Up Front

with the Editor

My old friend and colleague Gus Smales says it very well on p 89.

The last 12 months of wear and tear on Papua New Guinea’s Chief Minister Michael Somare has forced Mr Somare to sell himself loudly against the increasing clamour of groups which now see themselves as “more nationalist than the govern ment”. The Chief Minister is neither more radical nor more conservative than he ever was, but the circum stances have changed. Mr Somare now has to answer the slogan shouters on their own ground.

Michael Somare’s difficulties began to develop after he announced in March that he was aiming for December 1 as Independence Day.

At the same time it became clear that the Constitutional Planning Committee’s report was going to take longer to see the light of day than anybody had expected. Every week that the report was delayed meant that the December 1 date was more difficult to attain.

Since nobody could actually act, because there was nothing concrete to act on, PNG politics then entered an unprecedented bitching phase.

The Chief Minister, and the country, were soon embroiled in heated debate on (a) whether December 1 was too early for in dependence (b) whether some aspects of the constitution—which were being leaked out by now—were what was wanted.

At the same time the Somare Government found itself faced with the prospect of renegotiating the big Bougainville Copper agreement, so the critics naturally bought in on that too. The renegotiation, they said, had to be “tough”—though Somare’s negotiating team seemed to be making it as tough as possible, to the point of complete stalemate at one stage.

He won through with Bougainville.

If he hadn’t been so successful, his enemies would surely have clawed him down. He won through on a major facet of the constitution argument— the matter of provisional citizenship (see p 7). And he won through on one of those side issues that have

infested the arguments of recent months—whether or not Minister for Justice Mr John Kaputin should be fired.

Mr Somare wanted to fire him, but he could do nothing more than strip him of his portfolio and leave him still a minister—without port folio. It looked for a time that he might have to give Kaputin his job back, but in mid-October he finally had him relegated to the back benches with massive parliamentary support which was as much a vote of con fidence in the Chief Minister as a measure of John Kaputin’s un popularity in the parliament. It’s a fact that the noisiest criticism of Michael Somare comes from outside parliament, although not necessarily from non-parliamentarians.

Not too much further attention need be given to John Kaputin. He got his chance—Minister for Justice is a pretty good post to have—and he messed it up without help from anybody else. He told the House after it had sacked him that he “was never moulded to fit into the colonial shoe, whereas others have fitted beautifully into it”. The shoes he wears might also be out of step with everybody else’s.

Strange it is that when Michael Somare’s Pangu Party men got the chance to form a government two years ago there was genuine fear that they were too radical and that they would move too fast. They haven’t changed, but for some they are not now radical enough, and have not moved fast enough.

Despite the vocal critics, it is a national New Guinean government, not a colonial government, taking it on the chin. And it’s the New Guineans who are going to be the final arbiters as to whether a national central government remains in power.

I merely hope that the decision is made democratically, and not as a result of hysterical shouts from the barricades and of the cries for blood shed that PNG has heard in recent weeks.

Stuart Inder