Confidence sinks deeper than gas wells
HAMISH MCDONALD, Sydney Morning Herald POLITICIANS often count on the public having a short memory span, but a record was set this week by Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare. The ''Grand Chief'', as the independence-transition leader is honoured, returned to office explaining he had been away on holiday to use up his accrued leave. This struck a lot of his countrymen as odd, because when he left work five weeks earlier, they distinctly remember him saying he was standing aside to face a tribunal that would decide if he had violated leadership rules. Some unkind reporters dug out the press release from his office which said Somare said would ''now voluntarily step aside and allow the Deputy Prime Minister, Sam Abal, to assume full function and responsibility of the Office of the Prime Minister while he attends to clearing his name''. Somare has been referred to a leadership tribunal to face charges that he didn't submit statemen