Political marriage of convenience

By ISAAC NICHOLAS
IT has been a political marriage of convenience since Aug 2 last year.
That marriage had shown signs of breaking up and nearly claimed the scalp of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill yesterday.On Aug 2, 2011, O’Neill was invited to lead a group of more than 60 MPs after the National Alliance party disintegrated.The Supreme Court made a ruling on Dec 12 that the election of O’Neill as prime minister was unlawful and reinstated Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare to that post.
That same day, parliament rallied behind O’Neill and used its numbers to re-elect him as prime minister.
The Supreme Court again, last Monday, ruled that Sir Michael was the legitimate prime minister. Monday’s special session was to address that Supreme Court ruling.But political power play and mistrust started to rear their ugly heads when a group of MPs pushed for the deferral of elections by six months through a motion in parliament.O’Neill did not support the move and even publicly announced that the general election would proceed as scheduled. The writs were issued on May 18, 2012. That did not go down well with the dissenting group.Some members were still not happy that the motion to defer the elections was not enforced leading to moves behind the scenes to oust O’Neill and to ensure the motion was carried through.
The first attempt, according to political insiders, to oust O’Neill was on May 15 during the last session of parliament.The major political power-brokers were Speaker Jeffery Nape, Belden Namah, O’Neill, Don Polye and William Duma.On May 15, Nape, according to sources, wanted to move a vote of no-confidence on O’Neill, believing that if O’Neill failed to muster the numbers, a new prime minister would be elected.
But that move failed, and the power-brokers were looking for another opportunity to oust O’Neill and defer the elections.That opportunity presented itself last Monday when a special parliament session was called to address the Supreme Court ruling on the legitimacy of government.
O’Neill and senior coalition members including Polye, Bart Philemon and others were not consulted on the special session to declare a vacancy in the office of the prime minister.
O’Neill and senior members rushed back to parliament to seek an explanation only to be reassured that he was the only candidate for the post.
When parliament sat yesterday to call for nominations, a bombshell was dropped from the chair, disqualifying O’Neill’s eligibility to be a candidate.
Acting Speaker Francis Marus stated that O’Neill had to be disqualified because he was seen as being part of the controversy since Aug 2 last year, and the chair could not recognise his nomination.
O’Neill, through a dissent motion by Namah, managed to secure a 56-0 vote to be prime minister again.
But then Nape, wearing his hat as speaker sitting at his parliamentary office in the morning and as acting governor-general in the afternoon, refused to swear in O’Neill and his cabinet.
The battle lines had been drawn and Dame Carol Kidu’s last statement to parliament on May 15, 2012, sounded very true: “In politics, do not trust anyone accept your mother.”