Strange bedfellows

AS the vote of no confidence looms there is so much anxiety and ecstasy at the axis where the Opposition revolves.
The Opposition’s axis is seen to be acutely tilted and is resorting to means beyond the realm of conventional power play to the point of desperation.
Among them is the forging of an unlikely alliance between Sir Mekere Morauta and Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare.
The two former prime ministers are not best of friends but the alliance is forged under the premise that “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”.
Not long-ago Sir Mekere was a fierce critic of the Somares.
Sir Mekere – after the O’Neill-Namah government took over from the Somare regime – reported that he had been given the task of sorting out the mess created in state-owned enterprises by Angoram MP Arthur Somare when he was Minister for Public Enterprises.
Ironically, Sir Mekere himself is not as unblemished as he sounds.
To some he is the saviour who rescued a sinking economy and brought back discipline in public fund management when he became prime minister.
But to others he was the hand the International Monetary Fund and World Bank used to gain access to state resources and public utility through failed structural adjustments programmes and reforms. The unpopular land mobilisation campaign, the predecessor to the infamous SABL land-grab, is part of the SAPs imposed by World Bank and IMF as part of their loan conditions.
Nowhere in the world have SAPs ever succeeded.
They are simply debt traps for IMF and World Bank to access and control a debt-ridden economy.
To what end do these two strange bedfellows have?
It all points to self-preservation and the protection of vested interest.
One political commentator puts it very well that these two former prime ministers initiated Papua New Guinea’s lost decade.
Sir Mekere’s prime ministership from 1999-2002 was followed by that of Sir Michael Somare lasting until the political coup of 2011 and is no doubt the “lost decade”.
Meanwhile, the successful hosting of Apec 2018 Leaders’ Summit puts the government’s popularity rating some few miles ahead.
Leadership is not a popularity contest but credit should be given where it is rightfully due.
And of course, the regular naysayers and doomsayers of the government might want to mutter that Apec 2018 did not reach a communiqué but who in his or her right frame of mind thought Vice-President Mike Pence would commit on behalf of the United States to negotiating America’s national interest?
Like all vice-presidents, Pence came as a proxy for the president with a specific task and that was to only convey America’s position.
Pence was therefore in no position to negotiate; only a president can make that kind of call.
And speaking on trade, US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have agreed to halt new trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.

David Lepi
Port Moresby