The communities surrounding Marine Industrial Zone are beginning to realise that the owner of the project has nothing to do with Project Impact People. Their ancestorial land where the Marine Industrial Zone is quickly setting up is in the hands of RD Tuna.
The people in the community are aware that the Marine Industrial Zone spin off are not going to be beneficial to the locals. There is many issues relating to the land and who is in control of the Marine Industrial Zone? The Land is in the hands of the Filippino Company with Gabriel Kapris as the share holder to the Marine Industrial Zone.
The Proposed Bill of ACT-4/3/2009!
EXEMPTION FROM PAYMENT OF SURCHARGE. (Bill of Act 4.3.2009 pg 15)
Marine Industrial Zone Operators in an Export Processing Zone shall be granted exemption from payment of surcharge under the law on promotion of investment, import duty and business tax on machinery, equipment, tools and supplies including the components thereof which are essential for the production of goods, and on materials to be used for the construction, assembly or installation of factory or building in the export processing zone; provided that they shall be at such quantity as imported into the Estate and taken into the export processing zone and as approved by the Board and in compliance with such rules and conditions as prescribed by the Board.
The communities surrounding Marine Industrial Zone are beginning to realised that the owner of the project has nothing to do with Project Impact People. Their ancestorial land where the Marine Industrial Zone is setting up very fast is in the hands of the RD Tuna, a foreign company who came to Madang-PNG to catch fish in the sea and canned. The people in the community are aware that the Marine Industrial Zone spin off are not going to be beneficial to the locals. There is much issues relating to the land and who is in control of the Marine Industrial Zone? The Land is in the hands of the Filippino with Gabiriel Kapris as the share holder to the Marine Industrial Zone. The people are unhappy at the moment when they found out that they are no more in control of their land.
PRODUCTION OF GOODS.
Goods imported and taken into an export processing zone for use in the production of goods shall be granted exemption from payment of surcharge under the law on promotion of investment, import duty, business tax and other taxes.
The Locals of Rempi and Kananam who had higher expectation tend to understand now that they are definitely at the losing end while the MPs like Kapris and Ben Semri had enguaged their business for the construction of the fence of the Special Economic Zone. People are aware that MPs and the Filippino will profit much from the Marine Industrial Zone. This is much insulting to the traditional people who are now addressed by Gabriel Kapris and Semri as Project Impact People (PIP). The concerned Rempi Youths and Kananam elders who are being bribed and paid fortnightly said they will give out information because the foreigners will be making much profit while on Tax Holiday.
The Kananam people living around the Sek Harbour area in Madang province in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are fighting for their land and justice. This is a “David and Goliath” battle between a group of resource owners and a giant Filipino company, RD Corporation. The battle is over the once pristine harbour area in the north-western part of the Madang Lagoon and its rich marine resources. This area has long been the customary land of the Kananam community.
The year 1995 spelt the beginning of this battle. Unbeknown to the Kananam people, the PNG government granted a 20-year fishing agreement to the RD Company. Following this, RD established a private wharf now frequented by some 50 fishing vessels and a 600-ton cold storage and ice making plant on Kananam land. RD also constructed a 100-ton cannery about 25 kilometres away. These operations were set up in the name of development for PNG and in the name of “God”.
RD has brought no real benefits to the local people or to the PNG economy. It has however resulted in hardships and serious problems for the Kananam people, threatening their culture. Although the RD operations provide jobs to about 2,200 people, pay and conditions are bad. Local people form the unskilled labour force while more lucrative jobs go to Filipino expatriates. About 80 per cent of workers are women. They get 75 toea an hour (1 Kina = 100 Toea, about US25 cent) and from that they must pay the costs of uniform (8 Kina), apron (3 Kina), gloves (2.50 Kina) gum boots (20 Kina) and other tools of trade. Often, workers clear only about 60 Kina a fortnight.
This is a pittance in comparison to the high cost of living in PNG. Rice, the staple food for most urban dwellers in places such as Madang costs about 3 Kina per kilo; sugar is the same. While foreign companies such as RD get ‘pioneer status’ and pay no tax to the PNG Government, ordinary people have to pay school fees which range from 600 to 900 Kina a year, depending on the level of studies. To date workers have managed to get only a pittance increase of 5 Toea per hour. Race-to-the-bottom conditions for workers and environmental standards are very much the RD way despite its President’s claim of God’s blessings & graces for his fortune.
When the company was approached for wage increases, management converted the rate of pay into the Filipino peso and asserted that the PNG rate is already very high as compared to the Filipino wage rate. Of course, RD management did not explain that the cost of living in the Philippines is a fraction of that in PNG. Occupational health and safety is an unknown issue. Workers, including those under-weight, are required to lift heavy crates manually. These crates weigh about 60 kilos when empty and about 160 kilos when filled with tuna. Cleaners are required to unblock toilets and to clean up foul and rotting waste using their bare hands. They get 30 to 40 Kina a fortnight to clean up RD’s filth.
RD is the single largest employer in the area. Local people have virtually no bargaining power, as there is no shortage of workers waiting to fill any vacancy. The company has not tolerated worker-organised union. So far, anyone daring to demand a fair deal has either been sacked or forced out. Aiding this kind of repression is the strong push by multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank and aid donors including the Australian Government for an export-oriented development model to facilitate economic growth in PNG.
Most of the foreign companies in PNG plunder and pillage its rich and abundance natural resources and exploit its cheap workers, weak labour laws and poor enforcement of environmental laws as well as corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. The fact that about 97 percent of PNG’s land is under customary ownership and is hence communal property is often disregarded. Over three decades since PNG’s independence, this imposed development model has resulted in PNG sliding deeper into debt. While rich and powerful foreign companies are free to help themselves to PNG’s resources for profit, communities such as the Kananam are being increasingly stripped off their rights. Once fully self-sufficient, the Kananam are now being plunged into poverty.
It is ironic that those lending and donor institutions have ‘poverty reduction’ and ‘development’ at the top of their agenda. Papua New Guineans are misled to believe that development is about getting a waged employment. Consequently, for every job left by a sacked worker or one who quit, there will be a long queue of people waiting outside RD operations to take over. This situation will continue, as the Madang Lagoon that once sustained the surrounding communities with its rich marine resources is now increasingly polluted - both from the cannery waste and the fishery operations.
As recent as 26th April 2003, excessive amounts of toxic waste were washed from one of RD’s vessels, Delores 829, into the lagoon areas known as the Doilon passage killing countless numbers of fish and marine life. Uninformed local people saw the floating fish and picked them up for food for their family. Several people got very ill after consuming the fish and one was exposed to the contaminated sea water and she was taken ill and hospitalised. If this situation is left unchecked and RD allows to continue with their bad practices, more casualties and environmental damages are certain, creating further hardships for local people. The Lagoon is a marine biodiversity hotspot with exceptional diversity of coral reefs.
These reef systems in turn support a wide range of marine life and sea grasses. James D. Thomas, Curator of Crustacea at the US-based Smithsonian Institution reported that : Madang reefs are some of the most biologically diverse reefs yet documented. Sustaining native levels of biodiversity in these reefs as a potential genetic seed source for other South Pacific reefs is important in the larger context of regional biodiversity. Near the Sek Harbour, once magnificent coral reefs, thriving mangroves and lush wetlands have been destroyed. These natural ecosystems form important breeding and feeding grounds for a diversity of marine life and birds.
Before RD came to town, Kananam people reported up to 50kg from a night’s catch per person. Now they are struggling to get 5kg or at most 10kg. It is under this hardship that the RD operations created another worrying trade - sex for fish. Bartering is a traditional trading practice in PNG. Often village produce such as vegetables, coconut and fruits are traded for other goods or money. However, when Kananam women went out to the RD tuna vessels in their outrigger to trade these produces, the Filipino male workers on board rejected their food but demanded sex, turning poverty stricken women into sex ‘workers’ and paying them with tuna! Kananam communities are worried by the social and health impacts of this ‘trade’. Their diminishing land and natural resources are inadequate to cater for the growing population of children born from unprotected sex. Family conflicts and family break up are now common because of the sex-for-fish trade.
The Kananam people are worried about the fragmentation of their once strong community. It is this strong communal bond that has sustained them and kept them from harm for as far back as they can remember.
Another great concern is the spread of STDs and HIV/AIDS. Most people in the community are unaware of the health implications and risks of unprotected sex. AusAID’s multimillion HIV/AIDS campaign for PNG would have been more effective if it had targeted the source of this problem by starting their education program on board the RD vessels to get Filipino workers to practice safe sex and to provide appropriate health education for the Kananam women.
RD is using its muscle and connection with greedy PNG politicians and bureaucrats to try to turn the Sek Harbour and surrounding land into a Marine Economic Zone to reap more profit. They tried to silence dissent by paying women 60 Kina to do their grunt work and a few greedy landowners 250 Kina per fortnight to shut them up. They reacted to a website set up to support the Kananam’s struggle by sacking several Kananam workers suspected to be linked with giving information to ‘outsiders’. The company has many plans to multiply their tuna catch and production. More of the Kananam land will be taken away and the Lagoon will be further polluted if RD’s planned expansion is not stopped.
The Kananam people are putting up their last stand to protect their future. Their culture and spiritual belief are centred on their land and the harbour. The harbour is their life source. They are obligated by their custom to keep this valuable resource intact so that it can be passed down to future generations to sustain their lives and to ensure the continuation of the Kananam culture and heritage. And they are appealing for your support in their battle for basic justice and to protect their culture and heritage.
RD selling rotten fish to people (April 2004)
This is a statement related by Idawad: "On Saturday 27/03/04 ***** of Kananam gave K10.00 to ***** , also from Kananam, who works at Vidar, to purchase tuna fish for her from the RD cold storage at Vidar. After work that afternoon, ***** brought back the K10.00 worth of Tuna fish and gave it to ***** . ***** and the rest of her family saw that the fish were all swollen and stinking, smelly and NOT fit for human consumption. **** threw the swollen, stinking, and smelly fish away (the entire purchase was disposed of). When this was reported to *****, she gave **** and her family strict instructions NOT to tell anybody (specially NOT Idawad members) about the incident. **** says and Idawad also does that that is NOT the first time for such an incident to occur. A Sepik woman by the name of *****i also had a similar experience of buying stinking fish."
Tribal Chief Maintains War against RD (April 2004)
On 4 April 04 the Idawad association organised and conducted a meeting at Kananam village, at which meeting Idawad publicly gave a full update on "The battle with RD Tuna which is still On." Idawad reaffirmed its stand that "RD MUST GO and OUR LAND MUST BE GIVEN BACK TO US." There was overwhelming support from every sector of the community. Old *****(Gamarmatu Clan and Kananam Village chief) stood up and declared in front of the gathered community: "I AM supreme commander of Idawad, they follow what I tell them to do. The war that Idawad had declared on RD Tuna was done so under MY command. And I AM STILL IN COMMAND and there is no doubt whatsoever that WE WILL WIN!" At which the community cheered and applaused in support. Even councillor ****** who is no longer an active member of Idawad openly expressed his full support for the group. Other community leaders also expressed their support for Idawad, including the SSD chairman and directors who were present. The fact of the matter is that RD Tuna company has literally NO support in Kananam! . RD Tuna company is extremely nervous and feels highly threatened. With such being the case, they are now resorting to projecting the nervousness and threatenedness on to any scapegoat they can lay their hands on. Examples of such scapegoats are Idawad association and Kananam LOs, Nobnob LOs, Dr Nancy Sullivan, editor of the Diwai magazine, Friends of Kananam, NGOs (one particular one in Madang), one particular expatriate attached to that NGO in Madang etc...
Dear FRIENDS, Re: RD TUNA PUTS HALT ON SECRET PAY.
Today Sunday 8/4/07; The Kananam people reveal that RD Tuna company has been paying K250 per forthnight to the Two LLG members of Siar and Kananam communities since 2004.
WHY DID RD TUNA DO THIS? It’s simple, there has been Local resistance.
The landowners were vocal for their environmental/land issues as well as the Promised benefits such as spin off and employment.
Siar and Kananam communities are most impacted villages on which Kananam land and marine area is where RD Fishing Ice Plant is built.
The Youths of Kananam are now happy to reveal how deceiving and what logic it is that RD Tuna has to put the two councillors on pay every forthnight? We the Youths are glad for RD Tuna spending that little amount on the two leaders who have never stopped us to fight for our rights. We are now angry with the Filipino company in putting STOP pay on our LLG Member from receiving K250 per forthnight on Wednesday 27/3/07.
Anyway, Thank you for that Divide and Rule –Bully approach so typical of you Kongs.
The IDAWADS of Kananam are saying: -RD Tuna
*** are NOT Good People as well as their products are not good because they have been selling Dog Food to the locals of Kananam and PNG. We are glad to have friends locally who say NO to buy Diana Tuna products due to the fact that their moral actions are destroying our reefs, fish and social values etc…. RD Tuna was allowed into PNG for Tuna Canning business. Now what Right does a foreign company have to venture into Betelnut plantation and selling them out to the Highlands of PNG? It Is not right for international company to sell betelnut and kill the local people from earning income. Thank you-Friends of Kananam.
A Plea from Seg Clan-Kananam. By Mam PANU
Vidar Land is ours and the Marine area belongs to the Seg Tribal people.
Vidar Land is Mine This Fishing Reefs are not for Filipinos
From Seg, Vidar to Iduan island;
From Green mangrove forest to the Tranquil Madang Lagoon
This Vidar Harbour was created for the Kananams.
I am/my trabal people are connected to the Land and the traditional fishing zone
And I follow my father’s inheritance.
From the calm lagoons to the inviting little islands of Alexishafen
All around me an inner call keeps reminding me of blood lineage
Water of Life Vidar marine area is Customarily my clan’s.
It was early dawn, and I was strolling
The sea was inviting and the morning birds were welcoming nature’s providence;
While gentle breeze was lifting a voice:
This Vidar marine area was made for you-The Seg Clan.
