http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20070807/tuhome.htm
Somare’s courtship a waste of time, says party bosses
PRESIDENTS of three parties in the Port Moresby camp are calling on all leaders and MPs being courted by Sir Michael Somare in Kokopo to stop wasting their time. Alex Anisi (PPP), Thomas Negints (PNG Party) and Joe Leahy (NGP) are also calling on the leaders and MPs to move to Port Moresby and form a better alternative government with Sir Julius Chan (New Ireland Provincial), Sir Mekere Morauta (Moresby Northwest) and Bart Philemon (Lae). “We offer decisive leadership that would not go back on our word once we have given it to investors – unlike that of the National Alliance leadership aptly shown in the current Digicel saga,” Mr Anisi said. “The so-called Warangoi Accord is merely a replica of the Kokopo Accord of 2002 that was breached immediately after National Alliance (NA) got into Government,’’ he said. Mr Negints said: “And not only that, NA was so hungry for power that it introduced amendments to abolish provision of the Constitution (Section 124) to abolish votes of no confidence – which was against the advice of its coalition partners.’’ “NA’s dogged, determination resulted in MPs in various political parties being divided from Cabinet ranks all the way to extreme Opposition benches, orchestrating a ‘divide and rule’ tactic for most of the last five years,” a concerned Mr Leahy said. “We all saw how the deputy prime minister’s seat was so hot it spewed out parliamentary leader after parliamentary leader – from Dr Allan Marat to Andrew Baing to Moses Maladina and was left vacant for a long time before NA incestuously appointed their own man, Don Polye, into the post prior to the elections,” the three presidents said. “Current indications are that history is set to repeat itself as political parties and independents lend support to structure a Cabinet that will see NA dominate the next Government,” they said. They warned portfolios, including the positions of Speaker, Deputy Prime Minister, Treasury and Finance, National Planning, Forestry, Fisheries, Mining and Petroleum were likely to go to their own NA party members if this trend continued. “We are inviting the leaders of all these parties who have been given a cold shoulder, namely Peter O’Neill (Peoples National Congress), Peter Ipatas (Peoples Party), Moses Maladina (Rural Development Party), Michael Ogio (Peoples Democratic Movement), Jamie Maxtone-Graham (PNG Country Party), Andrew Kumbakor (Pangu) and Bob Danaya (PNG Labour Party) and others seeing the light to respect their commitment to change the NA-led Government made during their election campaign. “Respect the wishes of your people, party supporters and accept the invitation to join Sir Julius, Sir Mekere and Mr Philemon in putting together a much better alternative government that will be formed on the basis of consultation, conscience and honesty. “Just because NA was invited to form Government does not mean they have the power to form the Government. Each of you MP-elects and your political parties collectively, can end this NA arrogance and domination and be part of a better alternative for our people. This alternative will aim to restore the public trust in government again. We are not going in just for the power. We have a vision and a plan to achieve that through tangible, beneficial, developmental initiatives the presidents concluded.
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