By Wally Hiambohn
p. 22 · Read in the full issue
Law And Order
ARNOLD Amet, 40, became chief justice of Papua New Guinea on August 6, the second Papua New Guinean to ascend to the country’s highest judicial position. He took over from Sir Buri Kidu who has served with distinction for the past 13 years and established an internationally reputable independent judiciary for the country.
Amet, who was the surprise pick, has foreshadowed sweeping changes to the judicial system and legal practices to conform with PNG’s social, political and economic organisation rather than the “too formal, complex, expensive and inaccessible” system adopted at indepen dence 17 years ago. “Essentially, my philosophy about legal and judicial service to the people of this country is that it should be simple, less formal and less complicated as possible and less expensive so that it is far more accessible to the vast majority of the ordinary people of this country,” Amet said when he took office.
Simple and less complicated he may want laws to be but Amet has come in at a time when laws with far-reaching effects have been enacted in parliament and are being proposed by the Wingti government to address the country’s law and order problems.
By the time you are reading this story, the Supreme Court, of which Amet is a member of the bench, will be deciding whether the government’s controversial Internal Security Act is constitutional or not. The Ombudsman Commission, led by its chief Charles Maino, is seeking a Supreme Court review of the Act which, they say, cuts through the basic human rights provisions of the constitution.
The Act passed by parliament in May is aimed at preventing terrorism. It is intended to specify offences related to terrorism and the encouragement of terrorist activities and provide heavy penalties; outlaw organisations engaged in or likely to engage in or promote terrorist activities; provide powers to exclude persons likely to engage in terrorist activities from the country; provide powers to declare areas prohibited and exclude entry to such areas; provide powers of arrest and detention in such areas.
Finer details of interest are that people who encourage or support terrorism could be fined up to K 100,000 or jailed for up to 14 years under new
legislation passed by parliament;
it provides for “exclusion” of people the national executive council considers likely to engage in terrorism. In the case of citizens, this can mean barring that person form particular parts of the country.