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Somare has left PNG a broken nation

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Allan Patience THE primary cause of the recent ''mutiny'' by sections of the Papua New Guinea defence force is a mix of soldiers' anger over low pay, their substandard living conditions, associated low morale, and grudges against some of their senior officers. This has led some of them to back Sir Michael Somare in his quest for his reinstatement as prime minister, naively believing that the dishonoured promises of the past will somehow be honoured this time around. Sir Michael and his followers are boycotting parliamentary sittings while scheming a take-over of the government before the general election due in a few months. Incumbency is vital to electoral success in PNG, so access to the largesse of the Treasury benches is now everything to the Somare camp. Sir Michael's followers seem ready to go to desperate extremes to regain power. In a bizarre move last week, they ordered retired Colonel Yaura Sasa to seize control of the defence force

ONEILL'S ILLEGITIMACY BEGETS ILLEGITIMACY .

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Come on Papua New Guineans, lets not kid ourselves. The government of O'Neill-Namah is illegitimate. We have been trying our best to rationalize it on the basis of the conduct of the Somare governments of the past and their performance or lack thereof. Then we realized more than half of them including the Speaker are in the current camp. So we embarked upon personalizing it on the Somare family. Its so convenient to do that. I have even criticised Arthur Somare on the LNG deal, and called it a stupid deal. But that is as far as I could go. I do not have any evidence of any corruption on the LNG deal.  All I know is it was a sell out by Arthur of PNG, and that is due to his inexperience and ready trust of whitemen over his own kind. That is pure insecurity. If he has corruptly made money from the LNG deal, he will never become great. He will lose his Angoram seat.  Nature will deal with him. However, my dislike of his policy on LNG should not automatically translate int

ONEILL'S ILLEGITIMACY BEGETS ILLEGITIMACY .

Image
Come on Papua New Guineans, lets not kid ourselves. The government of O'Neill-Namah is illegitimate. We have been trying our best to rationalize it on the basis of the conduct of the Somare governments of the past and their performance or lack thereof. Then we realized more than half of them including the Speaker are in the current camp. So we embarked upon personalizing it on the Somare family. Its so convenient to do that. I have even criticised Arthur Somare on the LNG deal, and called it a stupid deal. But that is as far as I could go. I do not have any evidence of any corruption on the LNG deal.  All I know is it was a sell out by Arthur of PNG, and that is due to his inexperience and ready trust of whitemen over his own kind. That is pure insecurity. If he has corruptly made money from the LNG deal, he will never become great. He will lose his Angoram seat.  Nature will deal with him. However, my dislike of his policy on LNG should not automatically tr

SUPREME COURT NOT BACKING DOWN TO PETER O'NEILL

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Chief Justice Salamo Injia The supreme court has issued a order to stay the suspension of the Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia. The judiciary is not backing off. Its standing by its decision of December 12th 2011. It has also ordered all, Peter O'neill, Namah, Somare, Agiru and all those senior public servants appointed and revoked to appear in court with all their lawyers next week Tuesday in person for the hearings. The same bench that made the ruling last year will hear it all again. Lawyers for O'Neil and Namah Tiffany Twiffey and Michael Wilson have also been sited for contempt by the Supreme Court and are tolds to appear in person next week as well. The orders were signed and sent to newsrooms by the Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia, Justices Bernard Sakora and Nicholas Kiriwom. Now the two arms of government are clashing?? We will see what happens next Tuesday. Will Yakasa be asked to arrest them. No Yakasa is also ordered to turn up in person as well. All this follows confi

SUPREME COURT NOT BACKING DOWN TO PETER O'NEILL

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Chief Justice Salamo Injia The supreme court has issued a order to stay the suspension of the Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia. The judiciary is not backing off. Its standing by its decision of December 12th 2011. It has also ordered all, Peter O'neill, Namah, Somare, Agiru and all those senior public servants appointed and revoked to appear in court with all their lawyers next week Tuesday in person for the hearings. The same bench that made the ruling last year will hear it all again. Lawyers for O'Neil and Namah Tiffany Twiffey and Michael Wilson have also been sited for contempt by the Supreme Court and are tolds to appear in person next week as well. The orders were signed and sent to newsrooms by the Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia, Justices Bernard Sakora and Nicholas Kiriwom. Now the two arms of government are clashing?? We will see what happens next Tuesday. Will Yakasa be asked to arrest them. No Yakasa is also ordered to turn up in person as well. All this fol

Best of friends taking too long

WILL Australia and New Zealand and all other nations which PNG calls its friends wait until it is down the tube before they lend a helping hand? How much longer do they prefer to wait? More especially, how much more time does this nation have before something nastier than presented itself last Thursday at the PNG Defence Force headquarters turns up? For, make no mistake, the political impasse in PNG will not simply go away if we ignore it long enough. It simply will not because this is the kind of country we have. We are tribal. We are interconnected. Both sides to this impasse have their families, tribes, regions, provinces and friends who will stick by them. The problem is festering and growing. It simply will not die a natural death. Strong arm tactics, even if employed under the guise of upholding the law, will not help. Jailing members of one side or the other will not help because of this inter-connectedness in PNG society. There is no time for politically correct sensitivities

Best of friends taking too long

WILL Australia and New Zealand and all other nations which PNG calls its friends wait until it is down the tube before they lend a helping hand? How much longer do they prefer to wait? More especially, how much more time does this nation have before something nastier than presented itself last Thursday at the PNG Defence Force headquarters turns up? For, make no mistake, the political impasse in PNG will not simply go away if we ignore it long enough. It simply will not because this is the kind of country we have. We are tribal. We are interconnected. Both sides to this impasse have their families, tribes, regions, provinces and friends who will stick by them. The problem is festering and growing. It simply will not die a natural death. Strong arm tactics, even if employed under the guise of upholding the law, will not help. Jailing members of one side or the other will not help because of this inter-connectedness in PNG society. There is no time for politically correct

ARREST US!

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SIR Michael Somare and his politician son Arthur Somare have offered themselves to be arrested – if police have any criminal evidence against them, TheNational reports. Both father and son, caught in a seemingly immoveable political tug-of-war with Peter O’Neill over which side has legitimate government, made the offer following rumours that both were being implicated in the failed military mutiny last week. Other MPs in their camp were also being sought by police to explain their roles in last Thursday’s short-lived attempt by a retrenched colonel and a group of renegade soldiers to take over the command of the PNG Defence Force. Sir Michael, who claims his legitimacy from the Dec 12 Supreme Court decision, called on the O’Neill-led regime to “drop the charade and uphold the Constitution” – or make arrests if police held evidence of a criminal nature against them. Arthur Somare fronted up at the police headquarters in Konedobu yesterday morning and waited a full hour to see Police C

ARREST US!

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SIR Michael Somare and his politician son Arthur Somare have offered themselves to be arrested – if police have any criminal evidence against them, TheNational reports. Both father and son, caught in a seemingly immoveable political tug-of-war with Peter O’Neill over which side has legitimate government, made the offer following rumours that both were being implicated in the failed military mutiny last week. Other MPs in their camp were also being sought by police to explain their roles in last Thursday’s short-lived attempt by a retrenched colonel and a group of renegade soldiers to take over the command of the PNG Defence Force. Sir Michael, who claims his legitimacy from the Dec 12 Supreme Court decision, called on the O’Neill-led regime to “drop the charade and uphold the Constitution” – or make arrests if police held evidence of a criminal nature against them. Arthur Somare fronted up at the police headquarters in Konedobu yesterday morning and waited a full hour t