PNGBLOGS

I wrote this in response to some of our members who need some background information about Djoko Tjandra and have queries whether he is an international fugitive or not. Let us keep up the good fight and endorse that DJOKO MUST GO! You will also note that now the NAIMA RICE PROJECT has failed and has been canned by Agriculture Minister Tommy Tomscoll, the same actors are now pushing a ridiculous submission to build a giant building to be funded by the STATE on valuable STATE land by the same company.  It is sickening that this year is starting on this sinister note! Can ANO PALA and PUKA TEMU explain their fascination with DJOKO TJANDRA and NAIMA? MUST we continue to be insulted by these so called leaders? WHOSE INTERESTS ARE THEY SERVING WE MUST ASK? Djoko TJANDRA is now out of PNG on a fraudulently acquired PNG PASSPORT traipsing around the world on VISAS he has obtained using this passport while he is wanted in INDONESIA for embezzlement, a crime for which he has been CONVICTED! I W

By BELDEN NAMAH MP, Leader of Opposition, I want to make it known to Papua New Guinea. This press conference is to put to the people of Papua New Guinea facts surrounding the mystery jet that arrived into Papua New Guinea on the 17th of this month. There are facts surrounding the issue Papua New Guinea needs to know that I need to make clear to Papua New Guineans including the foreign community. Who is actually the big fat liar in this whole situation? I made myself very clear on Thursday. As I entered the arrival and departure VIP lounge at the international terminal, I saw the Foreign Affairs Minister for Papua New Guinea Hon. Rimbik Pato, the State Own Enterprise Minister and Hon. Ben Micah. In their company was the Foreign Affairs Minister for Vanuatu. If Ben Micah is denying that he was not there then I must have seen his ghost. You know it is really sad when senior Ministers, it is really sad when we see the Prime Minister of this country telling lies to the public, to the people

By BEN ELTHAM - New Matilda The difficult art of government has many challenges, and its practitioners know many failures. But there is something about asylum seeker policy that seems especially corrosive to Australian democracy. If you need a recent example, look no further than the legal challenge being brought by Papua New Guinea opposition leader Belden Namah to Australia’s immigration detention centre on Manus Island. Namah plans to challenge the legality of the centre in PNG’s Supreme Court. He argues that the PNG Constitution protects individuals against detention without charge, and that asylum seekers being held there have not been charged with any crime. The Gillard Government has already lined up to attack Namah, describing his challenge as political. Labor Cabinet Secretary Mark Dreyfus told Sky News today that "I think when you’ve got the Opposition Leader in Papua New Guinea bringing a proceeding in the Supreme Court in Papua New Guinea, it does smack of politics to

By BEN ELTHAM - New Matilda The difficult art of government has many challenges, and its practitioners know many failures. But there is something about asylum seeker policy that seems especially corrosive to Australian democracy. If you need a recent example, look no further than the legal challenge being brought by Papua New Guinea opposition leader Belden Namah to Australia’s immigration detention centre on Manus Island. Namah plans to challenge the legality of the centre in PNG’s Supreme Court. He argues that the PNG Constitution protects individuals against detention without charge, and that asylum seekers being held there have not been charged with any crime. The Gillard Government has already lined up to attack Namah, describing his challenge as political. Labor Cabinet Secretary Mark Dreyfus told Sky News today that "I think when you’ve got the Opposition Leader in Papua New Guinea bringing a proceeding in the Supreme Court in Papua New Guinea, it does smack of pol

THE winner in the constitutional challenge to the Manus Island asylum-seeker centre just launched in Papua New Guinea will be the PNG judiciary, whatever the ultimate verdict. Whether the Peter O'Neill government or opposition leader Belden Namah - scourge of judges - is declared the victor, the courts will have showcased their ability to frustrate the nation's politicians. It is a serious challenge the Gillard government's Pacific Solution is facing in the PNG courts. The independence of the PNG judiciary was an important sub-theme in last year's political drama as rival prime ministers and governments struggled for supremacy - eventually resolved decisively in O'Neill's favour at the July election. Luther Wenge, a former acting judge who became for a decade the elected governor of Morobe province, won a succession of constitutional challenges. The most important were his overturning in 2002 of the 10 per cent value added tax, PNG's then new GST - ripping a

THE winner in the constitutional challenge to the Manus Island asylum-seeker centre just launched in Papua New Guinea will be the PNG judiciary, whatever the ultimate verdict. Whether the Peter O'Neill government or opposition leader Belden Namah - scourge of judges - is declared the victor, the courts will have showcased their ability to frustrate the nation's politicians. It is a serious challenge the Gillard government's Pacific Solution is facing in the PNG courts. The independence of the PNG judiciary was an important sub-theme in last year's political drama as rival prime ministers and governments struggled for supremacy - eventually resolved decisively in O'Neill's favour at the July election. Luther Wenge, a former acting judge who became for a decade the elected governor of Morobe province, won a succession of constitutional challenges. The most important were his overturning in 2002 of the 10 per cent value added tax, PNG's then new GS

Australia's offshore processing faces a fresh legal threat, as Papua New Guinea's Opposition Leader alleges asylum seekers are being held illegally on Manus Island under PNG's constitution. Two Australian lawyers say Opposition Leader Belden Namah's challenge has a good chance of success. Mr Namah launched proceedings on Friday in the National Court of Papua New Guinea, claiming the processing centre was the result of ''many abuses of PNG law and of ministerial powers'' ''Our claim, that the asylum seekers detention scheme is unconstitutional and that the detainees on Manus are held illegally in PNG, has never been legitimately addressed by the government and must now be answered in our highest courts,'' he said. The opposition's legal team would also seek an injunction to have asylum seekers released from the processing centre, and to prevent PNG from receiving or detaining any more asylum seekers from Australia. The memorandum of un