Sir Mekere Morauta (12 June 1946 – 19 December 2020) was a Papua New Guinean politician and economist who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 1999 to 2002. Inheriting a depressed economy and a fractious legislature, he embarked on fundamental reforms of the country's economy and political system.
Before entering politics, Morauta led the post-independence process of building financial infrastructure in Papua New Guinea as Secretary of Finance, Managing Director of the state-owned Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation, and Governor of the central bank. As a member of parliament, he represented Port Moresby North West from 1997 until 2012, and again from 2017 until his death in 2020.
Morauta remained an active opposition leader during the successive governments of Sir Michael Somare and Peter O'Neill, especially focusing on the politics of natural resources.
Personal background
Sir Mekere was born in 1946 in Kukipi, a coastal village east of Kerema in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. He was educated at local primary schools, at Kerema High and at Sogeri National High School. He went on to study at the University of Papua New Guinea, where in 1970 he became the first student to obtain a Bachelor of Economics. He was also an exchange student at Flinders University in South Australia.
After graduating from university he worked as an economist in both the public and private sectors. In 1975, he was the first Papua New Guinean to be appointed Secretary of the Department of Finance, a position which he held until 1982. Other positions he held included Managing Director of the government's commercial bank, the Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation (1983–1992), and Governor of the Bank of Papua New Guinea (July 1993 – September 1994), PNG's central bank. Morauta was also a successful businessman after he retired from governing the central bank. From 1994 to 1997, he was executive chairman of Morauta Investments, Ltd. (Delta Seafoods and Morauta and Associates). After entering politics he withdrew from actively managing the firm and his wife Lady Roslyn Morauta took over the management of his businesses.
Sir Mekere was a member of the so-called "Gang of Four", a group of influential young civil service chiefs who played a leading role in holding together public administration and public policy in the formative decade or so after Papua New Guinea's independence in 1975. The other members of the group were Charles Lepani, Sir Rabbie Namaliu and Sir Anthony Siaguru. Namaliu also later went on to become Prime Minister. Morauta maintained from that period a strong professional and warm personal relationship with the Australian economist Ross Garnaut.
Political career
Sir Mekere entered the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea in July 1997 as the member for Moresby North-West. He was in 1998/99 Minister for Fisheries in the government of Bill Skate that emerged from the 1997 elections. The Skate government did not cope with the economic and political crises that beset PNG then and the government was defeated in a vote of no confidence. Sir Mekere was then, in July 1999 elected by parliament as Prime Minister with a huge majority : 99 votes for Sir Mekere and 5 votes for his challenger. His government was a reforming government and developed policies to deal with the crises. Sir Mekere was re-elected in Moresby North West in 2002 and 2007.
However, he was manoeuvered out of government by Sir Michael Somare after the 2002 elections. Somare's National Alliance Party (NA) was the biggest party with 19 out of the 109 seats as compared to 12 for Mekere's People's Democratic Movement. Somare excluded Morauta in the coalition building after the elections and Morauta became leader of the opposition. However he was also deposed from that post by a coup within his party and spent 2004–2007 on the government bench. This is in PNG distinct from being in government.
He was in government again in the period of the 2011–2012 Papua New Guinean constitutional crisis. Morauta was then Minister for Public Enterprises in the Peter O'Neill/Belden Namah cabinet that was formed in 2011 after a vote of no confidence put an end to the Somare/Abal government.
In May 2012, he announced that, after fifteen years in Parliament, he would not stand for re-election and so left Parliament in June 2012. However, he became during the O'Neil/Leo Dion government in the period 2012–2017 a player in major controversies. This resulted in calls for him to stand again. He decided therefore to give in to major pressures and stood again successfully in Moresby North-West in 2017.