Wolves, sheeple & the illusion of two choices
26 July 2012
MARTYN NAMORONG | The Namorong Report
ARE PETER O'NEILL AND BELDEN NAMAH the best Papua New Guinea can produce to be prime minister? What about the rest? Did they get elected to be national leaders or to be followers of O'Neill and Namah?
The sheeple are currently been brainwashed into thinking that the coalition being put forward by O'Neill is a government of national unity to produce stability. This sounds pretty much like the creation of the original Somare regime.
During the Somare years, PNG had an unprecedented two terms (10 years) of relative political stability. Political stability coupled with years of commodity price booms that saw record budget surpluses.
What did the people of PNG gain from political stability and increased revenue? Over 10 years K60 billion was squandered with no improvement in social indicators. Democracy was undermined as debates in parliament were gagged.
The last decade was pretty bad for the people of PNG and many wanted Somare out of office.
When O'Neill and Namah triumphed in getting rid of him, the nation rejoiced. Whilst the two men may not have had legal mandate for their actions, they certainly had the mandate of the people.
The people of PNG had gotten fed up with selfish leaders. They have now been betrayed by O'Neill and his marriage of convenience with an old guard of former prime ministers [Somare, Chan, Wingti], who are considered by many people as being either corrupt or incompetent.
The shameful reality is that the sheeple of PNG, have thrown out rational thinking and are beginning to believe the words of the wolves dressed up in the sheep skin of national unity and political stability.
The sheeple have taken comfort in the words “stability” and “unity” from a bunch of wolves who know nothing about the definition of those worlds.
Are Papua New Guineans so cheap so as to be fooled by assurances from wolves? Some naively think that the coalition have ‘learned their lesson’ and will move forward in the best interests of the country, even though many of the major players are known power hungry psychopaths.
Somare had been equated to Mugabe by various commentators and for good reason too.
At the time when amendments to the Environment Act were being protested, his Attorney General Arnold Amet filed a Supreme Court reference to suspend freedom of speech.
The sheeple of PNG were paying a huge price for so called political stability and how easily have they been led into the same trap by the same wolves.
Now let me clarify here I'm not criticizing the O'Neill coalition in favour of Namah. That is the false perception (giaman piksa), being put forward by those hungry for power.
It’s not as black and white as they would want the sheeple to think. We have over a hundred potential candidates to choose from to be Prime Minister of PNG - not just two.
Times like this call for a sense of national duty and surely amongst the other crop of elected politicians are men and two women who can bring this nation forward.
The other elected members of Parliament must exercise their duty to the Constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, in serving the best interest of the nation and its people. It's time to act in the national interest!
It is for this reason that the electors from the length and breadth of this beautifully rugged nation entrusted their elected members of parliament with their dreams and aspirations.
These elected representatives must display leadership now or prove themselves to be nothing but mindless sheep being corralled into forming a terrible government.
Harry, mi wanbel stret wantaim toktok blong yu.
Time to think outside the box. For some people though, thinking outside the box doesn't mean questioning the current model of development. For them it's about trying to fix something that was intended to fail Papua New Guineans.
The system is not broken, it was meant to be broken. It's an exploitative system that a few elite use to their advantage.
Posted by: Martyn Namorong | 26 July 2012 at 05:58 PM
Excuse my cynicism but to me this is not about Melanesian reconciliation or day I say it, Moka ceremonies with pig exchanges taking place but simply pragmatism borne out of pure greed.
As is often said leopards cannot change their spots and this recent unfolding is nothing more than the old boars returning their snouts to the trough for a refill of past gluttony feasts.
If no party has a clear majority of government then some form of coalition, would then ensue however given PNG’s strange past political maze has shown, previous coalition models do not provide good workable models of governance in PNG.
Recent debate by young aspiring PNG intellectuals in this forum concerning this issue raised some interesting viewpoints on this matter in particular their felt need that the current system of Government in PNG was ineffectual in meeting the basic needs of the overall population.
Maybe therefore a somewhat out of left field approach applicable to the unusual and unexpected customs of PNG should be tried.
One suggestion to overcoming the present difficulties of getting good capable politicians into positions of authority as future ministers of the Crown could be accomplished that if in the absence of one party holding a clear majority of mandate, then such aspiring Ministers were to be elected from the floor of parliament by all of the elected parliamentarians.
This system if adopted would marry well within the framework of the Melanesian custom of mutual consensus.
This suggestion would certainly would make for an interesting scenario as each political candidate would not only have to outline their credentials for the position sought but as well show that such aspirants for higher office would also have to indicate by a personal pledge to the Parliament that they had the personal commitment to fulfilling the responsibilities of their office.
This change in mindset would of course require the politicians accepting that change of the current system needs to be overhauled.
The old guard who appear to be quite happy to maintaining the current status quo would resist however such a great leap forward.
Posted by: Harry Topham | 26 July 2012 at 03:23 PM
Thanks Martyn. I fully concur with what you wrote. Personally I did not want and expect O'Neill to throw in with Somare and his baggage (Pruaitch et al) at all. This is betraying people's trust.
There is no need for reconciliation - it's just mending of pride and egos and financial rewards using state funds, doesn't solve the roads and major hospital problems.
If O’Neill really is serious about solving these ills, he’ll be well advised not to stay in the shadows of these guys.
Now that he did this including Wingti and Chan, this is the beginning of his downfall. I really don't know what these guys can offer PNG that they haven't done in the last 40 years.
Now that O'Neill has played his hand, my predictions are as follows.
1. The Electoral Commission will recommend to the GG who will invite O'Neill to form the government as he has the majority of elected members.
2. When he turns up in Parliament he will find that he won't have the absolute majority.
3. The majority will be with Polye, Duma, Namah and the other independents and minor parties if Namah can flash his cash now. They will be waiting for O’Neill at the Parliament.
4. During the calling of nomination for the Speaker, Duma or Alan Marat will be nominated by Polye/Namah/Duma camp. I don’t know who O’Neil’s nominee will be – maybe Nape if he is back.
5. During calling of nomination of Prime Minister in the Parliament, O'Neill will be nominated and on the other side either Polye or Duma will be nominated by Namah. I don't think Namah at this stage might take the PM but will show O'Neill who propped him up previously.
5. O'Neill, Somare, Chan and Wingti will find themselves in the Opposition for the next 5 years. This will be O'Neil's price for betraying the people.
Remember that Namah, Polye and Duma made it clear before the election that they wanted to be PM. They will discuss amongst themselves and put one up against O'Neil now that he has teamed up with the clowns who have been there for 40 years.
Somebody needs to warn O'Neill now.
And you are correct Martyn. Somare et al are wolves in sheep’s skin (sheep’s skin = reconciliation and stability) and they needed to be isolated from the cash box.
Posted by: John Wali | 26 July 2012 at 11:19 AM
In my recent study of family history I discovered one of my great, great grand-fathers, a humble carpenter, was also a man who wrote to the newspapers if he felt there was some injustice taking place.
In November 1831 in "The Australian" he wrote about "Anomalies in Jurisprudence", regarding verdicts made concerning methods of payment.
In May 1858, he wrote to the "Maitland Mercury" after he witnessed inconsistency in the handing out of licenses for the running of Public Houses (pubs).
He even contacted Sir Thomas William Denison, the Governor in Chief of the Colony of NSW etc. and had a suitable reply. Action was also taken and the offending judge was moved to "an outpost".
I realize my forefather was not famous but at least he took an active interest in the way the country was being governed.
Back in the 1980s I was teaching at a private Christian school and it was being threatened by a Bill before the NSW parliament.
My local member lived just nearby so off I went to talk it over with him. He was most interested as he had been appointed by his party to speak on the Bill. He asked me to go home and write everything I had said and give him a copy.
I was most surprised to hear him quoting from what I wrote, in his speech, and in the question and answer comments that followed.
I remember one member of the opposition calling out "Who wrote this speech?" and he replied "I did!"
In the end the Bill was altered so my school did not suffer.
I guess there are many ways that democracy can work in action. These are just a few examples from my own experience.
I hope the people of PNG can make democracy work for them. The debates in parliament must not be allowed to be gagged! Tell that to your local member for a start!
Also the newspapers must not be biased!
Posted by: Mrs Barbara Short | 26 July 2012 at 08:15 AM
Martyn - I love this article. My observation regarding articles in PNG Attitude is that Papua New Guineans are very reluctant to make any comments about Namah. Are they afraid of being attacked by Namah's henchmen?
Everyone must use their right to freedom of speech and everyone must use people power to insist on a good government.
Take peaceful action to insist on an honest government and insist on the elimination of corruption which is one of the cancers that are destroying lives in the villages.
Posted by: Trevor Freestone. | 26 July 2012 at 08:06 AM
A very good report, Martyn.
Just a swapping of chairs on the RMS "Titanic" aka the RMS "PNG".
At this rate, the two ideal women candidates won't get a look in! Terrible thought. They would have made ideal selections for Health, Women's Affairs or Education.
Looks like a great opportunity lost.
Posted by: Colin Huggins | 26 July 2012 at 07:49 AM
Well said, Martyn.
Now is the time for all thinking PNGians to keep in regular contact with the person they elected and feed them information and help them to play their part in the parliament for the good of the country.
There should be a lot of voices in play.
Posted by: Mrs Barbara Short | 26 July 2012 at 06:26 AM