Tussle for PM’s post gets world attention

THE tussle between Sir Michael Somare and Peter O’Neill has made headlines across the world, with most newspapers describing the situation as a “crisis”.
The Australian reported that Papua New Guinea had plunged into a constitutional crisis, and quoted Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd as saying he was “deeply concerned” over the situation.
“Obviously there are heightened political intentions within Port Moresby with two, as it were, alternative prime ministers. This is unknown terrain in Papua New Guinea,” he said.
“But we, of course, have been urging calm on the part of all parties. The PNG Defence Force has been directed to remain within barracks.”
He said the Australian government was watching the developments very closely and using “quiet diplomacy
with all parties”.
Australians in PNG have been warned to stay away from crowded areas, particularly near the court and government buildings.
The Sydney Morning Herald said Australian diplomats were “caught up in Papua New Guinea’s latest political meltdown as angry police threatened them with machine-guns during a tense night of fighting between supporters of the country’s two would-be prime ministers”.
It said there were rowdy scenes at Government House on Monday night, during which the Australians were threatened, pushed and shoved, then had automatic weapons pointed at them by disgruntled police who wanted Sir Michael reinstated to the top job.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade staff were caught up in the stoush as supporters of the leaders clashed.
“It got a bit hairy but we’re generally OK,” the paper quoted an Australian official as saying.
In UK, the headline of The Guardian read: PNG in crisis as two claim prime ministership.
The newspaper said Sir Michael had been reinstated as prime minister by the country’s highest court but O’Neill was refusing to give up power and that his MPs continued to pass legislation recognising him as leader.
In the United States, the Washington Post said Papua New Guinea was in crisis as rival leaders claimed to be leading the legitimate government.
It described the power struggle as unprecedented and pointed out that PNG was rich in mineral resources, including oil, gold and copper and crops such as coffee and cocoa.
The BBC quoted Rudd as saying: “We don’t want to see blood on the streets. We heard some gunshots last night”.
It quoted a PNG businessman as saying: “We are not expecting any trouble. The army, police and people seem to have accepted the court’s ruling as the legal answer to the stalemate.”
Reuters said the impasse prompted police to call for calm in Port Moresby, and suggested
that the capital had a reputation for street violence.
Parts of the city were ruled by “raskol” criminal gangs, it said.
The wire agency said that despite PNG’s “robust politics”, the nation’s “golden goose” resource sector had largely been left unhindered by the turmoil.
It said that while heavily armed police protected Government House on Tuesday, elsewhere in the city life went on as usual.
In its report, AFP said PNG was an impoverished nation and had been struggling to throw off its reputation as a politically dysfunctional and often lawless nation with a resources boom in the pipeline.