More Challenges for Somare
NATIONAL EDITORIAL THE government of Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare gained itself a three-month reprieve from a serious challenge to his leadership. Parliament stands adjourned to November but, what relieve the government might have earned, it will not be enjoyed by the prime minister himself. His challenge has only just begun. His leadership is challenged not only from without but, more importantly, from within. It is highly likely he will not take the National Alliance to the 2012 general elections as its head. Signs of the strain were already evident yesterday when, as parliament was rising, the PM pointed across at Bulolo MP Sam Basil and told him: “Bai mi kilim yu autsait (I will kill you outside).” However way it is interpreted, and however hard the prime minister’s media unit tries to dilute the intentions of the PM, the threat remains and is unbecoming of an elder statesman, a man famously described as the “father of the nation”. While three ministries have been volunteered to