Labour organizing and protest

While in Port Moresby doing his apprenticeship program with the Commonwealth Department of Works, he attended meetings of a discussion group made up mostly of students from the Administration College who called themselves the Bully Beef Club; this group later grew into the Pangu (Papua and New Guinea Union) party.^[2]

He organized a labour protest against discriminatory pay practices in 1966. As with other sectors of the public service, Australians who came to New Guinea were often not qualified for equivalent programs or positions in Australia. Duties and privileges, as well as wages, were fixed by race, regardless of qualifications.

Okuk was a grassroots organizer. He did not enter politics from the top, but first implemented administration policy through the public service and then moved to elected office. He was among a group of educated young people who came to be regarded as 'radicals', not because of any unifying ideology, but simply because they dared to criticize the administration and demand change. The young Papuans and New Guineans found they were not the only ones that were critical of the administration. For example, many Europeans in the apprenticeship program were new migrants to Australia, who also could not speak English well. They did not blend as easily with the Australians in the program and found that they also were victims of discrimination, although not as severely as the indigenous population.

Organizing the apprentices took many months of discussions and planning because they were dispersed all over the territory. Okuk's charismatic quality led to him becoming the spokesman for the Papua New Guinean apprentices in their protest. His style was in keeping with what has come to be known as the Melanesian Way. Consensus is achieved only after intensive discussion within the group, when all parties are satisfied that their position has been heard and understood, even if they maintain diverging opinions and undertake different actions.

There were limited gains, but what was especially important as what they had learned from their efforts. They were encouraged by the effect that their protest had on the pay scale beyond their department. Every small gain caused the general pay scale to be adjusted.

First political campaign in Wabag

Okuk's reputation grew due to his aggressive posture, as well as his organizational ability. By 1968 or 1969, he was participating in many types of political activism. When he was finishing his apprenticeship in Wabag, he became formally involved in politics by standing for election in 1968 there.

Because of the educational requirements for the Regional seat, the candidates were divided among older, established and extremely conservative European businessmen and a few of the newly educated indigenous candidates. The young educated indigenous candidates were not well established, having lived away from their communities while being educated. They had not yet had many business opportunities.

This campaign was subjected to intense study by Colebatch et al., who concluded that "Iambakey's campaigning affected both the course of the election and the political climate of the period."^[3] Okuk came in fourth, behind three European planters and businessmen, but he was first among the indigenous candidates. During the campaign, his clan brother, Joseph Nombri, came to Wabag to assist him. Nombri's strong identification with Pangu (which was labeled as radical) contributed to Okuk's loss.

The authors of "Free Elections in a Guided Democracy" made several observations about Okuk during the course of the campaign:

Iambakey had talked of representation at the UN and of overseas trade. An indigenous man who concerned himself with other than strictly parochial matters without cutting himself off from the uneducated populace was dangerous because he betrayed a sophistication that put him outside expatriate control. The influence of the European candidates within the community was based on their long residence and successful businesses in the area. Although known to the community when he was a child growing up in the western highlands, his business and leadership skills had not yet been proven in these communities.^[4]

Colebatch et al. (1971) were obviously impressed by his command of local as well as national issues: "Iambakey alone was aware of uneducated Highlanders' dependence upon Europeans and their susceptibility to European propaganda and he was the only indigenous candidate who had pondered the implications of the size of the electorate."^[5] His pluck and tenacity won him begrudging respect from even those he opposed. "There was no 'Yessir' in Okuk's political vocabulary: he was prepared to argue with the European candidates and stand up to cross-examination."^[6]

Coffee-buying business

After completing his apprenticeship, Okuk moved to his home province of Simbu to start a coffee buying business and he stood in the 1970 by-election for the Simbu Regional seat. Sachiko Hatanaka attributes Okuk's election loss to Father Nilles, due to his lack of campaign funding.^[7] It was significant to the outcome of the election, however, that Father Nilles had worked in the community since before Okuk was born, and that Okuk's status in the community was unproven since he was just returning after a long absence.

In 1972, two brothers-in-law, one European (Jim Collins) and one Papua New Guinean, helped Okuk break into the coffee buying business. His secondary education over-qualified him to be a mechanic but served him well in the coffee business. Again he was in direct competition with Europeans. Standish states that Okuk used his employment as an opportunity to campaign.^[8]

Once he had acquired some business capital, he expanded his business, organizing other buyers. Finally, he built the first indigenous-owned coffee factory, named Tokma after the fertile limestone mountain which had sustained his village's gardens. He bridged traditional and modern forms of political organization, participating in cooperatives as well as the traditional gift exchange. Part of the profit from the coffee business went into buying vehicles and assisting other businessmen in getting their start. In this way, helping others to establish businesses, he established himself politically in his home constituency. After developing his business, he stood against Father Nilles again and defeated him in 1972, and became the Simbu Regional Member in the Third House of Assembly.

Chimbu regional campaign of 1972

Okuk was elected to his first term of office as the Regional Member for Chimbu Province. In describing Okuk, Standish saw "A strong-faced intense man with a wry humour and shrewd charm, he shelters some bitter memories and can be quick to anger." (Standish 1976: 324) He characterized him as the most radical candidate but also the most well known since he participated in the 1970 by-election and campaigned in Chimbu for two years afterwards. For two years after losing the 1970 by-election, Okuk lived and worked in his home province of Chimbu for the first time in 18 years. It took time to re-establish himself after leaving Chimbu as a child to live in Hagen.

By the 1972 election campaign, he felt that self-government was not only inevitable but coming soon. In interviews during the campaign, Okuk likened the progress to self-government to the inescapable passage of time. "You know self-government and independence is like a clock. The hands move and the time comes around. If you force it too quickly you break the clock. If you pull self-government quickly the clock is wrong. And yet you can't stop it. Self-government is coming." (Standish 1976: 328)

Okuk's campaigning blended traditional and modern political methods. The claim to leadership of a traditional bigman is not "vested with authority"^[9] but is a matter of persuading a loyal "followership".^[10] The loyalty of the followership is won by past assistance in death and bridewealth payments, lawsuits and inter-clan exchange (Strathern 1966). Since a bigman is judged by his ability to manipulate wealth, not just accumulate it, Okuk's business acumen, and the assistance he gave others, was politically significant. Repeatedly in the literature, the hallmark of leadership, especially in the Highlands, has been described as twofold: big men "achieve their position through their powers of oratory and their ability to obtain and deploy wealth through transactions with exchange partners".^[11]

Okuk was the candidate with appeal beyond his tribal area, taking four constituencies out of seven. His nearest rival, Waru Degemba, received 57.7% of his votes from his home constituency, Chauve. As Standish has observed, "Coffee and politics are inextricably linked in the Chimbu." (1976: 314) Because of his coffee business, Okuk was perceived as opening up more opportunities for indigenous participation in the industry. Unknown to Okuk, he was perceived as having traditional claims to leadership. Only when he moved back to Chimbu did he learn that his biological father had been Palma, a leader of great repute. He had died in the late 1940s (he was approximately in his mid-forties), and Okuk had known him as a grandfather.

Okuk exemplified traditional leadership characteristics and employed traditional methods for gaining followership, but he worked beyond the geographic boundary of the traditional sphere of influence, and for goals beyond clan prestige and ceremonial exchange. He worked steadily in political activism since the first House of Assembly in 1964, standing in two by-elections in 1968 and 1970, setting up his coffee buying business and campaigning for two years afterwards in Chimbu until the 1972 elections. In the words of another analyst, "If sustained and single-minded drive meant anything, Iambakey deserved to win." (Standish 1976:326)

The Third House of Assembly

The First House of Assembly (1964), which was the earliest colonial governing body with an indigenous majority, established the Select Committee on Constitutional Development. Under-secretaries then worked with departmental heads, in training for Ministerial responsibilities, although: "It is true that the Ministerial Members were given very little formal authority until 1970, and that the Administration sometimes seemed to use them to endorse, rather than to encourage them to deliberate upon, certain policies."^[12] The Second House of Assembly's Select Committee on Constitutional Development (in June 1969) recommended, "That the development of Papua-New Guinea should be geared to preparing the country for internal self-government during the life of the next House of Assembly." (Select Committee 1971: 2) ^[13](Wolfers 1976: 1). The Australian Minister for External Territories stipulated in April 1971 that self-government hinged on the emergence of a "cohesive group of Ministers ... with a majority backing of the House".^[14]

The 1972 House of Assembly had many new members Of the 73 members who sought re-election in 1972, 39 succeeded, and only nine of them were expatriates.^[15] After winning the election for the Chimbu Regional seat in late February to early March 1972, Okuk was first given the position of Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees in the National Parliament in the newly formed coalition government. He resigned this position less than a week after the first sitting of the new House of Assembly when he was named as Minister of Agriculture (26 April 1972) in the Somare-led coalition government.

In his first speech before the House of Assembly^[16] Okuk paid tribute to Kondom Agaundo, the first elected representative from the Highlands. Okuk patterned himself after Agaundo in many respects, especially with regards to the political leverage of a united Highlands voting block.^[17]

The foremost issue before the new coalition government was setting an early date for self-government. Yet, even though Okuk was a government minister, he took up many positions in conflict with the coalition government's stand. The issues in which he became involved on the House floor were the Bougainville Copper Agreement, Chimbu Coffee Cooperative, Highlands Labour Scheme and land reform.

Minister of Transport

The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation was also a prominent and influential ministry where he could pursue localization of the airlines at the same time as he was bringing his private bills. The reshuffle came at a critical time, prior to Independence, (reported by the media on 28 February 1974) and the Highlands voting block was crucial to gaining independence since it is the most populous region of Papua New Guinea. Okuk remained Minister for Transport, and Deputy Parliamentary Leader of National Party, until after Independence, in September 1975.

The imperative which guided Okuk's work was that unless the dependency could be reversed, Papua New Guinea would be independent in name only. Dependency was perpetuated through numerous institutions and any plan for independence must address all levels. In addition to expatriate ownership of businesses, which had been the focus of his pre-independence economic nationalism, there was a direct grant-in-aid from Australia, which made up from a third to a half of Papua New Guinea's national budget in the decade following independence. For Okuk, full independence would not be realized until the Papua New Guinea national budget was supported from entirely internally generated revenues. He felt Papua New Guinea was over-burdened by a top-heavy public service and a redundant and expensive provincial government system supported by this grant, while education was neglected.

The timing for independence remained controversial. The conservative voting population of the Highlands did not want to gamble with their only recently available access to Western technology or economy. Okuk was one of the few Highlanders in the educated elite. When campaigning for the Chimbu Regional seat, he had emphasized local economic issues, but once in Parliament, he worked to persuade the other Highlands Members to vote for immediate self-government and set an early date for independence. He evaluated his role in the independence process, placing the achievement of nationhood as the first, but not the final step toward complete independence since the economy still remained dominated by foreign interests. His legislation localizing primary industries was introduced before independence and addressed the local economic conditions, as well as nationalistic aspirations.

Okuk counted as one of his highest priorities and most valued contributions to bring the infrastructure for development to remote communities, enabling smallholders to get their products to market. As Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation, he had worked with the World Bank to draw up a complete plan for roads.

He nationalized the airlines, by initiating the purchase of the shares from Ansett. He started a pilot training program to train Papua New Guineans to be pilots. But most crucially, he moved to localize the management of Air Niugini. The public service was the largest employer, and localization of those positions was a large step toward self-reliance, but he was not content with restricting the localization process to only the public sector. His critics claimed that he was moving too fast and would scare off foreign investment. Before he could localize the management of Air Niugini, he was reshuffled to a different ministry immediately after independence.

Resignation

His decision not to take the Education Ministry stemmed from the closeness of the 1977 elections. There would not be enough time as a minister to be effective in that position. Instead, he resigned to concentrate on grassroots work within his constituency.

The reshuffle was announced on 10 December 1975, two months after independence. It was widely reported that the reshuffle was done without consultation of the coalition partners. Okuk's resignation was finally made public on 20 January 1976. In 1976, he became a backbencher in Parliament, where he waited for the 1977 elections to return him to Parliament. The National Party was split, with many members remaining with the government, after Okuk had made his decision to resign.

Becoming opposition leader

Even before the 1977 elections, Okuk was putting pressure on the government at every opportunity. For example, he made a motion of no confidence in four ministers with fewer educational qualifications than the ministers they had replaced in the reshuffle. After being returned to Parliament in the 1977 elections, Okuk backed Sir John Guise, who stood against Somare for the position of Prime Minister in the Second Parliament.

Most of the National Party had gone with the government, and Okuk had stayed with the Opposition, which was dominated by the United party. He had no political party. The National Party had been split and most had gone with the government, and he first had to work to create an alliance within the Opposition.

Locally based mass movements, called 'Micronationist movements' by one scholar,^[27] had been prevalent in the New Guinea islands and in Papua. The Highlands had not experienced the organized violent or passive resistance of these other regions and did not have a unifying grassroots movement. The Highlands Liberation Front (HLF) sought to achieve the same type of intertribal unification.^[28] The organization was inaugurated in 1972 by students at the University of Papua New Guinea, from the top down rather than from a popular base, and did not generate a large grassroots following. In 1977, a new offshoot, the Highlands Unified Front (HUF), was formed at the University of Papua New Guinea and was "active in the lobbying to form a new government after the 1977 national elections, with the aim of ensuring that the Highlands was adequately represented".^[29] Highland Parliamentarians were split between National Party members in government and United Party (UP) members in the Opposition. Okuk formed a corresponding parliamentary group, called the Peoples Unified Front, "in an attempt to bring together UP members and Papuans into a coherent opposition coalition".^[30]

The Leader of the Opposition was a leading conservative, Sir Tei Abal. He did not yield to Okuk's challenges because Okuk was the only member of the National Party in the Opposition. There was no constitutional mechanism for resolving a dispute in leadership, so Okuk took matters in his own hands. He chained the offices shut so that neither he nor Abal could use them until the matter was resolved, after which the matter was referred to legal experts. The finding indicated that there was nothing unconstitutional about the vote to change leadership, so by 4 May the Speaker of the Parliament directed the Parliamentary Clerk to "make necessary administrative changes which will give effect to the recognition of Mr. Okuk as the new Opposition Leader".^[31] The matter was taken up again in the next sitting of Parliament (May 1978) where another member of the United Party, with the backing of Sir Tei Abal, used the same mechanism to attempt to remove Okuk from the Opposition leadership.

The majority of the members involved were Highlanders, and this episode was creating divisiveness between the Highlands parliamentarians, for which Okuk was criticized. Support for the move had dwindled between the March and May sittings of Parliament, and in their party meeting before entering Parliament it seemed as though they could not win another vote.

The media reporting did not relate the details of what happened on 23 May 1978, which Okuk described as a confrontation in which Highlands members from both sides of government came to vote on the new Leader of the Opposition. When it came time for the votes for Okuk, the dynamics of Highlands solidarity came into play, especially for National Party Members currently part of the coalition government. Okuk remembered it as Sailas Atopare, Member for Goroka in the Eastern Highlands, who started the incident by calling to other Highlands members to join the vote, although the media did not mention him in their reporting of the incident.

Since the constitution did not describe a method for electing the Leader of the Opposition, there were no rules limiting the members who could vote. There had been accusations of interference from government members throughout this dispute, and again during the actual vote taking in Parliament. And when that alleged interference was realized on the floor of Parliament, the incident escalated. The police were finally called in when fighting broke out; one of Okuk's supporters came to blows with the alternative candidate for the Opposition Leadership, Highlanders against Highlanders. Okuk was criticized by Highland leaders for creating divisiveness after this incident especially because of the tension created between Highland members, yet the majority of the Highlanders voted for him.

The reporting in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier on 24 May 1978 stated that "the chamber was lively before the vote". The story claimed that Clement Poiye, Nebare Kamun, and Robert Kakie Yabara were "dragged up" to the PUF benches, while Suinavi Otio had joined in on his own, and "In one exchange, Mr. Okuk and Prime Minister, Mr. Somare called each other liars."^[32] The final outcome, in any case, was Okuk was confirmed as Leader of the Opposition.

No-confidence motions

Okuk was the Leader of the Opposition for two years, from May 1978 to March 1980. During that time he attacked the government on its policies at the Indonesian border policy with Indonesia, decentralization, the foreign influence of the public service as well as the economy in general, and inadequate representation and development for the Highlands. The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier quoted him as stating "the Government was failing in its obligation to emphasize the pre-eminence of reason over force in international relations". Continuing, "Mr Okuk said the Government should show sympathy to efforts at self-determination by colonially-dominated and colonised peoples. He said he did not think the Government was giving an accurate picture of the problems in Irian Jaya."^[33]

Once he assumed Leadership of the Opposition, he set about immediately to bring down the current Somare government. He moved a total of four Motions of No Confidence in the Government within 20 months, the first only three months after he became opposition leader, on 24 August 1978 (failing with 35 ayes and 68 nays).

In mid-1979, the Somare government declared a State of Emergency in the Highlands provinces, essentially instituting martial law in those provinces, curtailing freedom of the press and freedom of assembly for innocent citizens along with those who had participated in tribal fights. Okuk stated that he would oppose this oppressive and discriminatory act with every means at his disposal. Land disputes were inevitably at the root of tribal fights, so he argued repeatedly that the only real solution lay in bringing employment and development to an area in which there was a severe land shortage, especially in Enga Province, Chimbu Province and areas of the Western Highlands.

Premdas, a university lecturer and outspoken critic, described the state of emergency as enacted "almost in desperation", and "invidious", since it "was extended only in the Highlands provinces where the bulk of the support of the opposition parties was located."^[34] A deportation order levelled against Premdas then caused a constitutional crisis,^[35] which Okuk believed to be the most important single factor in the success of the fourth, successful, non-confidence motion, since it caused Somare to lose credibility. The motion passed on 11 March 1980, and nominated Chan as alternative Prime Minister. Okuk became the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation. He nominated Chan to insure the small, but possibly pivotal, vote of the PPP faction.

Competing political analysts credit different factions of the five-party coalition that came to government with the success of the motion. Premdas and Steeves,^[36] in reviewing the events in a 1983 article claimed that "It was the vigorous opposition of Okuk and the National Party [NP] that was mainly responsible for the dismissal of the Somare government in March 1980", and continued by stating that "the NP leader projected a Prime Ministerial approach, demonstrating power and decisiveness in his declarations and actions."^[37]

General Election of 1982

As early as 22 January 1982, Okuk had announced his campaign strategy. Assuming his Chimbu Regional seat was secure, he would concentrate his resources and campaign efforts on the National Party Candidates nationwide.^[44] Even when warned in advance of the vote splitting tactics being used against him, over-confidence made him focus on having support once back in Parliament, i.e. on being elected Prime Minister. However, clan voting blocks and changes in local politics made him vulnerable, and he lost his seat.

People mourned his election loss in the manner in which the death of a great leader would have been mourned—by chopping off fingers and ear lobes. Okuk spurned self-mutilation as a symbol of grief, but for those who took part, this was a demonstration of respect and an acknowledgement of his leadership, even though for some such an act carried stiff penalties. During the period of upheaval following the elections, Okuk made himself visible, working to keep the damage to a minimum, and he required the same from his other National Party candidates. Most National Party candidates had lost their elections.

Okuk confirmed that there were some, who in the emotional wake of the elections, advocated military intervention. But for him, a military coup was not an alternative; he was committed to democratic institutions and he would make them work. Since both he and Thomas Kavali had lost their elections, Okuk handed the leadership of the Opposition over to Ted Diro so he would have sufficient following to become the Opposition Leader before the August meeting of Parliament when the vote would be taken for the Prime Minister. Somare then became Prime Minister again.

Many people contested the results of the 1982 election across the country. In the case of the Chimbu Regional seat, among the other allegations, the candidate who came in third place was too young to run for the seat. After considering the evidence, the court acknowledged that the candidate was proven to be underage, but declined to invalidate the election, stating that the winning candidate had not been at fault and should not be punished.

Elections in Unggai-Bena

Other National Party candidates had also brought court cases and some had won. After his court victory, Akepa Miakwe of Bena-Bena, in the Eastern Highlands, then stepped down allowing Okuk to run in a by-election in Unggai-Bena, the constituency of his wife's clan. Only ten months after his defeat in Chimbu, he was back in Parliament as the representative for the Unggai-Bena Open electorate. By August 1983 he had resumed the Leadership of the National Party and again became the Leader of the Opposition. In mid-November, a move for a No-Confidence Motion was in the works again. The move depended on United Party crossing the floor. At the last moment, the United party declined and the motion was withdrawn.

Immediately, a case was filed in the Court of Disputed Returns to invalidate the election; it was alleged that Okuk was not a resident and not qualified to stand for election in Unggai-Bena. The court case was postponed for more than a year, while Okuk again led the Opposition.

Democratic freedoms were being eroded first by the declaration of a state of emergency, which Okuk had vehemently opposed. Violations of democratic freedoms were institutionalized by the passage of the National Intelligence Organization Act, creating a national intelligence organization. Okuk fought against the proposed Peace and Good Order Bill, which would give sweeping powers to the executive to declare martial law.

He especially questioned the border treaties and cooperative operations with the Indonesian regime, the lack of recognition of the legitimate refugees from the border, whose numbers had grown to ten thousand by mid-1984, and the restriction against Australian journalists going to the border area to report on the plight of the refugees coming from West Papua.

The long-awaited United Party withdrawal from the government took place in August 1984, and Okuk put forth a motion to dissolve parliament and hold a general election. Before he could organize a No-Confidence Motion, Somare, in a surprise move, adjourned Parliament a week early while the Opposition parties were in their chambers. Another No-Confidence Motion was tabled and then withdrawn in November, and the Court of Disputed Returns removed Okuk from office in November 1984 on the grounds he did not meet the legal residency requirements at the time he ran for election in Unggai-Bena.

Since the case had been postponed for more than a year, by the time the by-election took place, Okuk had established a legal residence in the constituency and was qualified to stand in the by-election created by his own unseating. While he was out of office, the Highlands Deputy Prime Minister under Somare, Paias Wingti, defected from the government and joined with Chan to bring a No-Confidence Motion in the Somare government.

Even though he was not in office, Okuk discussed options with his party members still in office. Bringing the Motion during that very short period between the time the courts removed him from office and the subsequent by-election, i.e. during the one sitting of Parliament Okuk would miss, effectively excluded him from negotiating positions for National Party Members in the new coalition from a point of strength. Therefore, National Party declined to support Wingti and Chan and the vote was defeated.

By May sitting in 1985, Okuk was back in office. He tried to work with the Somare-led government, but when no ministerial portfolios were offered, even though he had brought a sizable party into coalition with the government, he was forced to withdraw support from the government. For the first time in ten years, he was working without the parliamentary support staff and resources afforded government ministers and opposition leaders. Okuk remained a backbencher until he joined forces with Wingti and Chan to bring a No-Confidence Motion in November 1985, a year and a half from the next general elections.

In the new government, Okuk resumed the Primary Industry portfolio (Agriculture Ministry) fourteen years after his original appointment in 1972. As Minister for Primary Industries, the issue which immediately brought him into a confrontation with Chan was the lending policy and performance of the Agriculture Bank. Okuk wanted the Bank to be transferred to the Ministry for Primary Industry because the Agriculture Bank was not living up to its mandate of supporting investment in smallholders.