Tkatchenko, 50, came to PNG from Melbourne, Australia, in the early 1990s.

The young man had some training in horticulture and was employed as curator of the Port Moresby’s Botanical Gardens.

By 1997, he was prominent enough to be awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the orchid industry and tropical gardening. By then, he was also politically active.

He was naturalised as a Papua New Guinean citizen in 2006 and ran unsuccessfully in the 2007 PNG elections, defeated by incumbent MP Dame Carol Kidu.

After Dame Carol's retirement from politics, Tkatchenko won the seat in 2012.

It is not possible to be a member of the PNG parliament as a dual citizen, so it is safe to assume he has only one passport – that of PNG.

Crude and disrespectful though it is, calling someone a ‘primitive animal’ doesn’t qualify as grounds to have his passport revoked.

Tkatchenko is a PNG citizen and has equal rights before the law to seek judicial review to retain his citizenship should it be revoked.

In hindsight, some people are probably wishing Tkatchenko was never given citizenship status.

But I believe it’s a good thing he hasn’t resigned as a member of parliament.

If he resigns, it will be impossible for the Ombudsman Commission to investigate him not only for his unprofessional conduct but also for potential abuse of funds.

By law, the Commission can only investigate people occupying public office, not those who have ceased to hold the office.

If Tkatchenko resigns, he immediately becomes a private citizen, evading the Commission’s ambit.

However, if Tkatchenko does resign, complaints can be made to the police fraud squad which has the power to investigate claims of abuse of funds.

The fraud squad cannot investigate unprofessional conduct, such as calling people ‘primitive animals’, which is not a criminal offence.

The Ombudsman Commission, on the other hand, has the duty of ensuring that leaders and public servants maintain professional and ethical standards.

Because Tkatchenko called Papua New Guineans primitives or animals, the use of these words makes it an ethical issue worth investigating.

It seems that already many Papua New Guineans have submitted complaints to the Ombudsman to investigate Tkatchenko and the entourage which accompanied him to King Charles’ Coronation – including his daughter whose boasting triggered a social  media onslaught.

So Tkatchenko would appear to be trapped.

Like most PNG members of parliament, he is prideful and egotistical and not planning to resign.

He’s stepped aside to let things cool down, and the US president’s visit to proceed without steet protests.

Presumably, Tkatchenko’s hoping to return as foreign affairs minister or in some other ministerial capacity when the fuss dies down.

But the longer he remains an MP, the more he risks being investigated by the Ombudsman Commission.

The best outcome for those wanting to hold him to account, therefore, is to hope he doesn’t resign.

And also to hope that his case will not be one of those that the Commission decides to overlook. Surely the sheer numbers of complaints should make it take notice and act.