By PNG Echo.
There are many who gratuitously and arrogantly claim to speak for the silent majority in PNG. It’s an easy claim to make because this majority, by definition, does not usually indicate their preferences. Well… not usually, but sometimes they do, and when they do they speak clearly, unambiguously and unequivocally – and that’s exactly what they’ve done and it is contrary to what the noisy minority would have you believe.
The Protests and protestors
In Papua New Guinea, at present, students are being whipped into mass hysteria by opponents of the government – and it’s a big kerfuffle, with little substance. Hell, even Namah has raised his ugly head offering to march with the students. (Can anyone tell me whether he did? I somehow doubt it.)
These students have been joined by some NGOs, the heads of which are political wannabes wanting the reins of power as PNG goes into the 2017 elections – which everyone knows is a decided advantage. It’s clear that they want control of the purse strings – well, they haven’t yet earned that right.
Dilu Okuk, the profane pastor, has written that the “COUNTRY [is] UNITED WITH ONE PURPOSE” (Okuk’s capitals). Wrong. Not even nearly, Dilu.
In fact, even the students themselves are not of one voice and some have complained to the press about intimidation. One student told Post Courier that he could not go to classes, as he’d wanted, because he’s been threatened.
You husait attndin class mas save olsem police non stap lo skul olgeta taim mipla lukluk lo yu stap.
The demand for the Prime Minister to step down, says it all.
They have no real concern with corruption, if they did they’d be demanding the Fraud Squad and their corruption-fighting darlings prosecute the main protagonist of the Paraka Affair, Paul Paraka himself – but they still have not established, legally, that a crime has even been committed – so why go after an alleged accomplished? An accomplice to what?
This noisy minority is not speaking for anyone except political vested interests.
The silent majority has spoken – and the message is clear
On the other hand, the people of Samarai/Murua in Milne Bay have made their preferences known as they returned Gordon Wesley as their sitting member in a parliamentary by-election, ironically triggered by Wesley’s alleged election misdeeds.
Wesley is a member of the PNC – the ruling party of which PNGs much-maligned Prime Minister is the head. The Prime Minister campaigned on behalf of this candidate and the people responded to him positively – notwithstanding the black mark against Wesley’s name. The prime Minister is patently popular with the electorate beyond, and in greater numbers that the dissenters.
If, by now, you’re getting a feeling of déjà vu, I’m not surprised.
The circumstances and the results mirror almost exactly what happened in Oro a few months back with David Arore, the PNC candidate easily winning the by-election there.
In Samarai/Murua, Wesley romped it home polling almost double that of his nearest rival.
The silent majority has spoken – and they’re not saying what the noisy majority would have you believe.
Whilst what you report holds water, it just substantiates the level of systemic corruption in all levels of government, legislature and law enforcement, such that the government is blatant in nature, legislation written in pencil and law enforcement a farce in every sense of the word.
everyone jumps to the tune of pied piper advocates for change and purpose, yet a solution to a alternate head is a myth.
the system must be purged, reset, cleansed. Buck passing eliminated, and finally recycled ministers drawn and quartered
Village man; we all desire a better system to be institutionalized, that will deliver in a ethically responsible way. Maintaining regularity is going to be a challenge since corruption in PNG was main streamed in Somare years. The cleansing process is the General Election. Grabbing power through street hooliganism is not the purge and reset you want. Its only 8 months to the next election. Feel free to totally clean up in 2017. Until then what we have is a elected government we need to allow to run its course.
I find it difficult to comprehend how someone who has been found guilty od electoral fraud can stand for a by-election called as a result of that proven fraud. It smacks of a blatant lack of logic of the underlying law and sound governance, irrespective of if it has been endorsed by the will of the electorate or not!