Transcript
Pangu emerged from the recent election as one of the three big parties in the new parliament. It campaigned vigourously on a platform for removing the government led by Peter O'Neill for the past of six years. This made it all the more surprising when Mr Basil - flanked by 11 Pangu MPs - held a sombre press conference on Monday with prime minister O'Neill himself, to announce their move to join him.
"We'll be joining hands with the PNC (People's National Congress) to help implement policies, to help the Treasurer to make sure the 100 Days (policy plan) announcement that he has made, we will support it, to make sure that we help this government to deliver."
In a release explaining his reasons, Mr Basil said Pangu was now compelled to join the government to help implement its policies for the good of PNG. As someone who had been in opposition for most of his career, he also cited the difficulty MPs who are not in government have in accessing District Service Improvement Funds (DSIP). One of the defecting Pangu MPs is the Tewae-Siassi Open MP Kobby Bomoreo. He says most Pangu MPs are from Morobe province, and have a duty to serve their people.
"We are from Morobe and, you know, it's a big province of Papua New Guinea, and has half of its industry and everything. If we stay in opposition, we really can't contribute much to the development of Morobe. So we have a lot of projects coming up in Morobe, we have to be part of the government to facilitate these projects."
It appears four Pangu MPs, including Sir Mekere Morauta and Bryan Kramer, will stay with the opposition. The opposition began the new parliamentary term last month with around 46 members in the 111-seat house - far greater numerical strength than it had experienced for six years. When social media reports emerged ten days ago of a plan to join Mr O'Neill in government, Mr Basil dismissed them. Opposition MP, and Oro Governor, Gary Juffa, says the uncertainty left many people reeling.
"There was much anxiety, disbelief, and there was a lot of people very upset in the last few days about what was going on. The silence caused much anxiety in Papua new Guinea."
Mr Juffa says he remains committed to the opposition despite the setback.
"It's a sad day for many, but life goes on. And what we in the opposition must do is regroup. What we must do is focus, and be the best opposition that we can possibly be for our people. Give them what they deserve: a voice."
Some Pangu supporters have taken to social media to vent against what they see as a betrayal from the party which stood so vehemently against Peter O'Neill's leadership and his governance track record. However Mr Bomoreo says people in Morobe agree with the move.
"we all have spoken to our voters. I'm in Lae now, and people here are happy, they're so happy we've moved to that side, saying we can now see some changes."
The opposition's main remaining party is the National Alliance, the PNC's main coalition partner from the last parliament. NA's president Walter Schnaubelt is philosophical about Pangu's departure but doesn't believe district funds are at stake, despite government's clear cash flow problems.
"Of course there's going to be a lot of attempts by the government to try and restrict the flow of project funds into the districts, and they'll use that to their advantage. We're staying fixed. We believe that there's enough funds in the coffers and we will all get our DSIP."
He admits the opposition is still coming to terms with Sam Basil's exodus.
"You know, politics in PNG, very volatile at the best of times, so we try to manage everything the best we can, so yeah... a surprise but we're in communication with him and he's in communication with us."
The National Alliance last week lost one of its own 15 MPs to the government side, exposing an opposition that is struggling to contain defections so early in the tenth parliament.
