Tom Olga

Tom Olga is a Papua New Guinea politician. He has been the independent Governor of Western Highlands Province and the member for Western Highlands Provincial in the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea since July 2007. [Muri, David. "Wingti unseated". "Papua New Guinea Post-Courier", August 7, 2007.]

Olga, who comes from the Mul Baiyer area, was a student leader at the University of Papua New Guinea during protests against government privatisation and land mobilisation policies in 2001 in which four students were killed in a police crackdown. He cited this as his reason for running for parliament when, in 2007, he challenged former Prime Minister Paias Wingti in his seat of Western Highlands Provincial. [Tiptip, Nikints. "Newcomer confident of win". "Papua New Guinea Post-Courier", July 3, 2007.] [Kolo, Pearson. "Parties in tussle for MP-elect". "Papua New Guinea Post-Courier", August 8, 2007.] He was supported in his campaign by the Millennium Pack 2000, a group of provincial leaders supporting pro-development and anti-corruption initiatives, and more than thirty local councillors. [Pearson, Kolo. "Sad state of rural areas". "Papua New Guinea Post-Courier", July 5, 2007.] ["Challenge for Wingti". "Papua New Guinea Post-Courier", June 20, 2007.]

Olga campaigned on a platform of fighting government corruption and mismanagement and stemming the exploitation of the country's resources. He also made an issue of the need for a new generation of leaders, contrasting his age of 32 with Wingti's advancing years. [Tiptip, Nikints. "Newcomer confident of win". "Papua New Guinea Post-Courier", July 3, 2007.] The final result was extremely close, with Wingti leading for most of the count, but ultimately losing to Olga on preferences in the final stage of counting. It was the last electorate to be declared, with Olga being eventually announced as the winner on August 6. The result was widely considered an upset, with the potential to end Wingti's thirty-year career in national politics. [Jones, Lloyd. "Former PNG PM Paias Wingti loses seat in elections". "Australian Associated Press", August 7, 2007.] The result enraged some of Wingti's supporters, who retaliated by blocking roads in the region and digging up a major road into the city of Mount Hagen. [Tiptip, Nikints. "Road services cut". "Papua New Guinea Post-Courier", August 10, 2007.] Wingti subsequently filed a petition challenging the result with the Court of Disputed Returns on August 17. ["Governor's election challenged". "Papua New Guinea Post-Courier", August 21, 2007.] This challenge has not yet been resolved.

He was sworn in as the provincial governor on August 22, 2007. Olga's first act as governor was to advertise all acting public service positions in the province, including that of the provincial administrator. ["Governor to put out acting positions". "Papua New Guinea Post-Courier", August 21, 2007.] He also pledged to increase government services to remote areas of the province. [Tiptip, Nikints. "Olga go to the roots". "Papua New Guinea Post-Courier", August 21, 2007.]

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