News	Friday 17th June, 2011

Basil: Asian mafia growing
By Simon Eroro and Travetz Mabone

ASIAN crime syndicate will grow “stronger and bigger” in PNG and target politicians, public servants and businessmen who stand in their way, Parliament was told yesterday.
Maverick Bulolo MP Sam Basil said: “If the government cannot address these issues now, those organisations will only grow bigger and stronger into the future. There will be a very real threat to public servants, national politicians and national businessmen who stand in their way.”
Mr Basil questioned Acting Prime Minister Sam Abal on what the Government was doing to control such groups following the assassination of a Tango Supermarket general manager Wong Tee Tee Tee as he was driving his car through the Hohola Tunnel at 3.30pm on Wednesday. The assassin then followed him and fired more shots into the car and he eventually died of loss of blood at Burns Peak.
Mr Abal admitted that the issue on organised Asian crime syndicate was an issue that was hard for the Government to handle however, new changes to make Immigrations a separate authority with its own funding, would help to scrutinise such activities.
Mr Basil also asked what the Government was doing regarding the recommendations of the Guns Summit Report and the Parliamentary Committee on Anti-Asian Riots.

The acting PM urged Mr Basil not refrain from labelling the Asians and their nationalities as some of them were genuine investors in PNG.
Mr Basil slammed the acting PM’s attempts to down-play the seriousness of “Organised Asian Crime Syndicate” as a racial slur on Asians.
“One of the primarily roles of any government is to act responsibly and swiftly to safeguard the national security of its citizens and residents.
“That is what I said before urging him to carefully answer those questions that I have put forward,” Mr Basil said.
“My concern was about crime, the use of guns in this crime, and the slackness of Government despite funding a full-fledged nationwide Gun Summit in implementing the report and its recommendations.”
He was critical of the Acting PM taking off on his own tangent without addressing the substance of his questions.
“He could not come up with an answer on the lack of funding of the Parliamentary Committee on anti-Asian riots and the removal of Angalimp-South Wahgi MP Jamie Maxtone-Graham as chairman,” he said.
Meanwhile, Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Operations Fred Yakasa could neither deny nor confirm the existence of the Asian mafia in the country.
He said he could only assume the existence of such a group because of the nature of such crimes being committed.
Reference could also be drawn to a previous attempt to gun-down the owner of TST group of companies last year.
However, he said that there was still no strong evidence to prove that such syndicates existed.
With regard to the killing on Wednesday, he said the late Mr Wong’s wife and family are in Malaysia and have been informed of this tragic incident.
Mr Yakasa condemned the killing and vowed to commit all police resources towards catching the killers.
Mr Wong was from Malaysia and had lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for more than 20 years.
Mr Yakasa was deeply concerned about the killing, stating: “We have reason to believe that this was an assassination due to the manner in which the shooting was carried out.”

“I am concerned about this and I am sure many Papua New Guineans as well as our visitors and business partners are too.
“Police will take a hard line approach to this type of activity to ensure that it does not happen again,” he said while strongly maintaining that those caught will be dealt with severely.
Mr Yakasa is also appealing to the public who has any information regarding the assassination to come out to the police while also calling on those that might have an idea about anyone or groups that may have had something against Mr Wong that could have led to such extremities.
He said that this sort of crime is something new to PNG and the last thing is to see nationals getting involved in this.
The president of the Chinese Association in PNG Inc. Mrs Ni Cragnolini, has condemned the brutal murder of Mr Wong, saying it brought unnecessary unease to the community. She described Mr Wong as a well respected person in the Chinese business community who did not deserve to be a victim of such heinous crimes.
“Mr Wong was a well known Chinese businessman and was well respected by many in the PNG Chinese Community. This is such sad news for all those who knew him and we offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends.
“Any killing like this is a shock to all. It brings bad publicity to the country and causes unnecessary unease,” she said.
Mrs Cragnolini went on to condemn the brutal and senseless slaying and called upon the police to bring those responsible for this heinous crime to justice. She said: “Let the police do their job, be calm and let his family and friends grieve as they lay him to rest.” She urged for peace and calm in the community.