Marape’s words, spirit will live on

PRIME Minister James Marape took office by popular demand after being at the helm for eight years.
Former prime minister and Ialibu-Pangia MP Peter O’Neill was leading the country in the wrong direction serving foreign interests and entertaining greed and corruption.
Cabinet processes were merely used to sanction pre-cooked schemes for the benefit of those in power.
While many politicians raised their hands to be the prime minister, Marape’s resignation as O’Neill’s finance minister triggered the collapse of the O’Neill-led government.
Marape, the Tari-Pori raised the expectations of the nation with his mantra “making Papua New Guinea the richest black Christian nation” and he promised that no one, irrespective of gender, tribe, region and qualification would be left behind.
He vowed to fight for greater benefits from natural our resources.
We see that Marape stood his ground in facing global multinationals as the Barrick Niugini Ltd, Total, ExxonMobil and Oil Search.
He is still doing that.
If only our former prime ministers and leaders before Marape’s time – especially those who signed Panguna in the 1970s, Ok Tedi and Porgera in the 1980s, Lihir, Simberi, Misima, Ramu Nickel, Kutubu, Gobe and Moran oil fields in the 1990s including those signed PNG liquefied natural gas projects in the 2000s – could have followed his style of leadership then O’Neill would not have borrowed the K37 billion.
While I do not agree with everything Marape and his Cabinet is doing, especially his ministers, but I should give credit where it is due.
I see a national leader, who for the first time since 1975, is willing to burn his political capital to gain more for the country from our natural resources.
My appeal to first-term MPs is for you not to be caught in the political games that the so-called “big boys of Waigani” play.
They play politics with lust for money in partnership with foreign timber, fishing, mining, oil and gas companies.
This this toxicity is the reason why our country has not progressed much. While the country is facing the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis, we run the risk of forgoing better gain from our resources.
I can sense the industries and foreign lobby groups gathering behind few former politicians to remove Marape. I call on the Government to not go back to the dirt of the past.
Carve a good and clean future for our country.
We are watching you all.
I wrote this to show that the national hope and zeal Marape has infused into the young generation of Papua New Guineans is real and his words and spirit will live on long after he is gone.

Nason Mul Solo,
Pom