Thursday, July 22, 2010

Opposition to petition recall of Parliament

THE opposition will do everything within its powers including seeking court redress and rallying for 55 signatures from members to force an early recall of parliament, The National reports.

The opposition, led by former ministers Sir Puka Temu, Belden Namah and Charles Abel, Sir Mekere Morauta and Bart Philemon, in a joint media conference, stated that the motion would be followed through to rally 55 MPs to sign a petition to force the speaker to recall parliament.

The opposition made this known after the notice of motion to oust the prime minister was not entertained in parliament.

The notice was handed over to speaker Jeffrey Nape, the chairman of the committee on private business which he indicated would meet at 2pm but walked into the chamber before the appointed time to entertain a motion for adjournment to November.

Sir Puka said the wish of the people for the prime minister

to step aside was not entertained by the speaker.

He said the opposition had 45 MPs and were talking to 15 MPs in government who wanted to move but dare not because they might lose their privileges as ministers and were also

afraid that the government might not release their project and district funding.

“We will get the 55 required signatures to recall parliament,” Sir Puka said.

“There are 15 in the government side who have made commitments to us and, between now and November, they will move to us.

“The game is not over because the motion was not entertained.”

Sir Puka said the government was run by the “kitchen cabinet” that was controlled by three ministers, the prime minister, Arthur Somare and Paul Tiensten while other ministers were just being used as rubber stamps.

Namah supported Sir Puka, stating that he had declared war on the government.

“They have now won a battle, but I will win the war,” Namah said.

He said the strategy now was for the opposition to go to court seeking to recall parliament and, secondly, to secure signatures of 55 MPs to force the speaker to recall parliament.

“It’s a dictatorial government. That is the reason why we left the government. Ministers are rubber stamps.

“We will employ every strategy to change the government,” Namah added.

 

 

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:36 PM

    Thank you Dr Temu and Mr Namah. You've show us all great decency. You've also shown the people of PNG how principled you are as I imagine it would have been a difficult decision to quit the government. God bless you and give you and the Opposition strength and guidence in pursuing justice for the good of the nation. Letting a family dynasty get away with running the nation is bad enough, but it's worse when that dynasty is corrupt and employs devious means to stay in power.

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  2. Anonymous5:35 PM

    I am very grateful that Mr Temu, Mr Namah and Mr Abel had to make the right decision, there is no regrets. God Blessing is upon three of you. Let the Highlands MP support evil, just look at their electrate, it is infested with criminals. Why are elected MP are there in the parliament? Of course to get rich. Money is root of all evil. While folks at the villages and towns are suffering from lack of medicines and hospitals, the population has doubled, why increased the number of cabinet minister. The Evils threatened to Kill us, thank Mr Basil for puting your life for us simple PNGeans.

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