KEITH JACKSON
NOOSA – The 50 opposition members who constitute the new ‘Alternative Government’ in Papua New Guinea will flex their muscles in a mass walk on parliament house in Port Moresby on Tuesday 28 May and prior subsidiary rallies in Wabag and Lae.
The protests will also be a test of strength for the opposition, which has been boosted by a mass defection of ministers and backbench politicians from the O’Neill government and is within six MPs of establishing a majority on the floor of parliament.
Spokesman Bryan Kramer MP said yetserday that the group is asking the 800,000 people living in and around Port Moresby to stop work to join the walk to Parliament.
Kramer asked people to join the protest “if you have had enough of corruption, enough of foreign cronies becoming millionaires overnight on your tax money and enough of the influx of Chinese nationals taking over jobs, land and small business.
“Our people continue to live in settlements, hospitals remain without medicine, schools are without teachers or teaching supplies, and there is an increased cost of living and escalating law and order issues,” Kramer said in a statement.
“Please don't go to work or school on Tuesday 28 May, instead join the walk to parliament.”
PNG Attitude yesterday reported the leader of the disparate groups comprising the ‘Alternative Government’, James Marape, as saying “the wind of change is surely blowing”.
Marape said the 50 MPs he now leads offer “a truly authentic Melanesian leadership style where decisions at all levels are consensus- and system-based instead of individual inclinations”.
He said PNG is rich in assets yet poor by all the measures of development and he held Peter O’Neill responsible for this as his “mindset submits to corporate and individual business interests.
“The new generations of leaders want to truly make the wealth of this blessed country and we rally to the catch cry of Honourable Garry Juffa, a great peer and compatriot of mine, who has been preaching ‘take back PNG’ since 2012,” Marape said.
“This is a revolution of mindset, we will not be subservient to individual and corporate capitalist greed anymore.”
Kramer took to Facebook, where he has over 110,000 followers, to call upon people to “spread the word to your family, friends, work colleagues and church members to join you on the walk.
“If there was a time, then this is certainly it.
“If there is one thing members of parliament are scared of it is the people, because your voice matters so make it heard - turn up and help us take back PNG.”
He said leading politicians will be in Wabag on Friday 17 May, at Eriku Oval in Lae on Tuesday 21 May and at Waigani Drive in Port Moresby on Tuesday 28 May.