Hidden motive to passing of bill

IT has now become law for Papua New Guineans to obtain dual citizenship meaning that any Papua New Guinean can now choose to become a citizen of more than one country.
The law will become fully operational by March according to government sources.
It is common knowledge that certain very senior corrupt politicians and their cronies were aggressively pushing for this law to be enacted before this term of Parliament lapses.
When you scrutinise this legislation with a critical eye you will note that there are two factors that come to the fore.
First, the bill was rushed into law on the eve of a general election, a time of political uncertainty, in the waning moments of the current corrupt regime.
Second, it happens at the time when senior leaders of the current government and their cronies are heavily implicated in scandals and corruption of unprecedented magnitude and that criminal prosecutions against these people are still outstanding and the courts have yet to conclusively deal with those criminal matters.
Folks it doesn’t take rocket science to figure out the motivation behind the dual citizenship law.
This legislation is obviously an escape route created by the government to allow thieves, crooks and robbers who have plundered our country to escape and find safe haven in other countries, thus out of reach from criminal prosecutions under the laws of PNG.
Currently, PNG has no extradition treaties with any country in the world for criminal fugitives to be brought back face justice in PNG. So it was a free pass for criminals and corrupt people to escape.
There was no proper debate on the floor of Parliament on the potential ramifications of the law. MPs accepted the bill on face value that it would somehow benefit PNG.  It was shoved down their throats. In essence it was engineered to benefit only certain people.
I hope the first business of the new government after this election would be to repeal this law in its entirety to protect the integrity of our country.

Bonny Igime
NCD