ONEILL IS NOT THIRD TIME LUCKY- TALE OF ILLEGITIMACY CONTINUES!

PNG is the laughing stock of the Pacific and the Commonwealth. There is no doubt that PNG is also the laughing stock of those decent law abiding nations of the world, some of whom have Embassies in PNG.

One can only imagine how their Ambassadors here would have tried to explain the actions of the Speaker and Peter ONeill on 2nd August 2011. There was nothing in Parliamentary convention that would have helped any High Commissioner or Ambassador explaining to their countries what just took place.  The Report would have looked like this:

1. Please be advised PNG has new PM in Peter O’Neill.
2. O’Neill’s position is immediately in doubt.
3. There is a Supreme Court Reference filed by ESP challenging it.
4. By Background, from last Report you will note PM Somare GC still convalescing in Singapore Hospital. Parliament has recognized and granted him official Sick Leave.
5. Curiously Australian PM offered O’Neill Congrats despite the legality of O’Neill subject of Supreme Court Deliberation.
6. Australians trying to influence the courts or they are setting up confrontation between Judiciary and Executive Government of O’Neill & Judiciary.
7. NZ, China, US, and other Pacific and Europeans are non-committal. Best to wait for courts before dealing with recognition.
8. Parliament boycotted by Somare team claiming no vacancy in office of PM.
9. O’Neill faction is now trying to revoke the Official sick Leave Pass- which appears ridiculous.
10. O’Neill team also talking of changing age limits for MPs designed to keep Somare out of contention as PM- which is also a deliberate attempt aimed at one person, namely Somare. Chan is not happy.
11. Never has there been anything like this in any Commonwealth country of deliberate abuse of Parliamentary legislative powers and the Executive Powers.
12. Strongly recommend that we hold off dealing with the O’Neill regime until the dust settles.

A Report in similar vein would have been sent by any number of Embassies. If the home office questioned further how is it that 18 months before issue of writs, there was clearly a Vote of no Confidence in Somare or a Change of Government? The Ambassador or High Commissioner would have answered, he or she does not know, and he would have been fortified in his view that it was an unconstitutional change and only the Supreme Court will confirm that.

And so the Reports would have chronicled abuse after hair-raising abuse of power that has seen this O'Neill-Namah government seeking to entrance itself in Waigani.

Indeed the decision taken between ONeill & Namah after one drunken night at Airways Private Bar founding the bodies of naked Asian women serving them, recognizing that only the Supreme Court stood between ultimate power and control of PNG and being declared charlatans and constitutional criminals, that they would deliberately craft stories about the Chief Justice and the Judiciary and destroy it- before it destroyed them.

The next morning ONeill jumped on the Falcon and flies to Hawaii and as planned Namah carries out the execution of the Chief Justice hurling deliberate lies in a Cabinet room that was disgusted and stupefied by what this man was saying. Bart Philemon knew what was going on; he knew this was "politics" at its worst, which these young guys were not going to stick to what is decent and the Truth. That to hold on to power they were making up lies to destroy the Judiciary. He didn’t want blood on his hands so instead of standing up and debating, he walked out of NEC.

Mekere on the other hand knew what was going to happen that day because the young MP for Bulolo and Jamie Maxton approached him quietly and told him what was planned that morning by their leader. Mekere decided to stay away from that NEC. Sir Puka was there, incredibly nodding to everything Belden was doing shouting and thumping the table. “It is the only way, we either get them or they will get us" he shouted. He outlined his conspiracy theory of a late night meeting between the CJ and Arthur Somare at Ela Beach Hotel (a lie), and rammed it home. Jamie and his sidekick both expressed their disgust and urged NEC to do the previously unthinkable-hang the CJ.

That is exactly what they did.

What started as a ploy by ONeill to get Namah to hang himself, getting Namah thrown in Jail for contempt, and a ploy by Jamie and Mekere to get rid of Namah by encouraging and letting him proceed with such stupidity, became a full scale confrontation between the Executive government and the judiciary, which resulted in the smashing of the Constitution, and the callous disregard for all things that give this nation, its government and the people a sense of decency and dignity.

It all started from the wisdom gained from fondling the bodies of nubiles at a private Airways bar, such hedonistic wisdom mixed with the whiff of alcoholic intoxication is a toxic brew when thrown in with the possibility of political invincibility, and suddenly a man gets the idea that he is untouchable and he can deal with government and its institutions anyhow and anyway that suits him. Of course if you have access to a lot of that green stuff, that helps with the feeling of invincibility, immortality and infallibility. Power- what an intoxicating thing it is.

Today we hear Parliament has elected Peter ONeill as PM for the third time.

What the people of PNG already know, as we do in Melanesia, something is wrong about it all but we'd rather not talk about it. You get what I mean? Yeah well Parliament did vote and all that but looks here, let’s get to the elections and lets not bother with the finer details.

That is one of our typical attitudes, which has some good points about it. We take the global view that even though something is bad, how can society continue to function and exist - the overall good takes precedence over any evil that may be present. That’s how most of our societies function. For example, when some young guys rape a young woman, the daughter of another family within the tribe, we demand that the offended family be compensated and as long as that takes place we choose not to bother anymore with the issue. We don’t consider the wrong or the violation done to the young lady and even the long term effect on her. We don’t consider the health consequences on her life. We don’t consider her suffering and her psychological wellbeing both in the short and the long term.  We know something is wrong but we choose to cast a blind eye to it all, and just move on.

Well is this situation with what Peter ONeill and Belden Namah are doing to our country any different? They have just raped this nation. They have just raped us as a people. Then they get themselves into a huddle and call themselves Parliament and say, its ok, everything is now ok. Let’s move on. Well is everything really OK?

Is Peter ONeill really third time lucky as Prime Minister?

Deep down we know, he is not.

How can Peter ONeill be declared Prime Minister by Parliament after the writs have been issued?  When Writs are issued in respect of every constituency or electorate that means there is recognized the public process of creating a vacancy in that MP's post necessitating the electoral process. The MP no longer is an MP after the issuance of Writs and Parliament has adjourned for the final time. That is the fundamental difficulty with the legality of Peter O’Neill’s third time lucky business.

You see PNG whether you like it or not, after the writs are issued, and after Parliament has risen for the final time prior to elections, under our Constitution, the legislative power of the people is officially deferred to the new Parliament. The 2012 MPs have voluntarily surrendered as a matter of law the legislative powers. Some would say Parliament suspends itself.  Therefore the recall of Parliament as such is illegal and unconstitutional.

I don’t need to go into whether proper notices were given for Parliament sitting and standing orders were complied with or not. Those are additional grounds of illegality but they can be debated by senior Leaders like Don Polye who appeared most uncomfortable with this last sitting.

The other fundamental issue is whether the Governor General signed off on the recall of Parliament. If he didn’t the sitting of parliament is illegal and unconstitutional. If he did, then it makes no difference as there remains no extra-ordinary emergency situation to give rise to this abuse of power. It would be an abuse by the care taker government to advise the GG to recall Parliament and it would equally be an abuse by the GG to endorse it.

Under these circumstances, we again see abuse piled upon abuse of power, illegitimacy compounded by further illegitimacy by this ONeill- Namah regime, all in the name of staying in power.

This is the most illegitimate government ever in this country birthed in illegitimacy and carrying on like illegitimate children. Even a child borne out of wedlock has a legitimate expectation of life and all the privileges  of the human race, once taught the fundamentals of life has the chance to leave all those societal prejudices behind and better himself or herself to the  benefit of society. One cannot say the same of this mob. They behave as they have never been taught the difference between decency and indecency, right and wrong.

At the end of the day, two or three or ten wrongs do not make it alright. It will follow Peter ONeill and Belden Namah, what they have done to the nation will go with them to their graves. It is a sad indictment on these two men personally. They have had many opportunities to do right, but they have messed up, and that is their permanent legacy as we go to the polls.


MANGI GAZELLE