Sir Puka: Grand Chief should exit with grace

SIR Puka Temu has called on Sir Michael Somare to resign and leave politics with grace and dignity.
Sir Puka said he was asking Sir Michael to resign because he did not have the support of parliament to continue as prime minister.
“I have the greatest respect, admiration and humility for the Grand Chief as one of the founding fathers of the nation but the political situation is not in his favour anymore,” he said.
He said although the Supreme Court had made its ruling, the O’Neill-Namah government had moved on from when the ruling was made.
“Parliament has exercised its legislative authority to amend the Prime Minister and National Executive Council Act upon which it elected Peter O’Neill as prime minister,’’ he said.
He said parliament has resolved to rescind its decision on the granting of leave of absence to allow the speaker to declare that Sir Michael was no longer a member of parliament.
“It is therefore absolutely illegal for the governor-general to have sworn in the so-called caretaker cabinet under Sir Michael Somare,” he said.
Sir Puka said for Sir Michael to continue as prime minister, he must have control of parliament, table a new budget and have it passed so that government activities and programme could be funded next year.
But he said the way the numbers were stacked in parliament, it would not be possible for a minority government to function.
He said a minority government would only bring more chaos in the period up to the election.
“In view of the present political situation, the respectable thing for Sir Michael to do is to tender his resignation and allow parliament to chart a way forward,” he said.
Sir Puka commended speaker Jeffery Nape on his handling of the crisis.
He said the way the political situation was unfolding each day in PNG was “in unchartered territory” in terms of the Constitution.
“In a situation like this where there is a political stalemate the best thing to do is to leave it to Parliament to decide the outcome.
“In my view parliament is the only authority that can appoint a prime minister,” he said.