Utula Samana and the Fight for Decentralization
ARCHITECTS OF MOROBE: Utula Samana and the Fight for Decentralization Part 1: The Firebrand of Autonomy Picture this: It is late 1970s Papua New Guinea. The ink on the country’s new Constitution is barely dry. Port Moresby is flexing its new muscle as the political epicenter of the nation, making sweeping decisions from air-conditioned offices hundreds of miles away. But across the Solomon Sea, in the bustling industrial heartbeat of Lae and the rugged hinterlands of Morobe, a storm was brewing. The people of Morobe were asking a simple, dangerous question: Why should bureaucrat cushioned in Port Moresby decide how a road is built in Kaiapit, how a school is run in Finschhafen, or how money is spent in Garaina? Enter Utula Samana. If you were around in the late 70s and 80s, you knew the name. Utula Samana wasn’t your typical suit-and-tie politician waiting politely for his turn at the microphone. He was a radical, fiery former student activist turned public servant who looked at t...