Vote of No Confidence

Commentary by Christopher Papiali 

If you are sitting there in the Public Gallery of the National Parliament House, you cannot see many MPs on the Opposition bench except Hon. Dr. Allan Marat, Hon. Don Polye, Hon. Sam Basil and Hon. Mark Maipakai. 

One or two MPs stay away from the parliament sittings may be not as a sign of protest but due to other reasons they themselves know. 

If the Opposition bench is empty then this is parliament mockery, a complete defeat to parliament democracy and therefore Parliament can be dissolved as there is no Opposition quorum to debate on government sponsored policies and bills.

If the Hon. Speaker of the House had knew it wouldn’t he consult some constitutional experts and experts on the Commonwealth parliaments for some advice?

In the Westminster system of government there is always the Opposition quorum. And therefore our PNG parliament is in torpedo.

Some say most MPs want their DSIP funds so they are in the serving government of O’Neill/Dion Government and while in the government major projects and funding sources they request can be relentlessly approved in the political and bureaucratic processes. Whether this loyalty trend is palpable is yet to be argued.

The serving government has passed many legislations and laws often times bulldozing through at the distaste of the Opposition MPs and by those who call for proper parliament debate processes and procedures. 

There are few individual MPs who stand up speaking outright for their people on what they see is not right and one of them is the outspoken Governor Garry Juffa. 

Since entering parliament this intelligent Oro Governor debates on contentious national issues without any joint statements or collegial output as that should be from the Opposition side. 

In other words, notes are not exchanged between Gary Juffa, Don Polye, Sam Basil, Beldon Namah, and Dr. Alan Marat to counter attack the government’s bills and other major legislative reforms.

This leads to the core issue of whether or not these Opposition MPs are solidly united to wage war against the government and if there is then there is no definite indication of Government MPs crossing over to join them as this is usually the case in the few weeks leading up to the Vote of No Confidence period. 

I must unreservedly state at this juncture that Hon. Don Polye is a very unique Kandep MP, who speaks varieties of interwoven words that are somewhat meticulous and his choice of words are credited and in his own standing he is very intelligent speaker. 

At many times Hon. Don Polye and even Hon. Beldon Namah attempted during several parliament sittings to table some dubious report dealings of certain key government ministers and even decisions which they see detrimental to Papua New Guineans but the government using its numeral strength and ties to the Speaker of Parliament has always never provided that opportunity for the Opposition MPs.

What we have in our political system is now a heavily controlled government MPs and the grace period of 36 months have been overturned by the decision of the Supreme Court. This then provides the panacea for the Opposition MPs to move the Vote of No Confidence.

How the Opposition will quickly muster the numbers, if it meanings luring the government back benchers and certain government ministers are yet to be seen, which would otherwise involve under the table cash transfers. This is the tradition, isn’t it?

It is very interesting when the Opposition came out loud and clear on Friday that they are only interested to get rid of the Prime Minister and not the rest of the government. They view Prime Minister has lot to answer relating to the K3 billion UBS Loan to secure the 10% interest in Oil Search.

Meanwhile, John Garnaut, Asian Pacific editor of the Fairfax media (son of Ross Garnaut) ran a story relating to the joint statement released by Sir Michael Somare and Sir Mekere Morauta. He says “…..their most pointed questions relate to whether the PNG Government has been working with UBS over a new financial arrangement that could disadvantage land owner claims to a 4.2 percent equity option in the PNG LNG project that has been pledged to them”.

On the case of landowner equity, another former learned acting judge Nemo Yalo raised similar series of issues relating to landowner equity and royalties on the social media. He says “Under the Umbrella Benefits Sharing Agreement (UBSA) signed in Kokopo on 21 May 2009, project-affected landowners, LLGs and PGs are entitled to equity benefits. This particular term of the UBSA are reinforced by the Oil and Gas Act 1998 and Section 98 Organic Law on Provincial and Local-level Governments. Are these benefits actually held in a trust account for safe-keeping or are they being mortgaged to UBS?”

Well, the Prime Minister has defended his decision of the K3 billion UBS Loan when the Opposition asked for it in the previous parliament sitting. The PM still maintains that he had to act in the best interest of the nation.

The Prime Minister says borrowing is good if we know that the returns on the LNG proceeds are favourable.

The Prime Minister also says when we will invest in infrastructure development when we have the opportunity now. Will we wait for another 40 years to do it?

He says his government has taken three years to deliver massive infrastructure development unprecedented in the history of PNG in this country unlike the previous successive governments. 

His government has vehemently supported Free Education, easing the burden of struggling parents and PNG’s moving towards zeroing the illiteracy rate by 2020 fulfilling Vision 2050.

In this long list of debating discourse, the Prime Minister maintains he has brought political stability and has therefore delivered record services in the country that include Free Healthcare, 2015 Pacific Games, Flyover Project, Wharf Rehabilitation Projects, Major Road constructions, hosting the APEC meeting 2018, Under 23 FiFA Women World Cup 2016, Rugby World Cup 2017 and other impact projects including cash donations to Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.

The Opposition MPs think the spending in these infrastructure projects and others are too much, only concentrated in Port Moresby, spending outside of the national budget appropriations, and did not consider improvised spending in other critical areas of development such as schools and health infrastructure, giving infallible attention to the severe draught, tourism, downstream processing, employment creation, affordable housing for public servants, tax cut on personal income, etc….

Therefore, the Opposition says the litmus test on the current government’s survival has come late but at the right time when the Supreme Court made an overwhelming decision on the constitutionality of the Vote of No Confidence Grace Period from 18 months to 36 months.

At the grand political decision making level, when a ruling government’s decision is not right and not good in the best interest of the people then it is the Opposition representing the people are constitutionally mandated to speak on the floor of parliament. 

And how far has the views of the 7 million people ensued on the Floor of parliament when the serving political regime also says they are speaking on behalf of the 7 million people of this country?

The common element that we derive from this plot is the power to stay up the top of the political decision making pyramid and the common people at the bottom sometimes left to feed themselves contributing to high illiteracy rate, poverty, unemployment, escalating crime, high infant mortality rate, missed business opportunities, and so forth.

This week the national newspaper republished a writing that was published in the Development Policy Centre of ANU by Bal Kama, a PhD candidate. 

Bal Kama spots on but does not provide the definitive stand that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill will stand down as Prime Minister as a result of the mounting court cases and referrals from the Ombudsman Commission. And neither has he said the Prime Minister will be arrested prior to the 27th October Parliament sitting.

For those who are hell bent on national issues, politics is confusing to many Papua New Guineans and it will become as it is in the years to come because some of our government leaders have fallen short of knowing the needs of the people they serve. 

Questions have to seriously asked whether a government is really for the people when many of our government leaders allow our land been stolen by foreigners, when our SME sector being hijacked by others, when resources extracted without any form of tax to the government, when our burgeoning school leavers decide to carry their guns on the streets for the police to see, when government policies that should empower people are hijacked by faceless government consultants and advisors……

It really does not matter who becomes the next government because there is a seemingly political institutionalized decay which continues to corrode signposts embedded in our Constitution and National Goals and Directive Principles.

Whether we will have the Vote of No Confidence or not life continues in this country with rich getting richer and poor getting poorer and the middle class trapped between the social strata. 

Therefore, Vote of No confidence is seen like the indoor football game and the team that is very skilful and adheres to their coach’s game plan come out as winner. Most times the spectators will always remain as spectators even when the next match kicks off after 2017.