Julius Chan was one of the last surviving founding fathers of Papua New Guinea. Elected to the pre-independence House of Assembly in 1968, he pushed strongly for his country to make its way without Australia’s supervision. Sir Michael Somare was PNG’s first post-independence prime minister, but Sir Julius Chan succeeded him in 1980 after successfully proposing a no-confidence motion. He was deputy prime minister four times and minister of finance three times, as well as serving as prime minister again from 1994-97. He later held the post of governor of New Ireland province from 2007 until his death. In 1997, while serving as prime minister, Sir Julius was involved in the controversial Sandline affair during which South African, British and Australian mercenaries were brought to PNG to assist in the Bougainville civil war. The move was met with international and domestic uproar, and Sir Julius soon resigned. Sir Julius Chan died on January aged 85, just hours before a celebration of the 50th anniversary of PNG independence. — APL/Agencies
