Marape Abolishes Country's Laws to Protect Manning, says PNG Opposition Leader Namah
The Papua New Guinea Opposition today condemned in the strongest term the government’s abolition of the Department of Police and the Office of the Secretary for Police.
The move was published in the National Gazette No. G279 of Tuesday May 04, 2021.
This move appears aimed at protecting Police Commissioner David Manning from being ousted by the court proceedings currently challenging his appointment on grounds of his qualification for the job.
“This is scandalous and the height of nepotism and cronyism,” Leader of the Opposition Hon. Belden Norman Namah said.
“The Prime Minister James Marape must have gone stark raving mad if this gazettal is true.
“Marape has made redundant every civil servant who works in the department of Police by this act. They are from the date of the gazettal without a job.
“He has taken upon himself the work of the legislature or Parliament. Only Parliament enacts, amends and abolishes laws after sufficient debate and scrutiny. This is further proof of what I have been saying all along that this man is hell bent on usurping the powers and independence of different arms of government.
“The Prime Minister and his Cabinet have also acted in direct contempt of proceedings now before the courts.
“I would urge the plaintiffs in this case to consider contempt charges against the Prime Minister as chairman of NEC, the Justice Minister, Mr Bryan Kramer, Police Minister William Onguglo and every Minister who participated in this decision.
“Mr Onguglo should be informed that he might have abolished his own office as well by the decision.
“How can the government answer for this act when action by the Police Commissioner is demanded to stop escalating violence and crime and arrest the spread of Covid 19 throughout the country?
“Will the Commissioner have a job after the abolition of the department and the Secretary’s job which he holds?
“How can Marape justify changing the law to suit just one man in Papua New Guinea?
“How can he justify protecting a man who has been proven before a court of law to lack the qualifications for the Police Commissioner’s post?
“Unlike the Department of Defence which has a separate administrative head and a Defence Force Commander, the Police Commissioner is also Secretary for the Department of Police. The same applies to the CIS.
“This is one further prove that this Government is just here to protect the interests of the Prime Minister, his political party and a few cronies.
“Marape is talking this nation backwards and downwards and unless the Members of Parliament in government realise that, they will be silent collaborators in dismantling important organs and institutions of state that have stood since Independence.
“Marape now presides over a Cabinet that only makes decisions to support parochial personal interests and in support of family and friends.
“The economy, jobs and standards of living are in free fall while grisly murders and crime are on the rise.
“It is a pity that so many leaders who I would have thought had a conscience and foresight continue to support a Prime Minister that is sinking their nation right before their very eyes.”
GOD SAFE PAPUA NEW GUINEA!
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