Nixon Nemu | DDA Watch - Madang District Commentary
Madang District Development State In Limbo!
Madang District has now become one of the underperforming districts in Momase and in Papua New Guinea.
Seeing the least developed districts in the last 10-15 years are now up on their toes and running exceptionally, in the likes of Menyamya and Finshaffen Districts in Morobe Province, Madang District is no where near them in terms of development.
From one of the high performing Districts I would say, to the least, because of lack of political leadership for the last 12 months.
Madang district is the largest district apart from other five districts in terms of geography and population size. Madang district host the Madang Town which has the biggest population, followed by Trans Gogol, South Ambenob, and North Ambenob LLGs.
Almost all development sectors (Education, Health, Law & Order, Road and Bridge Infrastructures etc..) had deteriorated and Madang DDA have not paying attention to those vital services since the then member for Madang Mr. Kramer was dismissed from office. For example, people from Trans Gogol LLG, particularly Ward 1-16 (Welivel to Kosilanta) are now struggling and being denied from bringing their cash crops to major markets in Madang Town because a section of the main highway between Gumaru and Welivel (Ward 1) has been washed away by Gogol River in Mid-2023.
Rated as one of the most dangerous areas in Madang Province, the bad road conditions have placed struggling farmers, students, government workers and mothers on high risk of being attacked, their belongings snatched and/or even murdered. Many of them had fallen victims of such criminal activities. Furthermore, the people of Trans Gogol (Ward 1-16) are hardworking people. They produce tones and tones of coca (dry bean) weekly that immensely contributes to the Province economy but yet they have been denied proper road access to major markets. They walk 20-30 Kilometers with their produces to look for transport to markets. In fact the section of the highway that was washed away is couple of miles (2-3 miles) drive away from the main center-Madang Town but yet the people's plight has fallen on deaf eras despite numerous attempts by local leaders to bring in responsible authorities to fix the problem.
The major questions that the people affected are now have in their minds are;
1. Do we (people) have the responsible government (Provincial Administration, Madang District DDA etc..) who can seriously look into this matter and address it as soon as possible?
2. When should the Madang District leadership be re-instated or should there be need for by-election, how fast this can happen so that it restore our confidence in the government?
3. If we are the equal players in the Madang Province economy through coca production, why should the Madang Provincial Administration under the leadership of Hon. Governor Remsy Pariwa take swift action to fix our deteriorated road and bridges since Madang District has no political leadership?
4. Since Madang District DDA by an Act of Parliament (DDA ACT 2014) is responsible for the Management and Administration of DSIP Funds, should it be continue functioning through its administrative structures after Mr. Kramer dismissal from office?
Madang District Political Leadership was in a stalemate since 2012 National General Election. The quest for power had pushed the district development aspirations into bins. People become hopeless because there in no equal representation of their development agendas. Madang District immediately need political leadership in order to be part of major government's programs such as Connect PNG and of course advance in terms of developments like other districts in PNG.
Madang province has five districts. According to DDA Watch, Madang, Sumkar, Bogia, Middle Ramu are trailing behind Rai Coast District in terms of transparency and good governance. With no DDA CEO, no 5year development plan, no acquittal report, or inspection report in the last 5 years and no MP in the last almost 2 years.