Many Giants Only One Colossus

There will be words aplenty to send the great man out on a rainbow of glory.

Without getting too maudlin maybe I can add my own few brush strokes to the portrait that is being painted....

Sir Mek was the picture of happiness in his home library reading books or journals even newspapers, in the background you would sometimes hear, Mozart, or Vivaldi.

A voracious reader, he once told me that his job was to read and think.

He did not set out to achieve greatness, but from his earliest days of schooling, he simply completed what was required of him with discipline and focus for any teacher he was one of those students you knew would do alright. Mr dependable.

His list of accomplishments is impressive and when sharing some anecdotes with me he smiled and said "Bri, I think I overshot".

He never set out to be Secretary Finance, Central Bank Governor, Even Prime Minister, he was happy as a research officer working in the department of finance with people like Ross Garnaut, Anthony Clunies Ross and others, he had opportunity to engage with John Crawford, and maybe it is this early exposure that made him admire the academics and using the scientific method to assess problems and make decisions based on the pertinent data.

Imagine the look in his eyes when he became PM and realised that there was minimal data in terms of them assessing the problems back in 1999 and then putting on his surgeons mask and gloves to start the operation, do people even remember how close we were to freefall after the excesses of the previous regime?

He had a deep humility and unassuming character from his boyhood which he kept thru to adulthood....

Once during his time as Chairman for PNGSDP we had flown up to Kiunga for some meetings with the then Governor (WP) and after one such meeting at the Western Province government building we made our way to the vehicles to head out for lunch with the provincial team, I started the vehicle and made to drive out but he stopped me....."Bri, we must wait for the big man to drive out first (referring to the Governor)....." We ended up waiting 10 minutes....

What was his motivation? It was a simple gratitude for the opportunities that the system had afforded him, the education that he used to step up to ever higher honours and emoluments, and a deep love for our country and people especially the rural majority.

He was the epitome of that famous dictum from Munger "if you want to get what you want, you have to deserve what you want".

For the deep thinker who through circumstance also becomes a leader it is many times a lonely life at the peak, and makes for a lot of introspection, from memory he never made any populist policies, and because his vision was at such a stratospheric level the rationality of it was many times misunderstood and thus played upon by political rivals.

with a country that was reeling at the turn of the century we needed a doctor to give us the medicine required to start the road to recovery, cometh the hour cometh the man, we can only ponder what would have happened if he had been given the years in power that was given to Somare and O'neil, but he himself never dwelt on it.

Sir Mek was capable of getting into a rage, disgust at the materialism and corruption that he witnessed in many facets of PNG society, and also a deep sadness of what he termed  a changing of the psyche of our nation.

This was why he rolled his sleeves up and as an old man entered the fray with the goal of becoming PM and resetting the course of the ship.

There was a risk of falling short but he felt that he could offer something if the younger leaders supported him and the dire circumstances that our nation was again in required all hands on deck.

In my eyes it is a mark of his humility that he could live with coming off a loser in the race for the PMship, just as long as he offered himself again for public service, to use a cricket analogy no worries about my batting average!

Through those twists of fate this was not to be and so he became member for MNW.

What was he like as a person who I was privileged to have association with and observe at close quarters when he dealt with people and issues or even victories.....?

He had a superb wit with the ability to find funny angles to all sorts of supposedly staid stories, some of the zingers he created are priceless and funnily enough are used unwittingly by facebook commentators today.

For men from Kerema and Daru of his age cohort they could cuss like sailors of they wanted to, he was no exception, it made for colourful conversation at time's.

He was an avid cricket fan who could be absorbed watching the days play.

One time he happened to get a call on his phone, and the conversation went like this, "no, no, no, no I can't do that, I am sorry, no" (Sir Mek).

As you can tell the conversation ended quite abruptly,....he looked at me smiled and said, you know who that was.....(I will leave it to the readers intuition to work out who had called him).

He could walk around Manu fish market or Koki, no bodyguards just a citizen getting his seafood for the week.

How is a Mekere created?

It starts with having a stable family life with a history of strong leadership in your own family, for that we must thank his parents, it involves education starting at home but then through to formal schooling.....despite the obstacles he made it to Sogeri....

Maybe that's a key right there....having all the best minds together being taught by the best teachers....

The convergence of 3 factors empathetic and learned professors in Uni, a brilliant mind coupled with work ethic and humility (Sir Mek) and the impetus to prepare a public service for the new nation, He developed lifelong friendships and we cannot downplay the roles of those Australians in moulding him.

The last factor in his success but certainly not the least was finding the right partner to share life's journey with, for this he was blessed to find the love of his life Lady Roslyn....

It was a privilege for me to see how they worked together  and how lady Roslyn especially ensured that Sir Mek could focus on the important things while she took care of everything else, anyone who has ever benefitted from the work of Sir Mek owes a debt of gratitude to this woman. Truly a great love story.

Madi for Papua our light has dimmed a little.

Bamahuta tamamai, basialalomu boio dina-dina oimo herevamu bai agwauraia.

To quote a line from Hamlet (with a little editing) “He was a man, Horatio, take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again.”