It was a relief to read that the
latest development[1]
coming out from the investigation into the Kokoda rape incident involving Mattew
Lovane and Michelle Clemens early this year is beginning to look more like a major
scam. A stunt pulled on the Kokoda people, the government and the people of PNG
for fame. Lovane and Clemen’s account of the events that unfolded on the track were
so surreal that one article described their ordeal to one that one would
encounter in the Jane and Tarzan novel. It was a story that brought great shame
to PNG at the amusement of the world. The story found an eager audience internationally
who were prepared to believe every word of it and triggered a nationwide
response from the PNG Government. The local newspapers and media were shocked
to learn of the incident when it was broken to the media by a foreign newspaper[2]. The
disappointing thing for this nation was the lack of interest by the local
newspapers to pursue this story to establish the truth inorder to protect the
image of the country from malicious and unfounded stories like this one. Thus the
latest twists in this highly suspect story is a welcome development for this
nation.
Most Papua New Guineans expressed
disgust at how these two foreigners tainted the image of one of our major tourism
icon and the country with their fabricated story of being savagely raped and
almost cannibalized by some cannibals which one overseas based newspaper was
happy to drum up. We are now beginning
to learn that the couple’s account is proven to be far fetched from the reality
in modern PNG. Fresh evidence provided by eye witnesses accounts show that the
Kokoda Track Authority, the community in Kokoda and the government of Papua New
Guinea have wasted money into an incident that is already turning out to be nothing
more than a sham. More importantly the two youths alleged to be the culprits and
their families went through so much difficulty because of this incident that if
the Police prosecution team are not able to secure enough evidence to convict
these youths in the courts; then it is fair to say that they deserve full
reparation from the government of Papua New Guinea, the expatriate couple in
the center of this incident and the newspaper that broke the story. Already it
was reported that the Police prosecution team for this case have failed on
couple of occasions to submit evidences to the courts and have actually
released the two young men on bail[3]. One
can imagine the terrible ordeal these two young men went through at the
hands of the PNG Police and correctional officers in Bomana jail. If Clemens
and Lovane told lies they deserve to face the full force of the PNG Law without
exception. In fact it would do justice if they are brought here to be trialed
and if guilty locked-up in Bomana Correctional jail. This will serve as a
warning to future “publicity stunt” artists looking for fame and glory at the
expense of the people and government of Papua New Guinea to tread carefully
when reporting sensitive issues.
Because of the potential damage
that this sort of incident may have on our tourism sector it is now important
for the government to put in place proper systems and processes to ensure that
we don’t react in an uncoordinated manner that could cost us so much money. It
is also important that we approach the matter in a professional manner without
having to quickly make judgment especially on our own people. I am sure this
incident irked a lot of Papua New Guineans but at the same time it tells us
that we should always remain neutral before we draw any conclusion. While our
quick response is commendable it’s unfortunately looking more and more a wasted
effort.
Personally for me it was so upsetting
how our government handled the matter, particularly when a week after the
incident four (4) women from the Southern Highlands Province residing in Morota
were ganged raped by men from Enga Province. In one of my article[4] I
called on the government to give equal attention to both incidents as they needed
a strong stance from the government against rape and violence in general. It
was clear that much of the attention was directed at the Kokoda incident which
also meant that the two youths had to endure ridicule from both the government
and the public. To this day we have not heard anything from the Morata incident
in terms of the actions that were taken to resolve this serious matter. Such
serious societal problems don’t deserve to hit the front page and then quickly fade
away into oblivion. For the benefit of our womenfolk and the rest of the law
abiding citizens of this country justice will need to prevail just like what is
about to happen with the Kokoda rape incident.
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