A fitting swansong for Grand Chief - Seats for women in PNG parliament?

As the sun sets on the career of Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, what should be his swansong?

Sir Michael, known as the father of the nation of Papua New Guinea, actively led the push for independence in the 1970s and for 43 years served the people of PNG in its parliament—18 of those as Prime Minister.

He is the only PNG Prime Minister to have seen out a full parliamentary term—aided by the Organic Law on Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC) that made it illegal for party members to defect to the opposition. (This law did not survive a recent court challenge as to its constitutional legality but in the interim, since 2002, Sir Michael’s government has benefitted from the law, originally proposed by Sir Mekere Morauta, now in opposition.)

Arguably, it was thanks to this law and Sir Michael’s ability to successfully meld together and lead a loose coalition of political parties that PNG gained a reputation as a politically stable nation.

This attribute enhanced PNG’s attractiveness for overseas investors who consider political stability to be one of the main cornerstones of desirability for overseas investment.

But PNG without Sir Michael may be a very different proposition.

It’s not only Sir Michael  who’s fallen ill

It’s coming up to four months since Sir Michael went to Singapore for medical treatment. In that time, up to the time of writing, Papua New Guineans haven’t heard from their leader except the announcement by his son and Public Enterprises Minister, Arthur Somare that the Grand Chief has been ‘retired’ by his family.

Yet, according to the constitution, Sir Michael is still the Prime Minister until official procedures are met—and they haven’t been.

Varying and often conflicting reports have appeared in the press and rumours have surfaced (and been officially quashed) that Sir Michael has already passed away. Whatever the truth of his health, the governmental legacy he left behind is in tatters. Problems of the government, recently surfaced, include:

• The acting Prime Minister has profound family problems (his son has been charged with murder) that must be distracting him from his duties.

• There have been questions raised recently in the press about the legitimacy of a private company of which acting Prime Minister Sam Abal is a director.

• Sir Arnold Amet, the attorney-general, is at loggerheads with the judiciary over their various and often conflicting rulings on the correct procedure when a minister is referred to the Leadership Commission.

• Patrick Pruaitch has been reinstated as Treasurer and Finance Minister—although he has still to answer allegations of misconduct in office.

• Senior ministers William Duma (petroleum and energy) and Don Polye (the deputy Prime Minister have been replaced by Abal in a reshuffle before Sir Michael was referred to the Leadership Tribunal), ostensibly for insubordination and/or incompetence.

• The large National Alliance Party, Highlands bloc to which both Polye and Abal belong has been split due to the sacking.

• Arthur Somare, whose ministry oversees and is responsible for the multi-billion Kina PNG LNG project, is currently facing the Leadership Tribunal over charges of misconduct and misappropriation of funds.

But more egregious than any of the aforementioned is that the PNG parliament, since the Grand Chief was censured by the Leadership Tribunal last March (receiving a two-week suspension from office), then hospitalised, has been incapacitated by absenteeism before being spuriously adjourned. Law making has ceased. Government business has all but ground to a halt.

As I write, the Papua New Guinea parliament is adjourned. The speaker Jeffrey Nape who cited a ‘leaking pipe’ as the reason, adjourned it in late June for six weeks. There’s no leaking pipe, according to investigations of deputy leader of opposition and member for Bulolo, Morobe Province, Sam Basil.

Observers and commentators have been speculating as to what this latest adjournment is really all about. One Australian expat living in Port Moresby suggested it was to disguise the fact that no one is in control or running the country.

She based her opinion on the fact that during its short weeks of sitting before the adjournment, there were often not sufficient members in the house for a quorum.

During the most recent sitting of parliament in early June, opposition MP Basil told ABC Radio in Australia that the government lacked discipline under the acting Prime Minister Sam Abal.

No doubt he was referring to the sparsely populated front benches. This is notwithstanding that 2012 will be an election year and much legislation needs to be debated in order for relevant laws to be in place in time for the election.

It seems that while the cat’s away, the mice will play—if this is so, what will become of Papua New Guinea because it’s doubtful the Grand Chief will ever again be available to take back the reins? And so it is that the career and legacy of the Grand Chief fizzle out in ignominy.

The Grand Chief must go out on a high note

Those parliamentarians who are paying lip service to the respect and honour they feel for the Grand Chief would be far better served to respect and finish what Sir Michael’s illness has prevented him from doing.

For instance: passing the law reserving 22 seats for women in parliament.

Sir Michael was the initiator of the Equality and Participation Bill that this falls under.

According to Maria Hayes of ‘Women in Politics’, the organisation that worked closely with Sir Michael on the Bill, said that: “…while Sir Michael Somare…is not active as a Member of Parliament there is no way it [22 reserved seats for women] will get through.” This, she says, is in spite of the Bill being actively backed by Community Services Minister Dame Carol Kidu—at present the only female parliamentarian.

“Sir Michael has a lot of followers in Parliament on both sides,” Hayes explained. Unfortunately Dame Carol has a much smaller support base.

However, Dame Kidu herself says she remains “cautiously optimistic.” But only about phase one of the process—a Constitutional amendment requiring 55 parliamentary votes that she hopes will be debated and voted on in the August session of parliament.

“However, the second phase of passing the enabling Organic law which defines the boundaries of the special seats to be in line with the 22 provincial boundaries and requires 73 MPs support will be quite a challenge,” she added.

Dame Kidu says there are fundamental ‘cultural’ objections with many parliamentarians (all males), cloaked in arguments such as ‘cost’, but she is quick to point out that there is a core of champions pushing for the Bill.

However, a lot of what she says is speculative for as she admits: “We have not done any serious number crunching because that is in fact quite difficult with so many MPs not coming to parliament.”

It’s an oft spoken truism that one is only as good as one’s last deed. The last official duty that Sir Michael attended was his own sentencing by a Leadership Tribunal that found him guilty of misconduct. Is this to be his swansong?

The most profound act of respect for Sir Michael would be to finish the work he started. 

-Susan Merrell