O'Neill and Nama wielding illegitimate power
When the our brothers O'Neill/Namah/Nape grabbed power on 2nd August 2011, I scratched my head and tried to make sense of what they were doing. It didn't seem right, so I went and asked my friends for a copy of the Constitution. Finally I found one and I began to read it. Most of it just flew over my head, but I was just interested in following and finding out the source of Executive Legislative and Judicial Power, and who should exercise it.
It was after months of considered thought and contemplation that I have come into the conclusion that our brothers O'Neill/Namah/Nape have done a terrible thing. They have done a serious disservice to this nation and to our children. I already was convinced, that unless the Supreme Court played politics, they would declare the O'Neill/Namah government illegitimate.
Now some of you would really like to paint me as someone who lives of Somare or is against O'Neill or Namah. I have no axe to grind with any of them. I have challenged Arthur Somare and publicly chastise him for selling us out on the LNG project.[ He totally stuffed us up. We could have done better, but that is not for me to go into here]. I believe that the rule of the law and upholding the Constitution, upholding the Judiciary and respecting the public offices of our people is important to maintaining a vibrant democracy. As a person who has lived in 6 different countries and 4 different continents, I have seen how so easily countries slide into anarchy, I already see the hallmarks of this country on the slide into anarchy, and we will end up in destroying this nation and each other if we do not wake up quickly and bring our affairs under the Constitution and the rule of law.
Some times it is important to listen to the voice of reason and reflect on what we have done and where we are heading. At the end of the day, it is important for us to live and operate by the rule of law and the Constitution. Its the same Constitution that grants you the freedom to write in, the freedom to live, the freedom to have villages, own land, own private property and become a nation. If we destroy the Constitution and its institutions just because it does not suit us and our wantoks at this point in time, then we will not have a nation to fight over because there is nothing to hold us together.
We are in grave danger of ending up in situations of those who wield power will make arbitrary decisions and take other peoples rights and freedoms away ( like in the case of Mr Graham Osborne OL who was arbitrarily deported for no reason) and the Constitution being disregarded. By the way some of us have responded, we are in danger of putting all the hard won freedoms and rights of our people guaranteed by our Constitution at the sacrificial alter of seeing Peter O'Neill/Namah/Nape in power, which in my view is what stupid and emotional people do, and I want to credit PNGians with a little more sense than that.
The issue is not about Somare or O'Neill. The issue is about who we are and whether we want to live in anarchy or we want to live as a decent law abiding community of people under the rule of law, tempered by our Customs and commonsense.
I have traced surgically the devolution of power and pointed out that the O'Neill government is illegitimate, and all its decisions, and every bit of paper Peter O'Neil/Namah sign is illegitimate
exercise of the executive power of the people. Whenever, Peter O'Neill takes up the government benches in parliament and continues to act as Prime Minister, he is acting illegitimately and Parliament is acting illegitimately. They also know that as leaders they have a duty under the leadership code not to bring the Judiciary into disrepute or public ridicule, but they are willing to do it, and have done so.
These are institutions that these young men have not sweated or worked hard to build. They just walked in and not respected the fact that these institutions belong to the people. The very offices they purport to occupy belong to the people, and yet they do not fear or respect the people.
There has been repeated comments about the nature of the split decision of the Supreme Court and because it was 3/2, somehow, the decision is not clear. That is not true. In the Supreme Court, and indeed where three or more Judges sit, the majority view always prevails. That has always been the case all over the world, and certainly in the last 36 years of our judicial history on all manner of cases. Why should it be any different here today for Peter O'Neill/Namah and Nape?? That proposition that somehow the jury is still out is a whole lot of nonsense.
The second issue being bandied around is the idea that the Chief Justice should not have reinstated Somare as PM, but ought to have left it to parliament. That is also a whole lot of nonsense. People need to read the manner by which the Supreme Court Reference was couched and the circumstances giving rise to the Reference. Somare was PM at that time and the issue of unsound mind arose in the context of Somare as a person and whether he could or could not serve/continue as PM. The Court ruled, that he was not of unsound mind and that he can serve/continue to serve as PM. If it had ruled that he had lost the Prime Ministership in the interim, then it is a matter open for Parliament. But to rule that he had lost the Prime Ministership would be to legitimize the events of 2nd August 2011 ( which it didn't). Thus the ruling of the Supreme Court is in order.
There is a third and corollary issue (non issue) being thrown around that governments are made on the floor of Parliament and that Somare should go to parliament and face the music on numbers. I have no issue with that argument. So Peter O'Neill & co should vacate the executive government, vacate the government benches, and the Speaker should invite Somare to come and take his place as Prime Minister.
As it is the O'Neill government is in breach of the Leadership Code by not complying with the Supreme Court ruling, and by wielding illegitimate power.
Finally, the funniest of all arguments is to say, look , O'Neill/Namah/Nape really stuffed up big time, but lets just let them run it all, until we go to the next election. That is a whole bunch of nonsense. PNG and the Independent State of PNG is not their private business. The Independent State of Papua New Guinea is a sovereign State, governed by the Constitution and laws. I am sorry to disappoint those of you who feel this way but this is the serious business of governance, accountability and transparency according to law. We will be the laughing stock of the world (as we are already) if we carry on with that sort of nonsense. This is not Peter O'Neill or Michael Somare's private business.
Still there was one commentator who asked the question, who makes the Constitution? He answered Parliament makes it so parliament can change it. Well he couldn't have been more right and more wrong at the same time. The Constitution is Superior because it made and empowered Parliament. This Parliament did not make or birth the Constitution. The fathers of our Constitution foresaw your dilemma and designed our Constitution to be self executing by its own terms one second past 12 midnight on 16th September 1975. And yes the Constitution is supreme, and it allows for its own amendments by parliament. However, Parliament is not supreme, there fore that argument falls.
Friends, brothers and sisters, I am sorry to say that our brother Peter O'Neill is wielding illegitimate power.
I welcome your comments, but perhaps we should remind our brother Peter and Belden to reflect carefully on what they are doing. Definitely, they have done more to destroy this nation in such a short time than any other group of leaders in the same period.
Comments
Post a Comment
Please free to leave comments.