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Monday, May 14, 2012

Next prime minister may still not be the people's choice

By REG RENAGI

Some recent media comments have raised speculations as to who should be the next prime minister in the next government? 

There are many variables here and it really does not matter who we personally prefer to see as the next PM. 
The reality to date is it's the political party with the biggest number of members wining their electoral seats after the polls will formally be invited by the governor-general to form the next government.
 The other parties who get lucky to form partnerships with the larger party will next become the ruling coalition government. 
The remaining leftovers will either become part of the parliamentary opposition party or end up in the middle-benches (if any). 
With due respects to the pictures of the four men depicted here in a weekend newspaper, I don't think they cut it to be the next best CEO of PNG Inc. 
We need to have some good serious contenders for the job of 'first among equals' but the line up we have so far is not very encouraging. 
While there may be one or two good potential PM material; known deficiencies still remain. 
These men may have not had their first 'baptism of fire' yet as MPs, either still very inexperienced as professional 'pollies' and still need to serve a term, or two yet as a minimum basic requirement in the "people's assembly" before citizens' can regard them as possible serious contenders for the PM's post. The prime minister is a serious job and so only the 'best man for the job' (with many very good professional attributes) should get this top post for PNG. 
The job of the PM must not go to any man just because his particular party has the largest number of winning members. 
To date, PNG has a poor record of performances by PMs from past experiences.
 So the country needs a very good criteria for determining the next best PM for the government in parliament. 
 As it is now, the status quo is still a very much flawed system, because we could still end up having an 'asshole' for a PM for our country!

2 comments:

  1. Paul Oates9:52 PM

    The dilemma Reg outlines is not restricted to PNG. Most countries in the world where leaders are elected, suffer from the same problem.

    The essence of the problem is that electors do not really elect their own leaders. The people who elect these people are the relatively few members of the political parties that who the candidates belong to. The voters in a general election may think that they vote for the candidate of their choice but in fact they are voting for the candidate of the political party's choice.

    The politicians who then are elected then subsequently feel they have 'earned' the right to become leaders yet exactly what have they achieved in real leadership experience, prior to being elected and what selection procedures have they met in order to become so called leaders?

    The political selection process is therefore axiomatically flawed. Yet it does not have to be so.

    The issue is one of selection: The political leaders who are elected need to be personally able to handle the egocentric dilemma of public expectation and becoming well known and in the public eye BUT to accept that they need to in turn, have a responsibility to select non elected, but competent administrative leaders who can operate and run the nation for the political leaders who are responsible to the voters.

    Political leaders must understand that they personally may not be the best people to run the country yet who is there in high public office that has the necessary intelligence to recognise or understand this problem?

    Show me any political leader from any country that can cope with this conundrum

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  2. Anonymous9:20 PM

    Reg and Oates are on the ball. Leaders are stunned to know that people have totally lost respect of them. Independents should make political parties know that many of them are convenience groups. People will throw them out. It is a new era for new leadership. Regards.

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