Opposition may get control in PNG

Transcript

One of the MPs who crossed the floor of Papua New Guinea's parliament on Friday says he feels the opposition should be able to seize government at the end of the week.

Parliament sat on Friday for the tabling of an opposition motion of no confidence of Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, and was then adjourned until this Friday, when a vote will take place.

Bire Kimisopa and his three New Generation Party MPs, as well as government minister Ben Micah and his People's Progress Party, crossed the floor to join the opposition in parliament.

Mr Kimisopa says several other MPs have done the same over the weekend, but Mr O'Neill's government appears to still have the majority.

Mr Kimisopa told Jamie Tahana he has lost faith in Peter O'Neill's management of the country.

BIRE KIMISOPA: There are a number of issues: the economic situation in the country; crippled government services; I think the constant interference with the police; and also the most recent unrest initiated by the university students which led to a number of casualties, one death, serious brutalities among students and the cancellation of the academic year; and this longstanding issue concerning the prime minister's refusal to front up to the police to answer corruption charges. That's been playing itself out, but I think what's worrying is that the confidence in the economy - the economy is spiralling out of control, the foreign currency situation is such that we are overburdened with debt, the national government's budget is hemorrhaging, it's not meeting its targets. There seems to be a mismanagement of the budget. So it's a culmination of a number of things - political, social, and just a complete disrespect for the rule of law and also I think there's a move by our citizens right across the country demanding that there's a change of government or a change of political direction. So our party, the New Generation Party, has decided that it needs to heed the call from our people and make that move appropriately.  

JAMIE TAHANA: So many factors that have led you to lose confidence in the government, but why now? Because it was only a week ago or so that Ben Micah from the People's Progress Party and, I believe, yourself as well were saying you still had faith in the government. What's changed in the past week?

BK: Yeah that's very true. I issued a press release a month ago basically calling for the prime minister to step aside and allow an acting prime minister to take over because it appears to us - and especially the New Generation Party - that we need a full time prime minister. With the multiplicity of problems that we are engulfed in, we need a prime minister who is working 24/7 and is dealing with the issues and making sure the country is running properly. But we have a situation where over the last two-and-a-half years he has been inundated with all kinds of lawsuits, going in and out of court trying to evade arrest, trying to evade investigation. So that's been played out and you can't - you've got to be a smart guy to be able to manage all of that and at the same time be able to give your full commitment to running this nation. It's just obvious to me that cannot happen. So we've made a call as a party requesting that the prime minister just respect the wishes of the people and also the members of the coalition by stepping aside and allow, from within his own political party, to have someone as acting prime minister so that we can continue with the governance of the country. But it doesn't seem to work that way, so I think we've done that.

JT: Have you heard from Mr O'Neill since you made the move?

BK: Not as yet. I suspect that our numbers are insignificant. Why would you want to dwell on issues of national importance or controversial issues with a political party which just happens to be your partner. We've got only three members of parliament, if we move to opposition what difference does it make? But the issues are the issues, if we had 50, or 40, or 20 that would present a problem, but we have three. But unfortunately, as of yesterday, instead of three moving, you had the People's Progress Party and a number of people have moved as well so it's becoming a big move.

JT:  Yeah, a big move. Do you know what numbers the opposition has now? How likely is it that there may be a change of government come Friday?

BK: We have not made any counting as yet. I think this thing will play out and I will probably know by Thursday or, at the latest, Friday morning in terms of the numbers. But the indications of course, I think our people are quite confident in terms of what we've done. The message is loud and clear, the party has made a decision, I've made my own decision, so we've made that move and I suspect that more members of parliament will do likewise. That remains to be seen, like I said, it's too early to call any numbers at this point in time but there is a significant move and I suspect that by Thursday or Friday next week we should be able to know exactly what numbers we have.

JT:  But a lot of lobbying and negotiations to come in the six days ahead, I guess.

BK: This is the nature of the game in PNG. It's very fluid, there's no fixed loyalties, it depends on the moment of the day in terms of how much you can offer and things like that. But I think if we have enough numbers we should be able to make a distinction between what is frivolous or vexatious interest, parochial interest, as opposed to the national interest. So I suspect that all members of parliament feel that enormous responsibility, it's an enormous call upon them. It's something they've got to make themselves. I've made mine.