Double Bypass to Save PNG

An illustrative analogy illuminating the concept and upsides of people voting directly for the PM with accountability measures.

Let’s say the State is a person. The heart has three (3) arteries. Let’s assume those three arteries represent the three arms of Government – Legislature (Parliament) headed by Speaker, Executive headed by PM and Judiciary headed by Chief Justice.

One artery the Judicial branch is working perfectly fine.

The other two arteries, the Legislature and Executive, have blockages.

Since 1975, the person called PNG has had 9 angioplasties (9 elections) to insert tubes to open up the blockages in the two arteries. However, those two arteries keep getting clogged up with fats (in different sections), so it has come a time where angioplasties won’t work anymore and a double bypass is required. A bypass is to fix one artery, a double bypass is to fix two and a triple bypass is to fix three blood supplies to the heart. In this case we need a double bypass (not triple bypass as the Judiciary is working perfectly well).

The first bypass is for the people to elect the PM directly, bypassing the PARLIAMENT or LEGISLATURE. This removes the conflict of interest between MPs and the PM, so he is not pulled in all directions to compromise his/her authority to lead and run the Executive branch. To ensure stronger accountability and control measures on the PM’s powers, the Legislature be split into an upper (Senate) and a lower house. The Senate’s fulltime job (besides other responsibilities) is to keep PM and his executive in check with designated Senate Committees (just like we have Parliamentary committees). The Secretaries by default, become the overall heads of departments and agencies reporting directly to the PM (this be the NEC) so MPs can concentrate on their key job as legislatures, firstly, and secondly, the other informal role as goods and services providers to their constituents. There is already double representation in Parliament from provincial and open electorate MPs (people vote for two reps). Split the Parliament so that provincial MPs form the upper house or the senate. There will be no extra cost at all with this because we are not adding new overheads. Then redefine the roles of the provincial MPs forming the upper house (Senate) and open electorate MPs forming the lower house (Legislature).

The second bypass is the way multi-million kina CONTRACTS for projects are managed to cut out any remnants of politics and special interests for contracts above K100m or K50m. Use the concept of how Jurors are appointed in other jurisdictions. A database of experts be created (just like how courts have a pool of jurors). A week before Board meetings of the agency managing contracts is held, this pool of experts be automatically selected in an automated system (to avoid human bias) and provided all the documentation required for appraising and choosing contractors. They are given certain powers to veto project contracts with voting rights if they see something not right. Because they are chosen as strangers, no interest groups will have the time to influence them if they are informed within a week. When you have a full-time agency with officers appraising projects full-time, it is easy to influence them.

If done, and done right, these two bypasses will lift us out of our quagmire or quicksand situation. Like him or loath him, Belden Namah has a beautiful quote where he once said “People are afraid of change. I am afraid of staying the same". Getting a heart operation or any operation for that matter is a scary thing. It is natural to feel scared about pain or the unknown. It is an even bigger risk to not do anything at all, and we can live with the same in a "boiling frog situation" for the next 50 years.