PNGBLOGS

With Papua New Guinea's five-yearly general election just four months away, outsiders could be excused for being baffled by the desperate, damaging battle for power now consuming Port Moresby. Why bother, given that the people - not the courts or the politicians - will soon resolve the Constitutional conundrum of who has the legitimate mandate to govern? The answer was graphically illustrated in events engineered by the rival political supremos yesterday. In PNG the posturing of the Big Men and the perks of incumbency (the power to win favour through popular policy; access to Government coffers to bankroll campaigns) are critical to securing control of the next Parliament, and with it control of the vast riches anticipated to flow from the resources boom. Scene One: Belden Namah, acting Defence Minister and deputy to Prime Minister Peter O'Neill - who has clung to power through his strong majority on the floor and the s

With Papua New Guinea's five-yearly general election just four months away, outsiders could be excused for being baffled by the desperate, damaging battle for power now consuming Port Moresby. Why bother, given that the people - not the courts or the politicians - will soon resolve the Constitutional conundrum of who has the legitimate mandate to govern? The answer was graphically illustrated in events engineered by the rival political supremos yesterday. In PNG the posturing of the Big Men and the perks of incumbency (the power to win favour through popular policy; access to Government coffers to bankroll campaigns) are critical to securing control of the next Parliament, and with it control of the vast riches anticipated to flow from the resources boom. Scene One: Belden Namah, acting Defence Minister and deputy to Prime Minister Peter O'Neill - who has clung to power through his strong majority on the floor and

Lawyer Tiffaney Twivey has just been charged with contempt today apparently along with the entire O'Neill/Namah National Executive Council because she gave advice on the amendments to the Prime Minister and NEC Act. "They say it was-sub judice," she said last night."This is complete rubbish - the amendments covered completely different issues than the court case. "It is an act of desperation - and not to hide what you think." Twivey added: "My firm - in documents signed by me - filed contempt documents last Tuesday, January 24,  charging Arthur Somare and Peter Ipatas for contempt for offering a bribe of K200,000 to Police Commissioner's lawyer Alice Kimbu in return for her signing interim consent orders which would allow Fred Yakasa to be Police Commissioner until the substantive case is heard.  "She refused and informed the State.  "I filed the documents on behalf of the State and Parliament" " David Dotaona (Yakasa's la

Lawyer Tiffaney Twivey has just been charged with contempt today apparently along with the entire O'Neill/Namah National Executive Council because she gave advice on the amendments to the Prime Minister and NEC Act. "They say it was-sub judice," she said last night."This is complete rubbish - the amendments covered completely different issues than the court case. "It is an act of desperation - and not to hide what you think." Twivey added: "My firm - in documents signed by me - filed contempt documents last Tuesday, January 24,  charging Arthur Somare and Peter Ipatas for contempt for offering a bribe of K200,000 to Police Commissioner's lawyer Alice Kimbu in return for her signing interim consent orders which would allow Fred Yakasa to be Police Commissioner until the substantive case is heard.  "She refused and informed the State.  "I filed the documents on behalf of the State and Parliament" " David Dotao

PNG politics  has become what we can all call the 'Beauty & The Buffoon Show' after Julia Gillard has made her intentions known to O'Neill and has been pushing it in Waigani and other avenues, Alexander Downer has decided to push the matter beyond doubt by coming to her rescue with a few handy pointers and even a chronology of events of his own. Well how does that work? A blue blood die hard Liberal Party man coming to the rescue of this Labour Party red haired damsel in distress in the wilds of New Guinea with one leg in the air and the other conducting the Waigani Choir. There might just be a catch somewhere, and we know it is not political gratuity because over the years we know there was no love lost between Liberals and Labour when Downer was active. There is something sinister going on. To even think that Downer has any reserve goodwill or inherent altruism for the nation of Papua New Guinea or its people is the statement he has made would be far fro

PNG politics  has become what we can all call the 'Beauty & The Buffoon Show' after Julia Gillard has made her intentions known to O'Neill and has been pushing it in Waigani and other avenues, Alexander Downer has decided to push the matter beyond doubt by coming to her rescue with a few handy pointers and even a chronology of events of his own. Well how does that work? A blue blood die hard Liberal Party man coming to the rescue of this Labour Party red haired damsel in distress in the wilds of New Guinea with one leg in the air and the other conducting the Waigani Choir. There might just be a catch somewhere, and we know it is not political gratuity because over the years we know there was no love lost between Liberals and Labour when Downer was active. There is something sinister going on. To even think that Downer has any reserve goodwill or inherent altruism for the nation of Papua New Guinea or its people is the statement he has made would be far fro

OUR neighbour's political crisis should serve as a wake-up call for Canberra, writes Alexander Downer I was in New York to brief the United Nations Security Council last week when I saw the ugly scenes from Canberra of our Prime Minister and Opposition Leader being bundled out of a restaurant by security officers protecting them from protesters. This incident made news right around the world. It was embarrassing. All day people were asking me what was going on in Australia. Imagine my horror when I subsequently discovered that there was a political motive behind the protest: To try to humiliate Tony Abbott! Talk about an own goal! A Labor staffer had to resign and the protesters were seen to be party to a political stunt. But, as I said to my interlocutors, this was just a passing incident which will be well forgotten in a few months. Just to the north of Australia, something much more serious has been going on. For the last few months, Papua