bear and cat
politics calm down. Australians mining co. in PNG bounce back on Thur..
expect MNP to do the same. (PNG is noting to do with Indonesian)
see attached news..
After Chan, the real fight begins
By Geoffrey Barker, Port Moresby
Papua New Guinea faces a struggle to restore
international confidence in its political and economic
stability after yesterday's decision by the embattled Prime
Minister, Sir Julius Chan, to step aside.
Sir Julius ended PNG's longest and most serious crisis
when he told Parliament that he, his deputy and Finance
Minister, Mr Chris Haiveta, and the Defence Minister,
Mr Mathias Ijape, would step aside pending the outcome
of a commission of inquiry into the Sandline mercenary
affair.
"I have decided in order to restore peace I will step aside
until all the investigations carried out by the commission
of inquiry have cleared me," Sir Julius told Parliament.
The PNG Cabinet is expected to appoint the deputy
leader of Sir Julius's People's Progress Party, Sir Albert
Kipalan, caretaker Prime Minister today.
His deputy will be the deputy leader of Mr Haiveta's
Pangu Party, Mr Kilroy Genia, the present Foreign
Affairs Minister.
Sir Julius's decision immediately eased tension in Port
Moresby, and soldiers demonstrating outside Parliament
House returned to their barracks.
The immediate future of the sacked military chief,
Brigadier-General Jerry Singirok, is unclear, but his
confrontation with Sir Julius over the mercenary contract
is over.
However, considerable damage has been done to PNG's
democracy and economic prospects after 10 days of
riots, looting and the ever-present threat of military
intervention in the government.
Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Alexander
Downer, said last night he hoped the political situation in
PNG would settle down.
"The signs are that the constitutional processes are
holding up," Mr Downer said on ABC Radio.
He said it was important for the new Government not to
embark on any new military operations on Bougainville
and to continue to uphold the country's Constitution.
Sir Julius told a press conference yesterday: "Unless we
can get the economy back on course, stabilise the kina,
reduce prices, put law and order into place and rebuild a
climate of security of investment, what the people want
will never happen." He conceded that he might have
acted "roughly" in his zeal to rebuild PNG's battered
economy, and contrasted PNG's poverty with the wealth
of other democracies like Australia and the US.
"We are still very much a dependency," he said after
stepping aside, but he sought to justify his obdurate stand
throughout the crisis as a bid to preserve parliamentary
democracy.
Cheers broke out immediately among hundreds of
demonstrators outside Parliament House when his
decision to step aside was announced. Uniformed
soldiers were hoisted onto the shoulders of
demonstrators and carried victoriously in front of
Parliament House while people shouted "De-fence,
de-fence de-fence" to voice their approval of the troops.
Within minutes soldiers who had been manning
roadblocks around the Parliament to check cars and
people disappeared. By early last night the relief in Port
Morseby was palpable. The tension of the past 10 days
had gone.
At a press conference Sir Julius did not rule out the
possibility that he might return as Prime Minister after the
election if he was cleared by the Commission of Inquiry
into the Sandline mercenary contract.
He drew a sharp distinction between "stepping aside" and
"resigning".
Acknowledging the tensions of the past ten days, he said
that Papua New Guineans perceived that "the
Government has not lived up to their expectations".
"I hear their call, I hear their call," Sir Julius told
Parliament.
He said he was stepping aside voluntarily.
He had waited until after the defeat on Tuesday of
Parliamentary motions calling on him to resign orto step
aside, because he wanted to demonstrate that Parliament
was sovereign and because he did not want to be seen to
be acting under outside duress.
"To force the Prime Minister to resign under pressure,
under duress, would be wrong . . . that's why I stood
firm. I did not run away."
As some Opposition members shouted "You are a
useless turd" and "Do the right thing", Sir Julius said: "It's
all right for you. Some of you can joke. I have been
under all sorts of threats."
His resignation came after many MPs had been
effectively held in Parliament overnight by rebellious
soldiers who went to the building and manned
roadblocks.
During a morning in which Cabinet met for several hours,
Sir Julius received a call from Major Walter Enuma, a
strong supporter of sacked military chief,
Brigadier-General Jerry Singirok.
Major Enuma said the demands of the military would be
satisfied if he stepped aside. It would not insist on
resignation.
Earlier yesterday the PNG Governor-General, Sir Wiwa
Korowi, called on General Singirok to leave his house in
Murray Barracks.
cheers :-) |
