Source: The National - Tuesday, August 16th 2011

IT must have been the Grand Chief’s wish that Don Polye never becomes the prime minister of Papua New Guinea.
NA went to general election in 2007 as the Somare-Polye regime.
Immediately after the election, the governor-general invited the party with highest number to form the government of which the Grand Chief, as party leader, was the automatic choice to be the prime minister.
The nation believed the Somare-Polye regime would continue, as Polye, who was the NA highlands bloc leader, delivered the most seats for NA.
But being the master political tactician that he is, Sir Michael Somare opted for Sir Puka Temu, a Papuan, as his deputy.
Knowing that this would be his last term before retiring from politics, the Grand Chief groomed Sir Puka to be next prime minister.
In my opinion, Polye started plotting and, with a bit of stir here and a push there, saw Sir Puka,  Bel­den Namah, Charles Abel and Dr Allan Marat, among others, crossing the floor of parliament to join the opposition.
Polye, who thought his mission was accomplish­ed, received another shock when Sir Michael opted to pick Sam Abal as his deputy.
After the leadership tribunal where he was handed a two-week suspension, the Grand Chief passed
the leadership to Abal as acting prime minister.
Polye was then sacked as minister for insubordination and the split in NA widened.
Things became very fluid from here on and Abal was then suspended by the NA executive for two months, preventing him from attending the party caucus in Minj last week.
Abal then called for a meeting of NA highlands MPs where he reportedly ousted Polye as the highlands deputy parliamentary leader.
In return, Polye called for a highlands NA meeting in Goroka the following week and claimed he was still the leader of the highlands bloc.
Everything came to a climax on the first day of parliamentary sitting on Aug 2 when a motion declaring a vacancy in the office of the prime minister was accepted by the speaker and a vote saw Peter O’Neill elected as prime minister.
When the NA held its party caucus in Minj last week, Polye was elected as the party’s parliamentary leader, putting him in pole position to be the next prime minister.
There is no doubt Polye is a powerful man at the moment.
Sata Goloso
Kimbe