Former prime minister O’Neill did well

FORMER prime minister Peter O’Neill has dominated Papua New Guinea politics for almost a decade before his ousting about two years ago.
How did he do it?
How much of a shadow does he still cast?
Like a posthumous honour, O’Neill is far better celebrated now than when he was in power.
People now fully appreciate how better he was when he was in power.
The starling contrast of O’Neill and the current government’s approach to service delivery is a reliable yardstick to measure leadership.
O’Neill’s government suffered an abrupt ending only to appease a fickle mob who gullibly took what political opportunists and lying mongers put on social media as the gospel truth.
O’Neill’s two year absence at the helm of leadership, besieged and in miserable isolation, marked the beginning of the end of infrastructure revolution that awakened the national consciousness and the realisation that improved assets will lead to economic growth.
Authentic national leaders do not arise often.
They are forged more by fate and circumstance than by human design.
Two years on, the full implications of O’Neill’s era – a period in which he acted as the modern Papua New Guinean leader who saw his nation’s aspirations tied to that of the global family and has a role to play in the region it co-exists – have yet to be understood.
His most enduring legacy was to build the PNG economy on a strong infrastructure backbone.
For O’Neill, PNG is an ethnically diverse tribe-based society and is an export driven economy integrating rapidly into a globalised world.
The fact, O’Neill today occupies a central place in PNG politics.
His other legacies such as the Union Bank of Switzerland loan may be open to dispute and it may be too early to pass a final verdict on as there is a commission of inquiry currently underway.
O’Neill, growing up as a village boy, understood the everyday struggles in the village and to that of PNG, an ancient civilisation yet, a young thriving nation.
Thus, his policies were relevant and his approach to implementation were pragmatic as life changing.
Like in the parlance, where there is a will there is way, where there was no road he built one.
One by one, he built wharves, jetties, bridges, schools, universities, colleges, hospitals, provided free healthcare and education.
To me, O’Neill is the kind of navy diver extols by Billy Sunday in the movie Men of Honour.
“The navy diver is not a fighting man, he is a salvage expert.
“If it is lost underwater, he finds it.
“If it’s sunk, he brings it up. If it’s in the way, he moves it.
“If he’s lucky, he will die young, 200 feet beneath the waves, for that is the closest he’ll ever get to being a hero.”
O’Neill detractors would claim that corruption marred his reputation, but to date, none of those allegations stood a chance in court.
All is lost because of a lie spewed by a man armed with a smart phone and a personal vendetta.
He thought he destroyed O’Neill, but he never considered the full implication of his lies and consequences of denying the people the leadership they deserve best and the services now found wanting.

David Lepi