By Hon. Allan Bird, MP
The main reason is to prevent the entrenchment of a powerful political group or individual in power.
Once one group or person is entrenched in power, the opportunity for corruption increases. This is the PNG challenge.
The longer a PM is in power, he will skew the entire State system to suit his personal interest.
The PM is in charge of the mechanism that hands out large contracts. Give him enough time and only contractors loyal to him will become wealthy because they pay the money to keep the PM in power.
The PM controls the appointment of the Police Commissioner and the Ombudsman Commissioner. So, it stands to reason, that over time, they will be loyal to the PM.
The PM is in charge of selecting his Ministers. All the ministers are loyal to the PM. They do his bidding.
The PM controls Parliament, so he can bring any legislation and pass it on the floor. Nothing prevents him from doing that. We just saw evidence of that this week.
The Private Business Committee is also loyal to the PM. They do whatever the PM wants. So they can block any motion against the PM. We saw that during the VONC.
The Speaker is also loyal to the PM because he was nominated by the PM and his group. So Parliament is controlled by the PM. It is not an independent entity.
The PM is in charge of the mechanism that appoints the Judges. Give him enough time, and he will appoint Judges that are loyal to him. So give a PM enough time and the PM will control the Judiciary.
There are only two mechanisms to control the total power of the PM and to hold the PM accountable that are independent.
Vote of No confidence is one such mechanism which the Government has just amended the law to in practice limit but to also reduce the opportunities to hold governments to account. Give the PM enough time in office and there will be no more Votes against the PM.
The last and only mechanism of accountability that the PM does not control is Public Dissent. The PM and the Government has no control on how the Public decide to hold governments accountable.
To me, that is soon going to be the only mechanism of accountability left in our country because all State accountability mechanisms are slowly and systematically being shut down and will be loyal not to the State but to the PM.
Something for our intellectuals to think about.