Patrick Pruaitch

Patrick Pruaitch, CMG (/ˈpruːaɪtʃ/;^[2] born 29 June 1964) is a prominent politician in Papua New Guinea. He is since 2002 Member of Parliament representing the Aitape-Lumi constituency in the West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. He has been a Cabinet Minister with few interruptions from 2002–2010 and thereafter from 2012–2017. From November 2019-November 2020, he was minister of Foreign Affairs. In the period 2017–2019 he was leader of the opposition. He was twice -in 2019 and 2020- alternate PM in unsuccessful attempts to unseat the government. ^{[1] [3]}

Early life[]

Pruaitch was born in the Sanduan (West Sepik) Province of Papua New Guinea. He was educated at St. Vincent de Paul Primary School, St Ignatius High School, and Sogeri National High School. He received a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Papua New Guinea.^[1]

He was employed by SP Holdings for 10 years, and then moved to Shell in 1998 until his resignation to run in the 2002 elections.^[1]

Political career[]

Pruaitch is an important politician within the PNG context. Firstly because he is a long standing MP in a parliament where turnover during elections is high. Secondly, he has been close to power as a member of the Cabinet from 2002–2010 and from 2012–2017. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs for one year in the Marape Cabinet from November 2019-November 2020. Thirdly, he became the leader of the National Alliance Party (Papua New Guinea) after Michael Somare left the party in 2012. ^[4] He belongs to this party since 2002. Under his leadership the National Alliance Party revived after a big election defeat in 2012 (six seats) to being the second biggest party in the 2017 Papua New Guinean general election (13 seats). In the context of PNG politics it is unusual that politicians remain in the same party and that a party is relatively stable over long periods.

Pruaitch was first elected to the national parliament in the 2002 elections as an independent MP. He joined the National Alliance Party, which was then-Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare's party. He was regularly acting in capacities but his most important posts were at the Finance and Treasury portfolios. He was appointed as Minister for Forestry on 13 August 2002. In May 2004 he became as well Leader of Government business, To these responsibilities were added Minister for Lands and Physical planning in August 2004. Following the resignation of Arthur Somare as Minister of State in March 2006, he became minister for National Planning and Monitoring and from April to these were added the responsibilities of Minister of Finance. In June 2006 he lost his cabinet positions in a reshuffle. He came back in parliament after being re-elected in 2007 and was made Minister of Treasury and Finance in the Somare/Temu government. He combined this post for three months with Forestry until August 2007. In June 2010, he was suspended from his Parliamentary seat due to allegations of misconduct in 2008: irregularities in expense accounts and misuse of District Development Funds ^[5] The procedure to bring him before a Leadership Tribunal was still under way in December 2019. Then his last appeal against the procedure was dismissed.^[6] Despite these accusations he was appointed in the caretaker cabinet of Sam Abal when Michael Somare was in hospital in 2011. However he was only a few months in that office because the new government of Peter O'Neill deposed the Abal Government during the 2011–12 Papua New Guinean constitutional crisis. Pruaitch was again elected as a Member of Parliament in 2012 despite the accusations of misuse of office, He was as well appointed Minister of Forestry and Climate Change by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill in August 2012 after the elections. In March 2014, he became Minister of the Treasury.^[7][1]Following the 2017 general election, he led the coalition of parliamentary opposition parties against Peter O'Neill's government. ^[8]

The succession of Peter O'Neill and Pruaitch[]

Pruaitch publicly criticised in early April 2017 his own government's management of the economy at a party meeting of the National Alliance Party. He was then formally still in the Cabinet as Treasurer. He stressed the rapid growth of the national debt and the fall of government revenue. He doubted Peter O'Neill's willingness to curb public spending at a time when public debt is increasing.^[9] The following month, early in May, he accused O'Neill of not providing sufficient funding for police services in preparation for the 2017 general election.^[10] O’Neill responded after a few days stating that Pruaitch himself as minister in his Cabinet was responsible for the state of affairs of the economy. ^[11] Pruaitch was dismissed as treasurer on 12 May 2017, but O'Neill offered him to remain a member of the government as a minister without a portfolio.^[12] Pruaitch decided however to leave the coalition. ^[13]

A vote of no confidence cannot be moved in PNG’s national parliament during a period of 18 months after the commencement of the term of a Prime Minister. The O’Neill/Able government became therefore vulnerable in February 2019. ^[14] In November 2018 coalition of opposition parties was formed in anticipation of, a Vote of No Confidence.^[15] This coalition appointed on 28 May 2019 Pruaitch as nominee for Prime Minister in the Alternative Government of Papua New Guinea. He was proposed and introduced by James Marape as the unanimous choice of the Opposition MPs.^[16] Marape was Minister of Finance but he defected from the O’Neill/Abel government in early April 2019.^[17]He had been declared as alternate MP before on 7/05/2019. However he later resigned from the post after he was mentioned together with O’Neill in an Ombudman report on the UBS loan, ^[18][19] Pruaitch became thus the leader of that coalition which then still fell far short of the numbers to succeed. This changed after more and more MPs joined them. The defection of and his United Resources Party gave the opposition the numbers to defeat O’Neill.^[20] This was followed by another contest for the post of alternate prime minister between Marape and Pruaitch. Pruaitch won with 37 votes against 28 for Marape. Marape proposed thereafter Pruaitch as the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition, The expectation was that the vote of no confidence would go ahead with Pruaitch as alternate PM. ^[21]

O’Neill avoided then a vote of no confidence by resigning as prime minister which left a void. ^{[22] [23]}That was filled by Marape who together with 28MPs rejoined PNC: O’Neill’s party that he had left before. Marape was then elected as PM by an overwhelming majority of MPs: 109 out of 111 votes. ^[24] Pruaitch initially reacted with a confusing proposal to nominate Peter O”Neill. O’Neill’s nomination was however withdrawn before the vote. Pruaitch protested against the procedure installing Marape as PM and opened a court case four months after the election in August 2019 as he considered the succession illegal. However, in September he withdrew the court case after left the opposition and joined the government coalition^{[25] [26]}

Pruaitch protested against the procedure installing Marape as PM and opened a court case four months after the election in August 2019 as he considered the succession illegal.However in September he withdrew the court case after left the opposition and joined the government coalition^{[27] [28]} In November Marape appointed him as Minister of Foreign Affairs ^{[29] [30]} Coincidentally: a leadership tribunal against Pruaitch revived in July 2020 accusations of misconduct dating from two decades before. Most cases were dismissed in early October ^[31] The remaining cases were minor and decided It ended an anomalous situation as Pruaitch was active in office while he was supposed to be suspended.^[32]

This is relevant as the accusations could no longer be levelled agains him in the next sequence of events. On 14th November Pruaitch joined a group of 13 Ministers in a "camp" of MPs meeting in Vanimo -the constituency of Belden Namah, leader of he opposition- planning a vote of no confidence in the Marape government.^[33] Patrick Pruaitch was selected as the alternate PM. in a stiff contest with Sam Basil: 27 against 24 votes, There were 4 abstentions.^[34] Marape congratulated Pruaitch. They succeeded after a court case in tabling this motion on 15 December with confidence in a majority. They had a slim majority: government claimed to have 55 MPs behind them.^[35] However, the move to unseat Marape collapsed when 18 MPs -among whom Sam Basil- rejoined the government side when entering the chamber giving the government support of 90 members out of the 111 seat parliament.^[36]

The National Alliance Party had split during the attempt to mount a vote of no confidence as some of their MPs remained loyal to Marape. Pruaitch rejoined those members along with the other MPs who had supported the vote of not confidence. He is therefore supporting again the Marape government.^[37]

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