Pacific Islands Monthly

Independence-Nearer,

Yet Further Away

Papua New Guinea is ready for independence. And so is the Cooks.

And perhaps the Gilbert and Ellice. The stories are on the following pages.

Papua New Guinea in July finally got its long awaited Constitutional Planning Committee report giving a blueprint for the future of an inde pendent nation. The uproar which followed the tabling of the bulky document, which was in preparation over a period of two years, and is still only in draft form, had died down by early July, but the lull might only be temporary. The House of Assembly went into recess for a month to give members a cooling-off period, and in August the debate will continue at a special session.

But meanwhile the fuss did demon strate once again the Papua New Guinea ability for compromise.

The report recommends sweeping changes to Papua New Guinea’s system of government (for the details, see page 1), but Chief Minister Michael Somare, and his deputy Dr John Guise, have opposed some of its major points.

Mr Somare found himself in face to-face conflict with Father John Momis, the Constitutional Planning Committee’s deputy chairman and the man who has had the strongest in fluence on the committee of parlia mentarians drawn from all sides of the House.

It is not the first time Father Momis has trodden on Mr Somare’s toes. He is a highly articulate and single-minded politician from Bou gainville, and his outspoken criticism of the Somare government is often supported by the Minister for Justice Mr John Kaputin, from Rabaul, who is more a sniper than a stormer of trenches.

Earlier this year on the national radio Father Momis said bluntly that PNG could finish up with “mediocre leadership” unless “radical steps” were taken immediately. Mr Kaputin has been equally critical of the leader ship.

From a Port Moresby correspondent

When the CPC report was tabled at the June/July meeting, Mr Somare submitted a draft minority report on behalf of himself and Dr Guise. The House then retired temporarily to digest the meaty documents.

It wasn’t an easy job. The Pangu Party, Mr Somare’s own party, was split into parliamentary and non parliamentary divisions, and in the accompanying rumpus Pangu s national president, Mr Moi Avei, threatened to resign unless the parlia mentary wing listened to the “voice of the masses” as represented by the non-parliamentary members. His complaint was that the executive was entitled to express its opinions, and not be dominated by the parlia mentary members. He and other executive members walked out of the meeting, leaving the party MHAs.

But the fracas died when Mr Somare said he agreed with the stand of the executive members.

But the real confrontation was yet to come. At a subsequent meeting of the coalition Pangu and National parties, three members including Father Momis were ordered from the table.

Father Momis said that he, Mr Pikah Kasau (of Manus), and Mr Toni Ila (Lae), had been ordered from the meeting by Mr Somare and the chairman, Mr Albert Maori Kiki, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, after having criticised “deals” between Mr Somare, the coalition People’s Progress Party and some members of the opposition United Party.

Father Momis also claimed that when he and the others left the room, expatriate advisers had been called in to address the meeting on the Somare-Guise minority report.

Mr Somare refuted the allega tions.

In the meantime, Mr Kaputin let

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his barrage loose challenging the “moral position of the minority re port", suggesting that it had been written in a night and querying the Chief Minister’s right to make it.

It appeared as if Mr Kaputin was again having his nibble at the leader ship, and with the support of Father Momis.

Mr Somare immediately stated that he was prepared to take up the chal lenge on the floor of the House. It’s unlikely that the Chief Minister would not win such a challenge.

At a press conference after the Momis and Kaputin attacks, Mr Somare criticised both members say ing that Mr Kaputin would have to explain his statement challenging the minority report, to cabinet. And he went on to make the telling point that it Mr Kaputin had bothered to attend cabinet meetings he would have known that the report had not been written in one night. (Mr Kaputin’s come-uppance fol lowed soon after, when Mr Somare asked for Mr Kaputin’s resignation ) . , resignation).

Then just when the situation looked as if it would get out of hand came the news that Father Momis had agreed to compromise on the CPC report.

v We wa , nt , the c t lef Mm,ster t 0 know we don t see the report as unchangeable, he said.

The committee agreed to alter some of its recommendations, particularly those relating to citizenship.

The Opposition United Party’s senior man on the CPC, Mr Paul Langro, told the House of Assembly that the amendments to the report bad been made as “an indication of willingness” on behalf of the CPC to reac h consensus.

The willingness” finally permeated the wh ole of the House on every important . ISS U|> culminating in agree- Mr So ™ a J* d .rop his Decemoer 1 target date for mdepenoence. . . tinn C tn & ICC °f- ls !I V? n ' for December 1 March but in the lin/hnl /S

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as K pr l CtlC ' enacted by the Hous^of^ssemblv 611 * 6d by , the Hou se of Assembly.

For good measure, he did not vote against an Opposition amendment requesting that the House itself endorse

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that PNG was back ‘where h had a • *^ aS u C • where it had started , n March, wlth no declslon on independence.

The House passed the measures on the voices.

What this means is that while the passage of the constitution is the key

t 0 the independence date, it is unlikely that because of machinery measures independence should follow in much less than three months after the con stitution is decided on.

Mr Somare said later at a news conference that he hoped that after debate in August and September the constitution would be passed by the House in November, and that formal independence would come before February, although he declined to name another target date.

It still is possible, but unlikely, that December 1 is the date, Perhaps the Australian Govern ment thought it was likely when in J u ly it put into the mouth of the retiring Australian Governor-General, Sir Paul Hasluck, in his speech open ing Federal Parliament, the state ™nt that P endm S the declaration of independence, Australia would con duct its relations with PNG as if it were an independent nation.

Editorialised Port Moresby’s Post Courier: “In one respect this might he taken as a compliment from a beneficent foreign government. But it could also be seen as pre-empting the d “ ision , of the House of Assembly Puttmg another pressure on the PNG Government at a time when it M has h res of jts own j t looks a unilateral declaration of independence for one country by another, and that, to say the least, is presumptuous, however well-intentioned.”