“PNC betrayed our confidence” – National Alliance Party Officials
by National Alliance Party Insider
As
the University student-led protest has gained traction, and increasingly the
electorate is informed of the excesses of the current government, some of the
coalition partners of the People’s National Congress-led government are now
trying to save face before voters leading into the National General Elections
next year (2017).
And
within the inner sanctum of the National Alliance (NA) Party, the post-2017
outlook is taking shape. As the only party in the political history of Papua
New Guinea that consecutively held executive government back-to-back government
since 2002 (until 2011), the NA officials and NA parliamentary leader Hon.
Patrick Pruaitch are now stuck with a Peter O’Neill-led government that has
done more harm to destroy the legacy of the NA. According to highly-placed NA
party officials, the PNC, of which Peter O’Neill is the Parliamentary leader,
will not find NA as a willing partner should any coalition government be
negotiated after the 2017 General Elections.
Learning
from this term of Parliament, NA is not going to allow the madman, Peter
O’Neill to continue his outlandish style of managing this country after 2017. It
is now an unwritten consensus that most senior NA party officials have vowed to
avoid any association with the People’s National Congress after the 2017
General Elections. One very senior NA Party official stated in a NA Party Convention
on the 29th of April this year (2016) in Madang that “all the good
work of the NA since 2012 has gone down the drain and by guilt of association
we are perceived in the PNG electorate as legitimizing a corrupt PNC-led
government”.
The
NA Parliamentary leader Patrick Pruaitch, in his speech at the NA Party
Convention confirmed his grand vision of an NA alternative government. NA is
now working behind the scene to coalesce with like-minded parties to exclude
the PNC as a potential coalition partner after the 2017. Patrick Pruaitch and
other NA Party officials whilst going about their business in the current
coalition know too well that any open declaration of their intention to
sideline PNC will not be in their interest. Hence it is a guarded NA Party
strategy nevertheless. Almost unanimously, one of the major concerns of the NA
Party is the failure of the PNC-led government in building long-term economic
development. PNG under the NA worked at charting development blueprints that go
beyond the obsession with the LNG and mining sectors.
When
he officiated at the launching of the Namatanai Oil Palm agricultural project in
New Ireland early this year, Hon. Pruaitch gave a very sinister assessment of
the PNC-led government’s failure to reinvest in the agriculture sector of the
economy. Much of the groundwork established by the NA-led government in
creating the Vision 2050 and the PNG Development Strategic Plan 2010-2030 was
replaced by a politically-motivated “Alotau Accord”. Peter O’Neill has used the
“Alotau Accord” to concentrate development priorities in Port Moresby at the
expense of critical sectors of the economy. The non-renewable sectors of the
economy that are emphasized in the Vision 2050 and the PNG Development
Strategic Plan – two key development blue-prints under the NA government of
2010 have been completely undermined.
The
public relations officer in the NA Party at the Namatanai launching ceremony in
relating to the declining state of rural areas such as Namatanai was critical
of the Port Moresby-based development. He promptly dismissed the claims by
Peter O’Neill that development is happening when contracts, usually inflated
are given to O’Neill’s companies and his business partners and cronies. The
public relations officer of the NA Party added: “Taim blong Grand Chief bin
Praim Minista, ol contracts na public project i bin bihainim process, na
costing bin realistic. Nau em olgeta wok Peter O’Neill givim long ol kampani na
poroman blong em i dia tumas” [When the Grand Chief was Prime Minister,
contracts for major public projects were realistic. Presently, Peter O’Neill is
giving out contracts to his companies and cronies at very inflated costs”].
This is the realization within the NA Party that PNC has betrayed the
confidence of the Party when it signed the Alotau Accord.
Secondly,
Peter O’Neill continuously points out the Somare-led government in his childish
“blame game”. Peter O’Neill does not take is always quick to distance himself
from the Somare-led government, even though he was State Minister in the two
terms of Parliament. For the NA Party, it is an affront that is part of their
resolution to promptly discharge their connections with the PNC when the Issue
of Writs are called in April 2017.
The
Paraka saga, the Universal Bank of Switzerland (UBS) loan and the Manus asylum
seekers deal are points where Peter O’Neill has used in shifting blame and
focus away from his corrupt and incompetent leadership. It is treated an
affront to NA Party executives that Peter O’Neill continuously deflects
attention away from his incompetence by blaming the “past” government of Sir
Michael Somare. In learning the hypocritical standards in which Peter O’Neill
applies, the NA Party quietly regrets the ungrateful attitude of Peter O’Neill.
Finally,
the stable economic indicators that were nurtured during the NA-led government
have now been ruthlessly destroyed by Peter O’Neill’s populist expenditure. Almost
all the care in prudently managing the national budget of the country in the
2002 to 2011 period has all but evaporated. In official NA Party circles, James
Marape and his wantok Peter O’Neill are economic illiterates. Their claims as
custodians of the public coffers of the PNG economy are premised on their
misguided entitlement attitude. One of the NA Party officials stated: “These
two individuals think that just because the LNG is based in the Hela and
Southern Highlands provinces, their political decisions in the economic sphere
is justified. This is a misconceived and at best regionalist thinking. Under NA
every decision-maker was equally important irrespective of whether you came
from a resource-rich electorate or not”.
To break the Hela and Southern Highlands
domination of the economic portfolios in the current PNC-led government, the National
Alliance Party President, Mr. Walter Schnaubelt is aspiring to re-establish the
dominance of NA in the Highlands region of PNG. The Highlands region, since the
days of Hon. Don Pomb Polye has been a serious membership recruiting ground for
NA winning candidates. There is a grand strategy playing out in the NA where
Highlands-based candidates will tip the winning numbers in place of PNC
candidates. For the long-term term, the PNC has done itself more harm than
good. Peter O’Neill may be Prime Minister, but in his time he is sure that
post-2017, his chances of mobilizing the support of his present coalition
partners will be a hard sell. PNC is looking down the barrel of being in the
minority when Parliament convenes in the aftermath of the 2017 elections.