Please, Mr Prime Minister, NO MORE New Task Forces or Commissions Of Inquiry
I have grown tired of the well known political strategy of covering up problems by investigating them, putting the findings into reports that often are never released to the public, and then walking away from the recommendations and findings as if they never existed.
We all know what became of the NPF commission of inquiry report. The inquiry report recommended the prosecution of Jimmy Maladina, Peter O’Neill, and Herman Leahy. The COI was chaired by Tos Barnett, a retired judge who had previously produced the logging corruption Barnett Report that was a damning indictment of the corruption of Michael Somare and his family, plus many others. Barnett knew how to investigate and he certainly knew what kind of evidence was needed to lead to successful prosecution.
Maladina, O’Neill and Leahy were prosecuted as per the inquiry’ recommendations, and a national court found them not guilty. At the time, there was an outcry of injustice but it didn’t matter. Maladina, O’Neill, and Leahy went free.
Then there was the Department of Finance Inquiry, another damning report, over 700 pages long, complete with names and evidences. Paul Paraka was only one of some 20 PNG lawyers who were identified as having milked the Finance Department of hundreds of millions of kina, received in return for kickbacks to the Dept. Finance Secretary. He kept the report from being released for years using court injunctions which the government never bothered to fight. Paraka was the king and if he didn’t want the report released, then it would not be released.
To this day, all those implicated under the Finance Inquiry Report are free. That even includes Isaac Lupari, who is Chief of Staff for Peter O’Neill, and was found to have stolen nearly K4 million. Can it get any worse?
Of course it can. That’s why we have the SABL COI and its report, which detailed by far the most massive and grab in the history of PNG. The numerous SABL scams in the space of only about 5 years led to the effective loss of over 10% of PNG’s lands into the hands of unscrupulous foreigners and equally deceitful national businessmen, including Opposition Leader Belden Namah.
The SABLE COI had its problems, but what it did produce was again damning against certain powerful people. The Prime Minister announced that the Commission’s recommendations would be implemented, which included the cancellation of numerous SABL leases, including the famous Bewani SABL that Belden Namah grew rich from. It appears he was lying. The problem is that his political archenemy, Belden Namah, sold the SABL to some Asians and while he could still be further investigated and prosecuted using the report’s findings, far more powerful people important to the Prime Minister are more directly in the firing line of the SABL recommendations. Thus, as of today, no SABL leases have been cancelled. Again, the Prime Minister lied through his teeth hoping that people would forget his promise.
Let’s also not forget the famous Sevua Report on Unitech corruption and mismanagement which apparently has never been implemented even though the students got it released. But released to who? Has anyone seen it and has Peter O’Neill pushed to get its recommendations implemented? Peter O’Neill originally said that the Sevua report would become the government’s guideline for dealing with the Unitech saga. Instead it was covered up for more than a year and now forgotten.
This is a recurring trend of deceit and dishonesty. People with good memories don’t forget Peter O’Neill’s promises and that’s why people with good memories catch most of Peter O’Neill’s lies and are astounded how easily he gets away with it.
Finally, let’s not forget Peter O’Neill’s now very infamous Task Force Against Corruption, headed by Sam Koim. The very same Task Force that Peter O’Neill said would be free of political interference. The very same Task Force that Peter O’Neill is trying without end to politically interfere with, using the court system to paralyse the Task Force and eventually destroy it.
Peter O’Neill is not the first PM to set up Commissions of Inquiry and Task Forces to get the political heat off his back, knowing that he can escape responsibility for implementing the recommendations later on, after the public has cooled off about the issue and it no longer gets newspaper headlines. However, this Prime Minister is without question the worst ever at ignoring the results of his own Task Force findings and available actionable Commissions of Inquiry. He cares nothing about what public interest these expensive commissions and inquiries serve.
That being true, what is this nonsense that Peter O’Neill announced yesterday, saying he was setting up a new task force to strengthen the internal affairs of the police and specificially to deal with police brutality?
How is this task force going to be different from any of the other task forces and commissions of inquiry whose recommendations have been ignored by the Prime Minister?
Or will this one work so long as no Very Important or Very Powerful People are implicated?
I won’t hold my breath that this Task Force is going lower the incidence of police brutality more than a fraction. It looks to me like another way for the Prime Minister to dishonestly placate the public while doing nothing in the end.
The most telling words about the new Task Force came from the Prime Minister’s own mouth. Read his words and think whether what he is saying does not in the first instance refer back to his own behaviour?
“Many of the policemen are serving private interests rather than the interest of the State and the People.” – Peter O’Neill
“When we have differences, we have the courts which deal with these matters; we shouldn’t be running around trying to create an environment where vested interested are pursued at any costs.” – Peter O’Neill
Please, Prime Minister O’Neill. Such words coming from your mouth carry no power anymore. Stop your unending hypocrisy and games. Start putting the people first and let your political aspirations take a distant back seat.
