PETER O'NEILL IS FLIRTING WITH DANGER & WILL LOSE MORE THAN HIS SHIRT

2011 has been an eventful year for the whole globe in terms of political turmoil of an unprecedented level around the world. Sitting here in peaceful Pacific Ocean we were able to have a bird’s eye view of the proceedings. If we can extract any lessons from history from 2011 it is this: ORDINARY PEOPLE ARE NOT AS STUPID AS THEIR DESPOTIC LEADERS THINK. THEY POSSESS THE REMARKABLE ABILITY TO RISE UP IN SUDDEN & SURPRISING WAYS.

Explosive uprisings across the Middle East have transformed the tenor of global politics and have put governments throughout the developing world on high alert. Surprisingly the government of Peter O’Neill does not seem to have learnt from the lessons of the Middle East.

If readers bear with me for a minute I would like to examine the causes of what we have witnessed in the Arab countries like Egypt, Libya and Syria, where the street can go from silent to violent in practically no time.

You will find that throughout history, the common thread that runs through the popular uprisings of the small people to throw out their despotic leaders is not poverty or economic hardship, or failed economic policies of governments in power.

The rise of people power has been due directly to GOVERNMENT ABUSE OF POWER.

Most people in most countries simply get on with their lives, and will endure their poverty in silence, cry warm tears gritting their teeth silently when they bury their new born baby who shouldn’t have died had there been better health care, walk miles carrying bags of produce to markets and accept it as their lot in life, have to contend with grown up intelligent children in their homes who cannot find a job because the job market is saturated and in any case it’s about who you know, live in crowded two bedroom homes with one or two other families and yet expected to perform at peak at work, etc. They will suffer even the corruption of some leaders to some extent.

But when a government betrays its citizens by committing a grave, vivid, and shocking abuse of power, the potential exists for a massive political explosion. The revolutionary potential will be magnified greatly when the people can pinpoint a particular head of State as being two faced liar, an untrustworthy betrayer of the people. The Head of State then becomes the rallying point of malcontent of the people, who demand he be removed.

Papua New Guinea politics has witnessed a sample of this when the certain more vocal popular opinion demanded the removal of the "Old man", and Peter O’Neill took advantage of this sentiment and rode on the euphoria of this, even though the mechanics of the people's malcontent would have revealed that in reality Peter O’Neill and the gang of Four forming the Kitchen Cabinet of Somare were the real cause of this popular mal-content brewed against Somare.

Anti-government uprisings are not new. We witnessed it in Thailand in 1973 and again in 1992 when its military leaders reneged on their promises to cede power in favour of democratic elections!

Similar situations happened in other parts of our region lie in the Philippines in 1986 and 2001. Next door in Indonesia we saw Suharto’s fall from power was more to do with corruption and nepotism than the Asian economic crisis.

There are interesting parallels between what we have witnessed in the Asian region with what has happened in 2011 in the Arab countries. The Egyptian President's readiness to lie to the people, to build a personal dynasty to hold on to power, rig elections, and unleash violence on the people using the police and the army against principled protesters, has resulted in alienating the military and the police in favour of the people and the principles they stood for.

The military and the police are sons and daughters of someone. So often despotic leaders buy their loyalty with cash, but then comes a time when the wrongness of the actions of the corrupt and power hungry head of State becomes so stark and clear that even the military and the Police have had to pull back. Money cannot buy them anymore. They too, like their brothers and sisters protesting on the streets, must live with their consciences.

It is worth recalling that the Arab uprising was caused by what appeared to be a run of the mill abuse of power by the government. A Tunisian street vendor set himself ablaze after being publicly slapped and having his goods confiscated; a moment of grat economic hardship for one man signalled the breaking point against intolerable government abuse for many thousands who rallied to his cause. It became a wider cause to rausim ol giaman lida.

Abuse of power seems to be the central theme that unsettles the citizenry. In PNG we have endured the antics of Somare's kitchen Cabinet, and thought we were being freed of all the kleptomaniac antics of that mob. Instead we have fallen from the frying pan into the fire, being ingested by the real mob within the mob.

We are witnessing abuse in PNG at unprecedented levels that would not have been tolerated in any other civilized or uncivilized democracy. For example:

1. The refusal by Peter O’Neill & Belden Namah to abide by the Supreme Court Orders of 12th December 2011 is an unmitigated abuse of (executive & legislative) power.

2. The direct unsubstantiated attacks on the Chief Justice and other Judges at Cabinet level is an abuse of power of the Executive Government in a Constitutional democracy. Judges, whilst not above the law, rely on responsible Executive Government, especially under our constitutional democracy, to protect the integrity of the Judiciary as a measure of balance of power. The speed with which the O’Namah government and its Attorney General Allan Marat have torn down the Judiciary is symbiotic to abuse at deeper levels. They don’t want to kill the keepers and protectors of the people's rights so they can freely abuse power.

3. The Judicial Conduct Bill and ancillary legislation including its varied versions and amendments are a collection of tools of abuse, like the crude tools of pain blood tears and screams in a maniac's torture chambers.

4. The lies upon lies being told about the election dates and changing constitutionally mandated election dates is an abuse of power of the gravest kind. The other lies being told, civil servants being moved or sacked to make way for the O’Namah governments ease of abuse has already become  too much for the people.

5. The many lies and unfulfilled promises being made to the people and the handing out of government moneys in the millions to every school, aid post or District Office being opened is an abuse of power and public funds when they have not been budgeted and appropriated for that purpose. The great acts of charity are meant to ingratiate and institutionalize personality politics which at its core is a form of abuse of power. Peter O’Neill & Belden Namah have practised this to the hilt. They steal from our public coffers and give our own money back to us and expect us to love them? What manner of leaders are these?

The cause for an uprising at street level is long overdue. We have so much to lose. This time it will not be tempered by the reasonable voices of men like Paska or Malabag. This time I sense it will be like a forest on fire. This time the city will burn. This time the Military and the Police will join the principled cry of the people. Because they too are part of the people. why should they protect the hides of 30 objectionable and abusive human beings against the cries of 7.5 Million people of this beloved nation?

But why should we go down that road to find common sense and reason? Peter O'Neill and Belden Namah, you have done enough damage to our nation, our Judiciary and our Constitution?

Can you please restore us to the confidence of our constitutional democracy and cease the abuse of power?  Can you assure us of timely elections? Can you leave the Electoral Commissioner Mr Trawen alone to do his work?

OR would you rather see the rise of the power of the people on the streets like you have never seen before?

Your Choice Peter O'Neill.


MANGI GAZELLE