Supremacy of Law

Albert Kaup Tobby's response to a previous article titled 'Following and abiding the 'rule of law' is paramount‏' on Kange Nga Kona

You've pointed out a very important aspect of a nation state. It is sometimes known as the supremacy of law, which means the law is above everyone and applies to everyone. Whether governor or governed, ruler or ruled no one is exempted from the law. The rule of law is the foundation of our liberties and order.

Therefore all sectors of the nation have a responsibility to uphold the rule of law. This include the Government, Civil Societies and the Market. Here I will only describe the role of Government and Civil society in upholding the rule of law in PNG by using the Principal Agent Problem theory.

Leave market alone since its behaviors is intertwined and influenced a lot by external forces. As David Ketepa correctly stated, abuse of rule of law in PNG has threatened our liberty and governance. It is more dangerous when the governors or rulers are abusing the essence of the rule of law.

Taking this from a Principal-Agent Problem perspective, governors can be known as agents while the civilians (voters) are known as principal. The agents are the contracted decision makers to act on behalf of the principals best interest.

On the other hand the principals have a responsibility to hold the agents accountable to all the decisions made. In a nation state, institutions such as the justice department are created to represent and perform the principals roles in holding the agents accountable should they break their line of duties.

However, lately we've observed that institutional capacity to uphold the rule of law has deteriorated and have lost their integrity. In such situation it calls for the principals to personally hold the agents accountable.

The principal (civilians) can hold the agents (politicians) accountable through various ways. The common of which is through the independent medias and public protest (alas revolution). Media in Papua New Guinea have a very important role right now to restore and uphold the rule of law. One very simple way is to do name calling.

If an agent (politician) is caught abusing the law, the medias should not withheld the perpetrators names. Mentioned his/her full name, his title and even his background. However, sadly PNG medias have lacked that very simple yet important component of their contributions towards upholding the rule of law.

Civilian protest is another powerful tool that if properly applied can have maximum results in upholding the rule of law. Lately that very essence of civilian power is being threatened with government intervention. Papua New Guineans cannot sit back and allow the few agents (politicians) to rob us off our right to liberty and governance.

The agents (governors) have a responsibility to represent the principals interest fully and correctly. All politicians are just simply agents (politicians) to pursue the interest of the principals (voters). Agents have no right to pursue their own interest.

If they do then, that is abuse of office and therefore are incapable of performing the duties required by the position they occupy. Sadly enough, Papua New Guinean politician do not see themselves as agents with a special task to represent the voters (principals) interest.

Both the civil society and the government in Papua New Guinea have a duty and role to pay in upholding the supremacy of law. Unless we understand our line of duty in a Nation State, we cannot fully abide by the supremacy of law.

****** DUK*****