Papua New Guinea opposition defeated by government again

Papua New Guinea’s parliament meets on Wednesday. 5 June 2024
photo: Screenshot/Facebook/Papua New Guinea Parliament

Papua New Guinea opposition again Failure to propose a vote of no confidence Prime Minister James Marape.

This is their fourth attempt to overthrow Marape’s regime since February this year.

The opposition’s next chance will be in early September after lawmakers voted on Wednesday to end the current session early.

Our PNG correspondent Scott Waide speaks to Don Wiseman about the Speaker’s ruling that the Opposition motion was filled out incorrectly.

Scott Wade: From the outside, the opposition is largely frustrated by this (the Speaker’s decision). This was seen in Parliament yesterday when the Speaker tried to explain that the notice was given to the Private Enterprise Committee for consideration but there was a technicality in the notice, which caused an uproar. Now, the issue comes down to the official names of the MPs. According to the Speaker, the surname must come after the first name. Some of the names were listed, especially Western Province MP Maso Hewabi, who argued that the name on the writ he filed during the election was Hewabi Maso. This also brought up the names of other people, and the Speaker tried to clarify this. But this frustrated many opposition MPs who felt that the issue could have been raised when they first filed the notice of motion.

DW: Well, Speaker Job Pomaat has said that he will seek legal advice on the matter and that if he is proven wrong, he will resign.

southwest: It will be interesting to see these few hours of Job Pomatte’s appearance in court. It is again a question of interpretation, and the Speaker says this is my interpretation and I will appear before the court to seek the court’s interpretation. We have seen this before in other similar cases, such as Don Polley and Peter O’Neill. So it will be interesting to see what the outcome is when the court deliberates.

DW: Now, the vote was to end the session and reconvene in September. There was almost no opposition. Does this indicate that the opposition was actually underrepresented?

southwest: I don’t know. They seem very confident that they can get enough votes. A lot of people say that this gives them time to deliberate. Between now and September, the government has enough time to manipulate and persuade opposition MPs to return to government. So it’s all dynamic. This gives the government enough time to get back to work. The same goes for the opposition.

David: Papua New Guinea is a country beset with problems that need to be addressed quickly, but this meeting, the February meeting, and I guess the upcoming meeting in September, was dominated by this threat of a no-confidence vote. They have their priorities all wrong.

southwest: Yes, some MPs have spoken out and said that. As I said before, the Speaker was disappointed with the Enga (Yambali landslide) incident, and the attention shifted from Enga to the no-confidence vote in just a few hours. Similarly, you can see on social media that people’s attention is focused on the no-confidence vote. They talk about the economy and other issues, but a lot of the discussion revolves around the entertainment factor of Parliament and the no-confidence vote, without considering the real issues.

DW: As you said, the opposition has been talking about law and order and various other issues facing the country. Do you think they will bring about that much change anyway? They are basically made up of members who were in the government just a few weeks ago.

southwest: We have seen from past experience that changing the government through a vote of no confidence does not necessarily mean that the problems will be solved. We have seen the change of government from Peter O’Neill to James Marape, who was deputy at the time and had promised to solve the problems in Papua New Guinea.

Now, the opposition is facing the same problem and is again calling for a change of government. Therefore, between 2024 and 2027, there is not enough time to implement all the measures. If they have the political will and perseverance, they must stay in power for one more term after the election to really bring about change and implement it.

One of the key issues raised in Parliament yesterday was by Vanimo Green MP Belden Namah, who spoke about the enforcement of the laws. He basically said that while we are able to pass legislation, enforcement is weak. This is one of the key issues that every government faces. Legislation is in place, policies are in place, but implementation and enforcement is weak.