Parliament defeats the Chief

Constitution is supreme:Somare
MICHAEL Somare's attempts to assert he is Papua New Guinea's lawful prime minister are understandable, but after 43 years in the political rough and tumble he's being disingenuous in seeking to ignore the way the cards have fallen in his confrontation with Peter O'Neill.

With parliament solidly behind Mr O'Neill, and Governor-General Michael Ogio reversing his position and formally declaring Mr O'Neill the rightful prime minister, Sir Michael's campaign for reinstatement has clearly run out of steam. The sooner he accepts this, the sooner political stability will return to PNG.

Correctly, Mr ONeill has observed parliament is the place where politicians win the right to form governments. Sir Michael argues, however, that he has the force of constitutional law on his side following the Supreme Court's 3-2 decision that he was wrongly removed.

But in addition to parliament and the Governor-General, all top public servants as well as the police chief have declared their support for Mr O'Neill, while the defence force chief has declined to take sides. As well, there is the no less important reality that Mr O'Neill's government appears to have significant popular backing, with no sign of a groundswell of support for a return to office by Sir Michael.

That the man known as PNG's founding father, who has dominated its politics and is known as "Grand Chief", should feel short-changed is hardly surprising. The Supreme Court's majority decision raises serious issues about his removal from office.

Those have, however, now been largely superseded by events since Sir Michael mounted his challenge, most importantly the parliamentary backing for Mr O'Neill and the Governor-General's acknowledgment of the parliament's primacy on the matter.

Several options remain open to Sir Michael. One would be to accept that, at 75 and after major heart surgery and a protracted hospital stay in Singapore, the time has come to retire. Another would be to throw himself back into the political maelstrom and seek reinstatement by winning the general election in June.

What he should avoid is doing anything more to undermine the stability PNG desperately needs, or appearing like a troublesome curmudgeon who cannot accept that on this occasion he has been out-manoeuvred. The last thing he should do is tarnish his own significant legacy by ending up like some washed-up Middle Eastern potentate trying to cling to power when nobody wants him.

The Australian Blog

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