9th PARLIAMENT-WHO WILL FORM THE GOVERNMENT?

By NICK LAKI

In the lead up to the 2002 elections, PDM was powerful. Nearly all MPs were PDMs. They had so much confident that they would return as they were to form the next government after 2002 elections. They therefore legislated the intergrity bill allowing government to rule for longer term in parliament and therefore done away with 18months term syndrome. Not sure enough, everything turned out against them and the PDM party disintegrated to almost nothing after 2002 election.

The so called country's best economist and architecture of many financial and /or state institution and the then PDM leader(Mekere Moruata)decided to change the party name to PNG party just to save it from extinction. However, the founder of PDM- Paias Wingti asked Mekere to sack himself and his comrades from PDM and let PDM alone. So was it done and the rebrand was PNG party just like Polye's rebranding of NA to THE Party.

After 2002, NA, unpopular and insignificant party that nobody imagined could do something, rose to height to muster numbers in the election and formed the government thereafter. This was the first political party in the history of PNG to have benefitted from the integrity bill whereby it comfortably enjoyed full 5 year term up to 2007 elections and continued after 2007 til August 2011. NA was powerful in just a matter of less than a decade and many political analysts and soothsayers said the empire of NA to be transformed into political institution that will remain supreme amongst all other parties.

Come the 2011 August, bang!!!, the party and his captain was toppled by surprise. Guess who was the muster-mind? Its very own engine-room crews who wined and dined from day one....They decided to drop the bombshell and broker a political in PNG. Sad to speak was the fact that they ripped the top job off from the old man who was incapacitated on his sickbed. Though their moves were had many legal implication to be desired which eventually ended up at the top court to be ruled as unconstitutional, with the numerical strength and resource, they buldozed legislations (mostly retrospective) just to create a safe haven before the 2012 polls...Phew, the impasse just ended and now the lobbyists are girding for another 9th Parliament

Meanwhile, in the 2012 elections, another new monster party beginning to move with numbers. PNC candidates seem to be hitting the top 3 in nearly all provinces/ electorates around the country. They have already 17 declared and many are coming home soon.

It has rampaged the corners of PNG campaigning for good governance with couple of key policies . Whether or not they are going to deliver or not is a question of time and space - we don't know. But one thing for sure is that the old blokes who were to rigging the country to corruption in the past regimes are already in the camp with number. Does that mean history will repeat? We don’t know either...But the policies are the heart-beats of people and they are essential for survival(Free Education & Free Health) and if they do do it correctly, they can get everyone's thumps up.

Right now, PNC is convening its hose-trading camp in Alotau with a certainty to be invited by the GG to form government in the 9th Parliament.

While on the other hand, PNC friends and collegue in the last toppled regime, T.H.E party(another NA outcast party) is moving into camps at Rabaul, while PDM-outcast PNG party is moving into Kimbe for camping in hope of lobbying for numbers to back their firebrand, patriotic and son- Belden Namah.

While there are so much hype and gossips around corridors of Waigani of whom to form new government in light of the resource boom, the old parties and particularly the old-dogs in PNG politics haven't sounded any thrumpet yet. They are Somare, Chan and others who are likely to be joined by Aiguru, Ipatas, and few others. They are surprisingly very quiet. Though Somare has more than 6 members in NA party, PPP has another 6 while PDM has got just 1, people are so curious whats cooking in the minds of those old dudes... Maybe they are waiting for their good friend but equally political rival Paias Wingti who is still battling neck-to-neck with the incumbent - Tom Olga...Some may say, they wont unite, toppling power from each other is not new to them. If they want to reconcile now for the last time, they probably thinking too hard on the fact that the battle won't be easy when the young lobbyists now have money and influence to outmuscle them...But they can steer the whip with confidence and we might experience a matured and stable leadership for another term.

Well, O'Neil (PNC)has the numbers, Namah(PNGP) has the buying power, Polye (THEP) has the influence.

Question is: who will be the Power broker. That's the kingpin on the King-making day!