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Michael Somare and Peter O'Neill - Source: ONE News -
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The upheaval caused by the political battle being waged in Papua New Guinea represents a fundamental shift in how its leaders want to be viewed by the world, and the needs its people demand be filled.
The political deadlock that has frozen the nation's highest branches of government continued on Friday, despite Peter O'Neill declaring that his government, backed by 75 MPs, had seized control of official offices as well as the police hierarchy.
His rival, Sir Michael Somare, declared only hours later that on the contrary, he, Sir Michael, was PNG's only prime minister.
The point was reinforced by the fact that he was speaking from the same government offices that O'Neill had claimed were under his control.
Both men were speaking five days after the Supreme Court ruled in a 3-2 decision that Sir Michael's nine-year-old government had been unconstitutionally booted from power by a parliamentary vote on August 2.
The Governor-General, Sir Michael Ogio, has declined to endorse or ratify either man.
But Sir Michael appears to be losing the public relations war, with supporters of O'Neill out in force on the streets.
"I live in Port Moresby. I am unemployed. I have several children and I want them to have an education," said Nick Kinde, who was protesting peacefully along with about 600 others in the capital on Thursday.
"Mr O'Neill promised us free education. I want that."
And promise he did.
In the four months since he took office, O'Neill had been flying around PNG's provinces promising free education for schoolchildren up to year 10, and subsidies thereafter.
It resonated in a nation where some studies have estimated that more than 90% of the population have not completed formal education.
The message spread quickly, in part because of PNG's rapidly growing communications systems. Mobile phones, email and text message have become the carriers for gossip and political communication.
In the past four months, O'Neill's face has stared out from the front pages of the nation's papers.
For most of that time, Sir Michael Somare, 75, was in Singapore undergoing numerous heart operations that left him a thinner and frail version of the short, stocky, one-time firebrand who became PNG's first PM in 1975.
He did not communicate with the people of PNG and conflicting messages came from his family.
His son, Arthur, made a statement in mid-June that he and Sir Michael's wife, Lady Veronica Somare, wished him to retire.
"I wish to announce that it is our family's collective desire that Sir Michael be allowed to recover at his own pace, and therefore retire," Arthur Somare said.
"In our considered decision to do this we believe PNG should have a level of certainty with regard to political stability and leadership well into the future."
The armed forces and the vast majority of the police force in Port Moresby have declined to take sides in the power struggle and have spent most of the past week stressing they do not want to get involved.
"The situation that we are facing now, it is not us. It is a matter between two political groups," O'Neill's police commissioner Tom Kulunga said on Friday.
Kulunga made the comments to reporters after more than 20 officers who had seemingly sided with a Somare appointee for police chief turned themselves in at police headquarters.
"There is no problem in the police organisation. We are in charge, the media needs to know," Kulunga said.
Like his defence counterpart Brigadier-General Francis Agwi earlier in the week, he has dumped responsibility for cleaning up the mess squarely back on the shoulders of Sir Michael and O'Neill.
Restored to power by court order on Monday after more than four months out of power, Sir Michael has lost the East Sepik electorate he had held for 43 years.
He lost it because speaker of the house and former ally, Jeffery Nape, ruled on September 6 that he had disqualified himself by missing three sessions of parliament while he was in Singapore.
The 46-year-old O'Neill became the nation's prime minister on August 2 when 70 MPs out of 109 moved a surprise vote to dump the Somare government after nine straight years in office.
Then came Monday's decision by the five-man bench of the Supreme Court that Mr O'Neill, former Somare loyalist and speaker Nape, then-deputy PM Belden Namah and justice minister Allan Marat acted unconstitutionally when they removed Sir Michael.
On Tuesday, O'Neill and about 60 of the MPs who elected him were storming through a blockade of armed police officers guarding Government House.
After a tense two-and-a-half-hour stand-off during which O'Neill and his treasurer Don Polye repeatedly appealed for calm, O'Neill was granted an audience by Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio.
When he left, he said the governor-general had agreed to meet with Sir Michael Somare on Wednesday and would then issue a decision via written statement.
Sir Michael Ogio moved forward with speed on Wednesday morning, signing in a Somare ministry that included the nation's only female MP, Australian-born Dame Carol Kidu.
But by Wednesday afternoon, parliament had voted to suspend Ogio, elevating former speaker Jeffery Nape to the role of acting governor-general.
Nape promptly swore in O'Neill as PM, as well as his ministry.
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