NAPE'S REPUTATION AS THE MOST CORRUPT SPEAKER IN PNG HISTORY NAILED SHUT BY THE SOCIAL MEDIA WHICH FRIGHTENED THE TRADITIONAL MEDIA.
His death didn't even make an EMTV Youtube upload and the O'Neill government was totally silent about the death, even though it had the whole weekend to prepare a news release. The newspapers seemed to go overboard in running as small as possible articles announcing his death and placing them far from the front page. The National didn't even bother running a photo to accompany their obituary.
Even Don Polye, who raved over Nape and supported him as a T.H.E. candidate during the 2012 election, was silent. In fact, not one public figure rose to defend Jeffrey Nape on Monday.
The media itself, as well as other government leaders, all seemed shocked by the angry social media reaction and didn't dare want to step into the bee's nest by praising the late and highly corrupt speaker.
None of this harsh reaction and turned eyes should come as much surprise when considering how Jeffrey Nape conducted himself as a public servant. The fact is that Nape was an embarrassment in life and a shame to all of Papua New Guinea.
What is more surprising is how Nape's death was heralded by a radical shift in traditional attitudes towards showing automatic respect for the death no matter how horrible or evil they might have been in life. The PNG reaction on social media was swift. The comments, ridicule, and outright anger resembled more what one sees in Court of Public Opinion rages that occur in developed countries.
Fair vindication for the reasonably honest Bart Philemon who was defeated by Nape for the speaker contest just after the 2007 election.
The Court of Public Opinion was always present in the more advanced societies as one way for citizens to express their opinions about news events and issues of the day. However it has exploded not only in popularity but its impact on politicians and other public figures with the appearance of the internet.
The Court of Public Opinion is made up of Tom, Dick, Harrys and Mary's who loudly want to have their say, be it in the letters page of a newspaper or on a Facebook forum.
They usually get it right and they are merciless in their prosecution and punishment of those who public figures whose behaviour and actions don't pass muster with them.
Courts of Public Opinion in PNG have swirled around the passing around of PNG politicians and girlfriends in adulterous relations, but spread to everyday informal prosecution of their sins.
But never in memory has a deceased public figure been subjected to such ridicule and vile, all coming after one corruption after another by the late Nape was dug out of the archives and splashed across the internet.
In the end, his few defenders seemed mostly to be his relatives and tribesmen, as well as voters from Sinasina-Yongomugl (Simbu) who used to benefit from Nape's cash handouts and vote bribes.
There is no argument that Nape's legacy is zero after this massive conviction by the Court of Public Opinion. That's what will go down in history as retrievable by the internet search engines. The mud extends beyond Nape's grave and has muddied anyone carrying the Nape surname from Simbu Sinasina-Yongomugl area. It has tarnished the whole district in the sense that the conventional wisdom now tends to view those who live there as primitive non-thinkers who only vote in return for cash.
On one hand, it seems unfair for the slime dripping from Nape's actions while alive to be affecting his family as well as those living in the district he used to serve. On the other hand, the Court of Public Opinion on the social media is now here to stay in PNG. The outrage against Nape upon his death serves notice to all families of public figures that unless they want to be laughed at or ridiculed behind their backs, they had better start pressuring the black sheep politicians and public figures in their family to shape up and shape up fast.
We look and we now see yet another way in which good people can finally get control of the corrupt in PNG. The corrupt will hate it and the evil will try to silence it but social media Courts of Public Opinion look likely to prosecute, convict and punish corrupt public figures in PNG for a long time to come.
