Somare passes on baton

GRAND Chief Sir Michael Somare, back for a ninth uninterrupted term of Parliament and after ushering his National Alliance party into Peter O’Neill’s emerging government this week, passed on the baton of party leadership.Aitape-Lumi’s re-elected MP Patrick Pruaitch will be interim leader until the party caucus meets to elect its parliamentary leader.In a statement, Sir Michael said while he was pleased with the overwhelming mandate given to him by the people of East Sepik, he saw the rejection of many NA MPs at the elections as a defeat for him.
Sir Michael said: “As the leader of the party going into the elections, I rigorously campaigned with my team to ensure that the type of violations and breaches to the Constitution that began with my unconstitutional removal on Aug 2, 2011 are corrected and never happen again in the future of this country.“However, as the results of the elections emerge, I now accept that the people have spoken and many of the members of parliament and candidates of the National Alliance Party did not win their seats. This leaves me with little choice but to accept defeat as the leader of the National Alliance Party.
“I now hand over the leadership of the National Alliance Party to the interim leader Patrick Pruaitch to take the reins until such time as a permanent leader is determined by the Party caucus.
“The fact remains that National Alliance and its coalition partners were able to create history by remaining in office for over nine years and brought back investor confidence; reined in overspending by previous governments and replenished the government coffers.
“Through good economic management and sound policies in those nine and a half years we experienced growth in virtually all sectors including, foreign investment, mining and petroleum, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, state owned enterprises, tourism and hospitality.
“There are still countless issues to be tackled and it will take a range of responsible governments many years to address all the underlying problems that exist in our country. But my government had proven that it is possible to change PNG’s future outlook for the better.”
He said under his watch more money had been pumped to the districts, there were no curfews, there was freedom of speech and movement and millions of kina allocated to housing projects.
The Somare regime created two new provinces and initiated the push for women in parliament through affirmative action.He said:  “Sadly many of our positive gains began to pale against unproven scandals that festered in the climate of suspicion which grew from having a single coalition government over a lengthy period of time never experienced in our short political history.
“In outlining these I believe I have made my contribution at both the national and international level for PNG.“The time has come for me to serve my people at the provincial level. I will therefore remain an ordinary member of the National Alliance Party and return to the province to dedicate my final term of office to the betterment of my people of East Sepik,’’ Sir Michael said.