Sam Basil

With the opening of its office space, the new look Melanesian Alliance party under the leadership of Bulolo MP, Sam Basil, intends to start rebuilding the party in preparation for 2022 elections.

An office space that will run the affairs of the Melanesian Alliance Party and also screen and nominate candidates for the 2022 General Election was opened on May 17^th at Korobosea, Port Moresby.

The new Party leader says they intend to start early and are laying the foundation to prepare for 2022.

This demand will come off the back of the PNG Government’s rural electrification program and upcoming major resource projects and industries.

Minister for Energy, Sam Basil, said this at the 3^rd Petroleum and Energy Summit in Port Moresby.

Minister Basil said currently there are 600+ megawatts of electricity in use, excluding standalone generators.

He said studies show that another 300 megawatts is needed to ensure sufficient power is generated to meet the 70 percent electricity access to households by 2030.

Basil said this in response to questions by Bougainville Governor, Joe Lera.

“What is the policy of NBC in regards to giving equal airtime to global, national and local content to our people? asked Lera.

“I ask this question because currently radio Bougainville is giving more time to global and national content and little time to Bougainville content.

“This disadvantages my people from getting adequate, relevant and appropriate information on the social, economic, political affairs, especially in the context of the referendum.”

He said, however, that KPHL made a net profit of K170 million in 2017.

The rebuttal follow claims by Opposition Leader, Patrick Pruaitch, that KPHL made a loss of K1.5 billion, with the UBS K3 billion loan alleged as one of the causes for the loss.

In a statement, Basil said KPHL has not borrowed from any commercial bank since 2014 and there are no operating losses in 2016 as claimed by the Leader of Opposition.

Sam Basil made the statement following the condemnation of the NBC Morobe studio.

In a press conference on October 12^th, the Communications Minister said all these NBC infrastructure throughout PNG existed since 1973 – two years before independence.

“Most of them are in a rundown state but I would also like to commend the NBC staff that over the years, they have provided excellent services and they continue to do so, but we are now looking at ways to address those issues,” Basil said.

The election of his deputy and Goilala MP William Samb was also nullified.

The decision was made in favour of Pangu Pati president Patrick Pundao who sought the ruling in his submission via his lawyer Justin Isaac.

However, both were re-elected to lead the party.

The court had ordered for a re-election facilitated by the registrar of political parties and candidates, Alphonse Gelu.

Complying with the court order, party executives and members convened at a meeting on Monday, October 1^st, which was supervised and facilitated by Gelu.

This is to improve the dissemination of information through the Island.

Basil said if need be, funding will be requested from the NEC towards the projects.

Bougainville Regional MP, Joe Lera, asked Minister Basil in parliament what plans are in place to improve radio coverage in Bougainville, with the current FM frequency only servicing a small segment of the population.

He said with the referendum preparations, many Bougainvilleans need to be informed.

During a press conference on Friday, the Goilala MP and deputy leader of Pangu gave the assurance that one of PNG’s oldest political parties still remains intact.

On May 8^th, the Pangu Pati Executive Council announced that it has suspended the party leader and Member for Bulolo, Sam Basil, from Pangu.

Deputy Prime Minister, Charles Abel, said the Opposition leaders were not voted in to behave in such a manner.

Abel was accompanied by Government ministers yesterday, including ICT and Energy Minister, Sam Basil.

He said the referral was made and there was no need to boycott Friday’s session.

Governor for East Sepik Province Allan Bird wanted to know why the Communications Minister has Facebook high on his priority rather than fighting corruption.

 Allan Bird’s questions ranged from the involvement of National Research Institute to conduct research into the use of social media, the curiosity of government’s focus on Facebook instead of other pressing issues and the image it will portray to other APEC countries on freedom of speech and media.

In response, Minister Basil denied newspaper reports that had given a time frame for Facebook to be shutdown.