Somare: Home to the Sepik

Sepik, a hero

Parliament defeated him, some of his closest allies of earlier days deserted him, but Michael Somare went home to his electorate in Papua New Guinea to a hero’s welcome.

Obviously disappointed,

perhaps bearing a trace of bit terness although he won’t admit it he flew home to Wewak a few days after the 57 to 49 vote in parliament which unseated his government. Two weeks earlier he had flown out of Wewak as Prime Minister, confident of defeating the challenge to his government.

He came home as Leader of the

Opposition.

His electorate hadn’t forgot ten him. The crowds at the air port were bigger than those which had greeted him five years earlier when he became Prime Minister. If ever an elec torate decided to cheer up a defeated national leader, this was the occasion.

There were flowers, and

back-slapping, and speeches,

and cries of ‘You’ll go back.’

Closer to Mr Somare himself, as he moved slowly through the press of people there were brief

exchanges of disappointment

and regret from men and women who pushed forward to shake his hand.

An open car took him from the airport and flowers were piled around him. He was driven to a sports ground where provincial and local govern ment officials spoke in his honour before another big crowd. Some almost pleaded with him to make an immedi ate bid to regain office, a process which is consti

tutionally impossible for at

least six months. But the theme of the speeches was an accep tance that it was only a matter of time before a Somare government was in office again.

(Continued on p77) K

The sports ground rally also made the point and this is

largely reflected throughout

PNG that no vote anywhere can take away the fact that Mr Somare was his country’s first

national leader, initially as

Chief Minister in the tran

sitional self-government stage

and then as Prime Minister

after full independence was

achieved from Australia. In all it’s been an innings of nearly a decade.

One of the most significant factors in his defeat has not been mentioned much in his )wn country but has emerged /ery clearly in the comments md reactions of PNG’s Pacific teighbours. It is that democra

ic principles of national

nanagement, which PNG

idopted, functioned smoothly

o allow a change of govern nent. Mr Somare neither intrenched himself in power tor created a situation where brce was needed to remove iim. Apart from some ragged

edges in practice, the consti tutional system has been proved sound and has reflected

national stability.

Mr Somare said on his first visit to Australia as Opposition Leader ‘I get annoyed at talk of a crisis in our affairs there never was a crisis. There was a vote and we lost it. And there can just as easily be another vote and we can win it.’

In an address to the Sydney Chamber of Commerce in Syd ney last month, Mr Somare said ‘Eight years after self government, five years after independence, the government of my country has changed

peacefully and democratically.

Papua New Guinea can take pride in the fact that the consti tutional and parliamentary sys tems which we built have worked. ‘The administrative structure which we developed func

tioned smoothly during the

change of government. It will continue to operate smoothly under the new cabinet. An

important testimony to my

government’s success is that there was a peaceful transition and that we handed over a

stable, growing and well-run

country.’

In Australia particularly the point has not been lost. In many island countries of the

Pacific the point, perhaps,

didn’t have to be made they recognise similar attitudes in their own politics.

Australian investment interests and other interests with links in PNG have par ticularly noticed Mr Somare’s failure to vilify the new govern ment or even to trenchantly cri ticise its policies. In some respects Mr Somare’s attitude is understandable because there have never been many differences in doctrine between the multitude of political par ties which his country has produced. The only real dif ferences were his own Pangu

Party’s call for self-government

12 years ago when no one else wanted self-government and

the sporadic Papua secession

calls of the Papua Besena Party a party which, is now represented in the new govern ment.

Mr Somare’s almost mag nanimous attitude towards his victorious opponents in his public attitudes, anyway has

kept his country’s image high

in terms of management and

stability.

At two press conferences in PNG since his defeat and in two subsequent interviews in Australia he made the follow

ing points:

• He will be active in oppo

sition but will not resort to pig headed blocking of the government for the mere sake of opposing it, • His target is to lead another Somare government into office

by ‘peaceful constitutional

means’, and • He does not believe there will be any significant shift in policies under the new govern

ment despite suggestions that

the government envisages a ‘wider door’ for investment from overseas.

Early this year Mr Somare told close friends that he was

considering stepping down as

Prime Minister by the middle of the year. At the time he was clearly tired, he had been troubled on and off with sick ness, and those who knew him well could see only too clearly how the years of leadership had taken their price.

But being beaten on a vote is a different matter from step ping down, and Mr Somare has more or less been forced into a new phase of his political ca reer. He refers to it jokingly as a ‘rest’ while he gets going again. There was no doubt, too, during his recent Sydney visit he looked fitter and more relaxed than he has for some time.

Quoting Milton’s Paradise Lost he told more than 200 business leaders who came to hear him speak ‘Solitude some times is best society, and short retirement urges sweet return’.

[?]lchael Somare, travelling politician. During his State visit to China [?]1997 as Prime Minister of PNG he Is escorted into the Great Hall [?] the People in Peking by Vice-Premier Li Xianian.

Michael Somare, clan leader. This was in 1973 In his home province of East Sepik when he was Initiated as Sana (leader) of the Saet Clan. He had only just become Chief Minister of PNG at the time of the ceremony.