The next day the Opposition submitted a scathing vote of no confidence in Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, and named Sir Puka as the replacement PM. The government promptly moved that the House adjourn till the Budget Session on November 16, thereby postponing or avoiding the political crisis. Speaker Jeffrey Nape passed that motion on the voices and—ignoring the loudest chorus of ‘Noes’—refused to hold a formal vote. Each of PNG’s six prime ministers since 1975 has used this tactic and some failed to meet the constitutionally required seven sitting weeks each parliamentary year. Despite losing a procedural vote by 42 to 60 on 21 July, the Opposition now claims to have enough support to gather the required 55 signatures from MPs to force the recall of Parliament and replace the government. They are also seeking a Supreme Court order to override and remove the Speaker for allegedly unconstitutional actions.
In 2000, the then PM and now Opposition Leader, Sir Mekere Morauta, initiated the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates known as OLIPPAC. This was aimed to create stability in governance by preventing Independent MPs from redirecting their support and making it almost impossible for MPs to change political parties. On July 7, however, the Supreme Court ruled these provisions unconstitutional because they restricted MPs’ freedoms of conscience, association and movement. Commentators said the court’s ruling would create instability and enable a Vote of No Confidence.
The Somare-led governments created after the 2002 and 2007 elections were formed under OLIPPAC rules which mean the largest political party nominates the next PM after an election, and MPs flocked to his bandwagon in order to gain patronage for their electorates and themselves. Those rules remain intact. However the 13 or so minor parties in government resent the dominance of the PM’s National Alliance Party and his sole right to nominate or remove ministers. Some MPs call him ‘dictatorial’. The claimed ‘stability’ in the years 2002-07 saw four Deputy PMs come and go, numerous ministers sacked (some more than once) and two parties split.
Despite using OLIPPAC to enforce unity, the Somare government has long been nervous and in 2003-04 it failed in an attempt to double to 36 months the ‘honeymoon’ period before a Vote of No Confidence is allowable. In 2006 and 2010 it legislated to weaken the Ombudsman Commission which oversees the Leadership Code of conduct which is intended to ensure probity among national leaders. Literally dozens of MPs including two Deputy PMs have been expelled for Leadership Code violations since 1976. Currently Sir Michael, his son Arthur, the Minister for Public Enterprises; and the Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch (who is related by marriage) are using the courts to fight referrals over alleged non-compliance with the Leadership Code. The Supreme Court in June ordered Mr Pruaitch to step aside from his ministry during the referral process, although the two Somares have not stepped aside. In mid-July the PM even appointed his son as Acting Finance Minister. In response to Sir Puka he told Parliament on 20 July that he saw no ethical problem in this action, but this is what appears to have finally prompted Sir Puka to cross the floor.
The OLIPPAC decision has loosened the rules of the game but did not precipitate the current jockeying. Parties can cross the floor as a whole (as Sir Mekere’s did in 2004), and had already found ways around OLIPPAC by allowing MPs a ‘conscience vote’. One party had planned to expel its members, to give them freedom of manoeuvre. Moves were under way in June to seek a new PM: at one stage the then Public Service Minister (and now new Finance Minister) Peter O’Neill. In the National Alliance both Sir Puka and Transport and Works Minister Don Polye clearly had leadership ambitions. In political circles the extended Somare family was said to want to create a ‘dynasty’, something Sir Puka forced Sir Michael to deny. Sir Michael’s failure to nurture a clear successor caused his overthrow in 1985 in the second of PNG’s three successful Votes of No Confidence. Is history repeating itself?
From 2004 the Somare-led governments have presided over a minerals boom providing 80 per cent of exports and 40 per cent of government revenue, and used what they call ‘windfall’ gains to supply MPs (especially government MPs) with electoral development funds of up to 17 million Kina (AU$ 7 million) each. That turns these legislators into part of the executive government but allows very scant transparency or monitoring of the expenditure. In August 2009 Somare avoided a vote of no confidence when the government paid its MPs K2 million each. In late July 2010 it is already alleged that at least K60 million has been dispersed from ‘trust’ funds to hold the government together, along with five new ministries. This tactic may work; ten of the rebels had returned to the government by the end of July.
From the mid 1990s the use of ‘money politics’ and systemic corruption and have been the main criticisms of government by Sir Mekere and by the country’s increasingly active and vocal NGOs. The civil society critique is led by Transparency International combined with Christian churches in a Community Coalition Against Corruption. Since May, the government’s rushed legislative attempts to protect mining and petroleum ventures from challenges under environment law have been questioned on constitutional grounds.
By relying on tough but dubious legal measures to protect foreign investors the government is irritating the urban polity and the already volatile landowners around the US$ 15 billion Liquified Natural Gas projects now starting in PNG. As the Bougainville conflict showed, landowners must be kept on side in order for such projects to proceed to completion. The government has clearly lost the capacity to provide basic services, including security, along the 500 km route of the gas pipeline from the turbulent Southern Highlands to Port Moresby terminal. The LNG projects may be the biggest energy projects under construction in the world, but there are signs that the major investor, ExxonMobil, is so bemused by this dysfunctional state that it is currently reviewing whether to complete or defer its project. The Chinese developers of the US$ 1.4 billion Ramu nickel-cobalt mine have said they cannot afford to change its proposed method of deep sea tailings disposal if ordered to do so by the courts following action by environmental and landowner groups.
If PNG’s alternate government were to gain power it would no doubt reassure foreign governments and investors because it includes experienced and respected leaders such as Morauta and Bart Philemon, the former Treasurer sacked by Somare in 2006, as well as Sir Puka Temu. Foreign policy orientation would change little, and the aid relationship with Australia would be happier. Whether or not the government is eventually replaced, recent events have shown that political instability is a recurrent fact of life in Papua New Guinea.
Bill Standish is Senior Research Fellow in the School of Culture History and Language, College of Asia Pacific, Australian National University.