PRIME MINISTER'S HYPOCRISY AND DISHONESTY EXPOSED GLOBALLY AT APEC
The recent front-page stories on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill “confronting” facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg do more than highlight the ethical failings of the Post-Courier and the National.
They also highlight the hypocrisy and dishonesty of Mr O’Neill himself.
The Prime Minister complains about Facebook as being “disruptive”, and its content “misleading and incorrect”, “misinformation and malicious lies.”
The problem for Mr O’Neill is that he himself is one of the worst offenders on Facebook.
He has been caught lying on Facebook innumerable times. Worse, he actually pays Facebook to propagate his lies.
The Prime Minister’s Office is so distrusted by the public and social media that it has now been forced to use “sponsored” posts – a type of post where Facebook is paid to propagate the post much more widely than would otherwise be the case.
These posts (see the accompanying sample) are advertising, not genuine posts.
In any case most of the people who read Mr O’Neill’s Facebook posts usually call them out for the lies and deceit that they are.
The only media outlets that use his material uncritically are the Post-Courier and the National, many of whose journalists are bribed by the PM and his spin doctors.
The Post-Courier these days is little more than a PNC propaganda sheet, a fact highlighted by its series on sitting MPs.
This series is a scandal, and constitutes early campaigning by those featured, despite the claims to the contrary by the O’Neill Regime’s puppet Electoral Commissioner, Patilias Gamato.
It is in breach of media ethics or the worst kind, and underscores the moral poverty of the Post-Courier’s management and journalists.
PNG Blogs is aware of claims around town that much of the material is supplied to the Post-Courier by Government spin doctors and the MPs concerned, and that money changes hands with various journalists.
The Post-Courier is an extreme example of what is known as the Post-Truth World, as recently described by blogger Martyn Namorong.
The Post-Truth World is exemplified by politicians’ use of lies, deceit and emotion-charged populist appeals, usually accompanied by bribery and other forms of corruption.
PNG has been in a Post-Truth World for many years. It may be a world leader in this new form of political corruption, just as it is a world leader in other forms of corruption under Mr O’Neill, one of the most corrupt leaders in the world.
Namorong is a courageous independent voice for good against evil – one of the few in the country – and a clever and intelligent analyst of public affairs. His comments about the O’Neill-Zuckerberg nonsense can be read here: https://medium.com/@Mangiwantok/how-to-turn-a-non-event-during-the-apec-junket-trip-into-a-front-page-story-in-png-82f478818a#.solz0t4vg
Namorong’s most relevant comments are worth repeating:
START QUOTE: “Media in the Post-Brexit, Post-US Elections, Post-Truth World.
“Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2016 is Post-Truth. Post Truth refers to communications of messages that feel like they are true but are contestable.
“In the context of the O’Neill meets Zuckerberg story — there is only one truth available to the public in PNG and that is — O’Neill meets Zuckerberg.
“Everything else is speculation.
“What is also true is that the media and public in PNG have been distracted by their Prime Minister’s insignificant “selfie moments” not just at the APEC in Lima but also last year in Manila (Remember the photo with Obama? Looks similar aye…)
“The reason the PNG press and gullible public are being served these “selfie moments” is that despite attendance of the PM and his PNG delegations, the reality that APEC summits are not delivering investment dividends to PNG.
“The O’Neill government has invested Billions in preparation for the 2018 APEC Summit in PNG. The government has been trying to manage public opinion that is increasingly against the hosting of APEC.
“The government is also trying to manage the opinion of a public that is already switch on towards the elections in 2017.
“For a largely illiterate public, O’Neill’s ‘self-moments’ from APEC may influence positive perceptions towards the cause of the government.
“And in a post-truth, “trumpism” world, the truth is no longer the standard upon which people make judgements. Emotions and aspirations as well as values and beliefs get reinforced by imagery and rhetoric that may be contestable.
“In terms of APEC, the promises being made to Papua New Guineans relate to economic benefits that flow from hosting the APEC in 2018.
“Currently, there is no available data directly correlating PNG’s participation at APEC Summits with foreign direct investment.
“So far, no major PNG-related deal been announced at Lima. This is the story from the Lima junket-trip that the media and the public have missed.
“The photos that are missing from APEC in Lima are those of the Prime Minister of PNG meeting business leaders and making announcements about agreed or potential investments in PNG and making a toast with Pisco Sour.” END QUOTE
The whole sorry APEC saga also clearly demonstrates the Prime Minister’s hypocrisy and deceit.
He has spent more than K3 billion on APEC so far, with more to come. Yet APEC’s sole purpose is to promote a free trade and globalisation agenda that Mr O’Neill states is extremely harmful to small economies such as Papua New Guinea.
He is spending this enormous amount of money on a program and policies that he and his Trade Minister Richard Maru criticise as counter-productive at a time when his corruption and wasteful, reckless policies have destroyed the national economy and government finances.
In doing so he is placing APEC and its damaging policies ahead of funding for ordinary Papua New Guineans who are dying for lack of health care, the next generation of leaders who are being deprived of an education because schools, public servants who are not being paid, retirees who are being robbed of compulsory State superannuation contributions, children who are starving in the streets, victims of natural disasters who are being denied emergency assistance …
So on the one hand the Prime Minister is funding the APEC agenda of free trade and globalisation and on the other he describes this agenda as against the national interest.
After attending the recent APEC meeting in Peru, Mr O’Neill said: ““Sentiments being expressed by people all around the world today are that globalisation is not necessarily beneficial for everyone.
“As a result of that, many of the most vulnerable people have been affected by some of the arrangements and agreements that we have put in place over the years.
“Yes, there has been growth, but there have also been people affected by the loss of jobs and income, and many small businesses and micro businesses have not been able to be competitive when larger multi-nationals come into their markets,” stated the PM.
He said this is particularly the case in emerging economies, as well as for some of the developed economies.
“Despite some structural reforms that have been underway in our respective economies, and how we manage our state owned enterprises, these issues continue to linger.”
In other words the Prime Minister is saying APEC is a waste of time and money.
So people can only assume that the real reason he is spending K3 billion during an economic and financial crisis of his own creation is for self-aggrandizement and political advantage, helped along by the Post-Courier and the National.
