By PAUL OATES

Has Papua New Guinea descended into dictatorship?

PNG's Prime Minister Somare has previously denied he has become a dictator but what is a dictator? Here are a couple of definitions:

Wikipedia: A dictator is a ruler (e.g. absolutist or autocratic) who assumes sole and absolute power ….

By William Laurence et al

Papua New Guinea (PNG) sustains some of the world’s most biologically and culturally rich forests.

Like many tropical nations, PNG is changing rapidly as it attempts to develop economically, but corporate misdealing and weak governance are undermining its capacity to do so sustainably.

Over exploitation of forests is rampant, with most accessible forests likely to be logged or disappear in 1–2 decades.

University of PNG student, Nou Vada, examines the roots of the Jasmine revolution that is sweeping across Africa and the Middle East and ponders what it might mean for Papua New Guinea where many of the same frustrations and discontent are clearly visable.

By Nou Vada

By Icarus*

WHILE PNG's SITUATION may not justify bloody warfare, we are at war. At war against corruption in government and throughout the public service system, the very architects and mechanisms that should make our state function. 

But it is the State versus the People every day. And clearly the State has no rules of engagement. Moreover, the People have been divided for far too long into warring factions; tribal politics under the rhetoric of 'unity in diversity'. 

From the PNGexposed blog

MP Sam Basil has received a number of abusive and threatening emails from an anonymous yahoo address created with the name Borit Yaken.

The emails (see below) threaten that Mr Basil’s wife will be raped and his children strangled if Mr Basil continues to speak out.

Mr Basil has been an outspoken critic of the government on corruption and governance issues and has assisted his people to take legal action against the owners of the Hidden Valley mine over the pollution of the Watut river.

By Keith Jackson*

IN TRIPOLI THIS MORNING people are being shot like dogs in the streets as they struggle for their freedoms and for fair governance.

By Trevor Freestone

Dear Julia,

I have attempted to draw attention to the serious situation in Papua New Guinea to Kevin Rudd as Foreign Affairs Minister and Tony Abbott as Leader of the Opposition. Their staff thank me for my communication and things end there.

The situation is so serious that Australia needs to become aware of what is happening and develop a plan that will be of benefit both to Papua New Guinea and Australia.

The hope of a nation is pinned on the strength of its judiciary, and the final defeat of democracy is for the head of the Judiciary to bring into question its independence.

The Public Prosecutor who referred Prime Minister Michael Somare to a Leadership Tribunal and was about to do the same for his son, Arthur Somare, has been sacked by the Attorney General, Arnold Amet. Amet is an MP from the same National Alliance Party as the Somares.

This the the reaction to the sacking from MP Sam Basil.

A sad day for PNG

Sam Basil MP

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner operations Fred Yakasa again gave us a stark reminder of corruption in Papua New Guinea when he said on Tuesday that a mammoth 50% of its budget annually is lost to fraud. This works out to a whopping K4 billion a year, which Yakasa bluntly said had gone into the hands of corrupt public servants and senior bureaucrats, many of whom he alleges have invested these gains overseas.