JULY 10 2022
PRIME Minister Hon. James Marape has slammed criticisms raised by former prime minister Peter O’Neill on his attendance of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) summit in Fiji.
Prime Minister Marape said it was totally irresponsible for the former prime minister to bring into question the work of the Office of the Prime Minister on matters such as the PIF.
“How can a political party that had the privilege of running the country for eight years question the work and functionality of the Office of the Prime Minister in relation to foreign relations, and more importantly in the family of nations that is closest to the heart of Papua New Guinea – the Pacific Islands Forum,” asked PM Marape.
PM Marape clarified that a very pressing issue on the agenda of the PIF he was chosen to handle as a PIF leader has been his involvement in negotiating for Micronesian countries to not break away from the forum over a contentious issue that is still being sorted.
“There are indications, currently, from Micronesian nations to break away from the PIF. I am the key leader of the region dealing with the Micronesians to keep them from breaking away from PIF. As a senior member of PIF, PNG plays an important role to ensure that we as a family of Pacific nations remain together.”
To O’Neill’s claims that PM Marape was pushing a Chinese agenda at the PIF summit, the Prime Minister totally dismissed the claims as nonsense.
“There is no Chinese agenda in this meeting. Neither is PNG the sponsor of a Chinese agenda in the PIF meeting. The PIF summit is a usual important meeting that is required for all PIF nations to attend, and as the sitting Prime Minister, I must attend to make sure the PNG presence is felt.”
Prime Minister Marape, who has been extremely caught up in election travel and matters, said he had to make time available in his very busy schedule to attend the summit.
“I am sacrificing my political and government formation time to go and attend national duties required of me as the current incumbent Prime Minister.
“I am going to Fiji quickly for the meeting and returning at the very earliest. There is a series of meetings running for one week. I will not be there for one week due to election requirements as I need to be back home.”
On PNC’s reference to the running of these elections, PM Marape said PNC should be the last party to complain about the challenges being faced in these current elections as it did nothing to strengthen the work of the Electoral Commission during the eight years it was in power.
“PNC should be the last party to talk about running elections. The results in 2012 and 2017 should speak for themselves when it presided over these two elections.
“Some of the inherent weaknesses we carry into these elections are from the in-competencies of the PNC-led Government during the eight years they have been running our country.
“PNC leadership should be keeping their tongue in check. They are responsible for the mess of the functionality of government and some of the important constitutional offices since that time they been in office. They contributed to the erosion of good governance and some of these key constitutional offices.
“The last two years, I have tried my best with my coalition of leaders to restore integrity, rebuild systems of government and to ensure our government is functioning in the hard years that we have been in office – the hard years that have been caused by political instability by Mr O’Neill, the COVID-19 induced tough times, and facing elections 2022. From those backdrops, it hasn’t been easy.
“But we have been able to fund the elections upfront. Some of these monies have been used to repay 2017 and 2012 bills that Mr O’Neill and PNC never fully retired.
“So instead of talking from their armchairs as if they are saints, as if they have been running the country perfectly well, they should be the last to talk about how to run elections, about good governance, and national interest because they never had national interest in the core of their political DNA. It has always been for personal interest for them.
“My coalition of leaders and I have done our absolute best during these tough times and for me to sacrifice my government formation time to go and attend national duties at the premier organisation, the PIF, speaks volumes. It is testament to us putting national interest ahead of personal interest.”
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