The Life of Late Iambakey Okuk

Popularly known as the man with seven brains, Iambakey Okuk's biography on Wikipedia is undeniably the longest life story, available on the internet🌐.

He has done so much for this great 🏞 nation and was involved in so many activities before and after Independence. An influential campaigner for Independence and a great nation builder. A great mind of this great nation. Someone who always wanted every Papua New Guinean to experience the privileges the Europeans and Australians🇦🇺 enjoyed.

Some suspected him being kidnapped to the Vatican while others believed his death was sorcery related. He was the first politician in PNG who was given a state funeral. However, his followers and supporters were never allowed to see his body when they buried him at Kundiawa town in 1986.

Born May 5, 1945 Iambakey Okuk was one of the greatest minds and leader in PNG. He served as Deputy Prime Minister, the nation's first Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, and repeatedly in the capacity of Minister of Transport, Minister of Primary Industries and Opposition Leader. He is known as PNG's "most colorful and controversial politician".

Iambakey first led protests against unfair labor practices, and then once elected to office, worked to reserve sectors of the economy for citizens as a method of returning a complex economic role to Papua New Guineans.
In the post-independence decade, Iambakey built a coalition of minority political factions which forced the successful change of government, in which he became Deputy Prime Minister.
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Okuk was born in Simbu Province in 1945. At birth, the world of his immediate contemporaries was primarily made up of people who had lived isolated by tribal boundaries until a decade previous. Europeans were now part of the world of Okuk's contemporaries, but were spatially and socially removed from the intimate village life of his childhood. His earliest memories were from Gambagogl village in Simbu Province, just outside of Kundiawa.

Iambakey's father, also named Okuk, became a policeman and was subsequently stationed in Western Highlands Province. His father was a local leader, Palma of Gambagolg a village in Simbu. Not long after his birth, his father died, and he was adopted and raised by his eldest brother, Okuk. He spent eighteen years in the area around Hagen, learned the local language and went to school. His firsthand experience of racism began with the deference and privilege demanded by Europeans. In his schooling, he was treated in almost a privileged manner, being among the first of the Highlands students, but after graduating high school, Okuk described himself as "an angry young man, full of bitterness". 

The ideals that he had learned were not realized, and his achievements could not overcome the constraints of racial discrimination. Although he was being groomed for higher education in Australia, he opted to take up an apprenticeship program to become a mechanic. This program allowed him to learn a trade of great symbolic significance, the control of European technology, which could be used in the Highlands (not just urban centers) while allowing him to stay and participate in local political developments. In retrospect, Okuk saw his political aspirations emanate from the same period as the push for self-government, starting in 1964.

As an apprentice at the Commonwealth Department of Works, Okuk made his first entry into political leadership, organizing a labor protest against discriminatory pay practices in 1966.
Both expatriate and indigenous apprentices were enrolled in the program but given different pay scales.While in Port Moresby doing his course for the Apprenticeship program, 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. 

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.

Iambakey was a grassroots organizer. He did not enter politics from the top, first implementing the administration policy through the Public Service and then moving 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. According to Okuk, many Europeans supported him in his education, training, and political development. He built lasting relationships with his schoolmates, co-workers and teammates, indigenous and European alike. He found encouragement in his protest against unfair labor practices from our colonisers.

Okuk sought arenas to compete on an equal footing with Europeans, in school, work, and sports. He presented a challenge to the colonial order, and threatened the privileged position they could not enjoy elsewhere. His views and demeanor brought him into conflict with others, especially those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. And Okuk seldom backed down from a fight. His behavior stood in stark contrast with the reserved demeanor or most Papuans and New Guineans, and he felt he unwittingly contributed to his political reputation. For the most part, his relationships with individual Europeans were positive, but the institutional constraints based on race went against the ideals of his Western education as well as the values of his traditional culture, proud and independent clans of Highlanders.

Papua New Guinea achieved independence during Okuk's first term of office, concluding a decade of political development. Once elected to office, he oriented his political action to legislative means of securing, once again, a complex economic role for Papua New Guineans. During the preceding ten years, coffee production had come to be dominated by Highlanders. Although the percentage of indigenous production of coffee was well ahead of other primary industries, marketing and processing was all handled by expatriates. As yet, Papua New Guineans were little more than agricultural laborers.

Okuk counted as one of his highest priorities and most valued contributions was to bring the infrastructure for development to remote communities, enabling small holders to get their produce to market. As Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation, he had worked with the World Bank to draw up a complete plan for roads. Okuk hired British company Barkley to build the highlands highway which now connects Morobe Madang and the rest of the highlands province. This highway is one of the toughest even 21st century civil engineers cannot construct. Highlands hiway also know was Okuk was the light to the primitive highlands provinces.
Iambakey was also the mastermind behind what is now PNG's flag carrier, Air Niugini and Ramu Agri Industries.

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. He remained Minister for Primary Industry for a year, until his death from liver cancer in November 1986.

Okuk was given a state funeral, "the first one ever in PNG".His body lay in state in Parliament and was then flown to major cities before being buried in Kundiawa. As with any premature death, sorcery was suspected. Riots devastated Highlands towns, including Kundiawa and Goroka, and the cities with large Highlands communities, Lae and Port Moresby, as the nation mourned the loss of their leader.

He was survived by two widows, Lady Karina Okuk and Dr. Lisabeth Ryder, and six children Tangil, Dilu, Carl, Sophia, Ruby, and Niglmoro Okuk.
Iambakey Okuk is surly a Living legend in PNG politics.