It is a triumph of the law

YES, there are many Papua New Guineans who are disappointed with the penalty me­ted out to the prime minister.
They think a two-week suspension is paltry and they might be right. At least one of the tribunal judges, Sir Ro­bin Auld, would agree with them.
Sir Robin opted for the maximum penalty applicable under the law – that of dismissal from office.
But we must all take heed of the example of Sir Robin.
While he went to great lengths to explain why he was of the view that there was “serious culpability” on the part of Sir Michael Somare, for which the penalty, is dismissal from office, he concurred with the “majority view” of tribunal chairman Roger Gyles and Sir Bruce Robertson that the prime mi­nister’s proven misconduct does not amount to serious culpability.
While he is following a tried and tested legal principle, of course, it has practical bearing upon – as Sir Robin described, the “grassroots of Gordon’s Market and Boroko Tabari Place”.
Whatever thoughts might arise in the minds of the reasonable grassroots of Gordon and Tabari, and of Eriku and Top Town in Lae, and of Jomba and Kalibobo Drive in Madang, and of the various Sikrap markets throughout the highlands and elsewhere, we must be aware of one most important fact: a court has spoken.
Justice has prevailed. It has prevailed over a larger than life and living hero, a man considered the father of the nation, one who was chairman of the Constitutional Planning Committee and who voted for the very provisions in the constitution used last week and this to examine and find him guilty of no less than 13 counts of misconduct in office.
The prime minister has submitted himself to the law.
Had the majority view been for dismissal from office, Sir Michael have gone back to court and appealed the decision but there is no way he would have called up his supporters – and he has legions around the country – to take up arms and keep him in office.
This is what is happening in many parts of the world today where leaders refuse to give in to the will of the people but, thank God, it is not happening here.
It does not because from the top down, from the prime minister to the murderer and rapist, we have respect for the law and submit to it.
In the final analysis, that is what is most important.
Yes, there will always be questions about whether or not he should have been referred in the first place.
Should the leadership tribunal and the particular provisions for tendering of annual financial statements exist at all?
Yes, there will always be questions about whether or not the prime minister should have resigned when the matter was first referred by the Ombudsman Commission.
And yes, there will always be questions about whether or not he should have been automatically suspended from office when the tribunal was named as happens with all other leaders.
Yes, there will be raging debates about whether the punishment warranted the crime.
These are all healthy considerations and debates in the common marketplace of differing opinions that is a democracy such as we have in PNG.
If in the end somebody is so aggrieved by one or more of these questions and wish to seek a remedy, it is provided for under our laws – for appeals of court or tribunal decisions – for references for interpretation of laws in the Supreme Court and for revision of or enactment of new laws in parliament.
The common denominator, the foundation block upon which our democracy is built is the constitution and the law.
It is respect for and submission to its will that is the most important point.
This is what has happened. All else is moot.
A final note, lest we forget.
The prime minister might have gotten off with a slap on the wrist but he has received a blemish on an otherwise unblemished record of 43 years in public office.
Sir Michael has been found guilty of misconduct in office.
That is what he takes with him out of the court room, and with him into his private sanctuary and it will live with him until the end.
That is a very severe punishment indeed – one that he can neither erase from the public record nor from his own me­mory.