Samek: Namah, Basil must apologise to Somare

By GABRIEL FITO
VANIMO-Green MP Belden Namah and Bulolo’s Sam Basil have been told to apologise for the way they treated Sir  Michael Somare on Wednesday in parliament.
East Sepik deputy governor Toby Samek said the people of East Sepik watched with sadness on television how their leader Sir Michael was shouted at by Namah when he entered parliament.
Sir Michael was escorted into parliament by East Sepik Governor Peter Wararu and Ambunti Drekikir MP Tony Aimo. Basil shouted out “point of order” and called him “a stranger in the house” asking him to get out of parliament.
Samek said the two men’s action, plus the acting speaker’s attack on Sir Michael, could be appropriate in parliament but his people watching it on television saw it as a disgraceful.
He said the 500,000 people of East Sepik had voted Sir Michael in for nine consecutive parliaments and he had served 44 years in politics as prime minister, minister and opposition leader.
He said the people still had confidence in Sir Michael and would vote him in unopposed to parliament as the East Sepik Regional MP in the next election.
He said Sir Michael would be allowed to retire from politics if the parliament-elected government continued to mistreat Sir Michael.
Samek, who was flanked by provincial lands chairman Francis Hevu, said the PEC might arrange a protest against the treatment Sir Michael when Wararu returns to Wewak.