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PNGEXPOSED BLOG While many are angry and frustrated at the slap on the wrist given to Prime Minister Michael Somare after he was found guilty on 13 charges of misconduct in office, the media and other commentators seem blind to the glaring hole in the PM’s evidence to the Leadership Tribunal. On Monday, March 14, Michael Somare gave sworn evidence that he has never had any salary other than his parliamentary salary ever since he entered parliament in 1968. The PM also maintained that he never received any income from his only business, a plantation he owns in Wewak. "I have been living on a parliamentary salary from 1968 up until today; I do not have any other extra salary for any other businesses except for transport and travel allowances which are parliamentary benefits" If this is true, and the Prime Minister’s only income is his Parliamentary salary then how has he been able to fund a three year legal battle to avoid the Leadership Tribunal and how has he paid for his lar

PNGEXPOSED BLOG While many are angry and frustrated at the slap on the wrist given to Prime Minister Michael Somare after he was found guilty on 13 charges of misconduct in office, the media and other commentators seem blind to the glaring hole in the PM’s evidence to the Leadership Tribunal. On Monday, March 14, Michael Somare gave sworn evidence that he has never had any salary other than his parliamentary salary ever since he entered parliament in 1968. The PM also maintained that he never received any income from his only business, a plantation he owns in Wewak. "I have been living on a parliamentary salary from 1968 up until today; I do not have any other extra salary for any other businesses except for transport and travel allowances which are parliamentary benefits" If this is true, and the Prime Minister’s only income is his Parliamentary salary then how has he been able to fund a three year legal battle to avoid the Leadership Tribunal and how has he paid for his

SOUTH PACIFIC POST   A colourful rainbow hung over Port Moresby amid threatening rain clouds as the Prime Minister emerged from the Waigani court room smiling and waving to supporters from the left side of his official car. A man in the crowd shouted: “Sukundumi, Sunkundumi” to Sir Michael who responded with a smile and a wave. Sir Michael had claimed at one time that he is the Sukundumi – the great Sepik River God. Ministers, departmental heads, bureaucrats and members of the public who went to hear the tribunal decision waved on the PM and his entourage as they drove through the National and Supreme court car park from the back of the court buildings. Many of the East Sepik people in Port Moresby had been camping at the Prime Minister’s official Mirigini House behind the Parliament and the National Museum and Art Gallery since Wednesday. Several landowner leaders of the resources-rich Southern High-lands Province also turned up to show their support for the Prime Minister. They contr

SOUTH PACIFIC POST   A colourful rainbow hung over Port Moresby amid threatening rain clouds as the Prime Minister emerged from the Waigani court room smiling and waving to supporters from the left side of his official car. A man in the crowd shouted: “Sukundumi, Sunkundumi” to Sir Michael who responded with a smile and a wave. Sir Michael had claimed at one time that he is the Sukundumi – the great Sepik River God. Ministers, departmental heads, bureaucrats and members of the public who went to hear the tribunal decision waved on the PM and his entourage as they drove through the National and Supreme court car park from the back of the court buildings. Many of the East Sepik people in Port Moresby had been camping at the Prime Minister’s official Mirigini House behind the Parliament and the National Museum and Art Gallery since Wednesday. Several landowner leaders of the resources-rich Southern High-lands Province also turned up to show their support for the Prime Minister. They co

SUSAN MERRELL Aripaea Salmon, father of the alleged victim in the Julian Moti case died on the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu on Sunday 20 March of a heart attack. Just three days earlier on March 17, in a videoed interview, he signalled his and his family’s intentions to cease co-operating with the Australian prosecution of Moti. Asked if he, his wife or his daughter intended to travel to Australia to testify, he replied, “no”. Salmon stated that he had been “swept along” in a case not of his choosing and over which his family had little control. He said the child-sex tourism charges with which Moti had been charged had been presented to the family as a fait accompli and that none of his family had made any subsequent complaint after the case was settled in Vanuatu. He said the Australian Federal Police (AFP) told them that if they did not cooperate it would “go against them.” He also admitted that he could not be sure that the offences with which Moti was charged actually occurr

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