WHEN are Members of Parliament going to wake up and arrest the downhill spiral of the country? After the 49th Independence on September 16 all MPs should up the ante on their objective scrutiny of how the government has performed under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Hon James Marape. Nobody can deny that after 5 years of this inept regime, the country is worse off.
Hon James Marape has been the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea since 2019, and we are at the brink of collapse as a nation. In 5 years, we have had nothing but problems after problems. The Marape government is synonymous with indecision, weakness, and failure.
Singapore has a pervasive policy of Meritocracy, Pragmatism, and Honesty (MPH). These are concepts based on virtue, equity, reality, and the highest ethical standards. Singapore has a population of around 6 million people, a per capital income of around K320,000, and no natural resources. No gold, no oil, no gas, no forests, no land for agriculture, and yet it is so wealthy because of principled leadership. How about PNG?
What about our Prime Minister, with his “Take Bank PNG” mantra? How has PNG progressed, excelled, and developed in 5 years with our abundance of natural resources? The reality is we have gone backwards, and this questions the wherewithal of our political leadership to break the shackles of poverty for our people and make the country a prosperous nation.
In the week of Independence, I witnessed the following events requiring urgent action by the Marape government:
1) Porgera was in flames with rampant murder, another delayed State-of-Emergency (SOE) call-out, and Barrick shutting down its operations at the gold mine. PNG has had zero foreign direct investment (FDI) in 5 years. Marape’s grandstanding and decision to shut an operating gold mine in 2019 was folly. After this recent spate of terror in Porgera, we can expect no FDI at all.
2) The Governor for West New Britain, Hon Sassindran Muthuvel called on the Prime Minister Hon James Marape to be fair and distribute all DSIP and PSIP funds to all districts and provinces as per the 2024 National Budget. This inequity is illegal, and the Prime Minister should have nothing to do with budget implementation. This is the people’s money, not his tucker box.
3) PNG men, women, and children were lying in corridors without medical attention or medicine at POMGEN – the premier public health facility in the country! This is deplorable. If the Marape government can’t fix health issues at POMGEN, in our nation’s capital, forget about other parts of PNG.
4) Our former Prime Minister, Hon Peter O’Neill, elucidated the Australian taxpayer on the new practice of direct budget support by the Australian government, indirectly supporting the Marape government’s pork barrel politics, weaponization of public funds, and promotion of parochial interests through the money sinkhole called “Con-Act PNG”. The Prime Minister’s associates and family members have cumulatively received billions of Kina at the expense of our people, our health, our education, our safety, and our future. This is criminal.
5) The Australian Prime Minister Hon Anthony Albanese announced a $600 million undertaking for PNG to be the 19th NRL team. Does Australia think they can patronize us because we are discombobulated? We do not need a rugby team – we need health, education, and law and order. This rugby diplomacy is farcical. When the Fuzzy Wuzzy’s stood with the diggers at Kokoda, there were no games or gimmicks. Lest we forget.
6) IMF confirming their hold on the PNG economy through the “crawl-peg” devaluation of the Kina will directly make inflation worse and further exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis affecting all Papua New Guineans. Why are we continuing to borrow money? Why are we printing money at the Central Bank and compromising their independence?
These are glaring signals that PNG is failing as a state under the incompetence, mismanagement, and weak leadership of the Prime Minister Hon James Marape. The Prime Minister must stop pretending that everything is under control and that he has a grip on the country’s affairs. He does not. He should do the most honorable thing and resign. Things will only get worse for every Papua New Guinean if the 110 confirmed Members of Parliament allow this charade to continue.
