O’Neill’s arrest a warning to MPs

Letters

WE learn from the illuminating reporting in the May 25 Southeast Asian Times article “Former Papua New Guinea PM Peter O’Neill arrested for corruption” that the former PM was arrested on arrival from Brisbane at the Jackson International Airport in Port Moresby on Saturday.
The Police assistant commissioner crime said there were reasonable evidence of misappropriation, abuse of office and official corruption.
The arrest of the former PNG PM contains a cautionary tale for political leaders in other Pacific island countries.
It provides a valuable reminder that if you do the crime while in office there is the very real likelihood that you will end up doing the time when you are out of office.
This is the situation of the former PM O’Neill.
A situation similar to that of former Malaysian PM Najib Razak, although his was on a whole lot grander scale.
O’Neill is charged with directing payments of US$14.2 million (K49.1mil) for the purchase of two generators from Israel without due consideration for procurement processes as required under the Public Finance Management Act.
The purchase moreover was not approved by Parliament.
This clearly is not the way good governance is meant to work in a parliamentary democracy.
That explains why the former Finance Minister and now Prime Minister James Marape had resigned.
He cited lack of trust in O’Neill.
And, the former Attorney General and Justice Minister Davis Steven who had also resigned said his resignation had nothing to do with personal differences but rather because PNG’s political leadership was weakening state institutions.
It is not uncommon for political leaders in the Pacific to think that they can arbitrarily make decisions on the use of public funds when they are in power without reference to established procedures and state institutions.
This case is a stark reminder that these state institutions exist for a purpose.
It’s precisely time to check against the abuse of office the former PM is accused of.

Rajend Naidu,
Sydney