“So what is the true status of the Opposition Leadership? Hon Don Polye is not yet the Opposition Leader!” – Alois Jerewai
In contrast to the post in the Social Media sites by Bryan Kramer, while he is correct in most of the Parliamentary Structure he described in especially the selection or the election to the three arms of Government, I believe Mr. Kramer may have inadvertently sent the wrong signal that the Opposition Leadership had changed.
Because the Office of the Opposition or the Opposition is not specifically created or provided for in our Constitution, the Parliamentary nature of our Legislature ensures it is recognized as comprising of MPs who stand declared as opposed to the majority who form the Executive Government led by the Prime Minister elected on the floor of the Parliament or installed by either a Vote of No Confidence or upon a vacancy occurring.
After the return of the writs on a general election and a Prime Minister is elected, the opposing candidate for the position of Prime Minister is usually recognized automatically by the Speaker as the Opposition Leader! If that person declines to take up that Leadership, a meeting of the Opposition Caucus elects the OL. Usually it is the Party with the largest number opposed to the election of the PM after elections whose Leader is recognized by the Speaker as OL.
In any other circumstances as in the present case where Hon Don Polye and some of his Party's MPs who had supported the election of PO as Prime Minister, but who have now for one reason or another defected to the Opposition, and who as in Polye's case seeks the Opposition Leadership, the Parliamentary Conventions require that he ( and others) must serve and actually sit on the Opposition Benches of the Parliament in at least three consecutive Meetings of the Parliament before , with majority numbers if need be, the Speaker can recognise him as Opposition Leader. The Speaker also can only recognise him as such during a Session of the Parliament on the Floor of the Parliament! Not in any other way!
The question of who is more competent or effective or any other virtue is irrelevant to the recognition procedure!
Why is it in the power of the Speaker to bestow such recognition! Because the Speaker is solely and totally the presidium of the entire Parliament both during Parliament Meetings and outside including the Precincts of the Parliament.
So what is the true status of the Opposition Leadership?
Hon Don Polye is not yet the Opposition Leader!
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Alois Jerewai also advised earlier tonight in a second post on the issue:
Debate and postulations over the issue of Opposition Leadership is over for me, take it or leave it!
I have had good interaction with Hon Don Polye recently as I have with Hon Belden Namah over the past year! Both are privately very very good men! I was the only Lawyer on record as having spoken against both O'Neill and Namah when they led the take-over of Government from the GC Somare-led Government in 2011 August 02nd. Today I provide advice (legal mostly) to Namah. What was done was done! Today we must all protect our vulnerable Nation with its fabric of a political system, not from the perspectives of political or law students, but from the reality of a near collapse of our democracy at the hands of our Leaders on 2nd August, 2011! We can all do this by properly informed knowledgeable exchanges, omitting as much as possible our personal emotions. But above all we must do and say what's right without fear or favour!
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Alois Jerewai is a leader & a very prominent senior lawyer who has also successfully acted before in the past for former late Prime Minister & PNC Party Leader Sir William Jack Skate and his clear advice as outlined above should put public speculation on the Leadership of the Opposition to rest.
