It is Man not God that Marape fears
11 January 2024
MICHAEL KABUNI
Don’t believe this front page story from The National. What prime minister James Marape fears is Man. His fear of Man is evident through various actions:
1 - The Speaker, a Pangu Pati member, convened a parliament meeting in 2020 after a legal adjournment to prepare for a no-confidence vote chaired by the deputy speaker.
2 - In the same year, Marape’s government had unlawfully convened and passed legislation to avoid a no-confidence vote while the opposition, with majority support, had been lured to far away Vanimo.
3 - The members of the Parliamentary Business Committee, responsible for vetting no-confidence vote notices, was replaced by government MPs, further highlighting Marape’s manipulation of processes.
4 - Marape, a Pangu Pati member, then denied a no-confidence vote in 2020, citing the absence of a sidelined MP, despite the opposition having the numbers.
These actions raise questions about Marape’s professed fear of God.
His manoeuvres in parliamentary procedures, together with his engagement of unconstitutional practices to evade a no-confidence vote, suggest a deeper apprehension of Man.
After all, a vote of no confidence is a human-driven process, not Divine.
Pay deduction riots trigger killing & looting
An unknown number of people have been killed or injured and many shops totched and looted in Port Moresby after unexplained pay deductions of K300 (about $120) from public service, police and military wages. For some workers, K300 is half of their pay packet.
National Capital District governor Powes Parkop said events had spiralled out of control. ”We have seen unprecedented level of strife in our city, something that has never happened before in the history of our city and our country,” he said.
This latest incident illustrates the incredible fragility of law and order in Papua New Guinea.
That a police strike induced widespread and opportunistic looting in Port Moresby and Lae is truly frightening, not just for people in PNG but also for the whole region.
PNG's reputation as a veritable tinder box in the South Pacific has stepped up another notch. That's not good for anyone.
Also frightening are the deaths caused by shopkeepers taking the law into their own hands and gunning down looters.
It will be interesting to see what happens to them. Presumably they will have many sympathisers.
The thin blue line in PNG is extra thin at the best of times.
Perhaps the government needs to shift it's focus from cultivating big multinational mining companies and crowing about the wealth they bring to concentrating on people struggling to survive in the settlements and villages and bolstering its police force.
Posted by: Philip Fitzpatrick | 13 January 2024 at 02:07 PM
Elected persons put eyes, ears and fears on 'nod'.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 12 January 2024 at 09:52 AM
Well well, @ 2300 hrs yesterday I read on Facebook about the turmoil unleashed in Port Moresby. The pent-up powder keg has exploded.
Yeah, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all the time.
Where is Marape's God now? Every time he looked in a mirror, he was looking at God Himself.
My heart bleeds @ the basket case PNG has become under a succession of political despots (starting with Bill Skate) over the past 40-odd years. Emtasol.
Posted by: William Dunlop | 11 January 2024 at 09:38 AM