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Sports |
PM must reflect people’s feelings
I REFER to Trevor Meauri’s article on
‘My Say’ column (Oct 5).
Firstly, I agree with his introductory sentences about the
Somare Government being the most difficult Canberra has had to
work with in its 32 years of nationhood. He assumes that there
is a general consensus in Canberra and Port Moresby that the
cause of this difficult state of affair is largely because of
John Howard’s patronising behaviour towards Sir Michael Somare.
This is a generic assumption because it wholly makes the
Australian prime minister the devil in the relationship to
justify the arrogant actions of the PNG Prime Minister as mere
manifestations of personal struggles in his quest for freedom
both from within and outside.
Freedom from what sort of struggle? Personal struggles are an
integral part of humanity and every person experiences some form
of struggle in life and one cannot completely overcome these
struggles until death.
Freedom as a national goal? What a joke … freedom from whom?
PNG, prior to independence, was always viewed by Canberra as a
nation of its own and sooner or later, it was expected to
eventuate.
Indeed, when Somare asked for self-governance and eventual
nationhood, it was never an issue to Canberra because
technically, we were a nation even then. Thus, to justify a
leader to break all the laws of the land under the guise of the
struggle for freedom is a cheap excuse.
Why does Howard need to understand Sir Michael when he should
know better after leading us to independence and having been
there ever since?
Sir Michael should know that the office of Prime Minister
belongs to the people of PNG, which must not be personalised at
all cost. Recently, he is seen to be personalising this high
office to aggressively pursue his personal anti-Australian
agendas at the expense of the rest of PNG and for someone to
think and tell the rest of PNG that it’s alright is ludicrous.
If Sir Michael feels inferior in the presence of Australians,
that is purely his problem and he should actually try to reason
out why he feels as such. The rest of the people of PNG do not
feel the same as the Prime Minister.
The writer fails to provide concrete evidences of this
patronising behaviour by Canberra towards the Somare regime or
any other previous government for that matter in PNG but draws
the problems of the Solomon Islands and Ramsi (Regional
Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands) to our attention.
Ramsi was an intervention strategy to curb a state-sponsored
ethnic feud that was driving Solomon Islands apart. The
constituents of Ramsi are from all Melanesia Spearhead Group
countries as well as other Pacific countries including Australia
and New Zealand.
However, he provided an incident at a Melbourne University
involving a comment by a former Australian government minister
as an example of this Australian aggression but this comment
cannot be used as a reason to justify the actions of
lawbreakers.
Furthermore, it would be a mistake to assume that PNG had its
share of colonial evil because we have never suffered at the
hands of the Australians during the colonial era compared to
other countries who have been subjected to colonisation.
The neo-colonialism concept is a perception that exists in minds
of the likes of Sir Michael, which is seen perpetuating in his
behaviour.
The concept of a sub-regional force within the MSG with the view
to isolate Australia and New Zealand is bizarre given the level
of ethnic tensions, political instability, corruption and
institutional weaknesses in the region. To Australia and New
Zealand, this is nothing but a plot to advocate the MSG
countries “hands-off” strategy.
It is common sense that Australia will not succumb to this
because as a development partner investing millions of
Australian taxpayers’ dollars in development projects, will want
to know where their money is going and how it is spent.
Therefore, to suggest that Australia would have to settle on the
borders between “intervention” and “hands-off” strategy is
nothing but an attempt to bargain amnesty for abusive leaders
who could be threats to democracy.
People like Sir Michael can rise and fall but the nation of PNG
is here to stay and any decision made by the person occupying
the position of Prime Minister of PNG should reflect the views
of the people of PNG.
Tapu Malo
Sydney, Australia
 
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