Pushing for a republic

TECHNICALLY, PNG is a constitutional monarchy, which simply means her majesty, the Queen of England, has power over us although that power is limited by our Constitution.
Our Constitution was written under democratic principles, hence, PNG is a democratic country (not a Christian country, two very different things).
In a democracy, the voting majority has almost limitless power over the minority.
The majority in each electorate gets to choose their representative who shares the same ideas and values as them. That representative then joins a group (party) made up of people representing other electorates that sympathises with his or her ideas and values.
They then choose among themselves who could best execute these ideas and values to the rest of the country.
The individual, and any group of individuals composing of any minority, has no protection against the unlimited power of the majority.
A republic, on the other hand, is entirely different.
Its purpose is to control the majority, primarily to protect the individual’s God-given, inalienable rights and for the protection of the rights of the minority, and the liberties of people.
In a republic, an official set of fundamental laws prohibits the government from limiting or taking away certain inalienable rights of the people, even if that government was freely chosen by a majority of the people.
The people elect representatives (e.g. senators in USA) to make the laws and an executive (e.g. president) to enforce those laws.
While the majority still rule in the selection of representatives, an official charter (e.g. constitution) lists and protects certain inalienable rights, thus protecting the minority from the arbitrary political whims of the majority.
Democracy is all about the majority. It perpetuates this mob mentality that all of us free thinkers have come to detest.
“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 per cent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49 per cent.” – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the United States.
History shows that democracy almost always turns into anarchy, which soon leads to tyranny.
In my opinion, we would be better off being a republic.

Barristan Selmy