It makes no sense as to why the decision of who would be the new Chief Justice (CJ) hadn’t been well and truly decided before 31 October (2018) when Sir Salamo’s tenure ran out, does it?
I mean they’ve been aware of that date for the past 10 years; it hardly came as a surprise, did it? So why are they appointing the former Deputy Chief Justice to the position in an ‘Acting’ capacity?
Is the answer ‘leverage’?
Learning by example
Cast your minds back to the situation of the Papua New Guinean parliament on 30 May, 2012. It was the time between the political coup of August 2011 and unquestioned legitimate government swearing in in August 2012 (after the elections)
Governor General, Sir Michael Ogio, was in London for the Queen’s birthday celebrations and so Speaker of the House, then Jeffrey Nape, was called to perform the swearing in as Acting Governor General.
As you will recall, there had been legal controversy, not fully settled by the Supreme Court, even when they’d found the O’Neill/Namah government to be illegitimate.
For, it was a five-member bench that were tasked to decide but two of the judges walked out before the verdict, leaving a three-man bench – led by CJ Sir Salamo Injia, to hand down a decision. It is a moot point whether, in that case, the ruling was valid.
At this point it is relevant to note the then CJs input into the barriers that the new, illegitimate (?) O’Neill/Namah government faced (although it is beside the point to the one that I’m currently making.)
For on that fateful day, when the O’Neill government thought it had all its ducks in a row with the absence of Ogio and their ‘tame’ replacement primed, they were in for a rude shock. As Liam Cox wrote for ABC News:
… the swearing in ceremony – usually considered a formality – was halted after the acting governor-general Geoffrey Nape suspended proceedings for hours to study official documents. A perturbed Mr O’Neill told Mr Nape’s secretary the parliament had directed him to conduct the ceremony. There was no response and Mr O’Neill said: “We’ll wait”.
Mr O’Neill was sworn in a few hours later.
He wanted to study the documents? I doubt that, don’t you?
More likely it was a delaying tactic to enable Nape to leverage his advantage, position and fortunes. It worked a treat – unless the instruments would not have been signed. Nape would have seen to that.
Appointment of CJ
About now, O’Neill finds himself in a position similar to Nape’s in 2012. He holds all the cards – but only while no permanent appointment has been made.
He would have learned a timely lesson on how to hold people to ransom from the master tactician that was Nape.
O’Neill has had his surge for power thwarted by a salvo from the judiciary before, led by Sir Salamo Injia. Neither setting his attack dog (Namah) on the CJ nor attempting to pass the Judicial Conduct Bill in parliament (whereby the parliament had the power to sack judges) worked. The CJ stood supreme.
So, I believe that it’s just possible that O’Neill is looking at all offers – using his current considerable bargaining powers that will dwindle to insignificance when the appointment is made, to make sure the judiciary is never a problem to him again. “You give me x and I’ll give you the CJs job” maybe?
It puts me in mind of an Australian television series, comedic in nature, called Rake that is about the world of politics and the courts.
The story goes that the lawyer, Cleaver Green, had uncovered some corruption involving the Prime Minister that the PM is afraid he is going to disclose. A deal is done whereby Rake’s silence is traded for the job of Chief Justice.
Following Green’s swearing in, the PM approaches Green and whispers, “remember, now you’re my bitch.” The always affably rakish Green replies smiling, “No Prime Minister now you’re mine.”
And so the series ended.
There are criminal complaints laid with Police and Ombudsman against Chief Justice Injia and 4 other senior Judges. PNG is better off if someone from outside is appointed Chief Justice to maintain highest integrity. Soon judicial corruption will unwrap when CJ Injia leaves office.
Any cj will continue where outstanding cj stopped
Injia broke the law when he continued to deliver judgment in favour of Somare and against O’Neill after two of the five judges left the bench. Also, he stopped a tribunal that was going to look into his conduct. And he keeps on asking for more judges instead of getting more cases completed by the existing judges. How can the NEC sensibly reappoint him?
Commonsense prevails: Sir Gibbs Salika is the new CJ. He is the longest serving judge in PNG. He has just floated to the top and has not, like when Injia became DCJ, leap-frogged any of the other judges. At least we know that Injia’s breaking the law, by delivering judgment after two judges left the bench, was not without consequences and was not rewarded with another ten years as CJ.