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by Frank Senge Kolma
An inquiry likely to end under the
carpet
THERE might be some legal technical
hitch with the Moti inquiry and the manner in which it was
conducted.
The judicial review granted last Friday by acting Chief Justice
Sir Salamo Injia should establish that conclusively in due course.
For now, let us turn to the matter of whether or not it is the
contents of the report ought to be published or not.
And what really is it that we are waiting with bated breath to
find out?
Sir Salamo has ruled that until the judicial review is heard, the
Government be restrained from taking any action on this matter and
on persons that might be implicated.
That is as it should be but I get the feeling that it will not be
too long before the whole of matter is swept under the carpet and
be forgotten as so many other inquiries before it.
For one, it comes too close to the national general election. All
anyone needs to defer and procrastinate before the courts long
enough until the excitement of the elections takes over the
national conscience.
It will join a long list of other shelved and forgotten inquiry
reports.
Another expensive inquiry is going to end up with nothing to show
for it.
If anyone were to look into the history of Royal Commissions of
Inquiries in this country, we have a very sad record.
Only two inquiries on record, resulted in criminal prosecutions
resulting in jail sentences and in substantial changes to existing
policies and rules and regulations.
They were the Diaries Affair back in 1981which resulted in the
jailing of a politician and the Inquiry into Aspects of the
Forestry Industry in 1987, which resulted in wholesale changes of
the forestry policies and rules and regulations at the time.
Others, sadly have been high on finance, emotion, hype and
publicity, and low on effect and conclusively dealing with
recommendations.
The historical landscape is littered with shelved inquiry reports
that would make excellent reading and possible bestsellers if they
were turned into novels.
I remember the inquiries into Wings Australia which became known
as the Pelair Inquiry in March 1985 which ended in virtually
nothing after weeks of investigation.
It turned out in the final analysis that the vital pieces of
evidence, two gas tanks which could have been the conduit for the
transportation of dangerous drugs had never passed customs checks
and was not included in the inquiry.
The Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and his then minister Karl
Stack’s names were tainted pink during the inquiry but it ended up
in nothing.
And the names can not be untainted – a constant
factor of inquiries that remain to this day.
A year later, during the float of Placer Pacific Shares, a senior
partner in government in the People’s Progress Party appeared to
use its position in Government to acquire tens of thousands of
shares under the names of office staff and party workers.
The Placer Pacific Inquiry uncovered this but not much more.
The lion’s share of some 800,000 shares appeared to have
disappeared into thin air.
PPP party leader Sir Julius Chan suffered public ridicule and
negative publicity for the duration
of the inquiry but in a subsequent court action, was absolved of
blame.
And then we have had the inquiries into the Port Moresby Water
Deal, the Cairns Conservatory and Sydney Malangan Haus deals, the
Poreporena Highway, the Sandline Affair, the NPF Affair and now
the Moti Affair.
The Inquiry into Finance and Treasury is current as this article
goes to press.
Together the inquiries would have cost tens of millions of kina
and thousands of man hours.
Fairly or unfairly, so many prominent politicians and businessman
have featured in these inquiries but we shall never know whether
or not they are really guilty as alleged.
In the absence of concrete actions on them, we are left only with
the innuendos and the allegations and that is what we will judge
them on.
Now to the Moti Affair.
We need no inquiry to tell us certain facts.
Julian Moti, the designated attorney-general of Solomon Islands
but an Australian citizen of Fijian Indian descent, was arrested
by PNG police and charged in a PNG court for alleged child
molestation.
The request for this action came from the Australian federal
police with whom the PNG police share a close relationship and
share information on international crime and drugs.
Julian Moti did not appear in court and there was a warrant of
arrest out for him authorised by a PNG court.
He was in hiding and whilst in hiding, a certain scheme was
concocted with the full knowledge of senior members of the
security and intelligence organisations in PNG to move him from
our shores in a clandestine operation.
That happened in the most dramatic manner when a PNG Defence Force
aircraft and its crew were used to fly the man out to the Solomon
Islands breaking our Civil Aviation regulations and Immigration
laws in the process.
We are not asking to know if something illegal occurred. We know
that already.
Laws were broken in the most brazen manner.
What we want to know and which this inquiry was about to tell us
was: Who was responsible?
And all this flurry of legal nonsense before the courts is really
to hide the faces and names of those people responsible.
They are running to hide – that is what is happening.
Let them kid us not.
 
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