What’s going on in URP?

THE United Resources Party is in a position of envy.
It is where most parties would want to be.
So, just what is going on in the URP?
First we have the extraordinary event where a party leader refuses to accept no less than five new members into his party.
Extraordinary it is because it has to be the first time this has happened in PNG when every other party is out on the prowl for any extra member.
Numbers rule in a parliamentary democracy and whatever else Papua New Guinean politicians might lack, they singularly excel in the numbers game.
So, when Petroleum and Energy Minister and leader of URP William Duma barged into a media conference a few weeks back to declare that the party would not recognise five members from the opposition, who were just then announcing that they had joined the party, he sailed into political history. He had his reasons, of course, but to his credit, the registrar of political parties upheld his decision.
The band of five now occupies the limbo between the PNG Party they turned their back on and the URP which will not accept them.
And, we thought that was that, but, no. Now we have another public display of animosity by URP members, this time between two ministers.
Duma told The National yesterday that he is fully responsible for the two LNG projects developed by ExxonMobil and InterOil in the country.
The URP leader made no reference to the reinstatement of URP member Francis Potape as minister assisting the prime minister on, among other things, matters relating to LNG projects.
Potape said yesterday that everything to do with LNG projects in the country was vested under him as directed by the prime minister who reinstated him last week after removing him the previous week.
Duma, in turn, called on the people of PNG, especially landowners from the LNG hosting areas, to continue working with him on matters relating to their benefits because he said it was his responsibility to serve the people.
Some landowner chiefs from Hides, Juha, Tuguba and Hiwa are saying they do not trust their own Southern Highlands MPs and questioned Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare why he reinstated Potape just a week after removing him.
They have made public their desire to continue working with Duma.
So, if both Duma and Potape are claiming they both have responsibility over the two multi-billion-kina LNG projects, who really does have the power?
Who do the landowners, state instrumentalities and project partners turn to at this critical hour?
Interesting question and that is a question only one person can answer – the prime minister. Perhaps, as a supplementary, he could also answer the question of why he thought to strip Potape of his ministry and reinstate him again.
One has to pity Duma  – a bit.
Although, the ministry he controls ultimately places him in charge of the Oil and Gas Act under which all oil and gas extraction and related activities can legally operate, he has been politically stripped of the powers a number of times.
Negotiations on markets and financing, for instance, are vested in Public Enterprises Minister Arthur Somare while Duma was to take charge of landowner negotiations.
Yet, when it came time for the Kokopo umbrella benefits sharing agreement, and for the various licence-based benefits sharing agreements, it was again Somare who seemed to take charge.
Was Duma deliberately playing second fiddle, or was he directed to do so, or, was he simply not up to the task?
What is important seems to be that he is the man who is charged with administering the Oil and Gas Act.
Duma – being a lawyer, is well aware that the man who controls the law controls the field. If decisions made by other leaders are examined later during disputes, the question of whose signatures grace important questions is going to be critical in which way the decision is favoured.
At that point, it was Duma of URP in a field dominated by and where the rules are dictated by the ruling National Alliance party.
But, now, we have a case where the division and differences seem to come from within URP itself.
And that makes the whiff of something being just not right, all the more tantalising.
We wait with bated breath for what tomorrow brings.