The Death of a President....

Bougainville last Saturday the 7th June lost its first President. President Joseph Kabui has been a leader in Bougainville through the crisis and beyond – a close personal friend of Sister Lorraine, he was one of the leaders of the Bougainville army through the crisis, and then lead Bougainville through the peace negotiations – Kabuis thoughts were always – Peace through Peaceful negotiations. A believer in the people of Bougainville, of Bougainville and its assets his biggest belief was in Peace through peaceful means not through fighting.
The mood here is sombre, the days are hot, and the people are reflecting.
Thursday I was honoured to be a part of the crowd who gathered in Hahela Church in Buka to farewell the first President of Bougainville. I was fortunate to meet President Joseph Kabui only once, on the street of Buka on the first Saturday morning I was in town – and immediately even in the short few minutes we chatted I was struck that this man was indeed a leader. But as with most leaders in this country he was plagued with health issues, a combination of 10 years of conflict, 10 years of working to get Bougainville back on its feet, poor economy of a country and the desire to put people before family and self, and immense pressure of a public office finally brought President Kabuis life to an untimely end at 54 years old.
Thousands gathered yesterday – 5 days after his passing from a major heart attack in his official residence at Hahela, to say goodbye to Bougainville’s son. He was given a State funeral in Port Moresby on Tuesday, a small service in Rabul on Wednesday and then a mammoth 7 hour service a Hahela yesterday – we sat from 9am for a 3 hour Mass, followed by a Eulogy, 9 speeches, the families response, the viewing of the body and then the last stand bugle call – the service ended just after 4pm. There would easily have been 1,500 to 1,700 people there, some sitting, some standing, all stayed, all were calm and all were patiently listening, observing and being a part of Bougainville’s history. It was just extraordinary.
What became clear, in the Bishops address, through the various speeches of those who knew him well, of those who knew him in an official capacity only, of the families response was that this was a man who put his country before his family, this was a man who believed in Bougainville and worked tirelessly for the safety and peace of his people, that this was a man who was firm in his convictions and his passion for this beautiful land. His daughter made a very moving speech, she told the congregation that her father was selfless, that he asked what he could do for people and never expected anything back, he put the people before his family – in doing this he has left them with nothing, no permanent house, no car, no assets – but he unconditionally loved them. She asked for forgiveness of anyone who felt that Kabui had done wrong by them, and she asked for peace. Under increasing pressure of his office, of the media and the public, President Kabuis daughter asked for the Autonomous Region of Bougainville’s Government to have respect for the work that her father had done for the country over the past 20 years, but particularly as the first President since 2005 – to maintain policies put into place, to continue to move forward and the peace negotiations – and to respect the man, the office and the work.
Bougainville is losing a generation of leaders, last year they said good bye to the Chief Administrator, and previous years saw equal leaders pass. The passing of the President marks the loss of possibly the greatest leader Bougainville has seen, and the mood of the people that I associate with is one of feeling defeat, of frustration that they need to start again, and of concern as whoever takes up his office has a huge job ahead of them. Bougainville is still learning, is still recovering, is still trying desperately to move forward whilst continuing to negotiate peace across the land. This is a country so full of potential, so full of golden soil, of golden possibilities in tourism and economy, and is quite literally sitting on a gold mine – but the pressure of this and the sense that they just don’t quite know what to do with all of this is an enormous burden. A burden that only true leaders can attempt to carry.
The Speaker asked the question of why we are losing our leaders, is the pressure and expectation too great, do we need further education of how to govern, have we got the skills to be able to go ahead, and do we have the systems to be able to support our leaders – in office, and at home. You see President Kabui had had 2 major by passes, he was on daily medication – and reports tell me that he had stopped his medication for the past 3 months – first reports told us that this was because he was using alternative medication. Later reports tell us that it was because he could not afford his medication. Imagine the Prime Minister of Australia not being able to afford medication to keep himself alive, not being able to have access to the medical facilities at the moment when he needed them most to keep him alive.... In my mind something is wrong about this! I would also have asked the question about 20 years of pressure, of the ongoing affects that trauma has on the body – and what are we doing to manage these health issues.
The Deputy Prime Minister of PNG spoke as well, a fine speech he put the challenge to the leaders of this country to keep themselves healthy. We simply cannot afford to lose more of our leaders (new reports tell us that a Minister in the Highlands died this week....). The challenge that family is as important if not more important than public office – that systems must be in place to be able to hold a work/life balance. The message was clear.
So we said goodbye to another great leader, taken before his time was due leaving 4 daughters and a wife. Friday the body was being flown to Arawa (in a charter flight that is taken a special route that takes him to all parts of the island to ensure that Bougainvillians can pay respect to their late President Kabui, we saw his flight this morning over us at 730 – Sr Isabel waved to her President, the kids in the village all cheered for him, others had a moment of silence. In Arawa there will be another Mass and the body will be taken to his village over the weekend in Panguna – next week will see him taken to his final resting place in his wife and daughters village – his body is laid to rest on Friday. Next week is a public holiday for Bougainville.
And then after this happens, Parliament sits the following week and I guess a bi-election is called and once again, history is written!
Interesting times.