King has moral values

THE election of the Governor-General is the main agenda for this Parliament sitting.
The Governor-General represents King Charles III, the Head of State of PNG.
It is sometimes difficult for the common person to see the part the King plays in our national affairs. The National Constitution provides for the Head of State but his role is mostly ceremonial and hidden from public sight.
But it is more in the moral principle of a Head of State, rather than in the daily workings of Government that a King is most important. Part V of the Constitution at Sections 82 to 98 establish the Queen or any of her heirs (such as King Charles her son is at present) as the Head of State of Papua New Guinea. The Monarch is represented in-country by a Vice Regal the various provisions referred to in the Constitution specify duties and responsibilities of the Head of State, appointments of the Vice Regal, terms of engagement and retirement and other niceties that go with the job.
Without exception no provision which specifies duties and responsibilities gives to our Head of State any powers of veto, of reprimand, of countermand, or of expressing an opinion contrary to the advice or recommendation put before him by the Prime Minister, the Cabinet or any agencies authorized by the Constitution to do so. So we find here that the King must approve all laws but cannot make one himself.
He will approve all executive orders and appointments and initial all conventions, agreements and protocols but cannot hold an opinion contrary to those put before him. At the same time that the Constitution makes the Head of State the most powerful person in the land, it renders him powerless to move of his own accord and vests all executive powers in the Prime Minister as Head of Government and his Cabinet or other authorized agencies of Government. King Charles is left in a rather difficult place, as a rubber stamp of his own peculiar British design, being compelled to sign whatever his majesty’s Government recommends to him.
His mother before him in her long illustrious career as queen is not known to have refused anything sent her. He now cannot.
The King’s usefulness, and we contend there is, is of a rather extraordinary kind. He might not serve a practical purpose of value but he has a moral value that helps keep the people’s faith in Government.
The Head of State represents all parties in Government but is himself not a member of one. By his special ancestry and inheritance to the throne he immediately removes himself from the mudslinging politics of Parliament. He is not elected so does not engage in the gutter tactics of electoral politics. The common man who stands in awe of the invisible God always sees in his visible King, an image and likeness of his deity.
He uses the same language to address his King that he uses to address his deity – king, lord, master, saviour. So while the legal provision that makes the King Head of State is useless in practice, it is in the unwritten law of the people in their desire that the power which they vest in their government is other worldly, of divine ordinance and representing all peoples and all things good that the King has his real value. He is loved and respected by the people because of this bond and that love and respect translates often to His Majesty’s government. In that the King has no human comparison and is therefore irreplaceable.
He brings sanity, calm and good grace to politics and such a presence, while not explicit and visible, is implicit and much needed.
There has been many an occasion when a rebellious crowd of MPs that just formed a government in a hotly contested motion of no confidence is much comforted when the Speaker announces from the chair that he has received a message from the Governor General that he requests the pleasure of the company of the Prime Minister elect.
A calmness immediately descends upon the house at this solemn announcement which in itself seems to make the players in the chamber forget all the nonsense that preceded the vote and seems at the same time to authenticate the choice made. That is where the King’s real power lies.
He is aloof, beyond reproach, respected and adored by his people.
His faults, whatever they are and wherever they can be found are always hidden from public view or seen and quickly forgiven.
That is where his true value is.