By PNGBlogs Contributor Network
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"I think it is important to have stability" - Peter O'Neill 14 March 2014 Last Friday's Post Courier front page headline put everything into perspective. Government mishandling of issues ranging from Polye to Unitech are now coming together to create one large bushfire that is building and rushing towards the government. The blaze was once many small fires but they have combined due to the stubborn authoritarian attitude of the Peter O'Neill government. Yes, Peter O'Neill may wish for stability, but his actions are creating growing instability in the form of angry public reaction.
Last week's news that students from Lae have fanned out all over the highlands to conduct awareness reminds us of Julius Chan's defeat in 1994 in trying to implement World Bank recommendation to mobilise
PNG's land and open it up for foreign investment (UPNG students went back during the school holidays in 1993 to their home territories, created awareness and created a movement that defeated Chan. As a
side note, our government never lost hope of finding ways to make customary land and resources for sale to the highest bidder, but was sneakier and finally got its way. The result was the SABL land grab that in only 3 years put more than 12% of PNG's land in the hands of exploiters. An inquiry was established, reports were filed by most of the members, but Peter O'Neill has remained silent on the findings and will not even cancel the most corrupt of the land grabs. Peter O'Neill does not protect the grassroots of this country. He tries to
trick them with illusions of free education (what is the value of free education in schools where teachers are absent and the classrooms are empty?) or outright vote buying and bribery. He ensures that investors can pay the price to the government and get access to PNG's resources, one way or the other.
It was a proud moment to see the various financial scandals of this government start to be publicised and put up for all who have access to the internet to read about. We must salute Don Polye this time for not doing the usual and keeping quiet on the reasons for his sacking. At the same time, Mr Polye must be condemned for conspiring with O'Neill to borrow K500 million to create a supplementary budget that was designed exclusively to fund the 2012 campaigns of THE and PNC party candidates and put our nation further into debt.
Let the chips fall where they may. None of our politicians should be praised without reservation for all of them may be doing things behind the scenes that would disgust us. We must never forget past cases as the government hopes us to do, the most obvious example being the payoffs to lawyer Paul Paraka.
We must join hands with each other, work together on issues that interest us and create a national movement to remove this government the same way as Julius Chan was forced to step down in 1997. It seems this is the only way we can knock sense into our corrupt leaders, the only thing they understand is strong pressure that pushes them over the cliff.
Those who were around when Julius Chan had to face the humiliation of stepping down from his PM post, along with his deputy PM Chris Haiveta, remember that before the fall, Sir J was as arrogant as Peter
O'Neill, bound and determined to use white mercenary soldiers from Africa to slaughter as many Bougainvillean civilians as necessary to take control and reopen the Panguna mind.
Peter O'Neill seems just as intent on putting in place financial deals which will greatly enrich certain of his friends, if not himself and is not in the best interest of our country. Let him be arrogant, let his ministers join with their non-negotiable dictates to different groups in the country, including the students. Let them stick out
their chests in their demonstration of power. Let them display themselves like birds of paradise who believe they are immortal until the eagle comes to eat them. It is time that Peter O'Neill is devoured by good and decent people of PNG, shamed and embarrassed before the world as Sir J was in 1997. O'Neill has become the symbol of all evil in our country. He needs to be pushed over the cliff before he sucks any more monetary blood out of our country.
"I think it is important to have stability" - Peter O'Neill 14 March 2014 Last Friday's Post Courier front page headline put everything into perspective. Government mishandling of issues ranging from Polye to Unitech are now coming together to create one large bushfire that is building and rushing towards the government. The blaze was once many small fires but they have combined due to the stubborn authoritarian attitude of the Peter O'Neill government. Yes, Peter O'Neill may wish for stability, but his actions are creating growing instability in the form of angry public reaction.
Last week's news that students from Lae have fanned out all over the highlands to conduct awareness reminds us of Julius Chan's defeat in 1994 in trying to implement World Bank recommendation to mobilise
PNG's land and open it up for foreign investment (UPNG students went back during the school holidays in 1993 to their home territories, created awareness and created a movement that defeated Chan. As a
side note, our government never lost hope of finding ways to make customary land and resources for sale to the highest bidder, but was sneakier and finally got its way. The result was the SABL land grab that in only 3 years put more than 12% of PNG's land in the hands of exploiters. An inquiry was established, reports were filed by most of the members, but Peter O'Neill has remained silent on the findings and will not even cancel the most corrupt of the land grabs. Peter O'Neill does not protect the grassroots of this country. He tries to
trick them with illusions of free education (what is the value of free education in schools where teachers are absent and the classrooms are empty?) or outright vote buying and bribery. He ensures that investors can pay the price to the government and get access to PNG's resources, one way or the other.
It was a proud moment to see the various financial scandals of this government start to be publicised and put up for all who have access to the internet to read about. We must salute Don Polye this time for not doing the usual and keeping quiet on the reasons for his sacking. At the same time, Mr Polye must be condemned for conspiring with O'Neill to borrow K500 million to create a supplementary budget that was designed exclusively to fund the 2012 campaigns of THE and PNC party candidates and put our nation further into debt.
Let the chips fall where they may. None of our politicians should be praised without reservation for all of them may be doing things behind the scenes that would disgust us. We must never forget past cases as the government hopes us to do, the most obvious example being the payoffs to lawyer Paul Paraka.
We must join hands with each other, work together on issues that interest us and create a national movement to remove this government the same way as Julius Chan was forced to step down in 1997. It seems this is the only way we can knock sense into our corrupt leaders, the only thing they understand is strong pressure that pushes them over the cliff.
Those who were around when Julius Chan had to face the humiliation of stepping down from his PM post, along with his deputy PM Chris Haiveta, remember that before the fall, Sir J was as arrogant as Peter
O'Neill, bound and determined to use white mercenary soldiers from Africa to slaughter as many Bougainvillean civilians as necessary to take control and reopen the Panguna mind.
Peter O'Neill seems just as intent on putting in place financial deals which will greatly enrich certain of his friends, if not himself and is not in the best interest of our country. Let him be arrogant, let his ministers join with their non-negotiable dictates to different groups in the country, including the students. Let them stick out
their chests in their demonstration of power. Let them display themselves like birds of paradise who believe they are immortal until the eagle comes to eat them. It is time that Peter O'Neill is devoured by good and decent people of PNG, shamed and embarrassed before the world as Sir J was in 1997. O'Neill has become the symbol of all evil in our country. He needs to be pushed over the cliff before he sucks any more monetary blood out of our country.