As signs of a political instability intensify in Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has said he will not step down as leader of the National Alliance Party, the political alliance he created. “I am a practitioner of the democratic process of the Government in PNG,” he told 1,000 people at the Waigani Seminar in Port Moresby last Friday.
“Before the 2007 National Elections, the National Alliance party voted me in as the leader of the party. We won the government over a year ago and Members of Parliament agreed to support the National Alliance party to form government. I will remain the leader of the National Alliance party until next National Alliance convention when the new leadership is decided by its members,” he said.
“I want to assure the people of PNG that I would be the last person to undermine the institutions that I played a pivotal role in establishing. I want to qualify, however, that as a member of the legislature it is my role to amend legislation and give rise to policies that keep up with the changing times and suit our circumstances”.
Meanwhile, Sir Michael has said that if he was a dictator he would have put former prime minister Sir Julius Chan behind bars for 20 years because “he was an obstacle to development”. The remark came after Sir Julies likened certain behaviour of Sir Michael to that of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.
Source: PNG Post-Courier, 18 August 2008
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