PM Marape: Namah’s actions ‘disgraceful’

Approved for Release: Wednesday January 13th 2021

The media release by Opposition Leader Hon Belden Namah – claiming faults in the December 16th 2020 Parliament sitting in which MPs defected en masse from his fold –  is another glaring example of a litany of instability orchestrated by him and his cohorts.
There is one word I can describe it —disgraceful!
Belden Namah has always found the comfort of the Opposition seat – and all we know of him is all the ‘fault finding’ that any Government has.
He has become an ‘attack dog’ instead of a’ watch dog’, or an ‘alternate Government’, for that matter.
It takes no effort to do that.
He always wants to break any Government but never bothers to join them, then retires to the Opposition to continue to attack the next Government.
Mr Namah thinks that it is a game.
It is not a game, my fellow leaders and Papua New Guineans.
Our people and our country depend on the decisions we make.
Democracy does not exist in a vacuum.
Democracy and the laws that establish democratic governance exist to command an ordered society and advance the cause of the citizens.
Democracy does not exist for a few power-hungry politicians to use for their own personal interests.
For one full month, from November to December 2020, our people were deprived of the attention they needed from their leaders and their Government.
And when we’ve just resolved it on the floor of Parliament, with the wisdom of many thinking leaders, Belden Namah is still rekindling another fire, just like May 30th, 2019, where he started the legal challenge of my Prime Ministership right from the get-go.
He is wasting all the resources of Government to play his political game.
I wish he used the same energy in coming up with constructive alternate policies to advance this country.
He has none – and that’s why all the MPs he lured across found nothing appealing after spending one full month in locked-down political campaigns.
All he propagated was his political machinations to win the Government, not how to run the Government.
That’s why they detached from him.
Whilst he has his right to visit the court rooms more often than his visits to provinces, to find alternate solutions for the country, our Government would like to concentrate on running this country going forward.
The country must not be held to ransom again.
Democracy is not an end in itself where people in the likes of the Opposition Leader zealously pursue to attain, but democracy is a means to serve our people better.
The true leaders of today have resolved to put an end to uncertainty and spend time on serving our people.
No one who has the heart for this country would continue to create instability.
God Bless!

Hon. JAMES MARAPE
PRIME MINISTER