Concern about the lack of interest in strengthening political parties in Papua New Guinea

The Registrar of Political Parties Dr Alphonse Gelu is concern about the lack of commitment and seriousness in developing and strengthening political parties in the country. Since taking office in September 2012 he has noted that there is clearly a lack of commitment from party officials and MPs to strengthen political parties in the country.
Despite the fact that political parties emerged before independence and was part of the rise to statehood, there is no positive sign that would show that parties are part and parcel of the development of democracy in the country. Parties instead of being institutionalised into the mainstream of politics in the country have been totally negated by the leaders. They are only used during the elections and formation of governments and then are left out cold before the next election. This practice has been counterproductive to the growth of parties and as a result as led to problems such as political instability in the country and most importantly has contributed to nurturing a style of leadership that has no vision and commitment to improving the overall well-being of its citizens. There were some positive signs from people like Sir Michael Somare who publically mentioned the importance of parties in the country and what it can contribute to the development of the country. Other leaders have not made their stand known on how they see parties in the country and what they can contribute.
Do political parties matter in PNG? Definitely parties do matter in PNG. PNG is a highly heterogeneous society which means that there are many differences that we can identify in the country. Differences based on culture and custom, ethnicity, religion, etc., may be factors that gives rise to the emergence of parties that can represent the social cleavages in the country. At the same time having political parties serves that aspiration of forming a government based on groupings rather than on any other basis. These groupings thus enable the people to know who would lead them and which policies and ideas would be pursued by these groupings. In this case it makes more sense to allow parties which clear policies to govern rather than some groups that the people just don’t know what they are up to. This is an advantage of having parties in a polity therefore making parties to be more relevant to our current political settings.
Leaders must start aligning themselves to their parties and must also make contributions to the strengthening of the political parties. With the current trend in PNG politics, political parties can only be strengthened if the MPs and the Parliamentary Leaders are committed to the affairs of the parties. There is no other ways to strengthen parties in the country. Membership can also be another means to strengthening parties but at this stage, parties have not been able to clearly define their membership base so it is still a long way away for parties to rely on their membership. Dr Gelu is therefore making a strong call to the MPs and the Parliamentary Leaders to take time and attend to the affairs of their parties.
As a result of this attitude, the Registry has instituted various measures to try and strengthen political parties in the country starting with the revision of the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates. The roll out of the Learning and Development Plan for party officials is another important initiative. In this program, parties are taught to develop their party structures, develop their membership base as well as develop relevant policies that would attract votes. These changes would take time for parties to absorb but the Registry has been on the toes of party officials reminding them that it is important for them to take on board new ideas and practices that would make them to become effective political organisations. The Registry is doing what it can but it also requires support from the MPs to really strengthen the parties in the country.