Sir Julius Chan (born 29 August 1939) served as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

from 1980 to 1982 and from 1994 to 1997. He is

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

New Ireland Province New Ireland Province, formerly New Mecklenburg (german: Neu-Mecklenburg), and Nova Hibernia, is the northeasternmost province of Papua New Guinea. Physical geography The largest island of the province is New Ireland. Also part of the province a ...

, having won the seat in the 2007 national election. He is also the current Governor of New Ireland Province, since 2007. On 26 May 2019, Prime Minister

Peter O'Neill Peter Charles Paire O'Neill (born 13 February 1965) is a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 2011 to 2019. From 2002 until the present he served as Member of Parliament for Ialibu-Pan ...

announced he would soon resign and that he wished for Sir Julius to succeed him. An outgoing Prime Minister does not, however, have the power to appoint his successor, and the following day O'Neill delayed his own formal resignation. He was also a leading figure in his country during the years-long

Bougainville conflict The Bougainville conflict, also known as the Bougainville Civil War, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainvill ...

Early life

Chan was born as the fifth child out of seven children on the

Tanga Islands The Tanga Islands are an island group in Papua New Guinea, located north-east of New Ireland and part of the Bismarck Archipelago. Tanga is made up of four main islands — Boang, Maledok, Lif and Tefa — and a number of smaller, uninhabited i ...

in the

Territory of New Guinea The Territory of New Guinea was an Australian-administered United Nations trust territory on the island of New Guinea from 1914 until 1975. In 1949, the Territory and the Territory of Papua were established in an administrative union by the nam ...

, in what is now

, the son of Chin Pak (陳柏), a trader from

Taishan __NOTOC__ Taishan may refer to: *Mount Tai or Taishan (), Shandong, China *Taishan District, Tai'an (), named after the Mount Tai, a district in Tai'an, Shandong, China *Taishan, Guangdong (), a county-level city of Jiangmen, Guangdong, China **Gre ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and Miriam Tinkoris, a native New Irelander. He was educated at

Marist College Ashgrove , motto_translation = Act Courageously , location = Ashgrove, Brisbane, Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Queensland , pushpin_ima ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Early political career

Chan first became actively involved in

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

in the 1960s. He was elected to represent the Namatanai district of New Ireland province in the pre-independence

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

in 1968 and was re-elected in 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987 and 1992. He was Deputy Prime Minister four times (1976, 1985, 1986, 1992–1994), and

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

three times (1972–1977, 1985-1986 and 1992–1994). He also held the portfolios of Primary Industry (1977–78) and External Affairs and Trade (1994). Chan became leader of the

People's Progress Party The People's Progress Party is a political party in Papua New Guinea. It was founded on 11 November 1969 by Julius Chan and Warren Dutton, forming a caucus of eleven members of the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea. Following independ ...

in 1970. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(KBE) in 1981, and appointed a

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a privy council, formal body of advisers to the British monarchy, sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises Politics of the United King ...

the next year.

Prime minister

Chan first became prime minister on 11 March 1980, succeeding the country's first prime minister,

Michael Somare Sir Michael Thomas Somare (9 April 1936 – 26 February 2021) was a Papua New Guinean politician. Widely called the "father of the nation" (), he was the first Prime Minister after independence. At the time of his death, Somare was also the lo ...

. He served as prime minister until 2 August 1982, when Somare regained the position. He succeeded Prime Minister

Paias Wingti Paias Wingti (born 2 February 1951) is a Papua New Guinean politician. He served as the third Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea between 1985 and 1988, and again from 1992 to 1994. Early life and education Wingti hails from the Jika Tribe of the ...

in August 1994 and took office on the dual platform of national security and appropriate economic management. In 1997, the Chan government's multimillion-dollar contract with

Sandline International Sandline International was a private military company (PMC) based in London, established in the early 1990s. It was involved in conflicts in Papua New Guinea in 1997 and had a contract with the government under then-Prime Minister Julius Chan, ...

, a

mercenary A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...

organization, to counter

separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...

on Bougainville caused the

Sandline affair The Sandline affair was a political scandal that became one of the defining moments in the history of Papua New Guinea, and particularly the conflict in Bougainville. It brought down the government of Sir Julius Chan, and took Papua New Guinea to ...

, with immense public protests and a 10-day

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among member ...

by the underpaid national army. On 25 March 1997, during an inquiry that started on 21 March that caused five ministers to resign, the Parliament defeated a motion calling on Chan to resign (59-38). However, the next day, Chan and two ministers chose to step down, and John Giheno, a member of Chan's party, became acting prime minister a day later. He regained the position on 2 June 1997, shortly before the national elections. Chan was defeated in the national election in June 1997 and was succeeded as prime minister by

Bill Skate Sir William Jack Skate (26 September 1953 – 3 January 2006) was a prominent Papua New Guinea politician. He was the son of an Australian father and a Papua New Guinean mother. Though his career was turbulent and often marked by setbacks, he s ...

on 22 July 1997. He remained out of Parliament until winning the New Ireland Provincial seat in the June–July 2007 election.

Later career

During the "horse trading" phase of negotiations following the 2007 election, Chan was nominated for the position of prime minister, with the backing of

Mekere Morauta The Right Honourable 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 fra ...

and

Bart Philemon Bartholomew "Bart" Philemon (born 16 April 1945, in a Butibam village near Lae, Ministry for Finance (Wayback Machine)) is a Papua New Guinean politician. He was educated in a Lutheran missionary primary school in Lae.National Alliance grouping which appeared likely to again be led by Somare. Parliamentary Speaker

Jeffrey Nape Jeffery Nape (1964 – 8 July 2016) was, until the 2012 election, speaker of the National Parliament and twice officially and once unofficially acting governor-general of Papua New Guinea. He was elected speaker by the members of the parliament ...

rejected Chan's nomination as a candidate and Somare won the vote to become Prime Minister without opposition on 13 August, while 21 members of Parliament joined Chan's opposition group.

Personal life

Chan married Stella, Lady Chan in 1966 and has four children: Vanessa Andrea, Byron James, Mark Gavin, and Toea Julius. His son Byron Chan was Member of Parliament for Namatanai Open electorate, covering the south of New Ireland from 2002 until 2017.

References