‘Marape not right’

 By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
PEOPLE’S Progress Party leader Ben Micah yesterday brushed aside Finance Minister James Marape’s claims that he left because he was not offered the deputy prime minister’s position.
Micah said on the FM100 Talkback show that he did not ask Prime Minister Peter O’Neill that he (Micah) replace Deputy Prime Minister Sir Leo Dion.
“Marape is an elder in my Seventh-day Adventist Church. I don’t want to go into details of what I told O’Neill and I requested him to step down.  I did not want the deputy prime minister’s position or the prime minister’s position. I left because I saw the destruction to my country and the insensitive, heartless and arrogant prime minister for not listening to the people’s cry for him to surrender to the police to be questioned over his alleged involvement in the payment of K71 million to the Paraka law firm.”
Micah said that he was the only focused minister and MP of the Government.
“The Prime Minister knows that. So for me to walk out like that, either I’m an idiot or I don’t want to be part of any of the prime minister’s controversial engagements. When I moved from the Government, I did not think about my position but I followed my conscience.
“Those MPs in Alotau are there because they are worried about their provincial support improvement programme and district services improvement programme. We are now going to August and we have not received any money yet. We only received K1 or K2 million but not the promised K10-K15 million. We have gone past the halfway mark for this year and there is no DSIP.
“This illusion about DSIP is only a dream that we have been chasing for four years which the prime minister, Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch and Finance Minister (Marape) promised to me and MPs. This has not happened.
“I am not a tool to be manipulated. I’m calling on the MPs in Alotau not to be manipulated by someone to be used to destroy this nation.”