Buck must stop with prime minister

WITH due respect, this must be said: The blame-passing by senior leaders of the Government, including the Prime Minister, must stop.
It has gone on too long and we are utterly tired of it.
Responding to Opposition commentary on the economy, the Prime Minister Marape yet again pointed to the Government of Peter O’Neill as passing over a diseased economy to his team.
“The economy has grown since we took office,” he said over the weekend, “lest we forget the recessed economy Mr O’Neill in 2018 passed over to my government”.
In fact, O’Neill did not “pass over” the economy or the government. It was taken from him in a move orchestrated on the floor of Parliament.
At all material times, from 2013 to 2018, across two terms of Parliament, Marape was the most trusted lieutenant of Prime Minister O’Neill, if you like. He was Education Minister, driving the tuition fee free education policy of that government.
Billions of kina went in this direction under his direction with the effect upwards of two million children were sent to school. The government instantly became the people’s government.
As finance minister, Marape principally drove the massive infrastructure projects under the O’Neill government and continued with the free education and free primary health care policies.
At every opportunity, responding to criticisms, Marape was often the most ardent defender of the O’Neill government and with good reason.
Some of the working policies Marape carried into this government. The infrastructure roll-out has been re-named and made his flagship Connect PNG programme. It is a 40-year roll-out that will see billions of kina expanded and see all the missing link corridors in this country opened up, enabling cross country access and ease of business transactions.
The free education policy has essentially been retained with changes here and there, including HELP for tertiary students.
The massive roll-out of funds and goods and services through District Development Authorities, a brainchild of O’Neill’s, has continued under Marape. Indeed, this administration proposes increasing the District Services Improvement Programme from K10 million per district per year to K20 million.
These are very important policy decisions by the Marape government. There is no need to change working policies for the sake of it or because the leadership has changed.
When governments choose to do that, there is continuity and progress.
But why, oh why, must our Prime Minister pass blame on to that past government.
If rubbish has gathered there, he was a necessary and integral part of it.
Cabinet government anywhere on earth is a shared responsibility. The Prime Minister is the chairman of a team of ministers who hold the very same powers as himself.
They serve at his behest. The only true power the PM has under Cabinet government is that he can appoint and recall anyone of the ministers at his leisure.
All matters before Cabinet must be truly examined by all its members with those for and against voicing their opinions first in open discussions and then voting for it.
If members of cabinet allow a Prime Minister to have his way on any one issue or on every issue, at the end of the day, the minister or ministers are at fault, not the Prime Minister.
For good or for evil, the buck stops, not just with a prime minister, but with his full cabinet. Every member is bound by cabinet confidentiality and solidarity. They share the blame for failures as well as the accolades for achievements.
If Ian Ling-Stuckey or previously Kerenga Kua, or Byan Krammer, were to speak against O’Neill, that would have been expected. They were brought into the government by Marape from the Opposition to serve in his Cabinet – another move that we thought was commendable early in his tenure.
But Marape himself cannot knock the administration he had been a principle part of. That would be he knocking himself.
After five years in office, the very last thing we would like to hear is blam- passing. We are only interested in his scorecard.
Now then, let us move on.