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Date Posted: 20:12:11 03/12/00 Sun
Author: Anonymous
Subject: Paias Wingti political maneuvering-Sabina's corner-The Independent 10March 2000

SABINA'S CORNER

The PDM’s Kangaroo Court: A small boy with a whip
SO the latest twist in the PDM saga is that a faction of the party is now back on the witch-hunt and back paddling are Tom Tomscoll and Vincent Auali accompanied by their Pangu colleagues, Haiveta and Daniel Kapi. And it was front page news for the Post Courier to report that Tommy, kicked down a chair and stormed out of the meeting leaving the PM and the members of his kangaroo court looking like the biggest fools of the new millennium, which they definitely must be for thinking that anybody would be considering a motion of no confidence only seven months into government and still left are 11 months of the total of 18 months grace period required under the PNG Constitution.

One can appreciate Tommy’s outburst because how else can one defend a concocted charge of conspiracy against the PDM when it is obvious that the charge or charges against the four Ministers are baseless. The whole thing does not make sense under the circumstances, such circumstances being that it is futile to entertain any suggestion of a motion of no confidence as a threat this early and that the four Ministers singled out are among a handful with any brains and thus a threat to the rank and file members of PDM.

Thus, any suggestions that these four are out to get Sir Mekere must be viewed with suspicion considering a number of factors such as the friction among factions of the PDM.

In the past there were basically two factions comprising Vincent Auali as the head of one faction and Fabian Pok as the head of the second faction. It was then fairly common knowledge that Wingti was leaning more towards the Auali faction because he considered Auali a respectable person to deal with whereas those who had openly associated with Skate were considered suspect.

However, the ball game took on a different twist upon Mao Zeming making an unexpected entry into the political see-saw game and started to exert his own influence and to consolidate his position he had to send somebody to the political guillotine and he wasted no time in singling out Ted Diro as the sacrificial offering for his elevation as the Deputy Prime Minister.

Ted was outwardly vulnerable firstly because he held the Agricultural Ministry that Zeming wanted and secondly Ted did not have the numbers to justify such a ministry nor to be a threat to the government if he were to go and thus he was swiftly axed by Zeming. Then Zeming’s mob started to float around a rumour that the National Alliance ministers were the next to go and it was at this point in time that the rank and file politicians started to take notice of Zeming. But then the ultimate question is: where does that take Mao Zeming to?

For Zeming personally it is basically an ego building exercise which it is hoped will prop Zeming out of nowhere and into somewhere, more akin to those astrophysics stories about being consumed by a black hole only to surface within another world of a totally different dimension from the point of entry. In fact that appears to have been the transforming effect on Zeming who is now playing the big boys’ game not because he is a big boy himself, but because for now he is holding the whip.
That takes us to raise the question: Who is likely to benefit from the rise of the golden boy, Zeming? In other words, which faction in the PDM camp is likely to reap the benefits of Zeming rising to power and people falling victims to Zeming’s whip? Obviously, it must be the Pok faction because it has been whispered into Zeming’s ears that Auali’s faction are a threat not only to the party’s solidarity but also to Zeming’s future as a prime ministerial candidate.

Somebody is definitely zaming into Zeming’s ears these fantastic ideas about his importance as a future political candidate for the position of the PM. One does not have to have any brains to work out that somebody in the PDM camp is harnessing Zeming to dig the political field for planting the seed of disunity so that one faction will be eliminated and the remaining faction will take control and when that happens Zeming will effectively be outmanoeuvred and left to sit by the wayside and wonder what had actually happened. It is more probably than not that by the time Zeming realises that he was taken for a ride, the people who are now teaming up with him will be his biggest foe; and that is only if Zeming ever gets that far which we doubt. Judging by his present modus operandi, Zeming is likely to mistake his own throat for that of his enemy. And for now all one can say is that presently Zeming himself is effectively his own biggest enemy and he does not seem to realise that. For his little ego trip, it suffices to be the head of the witch-hunting team. But does Zeming know who his enemies are?

And where does Sir Mekere the PM fit into this political

witch-hunting? It is common knowledge that Sir Mekere is ineffective as the PM. It would seem that the climax in his political career was when he was nominated the candidate for the PM and when he was passed over by Pundari for Haiveta he was at the edge of an anti-climax and when he finally became the PM by default, he went into delirium thus losing any sense of space/time. He is in a permanent state of bliss called “nirvana" it would seem. For him it suffices to sit back and watch the PDM factions slaughter each other to win favours with him. But does it matter which way the PM is thinking?

One thing that must baffle any political observer is the obvious lack of interest, it seems anyway, on the part of Mekere in the affairs that concern the ordinary villager and the urban dweller in PNG, namely the rising cost of living compared to the urban worker’s pay packet. And then on the higher scale, one watches the World Bank and the IMF dictate the issue of privatisation without regard to the special context of PNG. Then is the issue of Mekere’s political colleagues being allowed to appoint their political cronies to man public offices at extravagant salaries and perks considering that most and if not the whole lot of these political associates never had or owned a private business to run in their lives.

Take Gabriel Dusava’s case, for instance. It suited Mekere to scream blue murder when Nali appointed his associate Dusava to head the IPA but Mekere never raised any objections when Pato was appointed Chairman of Finance Pacific, Ben Micah the head of Privatisation Committee and Peter "’Neil a Commissioner and the list goes on. And yet Sir Mekere is content playing the ostrich so we ask: Why?

“With my appointment as the Prime Minister Papua New Guinea has just made a date with destiny," so carried the message around the country and the neighbouring Pacific and it is now seven months from that speech day and what has since transpired must definitely make Mekere look a bigger fool than what he would have been had he simply kept quiet considering that he had just picked up the position by way of default. However, considering that he had chosen to open his mouth and promise us the world, we are justified in pointing out to him that he must deliver on his promises. He cannot simply leave his party cohorts like Zeming to mount regular positive patrols within friendly territories. Thus, as the nation heads into the turbulent waters the people await their knight to take the helm but so far the evidence is that it will be a long wait. Sir Mekere is hibernating, is it from the cold or has he simply developed cold feet?

Meanwhile what is PW up to these days? PW? Yes, non other than Pius Wingti himself. It is a well known fact that no commentary on PDM must pass without some reference to PW because nothing transpires in PDM and more particularly in the present government without PW’s input and this really is an under statement. It is also commonly known that it is PW himself who tells Mekere what to do and what not to do but the problem with that kind of statement is that the honourable Sir Mekere hardly does anything at all. So it would seem that PW must tell Mekere to sit back and relax and watch the Pok faction and the Auali faction battle it out openly.

It is PW’s position which is most unpredictable and has been since he lost his seat to Father Lak. Upon losing and when acknowledging his defeat PW is alleged to have uttered words to the effect: “Let Father Lak be the Hagen politician and I will control the PNG government."

Thus, it is not surprising that PW is known to have sold his Islander Village residential units for K1.2 million to finance PDM’s quest for the post of the PM. Maybe PW did have the last laugh after all when he saw Father Lak and his boss Skate scurry for cover after Mekere was elevated to the top post.
And like everything else, there is a price to pay for any favours granted and received. Thus, it is not all too unreasonable to expect PW to call up Mekere and tell him what to do and what not to do. But for all practical purposes the PW man on the spot is Jamie Maxtone-Graham the messenger. It seems that it is Jamie Maxtone-Graham who receives the instructions and it is through Jamie Maxtone-Graham that people like Mekere get their instructions from when it comes to the PW input.

Thus, in the latest political twist it was not surprising to witness that Jamie was one of those present to interrogate Tomscoll, Haiveta and Kapi when Tomscoll walked out on the meeting. One can appreciate the anger and the frustration expressed by Tomscoll because in essence he is a political leader representing his electorate so if the likes of Jamie Maxtone-Graham and Jumogot had any grievances against Tommy as the elected leader then the appropriate committee to call for his explanation would have rightly been the parliamentary wing of the party comprising elected leaders and not political cronies like these two gentlemen. And as far as Haiveta and Kapi were concerned it is only the PM who who could call these two up for questioning because they are not members of the PDM mob so people like Maxtone-Graham and Jumogot had no business interrogating our elected representatives.

It was ironical that the same day that Jamie was set to question the ministers NCDC was alleged to have paid over K70,000 to members of the fraud squad investigating Skate and Taku. And Jamie’s explanation that it was overtime pay for these policemen does not exonerate him at all. We demand a full investigation and charges laid against those found to have broken any of our laws. We also demand a full explanation from John Wakon about this revelation that his policemen were paid overtime by Jamie Maxtone-Graham to collate evidence against Skate and Taku. If Jamie is on a warpath with Skate and Taku and considering that Wakon was sacked in Skate’s time, how can we be certain that the evidence being collected is not biased?

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