Common interest in politics

IN the time old art of politics and statecraft there is no allegiance but common interest.
Henry Kissinger, American senior statesman, diplomat and political scientist, reflects this well in the American context as “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”.
Politics, in a nutshell, is about an allegiance of like-minded people having control over resources and wielding influence on how a society to govern and co-exist with others.
Allegiance is therefore the inherent binding tie in bringing together collective interest for a common cause.
Allegiance breaking in Papua New Guinea’s politics witnessed in the past few weeks is no different to the power misdemeanour associated with society and is seen quite often when convenience prevails over conviction and conscience.
No political marriage is ever perfect, even the O’Neill-Ipatas, which many believed was made in PNG’s political heaven and would last for a lifetime.
And not to mention the O’Neill- Marape alliance.
Sir Peter Ipatas as a senior Highlands politician and statesman would often pose as a bigger brother and extend filial support to O’Neill when matters of national interest took centre stage and opinions differed along party, regional and various affiliation lines.
In return, Ipatas’ province, Enga, is well rewarded with the lion’s share of the grand infrastructure developments, capital investment and whatever funding that was made available.
So, Ipatas and Marape to say they switched camps because of their convictions and conscience is a little short to the convenient truth – for Marape was with O’Neill for well over seven years while Ipatas’ goes a few more years. So how hard was it for their conscience to pick up any wrongdoing sooner?
It all points to that the Marape-Ipatas plot is purely on political convenience, particularly in forming a new government in re-creating the 2011 National Alliance overthrowing saga.
However, the coup failed as not many Members of Parliament moved as expected.
The numbers stopped moving and it has reached a stage of stalemate.
MPs fear moving to the losing side and lose completely in the National Elections coming in 24 months’ time.
In the process Marape resigned as the opposition’s nominee as prime minister nominee.
But by letting bygones be bygones, O’Neill cut the losses, consolidated his numbers and re-charted his course.
His reputation as a fearless skipper is from his inherent ability to calculate risks and the decisiveness in pulling through a mini cabinet reshuffle right on the eve of vote of no-confidence.
O’Neill now turns his attention on the troubled waters around the Scylla of vote of no-confidence with the unlikely risk of his MPs crossing floor, and the Charybdis of avoiding VONC and the risk of civil unrest, mayhem and chaos that might follow.
O’Neill will have to bank on the allegiance of his MPs and employ the tried and true tactics in this challenging time.

David Lepi,
Pom