Westminster style in name only

 MADANG Governor Jim Kas’s decision to leave the Op­position and join the Gov­ernment ranks last week is something that he said was out of necessity. 

Kas left the opposition PNG Party to join the National Alliance, which is part of the ruling coalition.

The Peter O’Neill-led Government has the support of more than 90 per cent of the 111 MPs, while the opposition has just three MPs.

That left the Opposition consisting of  leader Belden Namah, deputy Sam Basil and Rabaul MP Allan Marat. 

Kas was candid in the reason for the move. He said that was the only way his province could get its share of the government allocations for projects and other funding that had yet to be received. That is a frank admission of the politics at play in Waigani. 

The rule seems to be that if you are not on the right side of the house you will be the last to be considered. 

Kas said a shortfall in Madang’s provincial budget by about K14 million and the unresolved issue of resettling Manam Islanders displaced by volcanic eruptions a decade ago forced him to cross the floor.

He said the national government was delaying the approval of the Manam Restoration Act, which would allow those living in care centres to be resettled.

Kas said Madang was not receiving its allocated public funds on time, and many planned projects had been delayed.

That means the people are indirectly suffering because their representative is in the Opposition. 

That should never be the case. 

The Government is using the fact that it controls the disbursement of funding and other benefits that districts and provinces receive to leverage more members to join its ranks.

To some people this is the game they play in Parliament and is the standard operating procedure. But to others this borders on extortion and passive, if not active, attempts to influence how a MP behaves.

The Government already controls the house with over nine-tenths of MPs in its ranks. Why the need to put the squeeze on the remaining members of the Opposition? 

The fact that the Opposition side of the Parliament is in name only makes a mockery of Parliamentary democracy and the Westminster style of government. 

The Opposition is effectively a non-entity. They cannot oppose bills, debate legislation, or even question how the country is being run. 

Namah and company are not swimming against the tide, they have been sunk and are in no position to exert any kind of balancing effect on the Government.

One of the key elements of the Westminster system is that there must be an effective opposition to offset the party or parties in power. 

This is the side of the house that provides the checks and balances or the alternative government. 

In every country that follows this system of government the Opposition is strong and is there for the purpose of giving the people the other side.  

Thirty countries, including PNG, follow this form of government but nowhere has the balance of power been so one-sided as to render any form of opposition useless as it is in this country.

The laws governing the political integrity of parties and individual MPs were introduced over a decade ago to ensure stability and give a sense of control over what happens after MPs get elected into Parliament and then over the course of their terms.

That law has certainly made governments of the day stronger and able to last more than the constitutional grace period. 

The days of governments constantly looking over their shoulders and wondering who among their ranks will change allegiances and defect to the other side seems to be a thing of the past.

The new problem that has been created is that the government, if it can muster the numbers, can become too powerful. 

This is what we are seeing to today. Namah, Basil and Marat are never going to amount to an effective alternative choice for the people after their MPs have felt compelled to cross the floor. 

It is time for a law to be made guaranteeing the size of the opposition to a certain number of MPs. That is the only way we can be assured of an effective opposition in this era of national politics.  

Without an opposition the government is no different from a dictatorship, and that is not the Westminster style nor is it democratic.