Remembering the good and bad of Ben Micah

Former Kavieng MP Ben Micah passed on to glory Wednesday 16 March 2022 at the Pacific International Hospital in Port Moresby from a reported heart attack.

From Emirau and Musau Islands in New Ireland, he was 62 and survived by his wife and eight children.

Ben Micah Source: Facebook

When news of his death broke out early Wednesday and reached Sir Julius Chan chairing the final New Ireland government assembly meeting before the general elections- he immediately called for silence to remember Ben Micah.

The New Ireland Government was saddened to hear about the passing of one of its former member of parliament, strong People’s Progress Party man and much loved Son of New Ireland. 

Sir Julius said in a statement.

“Ben Micah was a great man. He was a great orator who did a lot for New Ireland and this country in his various capacities,” Sir Julius said.

Micah was MP for Kavieng from 1992 to 1997 and 2012 to 2017.

Micah was being remembered as Chairman of the Constitutional Law Reform Commission in 1996 when Sir Julius was Prime Minister.

“He was Chairman at a time when the country was reviewing legislation on the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Governments. 

"He was the right man for the job. It was exciting working with him. We can never take away the work he did for this country. Because of him we have Provincial Governments."

Sir Julius also revealed that he worked closely with Micah so that they could change the Governance system of Papua New Guinea so that the Prime Minister could be elected by the people emulating countries like the Republic of Singapore and Fiji and still remain part of the Commonwealth.

“ I sent Micah to the United Nations as my special envoy when I was Prime Minister. He rubbed shoulders with Fidel Castro, I think that’s where he adopted his signature suit dressing from," he said.

Micah was a vocal student advocate when he was a student leader at the University of Technology, standing up for the rights of the voiceless. 

Sir Julius recalled that many of ‘Ben’s’ protests were actually against him but he respected his position .

“ Ben would never leave an issue without a fight. The saying “Evil prevails when good men do nothing was true for Ben,”  Sir Julius said.

Micah was Chief of Staff at the office of then Prime Minister Peter O'Neill who has described him as:   "I know that late Ben Micah has made a huge and important contribution to public life in our country both as a student leader and a political leader. He will be remembered for the reforms he championed in the systems of Government in our country that saw the establishment of the Provincial Governments.

"He was especially proud of the leadership he provided to his people of Kavieng and New Ireland.

"Through the years I have known Ben, he was always the life of any event and always took time to inspire those around him," O'Neill said.

Micah was declared bankrupt by the Ombudsman Commission in 1999 and he was discharged from bankruptcy in 2009.

Before he entered Parliament again in 2012, he was Chairman of IPBC.

When he was State Enterprise Minister during O'Neill's reign he appointed boards to SOE's and challenged them to ensure state agencies make money and pay dividends to government and further bring utility services to rural areas.

He has been heavily involved with boxing after he lost his Kavieng seat in the 2017 National General Election.