| Business |
Chief makes history again
Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare
is today set to make history once again. As the 8th National
Parliament meets to elect a Speaker and a Prime Minister, Sir
Michael is at the helm of a coalition that has won a majority of
the 109 parliamentary seats.
Never before has an incumbent Prime Minister been able to win
office again. For Sir Michael, this situation holds significant
irony. In the early years he won electoral victories at the helm
of the historic Pangu Pati. More recently it has been the National
Alliance.
Sir Michael led Pangu to a victory in the first post-independence
election in 1977. He was ousted from office three years later in
March 1980 after wanting to push through a bill barring MPs from
owning and operating private businesses.
The proposed legislation was opposed by Sir Michael’s then deputy,
Sir Julius Chan, who had not been forewarned of these plans. Sir
Julius won a no-confidence vote, the first of several that stopped
every government until 2002 from serving a full five-year term.
Sir Michael returned as Prime Minister again after the 1982
national elections. He was toppled again three years later in
November 1985 by his then deputy, Paias Wingti.
A subsequent no-confidence vote saw Sir Rabbie Namaliu take over
from Mr Wingti in July 1988, but Wingti was back at the helm again
in July 1992 after the national elections.
The late Sir William Skate became Prime Minister in July 1997, but
resigned two years later in the face of seriously deteriorating
economic conditions. This paved the way for Sir Mekere Morauta,
who was defeated by Sir Michael in the 2002 national elections.
This is a potted history of what political scientist Henry Okole
describes as “one of the persevering democracies in the developing
world”.
Okole says that in the face of rumours of coup d’etat at certain
times, constitutional crises, a serious law and order situation
and a civil war, “PNG can take pride in its record of democratic
governance”.
In the last five years, there has been increased confidence and
optimism about the future. Possibly for the first time since
independence, there is hope for greatly improved economic
conditions for many Papua New Guineans.
In spite of direct personal attacks made on Sir Michael in the
course of the recent general election and since then, there is an
arguable case that PNG is better off today than if the previous
reformist government had continued at the helm after the 2002
elections.
Prevailing fiscal policies had greatly stifled expenditures on
mineral exploration, which had fallen from well over 2% of global
expenditures in the late 1980s and early 1990s to around 0.6% by
2002. There were wide predictions at the time that most mining,
excluding Lihir, would end within a decade.
Changes implemented by the Somare Government, along with high
commodity prices, have ensured a tremendous turnaround in
exploration with several projects taking shape in various parts of
the country.
Significant growth has also occurred in forestry sectors since
2003 after a decade of virtual stagnation. Even though the Somare
Government had envisaged the start of 10 high impact projects soon
after taking office, the tough regulatory climate has stymied the
pace of development.
Only one project, Cloudy Bay, is fully on stream. Six others are
at various stages of development, ensuring increases in timber
royalties and various premiums that flow to some 200,000 rural
people.
Despite progress in these areas, and the best jobs growth in a
generation, there remains an undercurrent of dissatisfaction
caused by the poor development record of the three decades since
independence.
Problems of corruption and good governance, concerns about the law
and order and access to education and health services continue to
remain key challenges.
The actions of Sir Michael and his coalition members in the coming
weeks could well signal how seriously these concerns will be
tackled in the coming five years.
NA’s success in winning 27 out of 109 seats to become the most
successful party in the just concluded elections has largely been
to the credit of Sir Michael himself.
He was the only NA leader to campaign through the length and
breadth of the nation and it now appears to be within his power to
deliver on promises NA has made to people in Buka, Kokopo, Port
Moresby, Mendi, Mt Hagen, Wewak and elsewhere.
 
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