What's up, What's happening

So what has been going on PNG?

1) The Somare/Moti/Defence Board Inquiry Supreme Court Appeal: Was there actually an appeal? What stage are we at? Generally, what is going on? If anyone has info please update me, meanwhile i'll be on the hunt for an update from sources too. You can certainly tell I haven't been up with all my current affairs.

What I do know is that Moti is now back in Australia facing the child sex offences he ran from and into the safety of PNG, where our Government had no problems with sending him, VIP like, to the Solomons, using state property and services! Newcomers are welcome to browse my old post on this which looks into the legality of the whole Moti debacle.

2) The sacking of Issac Lupari, the Chief Secretary to Government: Mr Lupari has asked for a judicial review of the decision to sack him. He has/had two cases pending, with primary defendants being Somare and the Public Service Commission. I see the National Court was due to hand down its decision for Mr Lupari's action against Somare on 21 July 2008, what was the verdict?

3) And before he goes out of office, the Chief Ombudsman, Ila Geno, has attempted to reel Somare in. Somare lost his bid to have an injunction granted against the OC's inquiry and now he is appealing it. Apparently there was a mention before the National Court on 24 July 2008 but i wonder if a trial date was set and when? Well done to the OC nonetheless for doing their job!

4) Here is a link to a very good article summarising some of the happenings in PNG politics in the last 6 months: http://www.islandsbusiness.com/islands_business/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=18031/overideSkinName=issueArticle-full.tpl. Such as Somare and his problems with the OC and Lupari and the power struggle going-on between Government pollies for the big seat once Somare e v e n t u a l l y decides to retire. The best/quickest way right now for Somare to lose his throne (and there are so many reasons why) and for political power to be decentralised (let's face it, no one PNG PM has accumulated as much political power, influence and total disregard for proper processes as Somare) is for the government to break down from inside. Right now is when Chan and Morouta should be playing the old "divide & conquer" card. If our politicians weren't so greedy, people like Polye would have started walking away from Government some 6 months ago. I wish he would and lead a mass exodus with him. I'm not for a unstable country but neither am i for an autocracy or an oligarchy!

5) What do you think about Chan asking for the organic law on the integrity of political parties and candidates to be scrapped? I believe the initial intention behind it was good, i mean think back to the time when we had government changes every few months, however, i agree there is potential for exploitation, especially where the grace period is a whole 18 MONTHS!? 12 months should be the max, and if elections in PNG weren't such a big, violent, money- wasting hoopla I would even champion shorter electoral terms of 3 years. I know these integrity laws actually encompass more than a grace period and i need to really look at them because they may actually cause more restrictions than they are worth.

6) Also, how damn long is that finance inquiry taking?! According to the PNG Gossip Newsletter, "Chairman of the commission looking into the Finance Department, Maurice Sheehan, is still waiting on the K13 million promised by Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare in May. The commission has three months remaining to finalise a report for the Prime Minister to present to Parliament."

To end this first real back blogging, here's a bit more ~crazy~ talk from the Rt Hon Grand Chief, M T Somare, GCL GCMG CH CF KStJ Prime Minister http://www.pm.gov.pg/pmsoffice/pmsoffice.nsf/pages/0038CE0D9B4D4D204A2573AD00207C8F?OpenDocument. Do you really know what the people deserve Mr Somare? They deserve the truth and they deserve leadership and respect from their "leaders" for the laws and institutions of this country!