Basil and Michaels are new recruits for PNG Party

 Bu M  Bulolo MP Sam Basil and Tewaii Siassi MP Vincent Michaels have joined the PNG Party.

 

Basil was formerly with People's Progress Party while Michaels was with New Generation Party.

They move in the footsteps of fellow opposition MPs Konie Iguan (Markham) and Bonnie Overa (Okapa) who moved ahead of them late last year to join the PNG Party.

"The move now brings to four the number of our faction into PNG Party," they said. 

"There are many reasons why we have decided to leave our party to make this move but we will outline just a few here.

"We believe that there are too many political parties, both registered and deregistered out there, just enough to make almost every members of parliament as party leaders with a handful of party members - just like too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

"There should be at least four or five major political parties in Papua New Guinea because every man and his dog now owns a political party which in the future must be discouraged.

"Every political party must demonstrate and work towards institutionalisation with better policies and management in place.

 "We urge the public and political advisors to help by not encouraging MPs and political aspirants to create new political parties at will, adding to the unprecedented number of political parties we now have in the Commonwealth of Nations.

"The National Alliance Party has demonstrated a working political institution which has remained in power for over eight years now, creating political history.

"The political leadership of Sir Michael Somare and his kitchen cabinet has eroded the ability and the credibility of the single and the biggest political party in power today, and must be challenged, if not now, then in the 2012 elections.

 "In doing so we believe that like the law of the universe,   greater mass creates its own gravitational field that can attract and in order to match and fight the National Alliance,  we must build up to their level and capacity to match them on the battlefield and there is no other better way than this.

"Papua New Guinea, since gaining Independence in 1975 with over a million population, now has over 6.5 million people and we acknowledge here that there are many smart and dedicated people out there too - people who have the heart for this nation and one day can become our political leaders too.

"Our political party system must be seen to evolve as well to see a generational change in political leaderships.

"We say this with no regret because we totally think differently from the old guard, and there are many reasons out there which we need not to elaborate here.

"While at that, we would like to acknowledge the bold move made by Hon Sir Mekere Morauta to allow the PNG Party's leadership into the hands of younger generation leaders like Hon Belden Namah.

"Sir Mekere Morauta, being younger then Sir Michael Somare, has set precedence and demonstrated that PNG Party will now evolve with the younger generation MPs which he will be also be part of as a mentor.

"We urge our founding fathers to do the same because from the 6.5m population, there are many aspiring young, bright and upcoming leaders who will be passing through this parliament one day, therefore, a new culture of political evolution must be adopted.

"We need our founding fathers as mentors now from behind while they are still alive, and not from their graves, because it will be a great loss to the nation if they leave without mentoring the younger generation leaders.

"We would like to acknowledge Hon Bart Philemon and Sir Julius Chan respectively as great leaders of this nation, and will still maintain our close working relationship with them, in within opposition ranks and towards the 2012 general elections.

"Our exit from their leadership is to fight a fight that we all share, but we see it from a different angle, and it is to build a formidable political force while taking into consideration our political future.

"We cannot take on National Alliance from many smaller, fragmented political groupings, because we will just repeat the 2007 general election results again come the 2012 general elections.

"There are times when we humble ourselves our egos and our pride to mass up to match our opponent and this is just what we are simply doing.

"To our supporters around the country, I urge you to think the same because we all share the same sentiments and this is the best option we believe in and have taken."