither he nor Abal could use them until the matter was resolved, after which the matter was referred to legal experts.

The media reporting did not relate the details of what happened on 23 May 1978, which Iambakey Okuk described as a confrontation in which Highlands members from both sides of government came to vote on the new Leader of the Opposition.

Iambakey Okuk remembered it as Sailas Atopare, Member for Goroka in the Eastern Highlands, who started the incident by calling to other Highlands members to join the vote, although the media did not mention him in their reporting of the incident.

The police were finally called in when fighting broke out; one of Iambakey Okuk's supporters came to blows with the alternative candidate for the Opposition Leadership, Highlanders against Highlanders.

Iambakey Okuk was criticized by Highland leaders for creating divisiveness after this incident especially because of the tension created between Highland members, yet the majority of the Highlanders voted for him.

Iambakey Okuk was the Leader of the Opposition for two years, from May 1978 to March 1980.

Iambakey Okuk said he did not think the Government was giving an accurate picture of the problems in Irian Jaya.

Iambakey Okuk moved a total of four Motions of No Confidence in the Government within 20 months, the first only three months after he became opposition leader, on 24 August 1978.

Iambakey Okuk stated that he would oppose this oppressive and discriminatory act with every means at his disposal.

Iambakey Okuk became the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation.

Iambakey Okuk dismissed two senior national executives, as well as the expatriate general manager.

Iambakey Okuk directly negotiated the purchase of the Dash-7 aircraft from the manufacturer in Canada, rather than working through brokers and agents, who were the source of the alleged "Ten Percent" commissions.

Air Niugini, which had been running at a loss, was showing a profit by the time Iambakey Okuk tabled the financial report in September 1981.

Iambakey Okuk was a steadfast opponent of the provincial government system and the excesses created by having 600 paid politicians governing a nation of three million people.

The most ardent critic was Deputy Prime Minister Iambakey Okuk who seized the chance of undermining provincial governments by deciding in the cabinet to allocate sectoral transport program funds, which would normally have gone from the central government to the provinces, directly to national parliamentarians.

Iambakey Okuk spoke out against ethnic conflict in Morobe where Highlanders were being discriminated against.

Iambakey Okuk especially spoke out against moves to repatriate Highlanders living and working in other provinces and plans to limit Highlanders ability to own land in Morobe.

Iambakey Okuk argued that increased tribal fighting in the Highlands was linked to decentralization since the money spent on salaries for politicians could more effectively be spent on much needed economic development.

The Chan-Iambakey Okuk government received kudos for sending military support to independent Vanuatu in 1980; Iambakey Okuk claimed credit for finally setting into motion this action of the government.

Finally, once back in Parliament, Iambakey Okuk joined forces with Paias Wingti and Julius Chan, and supported another No Confidence Motion which removed Somare and made Paias Wingti Prime Minister.

The success of this process owes much to Iambakey Okuk's demonstrated leadership in the handling of his defeat at the polls in the 1982 Chimbu Regional election, and the loss of most of his National Party members.

Iambakey Okuk spurned self-mutilation as a symbol of grief, but for those who took part, this was a demonstration of respect and an acknowledgement of his leadership, even though for some such an act carried stiff penalties.

Iambakey Okuk confirmed that there were some, who in the emotional wake of the elections, advocated military intervention.

Immediately, a case was filed in the Court of Disputed Returns to invalidate the election; it was alleged that Iambakey Okuk was not a resident and not qualified to stand for election in Unggai-Bena.

The court case was postponed for more than a year, while Iambakey Okuk again led the Opposition.

Democratic freedoms were being eroded first by the declaration of a state of emergency, which Iambakey Okuk had vehemently opposed.

Iambakey Okuk fought against the proposed Peace and Good Order Bill, which would give sweeping powers to the executive to declare martial law.

Iambakey Okuk especially questioned the border treaties and cooperative operations with the Indonesian regime, the lack of recognition of the legitimate refugees from the border, whose numbers had grown to ten thousand by mid-1984, and the restriction against Australian journalists going to the border area to report on the plight of the refugees coming from West Papua.

Since the case had been postponed for more than a year, by the time the by-election took place, Iambakey Okuk had established a legal residence in the constituency and was qualified to stand in the by-election created by his own unseating.

Iambakey Okuk tried to work with the Somare-led government, but when no ministerial portfolios were offered, even though he had brought a sizable party into coalition with the government, he was forced to withdraw support from the government.

Iambakey Okuk remained a backbencher until he joined forces with Wingti and Chan to bring a No-Confidence Motion in November 1985, a year and a half from the next general elections.

Iambakey Okuk wanted the Bank to be transferred to the Ministry for Primary Industry because the Agriculture Bank was not living up to its mandate of supporting investment in smallholders.

Iambakey Okuk's body lay in state in Parliament and was then flown to major cities before being buried in Kundiawa.

Iambakey Okuk was survived by two widows, Lady Karina Okuk and Dr Lisabeth Ryder, and six children Tangil, Dilu, Carl, Sophia, Ruby, and Niglmoro Okuk.