by Michael Passingan
Prime Minister James Marape has once again shown Papua New Guinea exactly what kind of leader he is one who will tolerate scandal, protect the compromised, and sacrifice accountability on the altar of political survival.
The latest evidence arrived in April 2026 when Defence Minister Dr Billy Joseph was caught in the middle of a recruitment fiasco that triggered soldier protests at Murray Barracks and exposed alleged nepotism favouring candidates from his Nipa-Kutubu electorate. Social media videos showed the rot. Opposition MPs demanded his head. Even Morobe Governor Renbo Paita called for the recruitment exercise to be suspended. What did Marape do? He stripped Joseph of his Defence responsibilities but kept him in cabinet as Minister for National Disaster, National Volunteer Services, and the National Fire Service. When the Opposition demanded Joseph be sacked outright, Marape rejected the call, declaring that decisions to remove ministers rest with the coalition and the Prime Minister. In other words: Billy Joseph's seat in the coalition matters more than the integrity of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.
This is the Marape playbook. Not discipline. Not dismissal. Just a quiet reshuffling of chairs, a sternly worded press release, and business as usual. The Deputy Opposition Leader called the step-aside arrangement a "constitutional farce," noting there is no legal provision for a minister to hold onto a commission while supposedly standing down. He was right. But Marape needs the numbers, and the numbers need protecting.
Billy Joseph is far from the only beneficiary of this protection racket. Look across Marape's front bench and you will find a gallery of controversy that any serious leader would have dealt with long ago.
The Member for Esa'ala and Minister for Petroleum has a record that should disqualify him from holding public office. In 2015, Maladina was convicted of conspiracy and misappropriation related to a fraudulent land deal involving the National Provident Fund, where he served as chairman. He inflated the purchase price of a Waigani property from K1.4 million to K10 million to enrich himself. He was sentenced to eight years suspended by the court. He then fled to Australia to avoid further legal trouble. In July 2024, he was arrested in Sydney on domestic assault charges, forcing Marape to temporarily replace him. Three months later before any resolution — Marape reinstated him. When the charges were eventually dropped in March 2025, Marape treated it as vindication. A justice once described Maladina as part of a "conspiratorial criminal cabal." Today he sits at the centre of PNG's petroleum negotiations worth billions of kina.
The Moresby South MP and current Foreign Affairs Minister is the walking embodiment of Marape's willingness to forgive those who keep his coalition alive. In May 2023, Tkatchenko labelled Papua New Guinean social media users "primitive animals" after they criticised his daughter's TikTok video flaunting luxury travel during a taxpayer-funded trip to King Charles's coronation. The Trade Union Congress demanded his deportation. Twenty MPs walked out of Parliament during his staged apology. The Ombudsman Commission was asked to investigate. And yet, by January 2024, Marape had quietly reappointed him as Foreign Affairs Minister — the very portfolio he was forced to surrender. Why? Because Marape needs Moresby South's vote on the floor. As one analyst observed, Marape needs Tkatchenko more than Tkatchenko needs Marape.
The Ijivitari MP has bounced between parties with open cynicism. When first elected in 2017 as a National Alliance candidate, he immediately defected to Peter O'Neill's PNC, publicly stating that political agendas and personal integrity were the "last things" on his mind he simply wanted access to government funds. Under Marape, he was given the Administrative Services portfolio and charged with delivering the 2024 national census. That census was a disaster: enumerators went unpaid, census materials worth K15 million were destroyed in a suspicious warehouse fire, and the count budgeted at K300 million but delivered for K153 million was so flawed it failed to meet basic UN standards. Despite this, Masere was sent to Qatar to lecture the world on PNG's anti-corruption efforts.
The pattern is unmistakable. Marape does not govern Papua New Guinea he manages a coalition. Every decision, every non-dismissal, every quiet reinstatement is calculated not on the basis of what is right for eight million citizens, but on what keeps the numbers safe on the floor of Parliament. It is leadership defined entirely by survival, and PNG deserves far better.
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