Cabinet reshuffle serves no strategy

PRIME Minister James Marape’s recent cabinet reshuffle can be seen as a desperate effort to appease powerful lobbyists in his coalition government.
The winners are the Pangu faction led by the non-parliamentary executives who have been demanding key ministerial portfolios in the past few months.
Goilala MP William Samb taking over commerce and industry is the result of that intense lobbying.
It turns out that Bulolo MP Sam Basil is again tarred and featured in stripping off his commerce and industry ministry.
Indication of discontentment within the ruling party surfaced again on issues ranging from ministry allocation to the multi million kina Bulolo Highway project.
At any rate, there is a crack within Pangu and as always, pressure is being mounted from the outside by the non-parliamentary faction.
Pangu Pati hardliners, a party synonymous to Momase, have been cynical on the way the things were handled since the day the Tari-Pori MP took over the reigns from Morobe Governor Ginson Saonu.
It is highly likely that Marape will form his own party going into the elections.
And again, Pangu will become an empty shell of a hermit crab used and disposed only for political convenience.
On the broader political scale, the ministerial reshuffle is merely rearrangement of chairs, meaning it serves no purpose or of strategic value, especially in retaining power.

David Lepi