Corruption getting WORSE in PNG?

Taiwan diplomacy deal still haunts PNG

Thank you Post-Courier for the follow-up stories on the $US30 million Taiwan Dollar Diplomacy deal in which PNG citizens are alleged to have received bribes. In Taiwan, this scandal is getting wide coverage with Taiwanese officials prosecuted. The PNG media should follow suit and give maximum coverage as new facts become available from Taipei in PNG’s national interest to expose any corrupt dealings.

State law enforcing agencies including the Police Force, Ombudsman Commission, Public Prosecutor and Judiciary are duty bound to perform their constitutionally mandated duties and responsibilities in PNG’s national interest. A Singaporean diplomatic broker for Taiwan, Wu Shih-tsai, was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail by a Taipei court in November 2008 for his involvement in this scandal.Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou has stated that the scandal involving embezzlement of public funds to buy diplomatic ties with Papua New Guinea had given his country a bad reputation.

The scandal resulted in the resignation of three senior Taiwanese officials of the previous Democratic Progressive Party administrationYet we are left to see what the Somare Government does here.Prime Minister (PM) Sir Michael Somare should take heed of the numerous calls including those by Opposition Leader Sir Mekere Morauta to direct a high-level investigation to be headed by an eminent person and its findings tabled in Parliament.

The two National Alliance-led governments since the 2002 general election have been plagued by controversies and scandals reaching unprecedented levels since.The other outstanding controversies include:lThe Julian Moti affair of Oct 10 2006 in which the international fugitive was spirited out of Port Moresby to Solomon Islands in a clandestine operation on a PNG Defence Force aircraft ordered by the prime minister, lPM allegedly not declaring his shareholding in Pacific Registry of Ships; andlPM’s court action to stop the Ombudsman Commission and the Public Prosecutor from performing their constitutionally mandated duties on allegations that the Prime Minister was not completing or providing annuals returns since 1992.

How many more scandals must be created before all relevant state agencies take appropriate action?While these controversies remain unresolved, this scandal-plagued government continues as if all is well. The PM must be held totally responsible for dragging the PNG reputation down to its lowest.The PM must be made to answer for his actions and inactions. All MPs in government should ask serious questions such as why they should continue supporting a government that is tainted with scandals.

The office of the Prime Minister, the Government of Papua New Guinea, the National Parliament and the Constitution of Papua New Guinea belong to the people of this nation — not one individual, family, clan, ethnic group, business or group.

– Peter Poke

Siraka, NCD

Source: Post Courier