How did I come to believe that James Marape was dishonourable (Along with Powes Parkop, John Hickey, Carol Kidu and even Gary Juffa?)



Depressed over the news that bail-free Paul Paraka is already out of jail and back to his old tricks of buying the PNG legal system, I was hit broadside again by yesterday’s news that James Marape got an interim injunction from the Supreme Court making him immune from arrest until the current appeal he has before the courts is dealt with.  How easily PNG’s wheels of justice are corrupted! 

If you ask for my opinion, I reckon that James Marape is one of the most Dishounourable of the Dishonourable Gang of 111, a foul smelling slimebucket if there ever was one.   How did I reach that conclusion?   By watching how he operates and how he responds to critical comments about his actions.  Marape isn’t the first PNG pollie who removed their shoes, dipped their feet into social media water, and were immediately shocked by the electrified discussion!  I feel privileged to be one of probably thousands who witnessed the unveiling of the real James Marape on the internet in April 2011.

It all started with a PNG Blogs article that exposed rampant corruption in the area represented by this hideously obese con man:

Massive Corruption in Tari Pori District & Hela Transitional Authority  (April 14, 2011)

www.pngblogs.com/2011/04/massive-corruption-in-tari-pori.html

The evidence presented seemed solid.   Responses and questions appeared. I prayed that Marape would appear and respond.  And he did-but not on PNG Blogs!  He probably realised that this would be suicidal as a giant tsunami of pointed questions and heated comments hit him.  Thus triple chinned James camped outside and set up his own blog where he posted this reply to his critics:

“Marape’s Respond to Wheelchair Critics on PNGBLOG”  (May 2011)

pngpositive.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post.html

Note that our ‘esteemed member’ can’t even get his English straight (not unusual for our majority half kanaka MPs, including many Ministers).   But Marape isn’t smart about much of anything.  He only succeeds in stealing so much because our justice system is thoroughly bagared with incompetent investigators, money hungry lawyers, and bribe-able magistrates.    

At least Marape figured out that he’d better stay away from the crowd at PNG Blogs.  Thus he set up a cyber location where he could control not only what he put on the blog, but also control any responses.  What Marape didn’t know (or maybe he’s created one and I don’t know about it?) is that Facebook sites are much better than blogs for corrupt politicians.  On Facebook, you not only can write nice things about yourself using fake names, you can also define your “friends”, creating a loyal audience of pea brains who are either related to you or mentally incapable of thinking logically, and who applaud everything you say.  Kind of like what we see in North Korea.  

Even without a Facebook page, Marape’s game plan mostly worked.   He posted a rebuttal far away from PNG Blogs, at his own site.  His arguments contained the usual deception and avoidance tactics PNG pollies are expert at.  Of course, seeing Marape dance around the questions was like throwing water on a bee’s nest back at PNG Blogs.  People commented plenty about Marape’s avoidance of the facts.  Sadly for James, his own blog site didn’t attract the army of supporters he may have hoped for.  It remained deathly quiet, with only one positive and one critical comment ever appearing.   Better go back to Hela land, Dishonourable James, and buy your supporters some Digicel dongles! 

James Marape is not the only PNG politician who appeared on the internet, then suddenly vanished.   The same happened with the alleged road construction King of Kickbacks, Powes Parkop.  At least Dishonourable Parkop wrote an article that was published on PNG Blogs (and also PNG Exposed) in response to blog allegations of major mismanagement at NCD (Parkop signing off on K100,000 worth of unbudgeted car rentals and other shady approvals).  Here’s Parkop’s response and the readers followup responses: 

Parkop Respond To Fake Audit Report  (September 1, 2011)

www.pngblogs.com/2011/09/parkop-respond-to-fake-audit-report.html

Parkop too, quickly vanished. 

All politicians must somehow get hold of a book entitled something like “How to Fool The Public.  The Ultimate Guidebook For Politicians”.  Parkop responded to allegations just like Marape.   The whole process begins with the politicians telling whatever half truths or falsehoods they want.  When debate ensues, they’re careful not to answer questions in ways that would reveal any hidden truths.  Instead they look for selected parts of the questions that they will proudly answer as if that’s any indication of openness and honesty (it’s not!). 

Unfortunately for them, that trick lasts only a short while until the sharp thinkers realise they’re being humbugged.  When they respond strongly, the pollie finds an excuse to disappear. 

Thus our equally triple chinned Parkop used many sentences in his rebuttal to proclaim the NCD audit report posted on the internet as being fake.  When specifically asked whether the financial information contained within that ‘fake report’ was also fake, Parkop naturally didn’t answer.  He ran away!   And thus we learn that what the pollie reveals more than what he does say. 

The only PNG pollie I’ve seen so far who hasn’t yet ran away from healthy debate is Sam Basil.  That doesn’t exonerate Sam, since he has never followed his articles published by PNG Blogs by coming on line and answering readers questions.  Sam Basil generally stays within personally owned blog territory surrounded by effective security fencing.  Just like Slimebucket Marape.   

Gary Juffa, who I once admired a lot, once wrote for PNG Blogs and also commented.  However, this past March he ran away after too many “unnecessary questions” were thrown at him following a PNG Blogs article that alleged a number of improprieties.  The article was clearly deleted from the PNG Blogs archives but you can still read it at a PNG Blogs mirror site (papua87.rssing.com/chan-7046137/all_p16.html), well down the page. 

What you can’t see anymore are the comments and questions directed at Juffa, followed by his responses.   Basically he declared all the allegations lies without providing backup evidence and without directly answering any questions.  I used to think Gary Juffa was a different kind of politican.  Now here he was on PNG Blogs acting just like the others. 

After this incident, which only lasted a few days, Juffa disappeared from PNG Blogs.  Was he embarrassed and shamed about the whole affair?  Or angry that PNG Blogs let freedom of speech prevail instead of corruptly helping out Gary by deleting any uncomfortable comments and questions?   Who knows.

Nearly all PNG blog, Facebook, and discussion site owners haven’t been able to resist the corrupt temptation to help out friends when the going gets tough and their allies are surrounded by rapidly fired questions and comments.    Certainly helping out friends is what PNG Attitude (asopa.typepad.com) owner Keith Jackson does, so no wonder why Gary Juffa is now over there submitting his articles.   On an old discussion forum site that PNG Blogs used to maintain, there used to be a revealing posting about how Jackson used to allow uncensored comments until an article full of praise about egomaniac Paulius Matane generated some nasty comments.  The comments vanished overnight and PNG Attitude’s comment section thereafter became “regulated”. 

To be fair to Gary Juffa, the allegations aimed at him at PNG Blogs seemed to involve little or no corruption. The allegations seemed to be that certain extravagances in Juffa’s personal life, including how he and his wife earned extra income, made Gary’s public preachings hypocritical.   Gary is probably basically good and would have come out of the discussion  looking alright if ONLY HE HAD BEEN HONEST AND ANSWERED QUESTIONS TRUTHFULLY AND DIRECTLY.   Why’s that so hard for a politician?

I only know of two other MPs who came onto the internet (and of course quickly vanished).   Maybe some of you out there can share other stories.   My last 2 stories are about events on PNGscape.net. 

Many years ago, Dishonourable John Hickey (who like the Dishonourable Beldon Namah, “owns” his own land grabbing SABL) put up a single posting on Scape.  A few responses, including some questions (which I remembered were all polite) followed.  Off Hickey ran, without answering a one. 

Carol Kidu, bless her heart, was braver but also didn’t last.  When pressed by the cyber audience on whether she wasn’t being a giant hypocrite by saying she was against corruption while simultaneously serving the corrupt and mostly incompetent Michael Somare government, she responded a bit weakly if I recall.  Soon afterwards, she too vanished from Scape. 

Watching dishonourable PNG pollies on the internet I’ve learnt some good lessons.  First is that pollies will be pollies, even those who we think are ok.  We all know that politics is dirty, and maybe the mud ends up rubbing off even on good people who go into politics.  Case in point: Gary Juffa.  Sam Basil seems different, but let’s not forget (he would prefer that we did) that Basil happily voted to help make Peter O’Steal the PM. 

Secondly I learnt that in situations where freedom of speech on the internet is protected strongly, with little or no censorship, the resulting strong debate usually exposes the truth.  Anonymity allows people to pose the most embarrassing of questions.  Pollies who run away from them are obviously avoiding something unpleasant that they fear might come out with further dialogue. 

Our pollies escape the internet, run up a mountain, then like angry kokis babble endlessly about how libellous and unfair social media is.   Our newspapers, undoubtedly threatened by the painful evidence that their investigative reporting sucks compared to what you sometimes find on the PNG internet today, also rant about the unfairness of the social media.  They all sound like crybabies.

The social media, and especially PNG Blogs, has been able to reveal the deepest of unpleasant truths that our newspapers would never touch.  Because of that, I’ve become a strong supporter of “trial by media” (which is common overseas in developed countries).  Like it or not, it tends to reveal the truth.  

At the same time, a “trial by media” process works best at identifying the guilty if it meets 3 conditions:  1) the accused knows about or is invited to respond to allegations posted on the internet (if they run away instead, that alone says a lot), 2) enough deep thinking, perceptive people are present to engage in vigorous but logical debate, and 3) totally idiotic respondents who specialise in repetitious name calling are lightly controlled.   But in general let even the childish comments remain.   Most readers aren’t stupid and can pick out comments containing substance from baby arguing. 

The last lesson I’ve learnt is that fantastic organisations can accidentally make big mistakes.  I believe that PNG Blogs is a Godsend for PNG and a powerful weapon against corruption and am one of PNG Blogs’ biggest supporters, in action and in my heart.  That’s why I was a little depressed when I discovered that PNG Blogs had quietly removed the original article critical of Gary Juffa.  I don’t know why.  What I do know is that PNG Blogs is too great an idea to worry about Juffa’s ruffled feathers, and too dependent on the reality that free speech eventually reveals the truth to remove articles when no one is looking. 

We always need both sides of a story to discern the truth.  Even a tiresome self centred, hate filled article submitted by Paul Paraka should be published on PNG Blogs if he emails one in.  As for the Lost Allegations Against Gary Juffa article, let PNG Blogs remember that Gary had every opportunity to debate what was said and answer the questions and points thrown at him.  If he was innocent of the allegations, and had answered everything truthfully, even if it meant being a little embarrassed, I believe that truth would have set him free.   Now we’ll never know.  Which means we will always suspect. 

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