YET ANOTHER PROMISE (to be broken) BY THE GRAND THIEF

Thursday 01st May 2012

Somare to decide on future

By GORETHY KENNETH

PAPUA New Guinea will know by this weekend whether Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare will contest the 2012 General Elections.
And the country will also know whether the country's longest serving prime minister and Grand Thief will hand over the National Alliance Party leadership to his other NA members. This Saturday, NA, an offshot of Pangu Pati that formed the first government at independence in 1975, will hold its national endorsement and corporate dinner over the weekend where all of their candidates will be flown in to Port Moresby to be introduced.

Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare was in a happy mood, fresh and ready to take on the day when the Post-Courier met him yesterday morning for an interview.

This is the former radio broadcaster cum teacher who led Papua New Guinea into Independence in 1975.

The interview was to find out from the longest serving MP and prime minister what he thought about the Government that toppled his own, nine months ago. He was also asked to detail whether he would be contesting this election again.

"NA has to select a new leader. There are 15 of us left and we now have to select a new leader," Sir Michael said. "I already said I will not run, but my people of East Sepik who have not let me down for nine Parliaments. and yes, Sepiks are not easily moved," he said. "The NA - I was a leader for two terms - the National Alliance Party has a Constitution that states a Leader can only serve as Prime Minister for two terms, I've done my two terms and for the third term, this is not right, we have four Party Leaders but we will have to look at the membership in our four regions but we will know when we have our corporate dinner this Saturday.

"I was not a PM because I was there yesterday! I was there for years, nine consecutive Parliaments. Pangu in 1972, 1975 as first PM and there was a vote of no confidence in the 80s so I was voted out of office and PPP's Sir J was in office. August 6, 1992 Pangu Pati re-elected me PM and in 87 Sir Rabbie took over. Pangu was in government for three terms. Me and Sir J were the first to establish political parties."

Sir Michael spoke about the leadership of current Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and the issues at hand.

He also spoke about the issue of the appointment of Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen which he chaired in 2010 and which Opposition Leader then Sir Mekere Morauta was part of.

"The O'Neill Namah Government, they've made some decisions, some may be good some not good but they have no plans, their parties have no plans," Sir Michael said. "On the other hand, NA always had a plan, to put as much of PNG's wealth in the hands of a few rich, esepcially the Asians."

"They are going around committing money here and there, where can we get all the money? People are not stupid, they cannot be subjected to our whim, we can say money can come here and there but we have to plan for everything, they've done what they've done most illegally, in some other countries, they would have been prosecuted, but in PNG? that's treason against the country," Sir Michael said. "But they will never be prosecuted just like while I was PM no corrupt leader was ever prosecuted. Instead, we rewarded them."

"And they can open bridges, cut ribbons here and there and fly around the country to official openings, all the projects, the 2050 vision, the National Party Leadership; Highlands, NGI, Papua, Momase, we have fared well with the distribution and we picked up the economy from 2 per cent in 2002 when Sir Mekere Morauta was in power and now we enjoy 7-8 per cent GDP, it was not done in six months, O'Neill and them have done nothing in six months," he said.

"Those were my projects, O'Neill cannot say Somare was always asleep at NEC meetings and has not done anything, they were part of my Government, Polye, Temu, Namah, O'Neill, you see, we're all corrupt it does not matter what government we serve. Also in a village, you cannot just stand a house, or build a house, you have to plan and then, put plates, saucepan, you have to plan. A Government is also the same.

"And I am proud today because under NA Leadership, we now have the LNG Project, Ramu Chinese Homeland Project, Misima, mining in Lihir, sea bed mining all other projects and they were done in a long period of time and I must thank the civil servants as that's their hard work, we politicians only sign."

"On the Trawen issue, O'Neill is calling my Government one who wrongly appointed Trawen, the Opposition was party to it and Sir Mekere Morauta was part of it," he said. "And we did not make the decision in three minutes as O'Neill said. There is a process and these processes take place and the whole thing took at least 10 minutes so O'Neill is lying. The Public Service Commission puts up names (3-5 names) and they come up with three shortlisted names," he said.

"Trawen was on top of the three shortlisted and he has always worked hard. Trawen has successfully run two elections. Also the law says the person can be 55 to 58 and retire at the age of 60 but all in all we don't want to rush, we want elections to run smoothly. Of course 2012 election will be a disaster but at least I'll win again."

"NA was formed in Manus in 2002 and I formed the Government. In 2007 I formed the Government again. In 2012 I am ready to form the Government again, with 75 candidates. NA was taking the country with strong policies, and our agenda programs until August 2 when it was stopped and that was when O'Neill took over. We can't say much because we don't know much, not much of anything we actually know and that includes what the courts will say."