Advice from the Bard

From PAUL OATES

 

Advice from the Bard. Bill Shakespeare offers some advice from the grave to today's Papua New Guinea politicians.IT IS SAID that there is nothing new under the sun. So, that being the case, history must have some lessons to teach.

The emergence in PNG of what appears to be a nascent dictatorship seems similar to many other events in history.

Human history appears as the ebb and flow of the tides. In Julius Caesar, that most-perceptive of social observers, William Shakespeare wrote of that famous Roman dictator, who some felt needed to be brought down before he took over completely:

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries"

Those PNG parliamentarians who might be wondering what they can do about their situation should perhaps be considering their position. These members

have been elected to represent their people and yet they have now been effectively sidelined.

Representative parliamentary government in PNG has now been suspended a second time and in what appears to be an unconstitutional manner. But what might happen if members of the PNG parliament convened somewhere outside the Haus Tambaran and discussed their virtual dismissal.

Surely there is a legal right to meet and discuss the issues affecting their country. If the Speaker's actions are unconstitutional, then perhaps parliament has not yet officially been dissolved.

One wonders what PM Somare would or could do if members did meet and discuss their situation and if the results of these deliberations were reported in the PNG media.

Finally, in what seems like an appropriate quote in regard to MP Sam Basil, the one elected voice who has spoken out publicly against the 'sacking' of his parliament, Shakespeare also wrote:"There is a time in the tide of a man's life, if taken at the ebb, leads on to better things." - John o' Gaunt in Richard II