The John Simon Strategy To Avoid Being Caught for Corruption. Learning From PNG’s Grand Masters of Corruption
BY MAPRIK BOB
From the moment he was elected, the now disgraced Maprik MP John Simon applied a strategy that over the years has gotten many corrupt MPs off the hook. Peter O’Neill has long applied this technique successfully, as have many other MPs, including Anderson Agiru, Puka Temu, David Arore, and even that old horse, Peter Yama. One even wonders if Michael Somare, father of the totally corrupt Arthur Somare and founder of the National Alliance of which John Simon is a member, was one of Mr Simon’s teachers?
The essence of the Strategy is to act like you’re the one angry about corruption and trying to fight it. You’re the anti-corruption fighter and it’s everyone else who is guilty. That’s the role that John Simon took on from the moment he was elected. Right after the 2012 election, Simon spoke before a large crowd outside the Maprik district office and laid down the law. Playing the role of the honest leader to the extreme, he impounded all government vehicles, he imposed strict and professional work attitudes on district staff, and he said he would maintain all feeder roads within the district, improve the Maprik District hospital. He complained bitterly that the previous corrupt Maprik MP, Gabriel Kapris, had spent a lot of money with very little to show for it. “Today this will change,” finished John Simon in his launching speech as PM. He declared that he had frozen the district account until all books were checked and cleared by government auditors.
The Maprik people swallowed every word of what John Simon said. No one considered that all this was nothing more than a cover up for corruption!
In March of this year, Simon was back at it again. Perhaps he was aware that the former Maprik District Administrator and Treasurer, who Simon sacked under the pretence that they were the wrongdoers, had made a formal complaint to the police who were investigating the corrupt Simon’s own financial dealings with the district office. In any case, this year the issue was bridges and John Simon had a bit to say about all that. This time around, MP Simon made a public call for Sam Koim’s Task Force sweep team to investigate why three bridges were built in places in the District where no one is using them despite millions of taxpayers’ kina having been spent. One bridge in Sipari LLG was no longer useful as the river had changed its course. Another bridge couldn’t be used because of a landowner blockade by Miyambom people with the tiresome old compensation demands. The third bridge in the Waura LLG was damaged and couldn’t be used.
None of this sounds like whoever built the bridges, all under the Yumi Yet bridge building, was actually to blame for the fiascos that later occurred. That wasn’t the point. The point was to make a big noise making John Simon sound like the big investigator and that he did very well. He said the bridges might as well be removed and moved to provinces that needed them. He then proudly pronounced that since his people were complaining about poor roads and not bridges, he hat allocated K3 million to fixing roads and that all the roads in the district were going to be done up in the next couple years. All those roads fixed for only K3 million? Not likely in Kickback New Guinea! But of course, that wasn’t the point. The point was to make a big noise that John Simon was the honest action man and everyone else was corrupt. Just like Peter O’Neill is the action man. Or Beldon Namah. Or any other politician whose main action is taking place behind the scenes and involves shoveling money into their private bank accounts!
Well, now we know what is likely the truth about the allegedly disgraced and allegedly totally corrupt John Simon: Two counts of false pretense and 38 counts of official corruption. Better yet, this is not going to be a Leadership Tribunal that’s going to establish John Simon’s innocence or guilt. It will be judged in the courts and if found guilty, John Simon should be receiving a prison sentence just like the disgraced Paul Tientsen. We shouldn’t celebrate just yet, however, as there are all kinds of tricks played in our court system. Peter O’Neill’s own “innocent” verdict in the NPF saga, despite very clear evidence indicating his guilt, is just one indication that the guilty are found innocent in PNG as often as the innocent are found innocent.
Still, the strategy of “I’m the honest MP, not them!” worked well for John Simon for the past couple years. It took hard work to manage 38 counts of corruption in such a short time.
Is your MP using the same trick to cover up for their own corruption?
From the moment he was elected, the now disgraced Maprik MP John Simon applied a strategy that over the years has gotten many corrupt MPs off the hook. Peter O’Neill has long applied this technique successfully, as have many other MPs, including Anderson Agiru, Puka Temu, David Arore, and even that old horse, Peter Yama. One even wonders if Michael Somare, father of the totally corrupt Arthur Somare and founder of the National Alliance of which John Simon is a member, was one of Mr Simon’s teachers?
The essence of the Strategy is to act like you’re the one angry about corruption and trying to fight it. You’re the anti-corruption fighter and it’s everyone else who is guilty. That’s the role that John Simon took on from the moment he was elected. Right after the 2012 election, Simon spoke before a large crowd outside the Maprik district office and laid down the law. Playing the role of the honest leader to the extreme, he impounded all government vehicles, he imposed strict and professional work attitudes on district staff, and he said he would maintain all feeder roads within the district, improve the Maprik District hospital. He complained bitterly that the previous corrupt Maprik MP, Gabriel Kapris, had spent a lot of money with very little to show for it. “Today this will change,” finished John Simon in his launching speech as PM. He declared that he had frozen the district account until all books were checked and cleared by government auditors.
The Maprik people swallowed every word of what John Simon said. No one considered that all this was nothing more than a cover up for corruption!
In March of this year, Simon was back at it again. Perhaps he was aware that the former Maprik District Administrator and Treasurer, who Simon sacked under the pretence that they were the wrongdoers, had made a formal complaint to the police who were investigating the corrupt Simon’s own financial dealings with the district office. In any case, this year the issue was bridges and John Simon had a bit to say about all that. This time around, MP Simon made a public call for Sam Koim’s Task Force sweep team to investigate why three bridges were built in places in the District where no one is using them despite millions of taxpayers’ kina having been spent. One bridge in Sipari LLG was no longer useful as the river had changed its course. Another bridge couldn’t be used because of a landowner blockade by Miyambom people with the tiresome old compensation demands. The third bridge in the Waura LLG was damaged and couldn’t be used.
None of this sounds like whoever built the bridges, all under the Yumi Yet bridge building, was actually to blame for the fiascos that later occurred. That wasn’t the point. The point was to make a big noise making John Simon sound like the big investigator and that he did very well. He said the bridges might as well be removed and moved to provinces that needed them. He then proudly pronounced that since his people were complaining about poor roads and not bridges, he hat allocated K3 million to fixing roads and that all the roads in the district were going to be done up in the next couple years. All those roads fixed for only K3 million? Not likely in Kickback New Guinea! But of course, that wasn’t the point. The point was to make a big noise that John Simon was the honest action man and everyone else was corrupt. Just like Peter O’Neill is the action man. Or Beldon Namah. Or any other politician whose main action is taking place behind the scenes and involves shoveling money into their private bank accounts!
Well, now we know what is likely the truth about the allegedly disgraced and allegedly totally corrupt John Simon: Two counts of false pretense and 38 counts of official corruption. Better yet, this is not going to be a Leadership Tribunal that’s going to establish John Simon’s innocence or guilt. It will be judged in the courts and if found guilty, John Simon should be receiving a prison sentence just like the disgraced Paul Tientsen. We shouldn’t celebrate just yet, however, as there are all kinds of tricks played in our court system. Peter O’Neill’s own “innocent” verdict in the NPF saga, despite very clear evidence indicating his guilt, is just one indication that the guilty are found innocent in PNG as often as the innocent are found innocent.
Still, the strategy of “I’m the honest MP, not them!” worked well for John Simon for the past couple years. It took hard work to manage 38 counts of corruption in such a short time.
Is your MP using the same trick to cover up for their own corruption?
