An MP in Papua New Guinea's Oro Province has criticised the Governor's crackdown on foreign-owned shops as "dictatorial", warning it is "causing division" among the community. Oro Governor Gary Juffa has published videos on social media showing him visiting mostly Chinese businesses in the town of Popondetta and checking the immigration status of employees, as well as questioning the hygiene standards. He has vowed to close down outlets selling products that are "unsavoury, unhealthy ... and breaches consumer laws". David Arore, the MP for Ijivitari, which covers Popondetta town, said the actions taken by the Governor against mainly foreign-operated shops is "dictatorial and unbecoming of an elected leader". "We have systems and processes and we have institutions in this country to handle these issues," Mr Arore told Pacific Beat. "As elected leaders, we approach the police who are in charge of law and order ... we approach foreign affairs and immigration if we are concerned about the issue of visas and work permits." Mr Arore warned that if local people see the Governor confronting shopkeepers, they might decide they can also take the law into their own hands. "I think his approach is ill-conceived because you can actually get Papua New Guineans, especially from Oro Province, to react and become very violent against foreign-owned investments in this province, especially the Asian-owned shops." "It's causing division in the province because some of the shops that he is targeting are actually owned by Papua New Guineans ... But because they do not have the money required to run the shops, they rent the shops out to Asians and they get their monthly rental." Mr Juffa said he will not apologise for protecting local consumers against shops selling poor quality food at high prices. "It's aggressive to protect my own people? I reacted to reports which had been quite numerous that showed a group of businesses that had absolutely no care or consideration for my people," he said. "That were involved in breaching labour and migration laws. That had successfully managed to compromise the government institutions that had been created to protect the interests of my people." Source: ABC Pacific Beat
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